Last Friday I went to the Indianapolis Childrens Museum with my daughter, daughter-in-law, and the grandchildren, we had a very fun day together. I would like to plan another day trip for us to visit Conner Prairie which is also in Indianapolis.
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2014
Latest Knitting Project - A Ruffled Topper for Alivia
This project on first appearances seemed it would take no time at all to make up, but in fact took some time to finish. I am pleased with it, although should have checked my guage before starting as the garment is wider than it should be. I have started to knit a sunshine sweater for Alivia and checked my guage before starting and turns out I need to knit with a size 4 US needle rather than the pattern recommended size 6 US needle.
Last Friday I went to the Indianapolis Childrens Museum with my daughter, daughter-in-law, and the grandchildren, we had a very fun day together. I would like to plan another day trip for us to visit Conner Prairie which is also in Indianapolis.
Last Friday I went to the Indianapolis Childrens Museum with my daughter, daughter-in-law, and the grandchildren, we had a very fun day together. I would like to plan another day trip for us to visit Conner Prairie which is also in Indianapolis.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Berne, IN
Berne is a small town located in Adams county, Indiana with a population of just over four thousand. The town was founded in 1852 and is very proud of it's Swiss heritage. Many of the commercial buildings in Berne have a "swiss" themed facade, lots of chalets style buildings with half-timbered exteriors. Even the Mc Donalds has a "swiss" look with it half-timbered siding. In the center of Berne is the clock tower, it is a new construction, and is a replica of the Zytglogge in Bern Switzerland. The clock tower in Berne, IN is called The Munsterberg Clock Tower, after the first group of Mennonite settlers who hailed from the Jura region in Switzerland.
There are many things to see and do in Berne which makes it a good destination for an afternoon trip. Yesterday Emily and I took the boys to Berne. When we arrived in town we stopped at a locally owned grocery store and picked up some yogurt, bananas and granola bars for a picnic and then asked for directions to the town park. We stopped at Lehman park, a pleasant tree shaded space with plenty of picnic tables and lots of fun stuff for children to play on. There is a nice mix of old and new playground equipment, the boys enjoyed the old style stuff the best, the very tall slide, the witches hat spinning thing, the teeter-totter, after a bit we left and headed to the Berne Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center. The lady at the Visitor Center was very helpful and thought we would enjoy the Swiss Heritage Village, she also mentioned that there is a splash pad by the clock tower and good ice cream available at The White Cottage ice cream shop. We headed off to the Swiss Heritage Village, the boys were free, adult entry was $6/person. We joined in the tour and had a pleasant stroll around the grounds. All of the buildings were moved to the site, a school house, doctors office, church, farm house, cheese house, cider mill, barn, and log cabin. Many of the buildings were moved in one piece even the huge barn!. The cider press was impressive, hand built at least 150 years ago, it is said to be the oldest, largest, working cider press in the world and the Smithsonian was going to take it for exhibit. The main part of the press is the press, a 4000 lb chunk of oak that is raised and lowered by a hand carved wooden screw that is at least 8 feet long and probably a foot in diameter. On September 8 they will be making apple cider with the press.
As it was a very warm day we were ready for some refreshment after our tour so we headed back to town sample the ice cream at The White Cottage, we each enjoyed a cone.. The shops claim to fame is that they have twenty-four flavors of soft serve ice cream! I stuck with plain vanilla, Emily tried the german chocolate cake flavor and said it was good.
On the way out of town we stopped at the Cheese Shop, it is the retail outlet for a local cheese maker, unfortunately due to board of health regulations there are no longer tours of the cheese factory. I picked out a few cheeses, Gouda, and then a couple of cheeses with extras added, one had cranberries and slivered almonds added, and the other sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts. I have to mention here that my most favorite cheese ever found on an outing is Fruit Cake cheese, my sister and I discovered this amazing cheese in a grocers shop in Lavenham, England. Oh how we enjoyed that cheese with some good bread and a glass of wine on the train ride back to London, but that is another story for another day.
Here are some pictures of our outing to Berne, IN.
There are many things to see and do in Berne which makes it a good destination for an afternoon trip. Yesterday Emily and I took the boys to Berne. When we arrived in town we stopped at a locally owned grocery store and picked up some yogurt, bananas and granola bars for a picnic and then asked for directions to the town park. We stopped at Lehman park, a pleasant tree shaded space with plenty of picnic tables and lots of fun stuff for children to play on. There is a nice mix of old and new playground equipment, the boys enjoyed the old style stuff the best, the very tall slide, the witches hat spinning thing, the teeter-totter, after a bit we left and headed to the Berne Chamber of Commerce/Visitors Center. The lady at the Visitor Center was very helpful and thought we would enjoy the Swiss Heritage Village, she also mentioned that there is a splash pad by the clock tower and good ice cream available at The White Cottage ice cream shop. We headed off to the Swiss Heritage Village, the boys were free, adult entry was $6/person. We joined in the tour and had a pleasant stroll around the grounds. All of the buildings were moved to the site, a school house, doctors office, church, farm house, cheese house, cider mill, barn, and log cabin. Many of the buildings were moved in one piece even the huge barn!. The cider press was impressive, hand built at least 150 years ago, it is said to be the oldest, largest, working cider press in the world and the Smithsonian was going to take it for exhibit. The main part of the press is the press, a 4000 lb chunk of oak that is raised and lowered by a hand carved wooden screw that is at least 8 feet long and probably a foot in diameter. On September 8 they will be making apple cider with the press.
As it was a very warm day we were ready for some refreshment after our tour so we headed back to town sample the ice cream at The White Cottage, we each enjoyed a cone.. The shops claim to fame is that they have twenty-four flavors of soft serve ice cream! I stuck with plain vanilla, Emily tried the german chocolate cake flavor and said it was good.
On the way out of town we stopped at the Cheese Shop, it is the retail outlet for a local cheese maker, unfortunately due to board of health regulations there are no longer tours of the cheese factory. I picked out a few cheeses, Gouda, and then a couple of cheeses with extras added, one had cranberries and slivered almonds added, and the other sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts. I have to mention here that my most favorite cheese ever found on an outing is Fruit Cake cheese, my sister and I discovered this amazing cheese in a grocers shop in Lavenham, England. Oh how we enjoyed that cheese with some good bread and a glass of wine on the train ride back to London, but that is another story for another day.
Here are some pictures of our outing to Berne, IN.
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| The brick school house, moved in one piece to this location, still with the original bell. |
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| The windmill to pump the water. |
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| Fels Naptha Soap box, I like this because I use Fels Naptha soap to make our laundry detergent. |
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| The very pretty fenced "four square" garden in front of the farm house. |
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| What a glorious beast of a cook stove, I would love to have an opportunity to cook on one of these things. |
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| A nice example of an English pieced quilt. |
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| Emily and the boys took advantage of the golf cart on the tour. |
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| The massive wooden screw to lower the 4000 lb press. |
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| The press log, made of white oak taken from a tree that was at least 350 years old when it was cut down. |
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| The cutesy cabin in the woods. |
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| Emily enjoying her german chocolate cake ice cream cone. |
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| The post office in the "chalet" style. |
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| Bixler Insurance Agency getting into the "swiss" style. |
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| The White Cottage ice cream shop proudly announcing it has 24 flavors of soft serve. |
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| The clock tower. |
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| And last but not least, the Cheese Co. |
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Emigration
In the fall of 1977 my parents made the decision to emigrate from England to the US. I remember sitting in the lounge with my sisters when my parents told us that we were going to move to America, we were sooooooo excited. We had heard of New York, California, and Hollywood, that was our total knowledge of US geography, we had never heard of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
For the next several months not much happened then in January my parents flew to Indiana so that my dad could start his new job and my mom could help get an apartment set up and take a whirlwind tour of the Fort Wayne neighborhoods and schools. During this time my sisters and I stayed with a family friend in England and continued with our day to day life. A few days before my parents arrived in Fort Wayne there had been a once in a lifetime blizzard, never had my parents seen so much snow, truth be told most of the residents of Fort Wayne had never seen so much snow, it is all my mom talked about when she returned home a few weeks later. We were impressed to hear about the snow we were really anticipating the fun we would have the following winter when we would be living in Indiana. In Great Barton, Suffolk, where we lived in England, we had the occasional snow fall, however just a couple of inches of snow would be enough to paralyze the community.
Throughout the spring of 1978 we helped our mom get ready for our transatlantic move, the house went up for sale along with most of our possessions. Toys were given away to the children's ward at the local hospital, we did keep our teddy bears, our everyday dishes were sold, the dryer, the freezer, the kitchen table and benches, most of the furniture, bedding, towels, beds, dressers, by July all that needed to go was gone. The moving men arrived and packed up the nicer furniture that my parents wanted to keep, and other items such as books, our encyclopedia sets, some games, pictures and other bits and pieces, little did we know that we would not see any of this stuff again until April of the following year.
With the house sold we left to stay with relatives, we stayed with my Nanny, (dad's mom), we visited with my aunt and uncles, during this time mom made sure our passports and visas were in order and that everything was ready for when it was time to leave in early August. After a couple of weeks we said our sad goodbyes to dad's side of the family and went to stay with my moms sister, Aunt Sylv. Again we visited with more aunts and uncles and cousins and had an enjoyable time.
In early August my dad flew back to England and drove to my Aunt Sylv's house to pick us up. Finally the day had come, we were leaving to go to America! Our journey began as we arrived at Heathrow Airport.
My sisters and I had never been on a plane before, the three of us sat in row together, each clutching our teddy bears, we were 14, 12, and 6. It is a long flight from London to Chicago, the novelty of flying wore off after three or four hours and we still had at least that long to go until we arrived.
But arrive we did, we landed at O'Hare airport on a bright, sunny August day. We were so excited to finally get off of the plane and to be in America. We came out of the door of the plane into the hottest, most humid air we had ever been in, and were so excited that we were in America! We had arrived, we were in Chicago, we were standing on American soil, actually on American concrete airport runway, but with the first leg of the journey complete our new life had begun.
***To this day I cannot listen to to Neil Diamond's, Their Coming to America, without crying, it stirs such emotion in me. "On the boats and on the planes, their coming to America, never looking back again, their coming to America...their coming to America TODAY!!!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFwSzZQ4MVI Enjoy- and don't tear up :)***
For the next several months not much happened then in January my parents flew to Indiana so that my dad could start his new job and my mom could help get an apartment set up and take a whirlwind tour of the Fort Wayne neighborhoods and schools. During this time my sisters and I stayed with a family friend in England and continued with our day to day life. A few days before my parents arrived in Fort Wayne there had been a once in a lifetime blizzard, never had my parents seen so much snow, truth be told most of the residents of Fort Wayne had never seen so much snow, it is all my mom talked about when she returned home a few weeks later. We were impressed to hear about the snow we were really anticipating the fun we would have the following winter when we would be living in Indiana. In Great Barton, Suffolk, where we lived in England, we had the occasional snow fall, however just a couple of inches of snow would be enough to paralyze the community.
Throughout the spring of 1978 we helped our mom get ready for our transatlantic move, the house went up for sale along with most of our possessions. Toys were given away to the children's ward at the local hospital, we did keep our teddy bears, our everyday dishes were sold, the dryer, the freezer, the kitchen table and benches, most of the furniture, bedding, towels, beds, dressers, by July all that needed to go was gone. The moving men arrived and packed up the nicer furniture that my parents wanted to keep, and other items such as books, our encyclopedia sets, some games, pictures and other bits and pieces, little did we know that we would not see any of this stuff again until April of the following year.
With the house sold we left to stay with relatives, we stayed with my Nanny, (dad's mom), we visited with my aunt and uncles, during this time mom made sure our passports and visas were in order and that everything was ready for when it was time to leave in early August. After a couple of weeks we said our sad goodbyes to dad's side of the family and went to stay with my moms sister, Aunt Sylv. Again we visited with more aunts and uncles and cousins and had an enjoyable time.
In early August my dad flew back to England and drove to my Aunt Sylv's house to pick us up. Finally the day had come, we were leaving to go to America! Our journey began as we arrived at Heathrow Airport.
My sisters and I had never been on a plane before, the three of us sat in row together, each clutching our teddy bears, we were 14, 12, and 6. It is a long flight from London to Chicago, the novelty of flying wore off after three or four hours and we still had at least that long to go until we arrived.
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My Teddy Bears, Andrew on the left I have had since my fifth Christmas, and Puppy Love (Snoopy) was a gift from my Dad on my 14th birthday! Both traveled with me to America, now they keep me company in my sewing room. |
***To this day I cannot listen to to Neil Diamond's, Their Coming to America, without crying, it stirs such emotion in me. "On the boats and on the planes, their coming to America, never looking back again, their coming to America...their coming to America TODAY!!!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFwSzZQ4MVI Enjoy- and don't tear up :)***
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Pictures from a recent visit to Shipshewana, Indiana
One place I have always wanted to visit is the Shipshewana Flea Market, well on Labor Day I had an opportunity to check it out. It was okay, not something I would visit again, as most of the booths either sold knick-knacks, or "as seen on TV" merchandise. Usually while the Flea Market is open the cattle/horse/antique auction is also going on. Many people descend upon the little town of Shipshewana to attend one or both of these events each week, traffic is very heavy, so be warned if you ever decide to go.
I love visiting Shipshewana, one of my favorite stores there is Yoder's, they have a hardware store, department store and small grocery all sort of separated yet together in one building, there is a large hallway running through the center of the building, the walls are hung with beautiful quilts, and lined with an abundance of rocking chairs, mainly occupied by husbands. The hardware store carries all the usual hardware type things, and looks of cooking ware, china, toys, very heavy duty laundry drying racks, carts to haul your laundry basket to the wash line, brooms, outdoor cooking cauldrons for making large vats of apple butter, just to name a very few of the items to browse. The department store reminds me very much of an old five and dime store, it has a large fabric department, with an amazing selection, large rolls of table cloth fabric, bridal fabric, quilting fabric, wools, flannels, and on and on, rack after rack of quilting stencils, tons of quilting notions, and cross stitch items, hook after hook of buttons, lace, and that is just one half of the store, the other half sells good quality shoes, work boots, cowboy boots, underwear, cowboy hats, Amish hats and bonnets, work clothes, and baby clothes, they have lovely cardigans at very reasonable prices, handkerchiefs, cloth napkins, table cloths and dish towels.
While visiting Yoders' I was pleased to find a child size broom for grandson Henry, he is two, and just loves to "help" sweep, I also found a couple of quilt stencils that will work well for the quilt I am currently working on.
Shipshewana is the home of the Davis Mercantile Building, the original building burned down a number of years ago, but a new one was built and it is four floors of fun, there is a very large carousel on the top floor, a favorite with many children, an old fashioned candy store, a wonderful fabric store for quilters called Lollys, and the usual knick-knack stores, it is a nice place to wander around. There are plenty of restaurants in Shipshewana, the largest is, The Blue Gate, great food for a good prices, lots of noodles, potatoes, fried chicken, roast beef, you know lots of comfort food and then there is dessert, if you have room.
For a relaxing day out Shipshewana is the place to go, I visit a couple of times a year and always enjoy myself. http://www.shipshewana.com/
Below are a few pictures from our most recent visit.
One of the booths at the flea market!
Emily took this picture, I really like it, it is another flea market booth.
Henry is very pleased with his new broom!
A cutsie schoolhouse we found on a back road as we traveled home.
This made us laugh, a buggy towing a boat!
Some type of steam powered contraption sitting by a barn.
AHHH, one of my favorite places to go, YODER's!!
Well you know, when there are horse and buggies around you are going to have manure.
Horses waiting patiently for their owners to finish shopping.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Around the house
Garden Update
We are still planting! We have had so much rain that it has been a challenge to get things planted in a timely manner, we hope to finish this weekend. We have about a hundred potato plants up, rows of onions, peas, beets, and greenbeans are growing rapidly. The lettuce I planted has not come up yet. Forty-eight tomato plants are in, and we will finish putting out the pepper plants and the cucumbers. I picked the first of our strawberries yesterday, we will not have nearly as many berries as we had last year, I think partly due to a couple of very late frosts. A cherry tree we planted five years ago bore fruit this spring, there were not many cherries, but the few we ate were very nice! The peach tree has about 100 little peaches on it, hopefully some of them will make it to maturity.
I spent some time yesterday afternoon weeding, a horse shoe hoe makes clearing weeds a cinch. Grandson Henry ran around the gardens with his plastic hoe and rake and had a good time playing in the dirt and eating strawberries while his Mommy and baby brother Patrick watched.
Sewing Update
I finished a quilt for new Grandson Patrick. I am currently working on a quilt to donate to a silent auction fundraiser, the proceeds will go to assist with medical bills for a man with cancer. A local Walmart is getting rid of it's fabric department, initially the fabric was marked down 25%, then 50%, and now 75%, although the reduced prices are nice I am disappointed that they will no longer be selling fabric. I have stocked up on fabric for several projects, Henry and Patrick have new matching shirts, and will have a few more over the next weeks, Dave has one new shirt, and one to be made.
Family Update
Son, Benjamin, will graduate from high school next Friday, he plans to attend a local college in the fall. Ben doesn't want an open house for graduation, he would prefer to have a bonfire with friends a little later in the summer. We want to celebrate his graduation with friends and family, but are fine with skipping the whole "open house" thing - instead we have invited close family and friends to enjoy some pizza and refreshments with us following the commencement excercise.
Daughter Emily left yesterday, with her friend Katie, for a four week visit to Europe, the girls will be travelling from Venice to Amsterdam with my parents, staying in campsites all along the way - it sounds like a wonderful trip - and one that they will both always remember. I am being an anxious Mom this morning, they are due to land in Venice any minute, I was up at four this morning to check the United website to make sure that they landed safely in Munich, they did, and I just checked the website again and they have landed in Venice, I should be getting a phone call shortly! Phew!!! The girls will be exhausted, they left at three-thirty yesterday afternoon, and arrived at their final destination at six-thirty this morning, which is twelve-thirty in the afternoon Venice time. Ahhh, life in a tent for four weeks!!
We are still planting! We have had so much rain that it has been a challenge to get things planted in a timely manner, we hope to finish this weekend. We have about a hundred potato plants up, rows of onions, peas, beets, and greenbeans are growing rapidly. The lettuce I planted has not come up yet. Forty-eight tomato plants are in, and we will finish putting out the pepper plants and the cucumbers. I picked the first of our strawberries yesterday, we will not have nearly as many berries as we had last year, I think partly due to a couple of very late frosts. A cherry tree we planted five years ago bore fruit this spring, there were not many cherries, but the few we ate were very nice! The peach tree has about 100 little peaches on it, hopefully some of them will make it to maturity.
I spent some time yesterday afternoon weeding, a horse shoe hoe makes clearing weeds a cinch. Grandson Henry ran around the gardens with his plastic hoe and rake and had a good time playing in the dirt and eating strawberries while his Mommy and baby brother Patrick watched.
Sewing Update
I finished a quilt for new Grandson Patrick. I am currently working on a quilt to donate to a silent auction fundraiser, the proceeds will go to assist with medical bills for a man with cancer. A local Walmart is getting rid of it's fabric department, initially the fabric was marked down 25%, then 50%, and now 75%, although the reduced prices are nice I am disappointed that they will no longer be selling fabric. I have stocked up on fabric for several projects, Henry and Patrick have new matching shirts, and will have a few more over the next weeks, Dave has one new shirt, and one to be made.
Family Update
Son, Benjamin, will graduate from high school next Friday, he plans to attend a local college in the fall. Ben doesn't want an open house for graduation, he would prefer to have a bonfire with friends a little later in the summer. We want to celebrate his graduation with friends and family, but are fine with skipping the whole "open house" thing - instead we have invited close family and friends to enjoy some pizza and refreshments with us following the commencement excercise.
Daughter Emily left yesterday, with her friend Katie, for a four week visit to Europe, the girls will be travelling from Venice to Amsterdam with my parents, staying in campsites all along the way - it sounds like a wonderful trip - and one that they will both always remember. I am being an anxious Mom this morning, they are due to land in Venice any minute, I was up at four this morning to check the United website to make sure that they landed safely in Munich, they did, and I just checked the website again and they have landed in Venice, I should be getting a phone call shortly! Phew!!! The girls will be exhausted, they left at three-thirty yesterday afternoon, and arrived at their final destination at six-thirty this morning, which is twelve-thirty in the afternoon Venice time. Ahhh, life in a tent for four weeks!!
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