Monday Mural Swiss Amish Style

Sugarcreek Ohio was originally settled by immigrants from Switzerland. It has a rich blend of Swiss culture and Amish heritage wrapped into an experience all its own. These first two murals are on buildings on Main Street in Sugarcreek, Ohio. The mural above had moving skiers coming down the slope.

With Swiss-style architecture, famous Swiss cheese and an annual Swiss Festival, Sugarcreek has become a top tourist destination in Ohio. It’s called the Little Switzerland of Ohio.

The next series of shots are from a mural in Heini’s Cheese Chalet in Millersburg, Ohio.

Heini’s Cheese Chalet is a required stop on any cheese country tour so you can see this indoor marvel, sixty feet long, painted by hand. It provides a unique perspective on the rise of Civilization. Come with us, to a time before there was cheese….

The mural begins on the left with a huge wedge of Swiss — before there was a Switzerland — crossed by nomads on camels. The mural charts evolving cheesemaking processes, consumption, and its impact to the present day, circa 1980. “Mutiny on the Bounty was partly over cheese,” explains the accompanying text, also painted by hand. The illustration style is reminiscent of a child’s guide to the Bible; though an elfish, round-faced boy with a half-eaten cheese morsel makes an appearance.

The mural concludes with a tiny billboard promoting the world’s largest wheel of cheese, a ten-ton cheddar that was here until someone accidentally kicked the plug out of its refrigerated kiosk in the 1990s.

The entire mural was painted by local artist Tom Miller. “His work,” according to Heine’s promotional literature, “is now considered to be of collectible worth with increasing value.”

ht: RoadsideAmerica.com

I bought a basket made by four year old Amish child from this shop. Seriously…four years old, I was blown away. There were long aisles of refrigerated cases with so many cheeses that you could sample. There were other goodies, too. These large Cheese shops in Amish country were really amazing. Makes all of the food stores I frequent seem cheese challenged and sausage challenged, too.

Linking with Oakland Daily Photo for Monday Mural.

We Have Fallen, A Leaf’s Perspective…

Now it’s up to you to pick us all up and put us away till next year.

You can just blow us off somewhere unless…

…we get stuck in the nooks and crannies.

And now we are wet which adds another dimension of challenge to get rid of us.

We are mostly off the huge Maple in your neighbor’s yard. Just one more good windy day and the branches will be bare.

The day has come and now you can clear the rain gutters of the last remaining leaves.

You leaf laborers have earned yourselves a good meal off the smoker and out of the oven with all the colors of Fall. Ribs off the Traeger, roasted vegetables, coleslaw, jalapeno cornbread, and barbecue beans.

Eat, Drink, and Be Merry for the leaves are gone till next Fall!

Linking up to Foodie Friday and Everything Else, Five on Friday, and Friday’s Fave Five.

Thank you to Rattlebridge Farms, Amy at Love Made My Home, and Susanne at Living to Tell the Story.

And if laboring over leaves wasn’t enough I’m now having some physical therapy to help with the extreme tightness of my IT Band that has been giving me some grief. Sad but true you have to exercise and try to endure more pain to get rid of the pain and here is one of my new torture instruments.

This is called The Stick…hmm…catchy but it works like a rolling pin to work out the tightness of your muscles.

So…thank you Lord for seasons, for the strength to deal with the fallen leaves, for the enjoyment of good food that nourishes our bodies, for physical therapy to repair and strengthen our bodies and for Spiritual therapy to strengthen and anchor our souls.

^{Hebrews 16:19-20 (ESV) ~ 19}We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

On the Way to Charm

One of the days we were in Ohio we drove to Charm, Ohio. These are some fences and farms we saw.

It was a wet day with a few dry spells, the very last day of September. And now it’s November already.

So far this is what November looks like here.

Facebook lit up last night and today about the Cubs winning the World Series in game 7. In general I’m not a baseball follower but doing something for the first time in 108 years is significant. I did manage to stay awake and see the outcome. I found these photos in my archives from my one and only time outside Wrigley Field in 2012.

Congratulations Chicago Cubs!

Thank you TexWisGirl for hosting Good Fences.

More Signs from Indiana

All of these signs were seen on a Sunday along the Heritage Trail in Indiana mostly contained within Elkhart County. The Pillsbury’s flour sign was in Wakarusa.

These last two signs are in Topeka, Indiana just south of Shipshewana next to Yoder Popcorn. There were a few places that would have been fun to explore but were closed on Sunday.

Linking up to signs, signs with Lesley.

Such a wet and drippy day here in the Pacific Northwest. Daughter and I had a fun several hours shopping at the Navy Exchange and Costco with a little lunch in between.

Of Quilts and Queens…

…and other Q things. It’s always an interesting quest to come up with Q words to share for ABC Wednesday.

These first two photos were taken in Bristol Indiana.

Quilts on Barns in Amish/Mennonite Country.

Barn Quilt in Eastern Washington from the road.

Quilts in the Der Dutchman Restaurant in Ohio Amish Country.

And now a quick trip across the pond to England to visit Queen Victoria.

Outside Buckingham Palace, 2013.

Outside Windsor Castle, 2014.

For my last offerings we’re back in the USA for Queues of buggies from Amish Country.

Linking up to ABC Wednesday started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC Team.

Despite the rain last night (Halloween) we got about 44 trick or treaters at our door. The bonus of the night was being able to meet a new neighbor we hadn’t met before with their almost 1 year old little boy. So sweet.

I’ll leave you with a couple “Quiet” verses from the Bible to calm (quiet) you in our noisy world.

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV)

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, ²for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 (NASB)

Amish Farm Mosaics

I really thought these corn shocks were cool.

“One of the most well-known ways of taking in corn is through shocking it. The first step is for the farmer to drive his team of horses, pulling a machine called a binder which cuts the cornstalks off close to the ground. The binder then makes bundles of corn which must be gathered by hand and stacked up in a teepee-style pile. Although the cornstalks are now dry, the corn is probably not dry enough to be stored safely. The whole idea is to prevent the corn ears from falling on the ground and absorbing moisture. When the corn is dry, it will be gathered on a wagon and either shucked by hand or run through the corn picker.”

I’ll be linking up to The Barn Collective at Tom the Backroads Traveler and to Mosaic Monday with Maggie at Normandy Life.

ht: Dutchman News

A Mind at Perfect Peace With God ~ Hymn

A Mind at Perfect Peace With God

A mind at perfect peace with God;
O what a word is this!
A sinner reconciled through blood;
This, this indeed is peace.

By nature and by practice far,
How very far from God;
Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him,
Through faith in Jesus’ blood.

So nigh, so very nigh to God,
I cannot nearer be;
For in the person of His Son
I am as near as He.

So dear, so very dear to God,
More dear I cannot be;
The love wherewith He loves the Son,
Such is His love to me.

Why should I ever anxious be,
Since such a God is mine?
He watches o’er me night and day,
And tells me “Mine is thine.”

Words: Horatius Bonar or Catesby Paget

Ht: Cyberhymnal

InSPIREd Sunday

Central Christian Church in Elkhart, Indiana

Grace Lutheran Church in Elkhart, Indiana.

We saw these two churches and a few more on our Heritage Trail Driving tour while in Indiana the end of September. I’ll add a couple more here that were quick drive-by shots.

First Presbyterian Church in Goshen, Indiana. Goshen is the county seat for Elkhart County and the following photo is the courthouse.

Linking up with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday.

Up and Down Five…

Up: Wonderful blooming Camillias on my neighbors bushes that border our property. I took this photo on Monday.

Last Saturday while we were having a very lazy day one of the “girls” talked about how she was making muffins so I scrounged around the kitchen and came up with the ingredients for these bran muffins. I’ll be posting the easy recipe on the MGCC blog on Monday. Fresh out of the oven they are the best. The down side…I ate more than one.

While we were in Kettle Falls a couple weekends ago I spent a few hours on Sunday with our daughter in law and her granny. Granny treated us to lunch at TJ’s Tavern in Kettle Falls. This sign is on the outside of the tavern and I had to post it for my Canadian friends. TJ’s is about 32 miles from the border between the USA and Canada.

I love the colors that were so brilliant in this rainbow that showed up outside Dan and Jamie’s place in Chewelah. Rainbows are always a welcome sign in the sky filled with hope that makes me stop and ponder and click a lot of photos trying to capture the glory of it all. The downer: I have been having pain around my left hip that has made me stay home from my exercise classes for the last couple of months. I was thinking the worst but I finally visited my doctor who diagnosed a muscle issue with a course of action that does not involve anything but physical therapy. It was not a joint issue and I am thankful and relieved to hear that news. So while my thoughts were down about that they have been lifted up.

The other down this week was an early morning phone call that my sister was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. Dear and I showered quickly and headed to the hospital to sit with and wait for the all clear from many tests and her release. To see her in pain was a downer but to find out there were no life threatening conditions was good. To find things to laugh about while we were at her bed side was good therapy.

This is a tree on our son’s property. I’m calling it the cyclops tree and it’s the closest thing I have to a Halloween photo for now. Some choose to avoid Halloween but I really enjoy it for these specific reasons. I can give treats to my neighbor kiddies and it’s a joy to have them knock on my door. I meet people in the neighborhood that I haven’t met before. I buy candy we like so if it doesn’t all get given out we reap the benefits. Everyone who comes to my door gets the same love and candy on Halloween.

Even though the leaves have fallen and covered our lawn, planters, walkways, and gutters we are enjoying the color and weather of the fall season. It’s good to have distinct seasons to enjoy.

Tonight, Thursday, I’m headed to a Sounders playoff game against Kansas City and I really hope it will be an “up” experience instead of a downer! HOT OFF THE PRESSES: We won and here is a shot my DIL took last night at the game.

Josh, myself and Laura. It was a tense 95 minutes and a player we have been waiting on to score had the goal of the year for himself and all the fans cheered so heartily for this young man. We were so worked up it took a while to get to sleep.

Thankful to our creator for 1. All the reminders each day of His love and care over us through the ups and downs. 2. Good doctors who can diagnose and help us with our aches and pains 3. Signs in nature that point us to a good creator who is still in control even in the ups and downs. 4. The comfort of good food. 5. Creating our bodies in a way that allow us to work hard in everyday chores and on the sports fields.

So what were your ups and downs this past week that made you thankful?

Linking to Five on Friday, Friday’s Fave Five, and Foodie Friday and Everything Else.

Fences along the Heritage Trail, Indiana

Linking up to Good Fences with TexWisGirl.

Can you believe this is the last Good Fences for the month of October? Here’s an October fence from our own backyard taken on Wednesday. We are in the midst of some very sloppy weather here in the Seattle area! I took this shot from our kitchen window.

Happy end of October to all of you! Do you have a costume picked out for Halloween?

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage