Flag Day 2011…

Happy Flag Week and Day to all in the U.S.A.

With grateful hearts to God for our freedom, our flags are waving.

I’m linking up with Mary at Work of the Poet for Ruby Tuesday!

Tuesday is Flag Day in the U.S.A. It’s closer to Tuesday where our Son-in-law Andrew is deployed right now so I’ll put my post up early in honor of him. It’s also a great reminder to encourage your prayers for him and all those serving to ensure our flag keeps waving.

Flag Day falls within National Flag Week, a time when Americans reflect on the foundations of the nation’s freedom. The flag of the United States represents freedom and has been an enduring symbol of the country’s ideals since its early days. During both events, Americans also remember their loyalty to the nation, reaffirm their belief in liberty and justice, and observe the nation’s unity.

Katie and I met this Marine Veteran on Memorial Day. He still fits in his old uniform…

Here’s a fun idea for Flag Day or for the 4th of July. You can be creative and use any other ingredients you want. You could do all fruit and marshmallows or small pieces of angel food cake, too. Strawberries or raspberries would work. For an all fruit platter I’d add a fruit dip made with cream cheese and marshmallow cream. For veggies you could add a savory veggie dip. I used what I had on hand for this platter, plum tomatoes cut in half, string cheese cut in rounds, french bread cubed, watermelon cut in cubes and of course the blueberries.

On Tuesday I’m posting a recipe on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook site for an Apple Bundt cake that is easy, moist and delicious. Click over and get the recipe on Tuesday.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with blurred out versions and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Early Celebration…

Sunday evening we drove an hour to the little town of La Conner for dinner together to celebrate Father’s Day. Our children will be scattered next Sunday so we decided to celebrate early. Nell Thorn has a variety of good local food cooked to perfection. We all enjoyed our choices. As your family grows and your children marry it is a very good choice not to get too attached to celebrating on exact dates. Flexibility and enjoying the times you do spend together are key to contentment in extended family relationships.

Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary at Little Red House. Thank you Mary!

Whitsunday Hymn ~ Charles Wesley

Away With Our Fears, Our Troubles and Tears

Away with our fears,
Our troubles and tears.
The Spirit is come,
The witness of Jesus returned to His home;
The pledge of our Lord
To His Heaven restored
Is sent from the sky,
And tells us our Head is exalted on high.

Our Advocate there
By His blood and His prayer
The gift hath obtained,
For us He hath prayed, and the Comforter gained;
Our glorified Head
His Spirit hath shed
With His people to stay
And never again will He take Him away.

Our heavenly Guide
With us shall abide,
His comforts impart,
And set up His kingdom of love in the heart.
The heart that believes
His kingdom receives
His power and His peace,
His life, and His joy’s everlasting increase.

The presence divine
Doth inwardly shine,
The Shechinah shall rest
On all our assemblies, and glow in our breast;
By day, and by night
The pillar of light
Our steps shall attend,
And convoy us safe to our prosperous end.

Then let us rejoice
In heart and in voice
Our Leader pursue,
And shout as we travel the wilderness through;
With the Spirit remove
To Zion above,
Triumphant arise,
And walk with our God, till we fly to the skies.

Three Years…

The Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog is celebrating 3 years today. Head on over and enter a chance to win a cookbook. My mosaic shows some memorable moments from this last year. The Welcome sign was purchased at Wink’s in Chillawack during our book release celebration weekend in British Columbia. It is now gracing the entry to our home in Washington. We hope you always feel welcome at our blogs and at our tables. Blessings!

Hope you have a lovely weekend.

FFF ~ Lilacs and Peonies and Dogwood Oh My!

Last year we planted a lilac bush, a peony, and a Dogwood. We enjoyed one branch that bloomed this year on the lilac. The dogwood did bloom some pretty bright pink blooms. We are still waiting for the peony to bloom again this year. In the meantime I bought a bunch of peonies at Costco to enjoy.

Here are my 5 favorites from this past week.

1. My lilacs and the wonderful scent we enjoyed for a few days.

2. Seeing my dogwood blooms out my kitchen window.

3. Knowing we have finally found a church home and it’s only 3 miles away from our home. The closest we’ve ever been to our home church. It’s taken us a full year to find the right spot for us. We will go to a membership class in September.

4. I’m reading my third book in the last couple weeks. I read Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs. I read the first book in The Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall. Both of these books were very enjoyable. Now I’m reading the latest In the Company of Others by Jan Karon. I really enjoy Jan Karon’s writing…

5. I sent our new cookbook, Mennonite Girls Can Cook, to 3 of Dear’s aunts and to a dear old friend of mine that befriended me in college through a Baptist scholarship that I received from her church. What a dear she’s been to me over the years. She wrote to me and sent care packages while I was away from home in college. We’ve kept track of each other over these last 40 years. She is in her 80’s now, widowed and still a Sunday School teacher at her church. She called me this week after receiving the cookbook to thank me and to chat. Sweet times.

I got notes from Dear’s aunts also thanking me for their books and letting me know what recipes they would be trying first. His aunts are in their 70’s and 80’s.

This weekend I get to go on a walk with a dear friend and we are going to celebrate Father’s day this Sunday instead of next.

Thank you Susanne for hosting Friday’s Fave Five, a time to reflect on good things in our lives.

Hillwood Dining Room and Breakfast Room

During a recent trip to Washington D.C. I was able to spend some time at Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens. This is the home of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post. She was C.W. Post’s only child and sole heiress of the Postum Cereal Company which later became General Foods Corporation. The property is well worth a visit if you ever find yourself a tourist in Washington D.C.

The Dining Room features authentic French decor, including oak paneling recovered from an eighteenth-century Parisian home. Two of the room’s highlights are not, however, French: four large Dutch paintings of hunting scenes and a spectacular Italian table designed in 1927 for Mar-a-Lago, Mrs. Post’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, and requested in her will to be brought to Hillwood. When its six leaves are in place, it can seat more than thirty people.

Today, table settings in the Dining Room and adjacent Breakfast Room are rotated with selections of porcelain, glass, and flatware from French and Russian services.

The design of the Breakfast Room recalls the breakfast room in Mrs. Post’s New York City apartment that was built in the 1920’s. The bronze metal work is from the New York apartment, also. The gilt bronze and green glass chandelier comes from Catherine Palace, one of Catherine the Great’s favorite residences outside St. Petersburg.

I decided to include the kitchen and pantry in my post so you could see where the wonderful meals were prepared and where a lot of the dishware was stored.

Do any of you have a silver safe in your pantry? Since Mrs. Post’s death in 1973 no meals have been prepared in the kitchen. She requested it be retired.

I’ll close with this view from one of the pantry windows.

Please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for more tablescapes.

Click on gardens and Russian treasures to see more of my posts on Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens. Later next week I’ll also post about the Russian Icon collection Mrs. Post acquired and my favorite painting in her home from 1883, A Boyar Wedding Feast.

Hillwood Estate Museum

Here we are at the letter H in Jenny’s Alphabe-Thursday weekly meme and I have so much to share from Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington D.C. that I’m posting early.

Welcome to the home of Marjorie Merriweather Post – the legendary heiress, pioneering businesswoman, diplomat, philanthropist, and distinguished collector.

This is Marjorie and her daughter Dina Merrill. Dina was born to Mrs. Post and her 2nd husband Edward F. Hutton. Dina Merrill became a successful actress.

What drew me most to visit Hillwood was reading about Mrs. Post’s collection of Russian Imperial art which was her lifelong passion. Her third husband was United States Ambassador to Russia, Joseph E. Davies. Marjorie and the Ambassador lived in Russia in 1937 and 1938. She has one of the finest collections in the world. The largest portrait gracing the stairway is of Catherine the Great who reigned from 1762-1796.

Czar Alexander

Czar Nicholas II

A centuries-old Russian custom continues today as hosts welcome their guests with a loaf of bread on a round plate with a cellar of salt placed on top. Platters and cellars that were once used by nobility—some of which are currently on view at Hillwood—were often elaborately made of gilded silver and enamel.

Another symbol of Russia is the double-headed eagle inlaid in the center of this floor. This imperial coat of arms sets the tone for the imperial Russian glass and porcelain that fills the room.

Next time I’ll show the amazing collection of Icons and liturgical pieces from the Russian Orthodox church that Mrs. Post treasured. She also has some beautiful Faberge creations. She acquired these in the 1930’s. I’m so grateful to people like Mrs. Post who had the passion and resources to put such an extensive collection together and than to open up her home and collections to the public.

My post about the Gardens at Hillwood are here.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.

Hillwood Gardens

Marjorie Merriweather Post intended visitors to Hillwood to delight in the treasures found inside as well as outside the Mansion.

From 1955 to 1957, during renovations carried out after Mrs. Post purchased the estate, elements of the existing landscape were incorporated into garden “rooms” that featured a variety of historical styles.

The formal garden is designed to transport you to a small formal garden of the eighteenth century. Standing on the terrace you face the terra-cotta sculpture of Diana, the Roman goddess of the hunt.

Fanciful creatures, such as the marble sphinxes, the figures with the head and torso of a woman and the legs of a lion on the balustrade, and the lead cherub riding sea animals in the central pool, lend the garden a sense of whimsy and joy reminiscent of objects in Mrs. Post’s French collection.

The next photo shows the view of the formal garden from Mrs. Post’s bedroom.

As you walk past the statue of Diana you enter the Rose Garden.

In 1956 Mrs. Post hired Perry Wheeler, who had assisted with the design of the White House rose garden, to adapt this garden to her taste. Each bed was planted with a single variety of summer-blooming floribunda rose and the brick paving.

Boxwood was planted to complete the circle started by the pergola.

Mrs. Post chose this site to house her ashes in the base of the pink granite monument crowned with an antique urn of deep purple porphyry. Mrs. Post died at Hillwood. In her final act of philanthropy, she opened her estate as a museum of her timeless collections. This truly is an amazing gift to the public!

The wood and brick pergola, with its climbing roses and white wisteria that bloom in the spring were part of Willard Gebhart’s original design prior to Perry Wheeler’s additions in 1956.

Four of these statues represent the four seasons. The little guy on the bottom right was on a post on the friendship walk leading to the Four Seasons Overlook.

Looking back towards the rose garden from the putting green.

This is looking down towards the Japanese style garden which I’ll post at a later date.

Past the stone lion is the lunar lawn, named for it’s crescent shape.

There are still many wonderful aspects of Mrs. Post’s outdoor property to show but this post is getting long and I’ll stop here with some lovely Peonies that were growing in the cutting garden.

If you ever visit Washington D.C. I highly recommend a visit to Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens. The history and treasures and beauty are worth the trip.

ht: Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens brochure.

Ruby Tuesday ~

These photos were taken on the grounds of the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington D.C.

I will be posting photos from the museum and gardens later this week. Hillwood is definitely a Ruby and hidden treasure in Washington D.C.

Please visit Mary at Work of the Poet to see more Ruby posts…

My Cookbook Winner!

Thank you, thank you to everyone who entered the chance to win our Mennonite Girls Can Cook cookbook! It was great to read something about each of you and see where you are from. If you have a blog I hope to visit you soon.

Rosemary lives in Colorado right now but will soon be moving back to her home state of Wisconsin.

Rosemary, I’ll contact you soon requesting the correct address to mail the book to! Blessings…

To those of you who didn’t win keep watching the MGCC blog for more giveaways in the future.

Speaking of giveaways head over to Feminine Farmgirl for a review and giveaway.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage