What a Fall this has been. Wow! It has been 60'F today (though it has been highs in the forties for the past week or two), the grass is still green and all the leaves have still not finished falling from the trees. Not bad! After the long and never-ending Winter that we had last year, this is a nice break. We've been lighting fires in the stove and keeping the house heated, but nothing really grueling --- like having to keep the stove up at 500'F all day every day and stoking every hour and a half!

The three of us went down to Columbus the other day. It was time for the periodic visit to Whole Foods. Mom has discovered a way of making cheese out of whole milk (or Half and Half) by heating it to just under a boil and straining it. This produces a cheese that is technically called a "Paneer". It is also called "Homemade Ricotta", "Curd Cheese" and a number of other things. Wow! It's amazingly fabulous --- particularly, on a waffle with a little teeny bit of Maple Syrup. Anyway, we had to go down to Whole Foods to get the milk (and pick up some groceries!). We had been using Snowville Creamery Half and Half, which is wonderful, but while there we got some Organic Valley "Grassmilk". Whole milk from completely grass-fed cows. It is amazing, as well.

While we were out doing that, Dad spent the evening planting garlic. He had made a raised bed out in the back yard in the Spring, and he has tilled it and added moss, etc., into the clay-like soil that we've got around here. It now looks great and is full of garlic. This is the first time that we've ever tried growing our own, so it will be pretty exciting if it works! Especially with how much we use. :)

Of course, I've been having a lot of fun with all of the new Prince George pictures. Elizabeth and I came home from church on Sunday and spent all afternoon scrapbooking. I am almost caught up with the Christening photos. One of these days, I'll have to take some pictures of it to post! I was really thrilled with the newest of the official photos. It rated a whole page of its own in my scrapbook. What a cute Little Prince.

It is hard to believe that it will be November in just two days. Yikes! Christmas is just around the corner. That also means that the second part of The Hobbit will be coming to theaters. Elizabeth and I watched the trailer this morning for the first time. She can't wait to see the dragon. Bard of Dale is the one that I'm interested in seeing, myself. More later.

After three months of waiting it's happened. Little Prince George has been Christened! I've been waiting and waiting. After all, there has not been a picture of him since about a month after he was born. And I don't mind that, really, because it is fair that Prince William and Catherine want to keep their baby's routine as undisturbed as possible. But I'm thrilled with all the new articles and pictures that have been released in the last week.

This is the first time that the world has gotten a glimpse of Prince George with his eyes open. He is a beautiful baby! And he looks like everything you could wish for in a Baby Prince in his pictures.

Most exciting of all is the "Four Monarchs" photo issued yesterday. The last time this was done was in 1894, so it's quite a special occasion. And Royal fans cannot be disappointed in the result!

I've been printing all kinds of pictures for my scrapbook, so my weekend project is going to be gluing and cutting, etc.

It's funny, but Baby George has no idea of the scope of interest that people have about him. He'll grow to understand it, but probably not understand it completely. There is a nice interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury where he says that it is special to see this new little heir, because it is a sort of way to look forward into tomorrow's history --- instead of always looking back into history. That's a nice way to say it. There is something so cool about being able to look at this little baby and say that God has placed him here to one day be the Monarch of the British Empire.

This week has been a monumental week in the life of this new Prince. His Christening is a beautiful day in his life, and there have been a lot of fun things made to commemorate the occasion. Elizabeth and I have already ordered the Canadian postal stamps for the Christening. The Royal Mint has issued a line of beautiful coins (That is something that I'd like for Christmas! --- just in case Mom or Elizabeth is reading this . . .), a perfume company has issued a new scent called "Cambridge" and all sorts of things like that. The big question is: what happened to the people at the Royal Post Office?? When I e-mailed to find out the issue date of their stamp (this was back when Prince George was born in July), they answered by saying that they have no plans to do anything of the kind. What?! That is a pretty sad state when they couldn't even issue a little stamp for the future King. I am really hoping that one of the magazine companies hops on the bandwagon and makes a real commemorative edition with pictures of Baby George from his birth up to his Christening!

Time World had a nice article about the event. There were lots of quotes from an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and I think that I will put something he said here for the end of this entry. He said that this is his message to the young Prince, and anyone that ever comes to be baptized. Even though Little George is too little to know what it means, he'll understand it later on in his life:

"For you Jesus Christ came into the world. For you he lived and showed God’s love. For you he suffered the darkness of Calvary and cried at the last, ‘It is accomplished.’ For you he triumphed over death and rose to new life. For you he reigns at God’s right hand. All this he did for you, though you do not know it yet."

I certainly pray that Prince George understands this as he grows up.

For trying to start a new blog, I'm not doing so well! Time is ticking away and I haven't blogged! Well, I will try to get caught up on what has been happening around here in the last three weeks. We have had some beautiful weather with sunny skies and nice temperatures, so we took a Saturday and cleaned out the garage and shed. We had quite a lot of furniture out there and tools, so we combined that with stuff that we had in the house and had a garage sale. Not a ton of people came, but we did manage to sell some large items. Yay!

We have made another run out to Amish Country to go to the cheese factories. We also went up even farther North to a little town called Dalton. Not a big place, and one that we had not even heard of. However, there is a fabulous tea company, Mint Brook Meadows, up there that grows their own herbal tea. They also blend their own tea. The coolest thing is that they are the only authorized makers of "Hobbit Tea". If you haven't seen that, then check out their website at: http://www.HobbitTea.com  I am planning an entry about it as well, so check back for that. :) It is a really cool place, and the tea is fabulous!

On top of all this, we even got a chance to go outside in the dark to see the International Space Station flying over our house. Not bad! I tried to get a picture of the Space Station, but it was so dark that the camera was not very cooperative. I did snap one of the family out there, though! It was pretty cold out there that night.

This last weekend was fun, because we had a chance to get together with Buddy and Kay. We haven't gotten to see them since the Summer, so we had lots of catching up to do. The guys went fishing, so we girls had a fabulous evening of gabbing and snacking and watching a mystery. All in all, it was a great time!

Last week, Mom and the two of us went up to a book sale. This book sale has been an annual event at our house since we moved to Ohio twenty years ago! We used to buy boxes and boxes of books --- enough to fill a mini-van. Thankfully, we have now collected so many books that our "findings" are smaller and can tuck away into the trunk of our little car! This year we found a box full.

One book in particular was a really fabulous find. In fact, it was so cool that I've already finished reading it! The book? Clark Gable: A Personal Portrait. It was written the year after his death by his wife, Kathleen Gable. What a lovely book. Everything in it was so sweet and precious. I cried through the end, though. What a story. He was a neat man and one that you don't see the likes of anymore.

The book had all kinds of pictures and answered all the questions that people were asking after Gable died. What were his favorite foods? What kind of hobbies did he enjoy? What kind of cars did he like? What pets did he have? What kind of clothes did he like? And on like that.

I liked Clark Gable a ton before, but after reading the book --- I guess I like him even more! No one could beat him for manliness, that's for sure.

The weather is cooling off now, and we've been burning fires all week. It's been in the thirties and low forties. Pretty nice though, as the leaves have not even finished falling. This has certainly been one of the longest, mildest Falls that we've had since living here. That is pretty much all the news for now. I'm hoping to have more pictures and posts soon! We have sold a couple more of the miniature Poirot dolls, so that's kept us busy. Christmas is just around the corner, and I'm starting to turn my mind to making a few "surprises" for some people around here! More later.

This past weekend was really fun! Gramma Gail drove up for a convention in Cleveland, and on her way up she spent three and a half days at our house. It was one of the best times ever! She arrived late on Thursday evening, but that didn't stop us from staying up way late talking and catching up on all the news. She brought some warmer weather with her, too, so we didn't even have to crank up the wood stove. We had some rain, but nothing that we couldn't drive through. :)

On Friday, Mom and Gramma and I went to the auction. We bought two really cute little "gourd animals" for Gramma to take to some neighbors' kids. The three of us also went to some garage sales, as this was the weekend of the town sales. Gramma (being the fabulous grandmother that she is!) brought up her "old" computer for us. Mom's gave up in the early Summer, and Gramma figured that this one would be a good replacement. Wow! Not only was it nice, but it was a newer and nicer PC Media Center than Elizabeth's current computer. In fact, she had even put Windows 7 on it. So, Elizabeth had stayed home from the garage sales to work on that. Gramma had brought the Windows 7 discs with her, which meant that Elizabeth could change from the 32-bit to the 64-bit. Of course, all of the computer stuff took days to do --- and still a little bit left to finish up!

Saturday dawned pretty grey and rainy, but the four of us girls were up and off to the Farmers' Market pretty early. Gramma was making baskets for her neighbors, so she got everything from homemade doggie treats to little bottles of local maple syrup. The weather didn't improve any for the afternoon, but who cared?! The four of us got back into the car and went out to Guggisberg and Heini's cheese factories. A bit of a trek, but it's always fun to go out driving together. Of course, being close enough to be "locals" to the area (even if it is a long drive), we always go on a weekday to avoid crowds. We hadn't been on a Saturday in years. Whoa! The crowds were crazy. Five bus loads of tours at Heini's, and the line into the cheese room was the length of the entire building. It was worth the wait, though. Gave Gramma a chance to buy some fudge (and like the good grandmother that she is --- she shared with us!). You get to sample all the cheeses, so Gramma bought little pieces of a whole variety of flavors to take home with her. After eating our way through the cheese factories, we headed out to Lehman's --- just to have a look around. We all wandered around. They have fabulous electric stoves there that look like the old fashioned kitchen cook stoves. But the thing that Elizabeth and I were thrilled with was "Hobbit Tea". Made by a local Ohio company (we've bought their mint tea for years), they are the only "Tolkien-licensed" tea in the country! Three varieties are available: Hobbiton, Bilbo Baggins, and Gandalf the Grey. How cool is that?! We bought one for a friend of Elizabeth's who is crazy for the Hobbit. One of these days, before the snow flies, we're hoping to go up to the actual company (apparently only a bit away from Lehman's).

Sunday was another grey day, but without rain. Everybody was pretty tired, so we decided to play "hookie" from church and take a slow morning. We had waffles and coffee for breakfast and sat around talking. Packed up the baskets for all of Gramma's friends back in Florida and worked on the computers. We ended up staying up way late on Sunday evening as Gramma was reminiscing about the "old days", not something that she usually does --- which made it really cool.

Monday was freezing, so we had to light a fire. We sat around talking some more (lots of talking!) until Gramma left a bit before noon. The three of us were pretty lonely all the rest of the day. So was little Beatrice, who really attached herself to Gramma. So, we're hoping to visit Gramma at her house next year, but we'll see how that all works out. :) Lots going on around here this week and last and not enough time to blog! More later.

After a few weeks of silence, I am now back to blogging --- just on Weebly instead of Blogger. Mom and Elizabeth and I have spent the last couple of weeks working on getting our accounts moved off of Google, and it's taken me this long to choose a new blogging platform. More will be coming soon!

If you would like to catch up on older posts, feel free to visit my old blog: http://littlekumquat.blogspot.com/