Treats at Riverwood

Ooops, here are two pics of treats at Riverwood I forgot to post last week.  Better late than never...right?

We live in a small townhouse with a tiny walk through kitchen.  It is functional, but the operative word is tiny.  Oh how I love the old-fashioned farmhouse kitchen at Riverwood.  It is a treat to work in and a delight to eat in. I wish now, I had taken a better picture of it for this post.  Oh well, let me try to describe it for you.  It has lots of counter space, cupboards, drawers, and windows, but the best part is floor space.  There is more than enough room to "swing a cat" and maybe even a dog.  Elbow space galore...is glorious indeed.

 There is a big table  in the middle of the dining area that is near, but clear of the cooking area seen below.  Also in the dining area is a large couch along one wall, windows (with views on two walls) , and built-in cupboards and counter along another.  There are six doors leading into the kitchen, but that isn't a problem.  It is the hub of the house, and there is lots of room for gathering and coming and going.

We have fresh corn on the boil in this picture, and I loved the way the light from the window caught the steam rising, so I ran for my camera.

This is an addition I brought from home this year...yes...our Tassimo coffee maker.  MMMMM, we sure enjoyed delicious coffee on the front porch during this vacation.  I think it will go on my list of things to bring for every visit from now on.  

I am going to go on a hunt to see if I have older pictures of the rest of the kitchen, Here are a few links to older blogs with more pics of the kitchen if you want to take a peek. Riverwood 3  Riverwood 2 
Winter Holiday 












 

Sunshine after the rain

Yes, the sunshine made a return visit after the rain, just in time for a pre-dinner glass of wine...still out on the front porch...still reading. 

It was a very good book.

AC moved into the living room, but he was still reading too. 

What a fabulous vacation.

Rainy morning at the farm

We had sunshine almost every day of our holiday at Riverwood. One day, the clouds rolled in though, and we had a dandy of a storm.  Thunder, lightening, and pouring, driving rain. We lost power for about two hours, but luckily I had made a delicious cup of coffee before the power went out, and we had enough light to read if we sat out on the front porch, so that is just was we did.  Sat on the porch, sipped our coffee, listened to the rain doing a tap-dance on the roof while we read the morning away.

Perfect activity for a rainy morning.

I did leave my book from time to time to try to get a picture of the downpour outside, but couldn't quite capture it.

This tin sitting on the window sill in the kitchen caught my eye.  Do you remember what used to be in this tin  with the slogan "When it rains it pours..."

Have you guessed it yet?

That's right...Morton's Salt!

Afternoons and evenings in the Play-ner Mill

As I mentioned in another blog, when I sit in the Play-ner Mill it is hard to keep focused on my book because of the view outside the windows all around me.

Every time I glance up from the page, this is what captures my view.

Screened in windows all around, and trees dancing in the wind everywhere I look.

AC does manage to read the afternoon away.

In the evenings, we take our after dinner glass of wine down to the Play-ner Mill, light a few candles, and stay until it is time for bed.

Beauty inside and out

Picture taken without a flash so we can see outside.

Same picture taken with a flash.

Tenting at Riverwood

There is lots of room to sleep in the old farmhouse, but we do like to tent while we are there.  So every chance we get, we pitch our tent somewhere on the grounds and sleep out under the stars.  We had a fabulous, bright yellow, four seasons,  tent from MEC that we used for quite a few years, but it was small, and the older we got, the harder it got to get in and out of the thing.  We finally passed it on to the A-Team, with wishes that they would make many happy memories camping with it like we did.

Here it is in the back yard at Riverwood in 2010 beside the kids little play tent.  .

We missed tenting though, and when AC saw this One-minute tent on sale at CT this summer, we thought it was just the ticket for these aging bodies to be able to enjoy tenting at Riverood again.  So we gave it a try.

Sitting on the front porch contemplating how to put the new tent up in the morning, and would it really be as easy as advertised?

The advertising said it would take only one minute to set up!   Hmmmm, really?  It was also roomy enough for two queen air mattresses, and was tall enough for us to stand up in it.  Wow! We'll see.

Time to give it a try.   First we had to find a nice flat spot with a great view, and open the tent.  We had an old ground sheet, so we put that down first, and opened the tent.  Next step was to fold down the four arms, and put them flat on the ground with the center pole still in the upright position.

Next, we had to extend the poles, at each corner, click into place, and voila...the tent was up.  It really was that easy. 

I unwound the stabilizing ropes that were already attached to the top of the tent...

...then AC got busy with tent pegs to secure them to the ground. 

Big smiles because it really was that easy.  I think it took us more than a minute, but not much more than that.  What a pleasant surprise.

It had nice big windows on each side.

 And I really could stand up in there. 

It went down almost as easy as it went up.  The hardest part was getting the air out of it once we collapsed the poles.  It took us a few minutes to squeeze the fabric into place and tie it up so it would fit back into the handy dandy little carry bag, but we did it without too much fuss, and I am sure with a little practice we will have that step down pat too.

All in all, it was a great tenting experience. 

Riverwood

We just got home from a grand and glorious week at Riverwood...our little piece of Heaven on Earth.

The Play-ner Mill, our favorite place to sit and read, relax and chat, suffered a bit of damage during a winter storm, but after a little bit of work on a ripped screen, a broken door and scattered furniture.  It was ready to welcome us once more.

AC has made himself right at home, and is relaxing with a good book.  It is hard to read when the view just outside the windows keeps demanding our attention though.

After reading for a while, and relaxing, we set out for a walk  to check out the rest of the grounds, and take a few pictures. 

View of the swimming area from the  Play-ner Mill.

Friendly shadows feels right at home here.

The Friendship Bench under the willow tree down at the swimming area.  This is where we sat to watch the Northern Lights dance in the sky a few years ago during a visit to Riverwood one Thanksgiving.   Lots of great memories here.

Time to head back to the farmhouse for dinner, and contemplate trying to put our tent up tomorrow.  Stay tuned for the fun.

The Princess

I didn't think I would be back here with a post for a couple of weeks, but we are having a bit of car trouble that has to be tended to before we take off, so we will be delayed for a day....or two. Groan! Soooo, I have some time to sort through pictures and post a blog.  Enjoy.

Danica loves Buppa's garden and is always smelling the flowers to see which ones smell the prettiest.  I think the oriental lilies would win this contest.

Her dress is made from strips of silk from old saris.  It is absolutely beautiful.

One day before swimming class, I sent her into her bedroom to get changed.  She thought it was really funny to come out of her bedroom with her panties on her head.   I just had to grab the camera.

Fun at home

Not all our time with the kids was spent at the park.  We tried to do some school activities with Danica each day, and she worked diligently on the Grade 1 projects Buppa had planned for her.

JJ has a great imagination, and can play well by himself while sister works on her lessons

Out on the side deck Danica needs some help with some Brain Age problems on the DS.

JJ continues to play in magic kingdoms he has created in his own space.

We will be heading to Riverwood for a few days, so there won't be any blogs for a week or so.  See you when we get back.

Picnics galore

Every sunshine filled day we had the kids, we packed up a picnic lunch and headed for the park

JJ and Buppa kept a close eye on things even while they were eating lunch.

After lunch it was time to climb on the equipment and try out new skills.

JJ was very pleased with himself when he made it all the way across the balance beam.

He then headed over to the chain climber, but wasn't too sure if he wanted to go very high on it.

Sister ventured right to the top, so with Buppa standing guard, he braved the higher rungs.

Danica is such a social little munchkin.  When she sees other kids in the park, she isn't afraid to go over to them to see if she can join in the fun with them.

Sometime they shun her, but more often than not, they are quite happy to have her join in the group.

Enjoying the new deck

We have a very small backyard that suits us just fine as we don't want to have to worry about yard work if we go away for an extended holiday.  We have a screened in front porch that we sit in most of the time during the nice weather, but this year our back stairs had to be replaced, so we decided to extend the  landing enough to make room for two chairs and a little table so we could sit out there and enjoy our early morning coffee or late afternoon glass of wine if we wanted to.  

Comfy chairs and a glass of wine awaiting us on the new deck at the end of the day.

The pansies are having a party...

...and so are we, but I think we need some shade.

Umbrella up...

Ahhh, that's better.

These plant stands were on sale at Home Depot, and I thought they were so pretty we bought two for the new deck.   After a wind storm went through I realized why they were on sale...they are VERY tippy.  We gotta get some sort of anchor for them to keep them upright on a windy day.  But for now, I sure like the way they look, and I just move them up beside the house if a storm threatens.