Today was such a beautful day. After sleeping in...just a little...we headed out to our usual Saturday watering hole, Way Fruit Farm. They have great breakfasts, our favorite cream cheese dip, and lots of fruit. We got apples and pears today. Darrell got a traditional breakfast. I had my favorite- whole grain toast topped with an egg, tomato, and swiss cheese.
Then we headed towards Tyrone, into Sinking Valley. Sinking valley is the most beautiful valley. We dream of living there some day.
Hidden in the valley is a tulip farm and today was their opening day. For $5.00, you could walk among the rows of tulips and either pick or dig up tulips for $1.00 a stem. Now, I have no idea if that is economical or not, but it sure was beautiful! Darrell cannot resist a pretty flower, just ask the local greenhouse...and our checkbook, so I was pretty sure he wouldn't be too bored. However, I was sure he wouldn't be bored when I saw two tractors parked among the tulips and a donut truck parked among the food trucks. We grabbed a bucket and came home with 14 bulbs to plant in our yard, tummies full of a coconut cream donut I can't wait to see them bloom next year. Sadly, there was one we forgot to get. (I think the donut truck was too big of a distraction.) It was a whilte tulip with just a bit of red. It reminded me of Jesus and how His blood has washed us white from sin. Even nature declares the gospel!
Then we headed towards Tyrone, into Sinking Valley. Sinking valley is the most beautiful valley. We dream of living there some day.
Hidden in the valley is a tulip farm and today was their opening day. For $5.00, you could walk among the rows of tulips and either pick or dig up tulips for $1.00 a stem. Now, I have no idea if that is economical or not, but it sure was beautiful! Darrell cannot resist a pretty flower, just ask the local greenhouse...and our checkbook, so I was pretty sure he wouldn't be too bored. However, I was sure he wouldn't be bored when I saw two tractors parked among the tulips and a donut truck parked among the food trucks. We grabbed a bucket and came home with 14 bulbs to plant in our yard, tummies full of a coconut cream donut I can't wait to see them bloom next year. Sadly, there was one we forgot to get. (I think the donut truck was too big of a distraction.) It was a whilte tulip with just a bit of red. It reminded me of Jesus and how His blood has washed us white from sin. Even nature declares the gospel!
As we traveled towards home, we took the road less traveled, or in this case, never traveled...by us anyway. We passed an Amish wedding. Out of respect for the Amish, I decided not to take any photos. It was quite a sight though. There must have been 30 buggies and all the Amish men were outside the barn sitting on a bench along the barn in their bright colored shirts and straw hats. The children were playing in the yard. The women were likely busy getting the food ready inside the barn because we didn't see any.
We did, however come across a gem nestled on a remote country road. Sinking Valley Presbyterian Church, whose congregation was formed in 1790 by Scotch-Irish settlers following the American Revolution. It sits near Arch Spring Cemetary and has historical connections to Fort Roberdeau, whose soldiers guarded early settlers from Indian raids while they worked in the lead mines. The church is surrounded by Arch Spring cemetary. Arch Spring is a nearby geological formation where the water flowing from a cave spring over a mile away resurges and comes to the surface, thus the name Sinking Creek. (Now we're going to have to go back and find that!)
I stopped to grab some photos of the actual building and grounds and when I found Darrell, he was traipsing through the graveyard. He's a chip off the old block and it would've made The Relics (my mother-in-law and aunt) proud. Of course, we missed their commentary about the people buried there, so we just had to read the tombstones to gain any information we obtained. As you can tell, the church goes back quite a long way. In the graveyard, there were two of the biggest pine trees I've ever seen! A third tree had just been cut down recently, so Darrell counted the rings and determined that those trees were around 200 years old! The tree rings told the story of the ages as some rings were very close together while others were further apart - a testament of their fertile and hard years of growth. You can tell from the photo of Darrell counting just how big around those trees are!
We did, however come across a gem nestled on a remote country road. Sinking Valley Presbyterian Church, whose congregation was formed in 1790 by Scotch-Irish settlers following the American Revolution. It sits near Arch Spring Cemetary and has historical connections to Fort Roberdeau, whose soldiers guarded early settlers from Indian raids while they worked in the lead mines. The church is surrounded by Arch Spring cemetary. Arch Spring is a nearby geological formation where the water flowing from a cave spring over a mile away resurges and comes to the surface, thus the name Sinking Creek. (Now we're going to have to go back and find that!)
I stopped to grab some photos of the actual building and grounds and when I found Darrell, he was traipsing through the graveyard. He's a chip off the old block and it would've made The Relics (my mother-in-law and aunt) proud. Of course, we missed their commentary about the people buried there, so we just had to read the tombstones to gain any information we obtained. As you can tell, the church goes back quite a long way. In the graveyard, there were two of the biggest pine trees I've ever seen! A third tree had just been cut down recently, so Darrell counted the rings and determined that those trees were around 200 years old! The tree rings told the story of the ages as some rings were very close together while others were further apart - a testament of their fertile and hard years of growth. You can tell from the photo of Darrell counting just how big around those trees are!
We hurried home to put the bulbs in some dirt before heading to Bellefonte for our grandson's baseball game. The park has an absolutely riveting view of the mountains that we love so much in our neck of the woods. Because the ballpark was well shaded, we sat under a tree at a picnic table and enjoyed that view, the breeze, a hamburger, and oh, of course, the game! (jPee Wee games are SO exciting!) The annoucers gave each player a walk-up song and a random nickname. Our grandson was "Bennie, the big cheese, Douglas." Curiously, that's not too far from true. After the game we drove towards Bald Eagle State Park to the Twin Kiss. Twin Kiss's (Dairy Queen's main competitor) were big when we were kids and hold sentimental value for Darrell (I'm almost sure his curiosity had nothing to do with ice cream). Hahaha! Darrell has a special stomach, only for ice cream, and it has to be filled at least once a day! So he grabbed a cone and I got a small milkshake and we headed home for the day, or so I thought. Around dinner time, he had a hankering for Chinese so we drove to Penns Valley for dinner.
It's been a long time since I've blogged (blame that on PVSD and my insanely complicated, but I'm-really-liking-it job.) In the past couple of weeks, I've seen more school plays than I care to count because Darrell's bus kids begged him to come and because I wanted to see how talented "my school kids" were. My youngest grandchild turned four! We bought insanely expensive but worth every penny cinnamon rolls from a Snyder's food truck near the meat store in Zion as a Saturday morning adventure, we had a huge Easter egg hunt with some of the grandkids, and we walked the creek on the nice days that Mother Nature gave us. I got to eat at my favorite restaurant - Jean Bennet (Darrell surprised me on my birthday), and we visited The Relics and saw all of my mother-in-laws cats. Current count is fourteen. That's about her average. That one guy sits on that post every morning. Cats are so unpredictable. Dogs are better.
I attended my first bocce ball event. Bocce ball is similar to curling, without the ice. To my surprise, it was very engaging and entertaining. And last, but not least, our search for a new home continues. We found a "chalet" by accident in Sinking Valley today. It's listed as a "Riverfront Chalet," a bit misleading in my opinion. The house was nice. The wrap around porch was enticing. It does sit on the Little Juniata River, which is just a bit wider and not as deep as Spring Creek. The basement is completely unfinished so there was potential for a game room for the grandkids (when they weren't in the creek or um...river), and an office for Darrell and his thousands of books. There were drawbacks though that made it a non-starter for us-no fireplace, no garage, no storage shed or appropriate out building, no barn (that's Darrell's wish), too small, right ON the road, and it sits on only 0.75 acres. So our search continues.
However, as you can see, life is good in Happy Valley! Thansks for visiting!
I attended my first bocce ball event. Bocce ball is similar to curling, without the ice. To my surprise, it was very engaging and entertaining. And last, but not least, our search for a new home continues. We found a "chalet" by accident in Sinking Valley today. It's listed as a "Riverfront Chalet," a bit misleading in my opinion. The house was nice. The wrap around porch was enticing. It does sit on the Little Juniata River, which is just a bit wider and not as deep as Spring Creek. The basement is completely unfinished so there was potential for a game room for the grandkids (when they weren't in the creek or um...river), and an office for Darrell and his thousands of books. There were drawbacks though that made it a non-starter for us-no fireplace, no garage, no storage shed or appropriate out building, no barn (that's Darrell's wish), too small, right ON the road, and it sits on only 0.75 acres. So our search continues.
However, as you can see, life is good in Happy Valley! Thansks for visiting!
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