It's a tea party!

Remember me speaking of the Rupp House a short while ago?  Well, they have tried something new--a tea party.  The turn out was really good.  There was even one little red-headed girl who was dressed to the 9's in her flowered dress and sun hat. 

Todays' program centered around the women of Gettysburg of 1863.  There were approximately 8 ladies present and each one said something about their lives during the course of the battle and immediately after.  And, then there was a discussion about all of the garments a woman would have worn.  After the discussion the ladies each sat at different tables so that the guests could talk with them more about their lives.  A young lady, who portrayed Elizabeth Thorne, sat at our table; and I couldn't help admiring her lovely hat.  There will be three more of teas coming up during the rest of the season, each one with a distinct theme.

The food was really nice with one cold berry tea and a hot jasmine flavored tea.  There were four different types of tea sandwiches followed by a blueberry scone with lemon curd and one final course of desserts.

What a pleasant surprise! The Rupp House

On several occasions I have passed the Rupp House on Baltimore Street and could see inside a little bit.  It appeared that the front room only had a couple of chairs in it and people were watching a big screen TV.  I was not impressed, and would just keep walking.  Then the other day I had to stop in there to make a reservation for a tea party for a first person presentation about some of the women of Gettysburg for Sunday afternoon.  Boy, was I surprised.  Inside this house it was actually very nicely decorated with furnishings and artifacts.  There was the story of the Rupp family and how Mr. Rupp had hidden in the basement while the battle ragged outside with Union soldiers on the front porch and Confederate soldiers on the back porch and bullets flying though the house itself. 

The best part of this place is that it is for free!  There are occasions when a couple of friends of mine who portray General Lee and Mrs. Lee also do presentations here.  So be sure to spend a little time at this site.

It's Lavender Festival time

There is a place in the Gettysburg area called Willow Pond Farm where there are acres and acres of lavender.  I was lucky that the weather was cooperating on this one day that I had off during this festival.  I got out to the farm early and started to meander.  There were small garden areas of herbs, edible flowers and plants, etc. and a lovely pond area where the sign there read, "Please do not disturb the frogs."

There was a fairly large area where you could snip your own bunches of lavendar--as long as you dared share the fields with the multitudes of bumble bees and honey bees.  I just took a deep breath and thought to myself, "Show no fear."  I quietly moved among the lavendar plants and bees while selecting branches to snip.  Luckily, I was not bothered by a single insect.

There were vendors selling garden items of all sorts.  My one selection was of some votive candles in lavendar scents.  There was one stand where the vendor was selling all kinds of things about fairies for your garden area.  I was so tempted to ask her if she really believed in fairies, but she was too busy with customers.  I, myself, do believe in fairies ever since a friend caught one on his camera this one evening while we were out exploring at Lily Dale, the center of spiritualism.  But that is a story for another time.

There were lectures on identifying and growing a variety of herbal plants and lavendar; but since I am the kind of girl that hasn't gotten into dirt since I was about 8 years old, this only held my interest for a short time.  There were also some workshops on things such as making a lavendar wand.

And, then there was lunch.  I selected the turkey sandwich, a small cup of pasta salad, green tea with lavendar, of course; and last of all blond brownies made with lavendar.  Each item had it's own flavor with just that hint of lavendar in everything.  But, the one thing I enjoyed the most before leaving this site was an ice cream cone with peach lavendar ice cream.  And that was really good!

Once again, it was getting really hot out so it was a relief to know I had seen everything and could go back to my air-conditioned room for the rest of the afternoon.

There has been some talk that this "might" be the last Lavendar Festival as one of the owners of this farm has been having health issues.  However, they were asking for information from everyone as they were leaving so that they could make contact with them for next year's event.  Since the crowd attending this event was pretty large, I am sure the people are hoping this festival will continue again next year.

I forgot to mention a shop I've enjoyed for years

Ever since I started coming to Gettysburg with a group called The Ladies of Living History, I have known about this wonderful fabric shop.  For re-enactors this shop is a real find.  There are hundreds of bolts of reproduction period fabrics to make clothing from the early 1800's through the Civil War period.

These fabrics also make wonderful quilts, and they have the extra wide fabric for the backing on quilts.  And, if you have a hard time matching or selecting fabrics for a quilt, they have bundeled fabrics to make a quilt top.  They even ship if you find that you did not buy enough of something while in the shop.

They also carry a lot of other things needed for recreating period attire, like the proper buttons, hook tape, stays, corset fabric, trims and wool edging for the bottom of dresses.

Unlike most modern fabric shops, this one has an extensive selection of light weight and heavy weight wools for making capes, great coats, etc.

If you're in this area, you can find this shop just a few miles outside of Gettysburg on Route 16 going toward Fairfield.

A new shop opens in Gettysburg.

This new shop recently opened called the Gettysburg Cupcake Cafe.  It is all painted inside and out in light and hot pink!  What fun!

I tried the peanut butter cupcake and it was decadent.  I also enjoyed a caramel flavored coffee.  It is amazing how they have transformed this standard style house into a completely different experience as a cafe.  Come and enjoy!

I'm no green thumb, but I do LOVE gardens.

As a part of the Gettysburg Festival season, which goes on for 10 days, there was a garden show, where you got to see gardens at private properties and several of the inns of Gettysburg.  The weather this day was in the 90's, which kept me from seeing all of the sites; but those I did see where really lovely.

The first site I went to was at the Getty Hotel, which had the smallest garden area, but it was really lovely.  Here is Kim, who tends this garden area.  She is standing next to an oak leaf hydrangea.  It had the most lovely light fragrance.

I next stopped at the Braferton Inn, a well-known inn enjoyed by many travelers to Gettysburg.  In their garden they used whimsical items like this old marble sink top over a kettle to display ferns and flowers.

I next went to the Brickhouse Inn which had the largest garden between two buildings that make up a part of this inn.  It had many large shade trees and a wonderful koi pond. The sound of the water was very serene.

It was a shame I could not see all of the sites, but I was worn out from the heat this day and was glad to go back to my room with its air conditioning.

Friends I have to admit sharing these pictures and adventures with you is fun, but I do have issues with trying to get blogger to cooperate.  Even though I use the arrows to position the pictures or move the cursor to add text in a pleasing fashion to make this site look good, the system just moves things around where it wants to--like the odd looking text above in between the pictures.  Every time I tried to move those few words, it would put them back in the same place; or it would begin to delete the text that followed.  I'll keep trying to improve this so be patient, friends.

How did I get so lucky?

Last year while working in the Gettysburg area I rarely ever had a Saturday or Sunday off, but this year is different.  I pretty much have a set schedule at the Shriver House where I work Mondays, Wednesdays, and alternating Saturdays and Sundays.  I had thought this would be a good deal for my second employer, which would have meant they could use me on the weekends also.  But as it turned out I work at the Diorma on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which leaves me a Saturday or Sunday off EVERY WEEKEND, which is why I say, "How did I get so lucky?"

So, the other day I was able to go back to Lancaster, Pa.  You can tell we are getting into the summer season as this time it was a lot harder to find parking at the Green Dragon Flea Market even at 9AM.   I was able to buy some bueatiful yellow and red peppers for salads, and, of course, some of that wonderful Amish baked goods.  Those baked goods and the great ice cream around the corner from my extended stay room are keeping me from losing any weight despite all the flights of stairs I have to climb on those tours at the Shriver House.

There was a new display at the PA Railroad Museum about railroading during the Civil War.  It was not as a big a display as I had hoped, but I enjoyed the rest of the museum once again.  Like the locamotive shown here, which was used in the transport of silver out west.

Or, there was the yellow car, which was a combination passenger car and the back portion was for cargo.  I also liked the new addition of a street scene where you could look in the windows of a general store, a gentleman's sport club, a hotel and others.

So, friends, if you should be in the Strasburg, PA area be sure to see this fine museum and some of the other train related sites nearby--like, take a ride on the Strasburg Railroad or go to the Choo Choo Barn or Toy Train Museum.

It has been such fun living and working in an area where there is so much to see and do.  So, I say it again, "How did I get so lucky?"

I'm back!

Sorry for being gone for a while.  There has been a lot of work at the museum lately with BUNCHES of buses loaded with school kids for tours.  Sometimes the tours are really early in the morning or even very late at night.

I did get a day away finally and went to the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's World War II weekend event.  It was really something.  The first thing I saw there was a recreated French village.  The first building I went into was set up like a dress shop with a loft for sleeping quarters.  The woman there talked about how fashions changed during the war because of a lack of fabric.  After discussing the fashion industry, she then talked about being a part of the French Resistance and how they worked to hinder the German army and help downed English/American pilots.  The other half of this house was a engine repair shop with living quarters in the back.

A while later in the morning there was a demonstration of a battle within the French village.  At this particular viewing the allies lost and were carrying their wounded off the field on a stretcher on the front of a jeep.

Early in the afternoon there was suddenly an announcement over a loud speaker about a storm coming in.  It was amazing how clearly you could hear every word the announcer said over this huge airfield.  He advised that people walk toward cover as the storm was moving fast, would probably be somewhat severe, but should pass quickly.  I started walking toward the one hanger where several displays had been set up.  As I got there, the rain drops started.  I had gotten inside the display that showed a 1940's home, complete with living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom.  Suddenly the heavy rains and wind came.  Visitors were helping staff to get furnishings that were exposed to the rain inside.  Personally, I was hold up a painted wooden screen so that the wind would not make it topple on the other furnishings.  The storm became even more intense; so much so, that someone lowered the hanger doors most of the way and closed us all inside the building.  The rain was so intense and continued to come into the building through the cracks, so the doors were closed completely.  The sound of the rain on the metal building was really loud so you had to speak up a lot when someone said something to you.  Just as the announcer had stated, the storm passed within 15 minutes, and the hanger doors were opened again.  Just like real troopers, all the staff and re-enactors came out and started to wipe down all the equipment, and the show continued.  Even the air show was only delayed by 15 minutes!

I then had opportunities to talk with a lot of other re-enactors.   There was a man showing cameras and how they took reconnaissance photos from airplanes, a German doctor who had a piece of equipment that they used for giving transfusions directly from one person to another; a SeaBee who explained how they made airplane landing strips quickly; an MP (military police) who also worked on the motorcycles, a mess cook, who actually does the cooking for his entire group when they come to these re-enactments, and on and on.  The one man that I really enjoyed talking to was representing an infantry soldier of Germany.  I felt a little awkward talking with him at first, but he made me feel at ease, and then I asked if he felt the common soldier in Germany really knew about the concentration camps.  He had done his research, and told me he had spoken with the Uncle of a friend of his, who had been in the German army at that time.  The Uncle had told him he had been badly wounded and during a part of his recovery he had been sent for lite duty to a concentration camp.  After only being there a week he asked to be sent back to the front lines as he could not stand what he was seeing at the concentration camp.  I really appreciated hearing this side of the story from at least one soldier's perspective.

I was amazed at the number of people involved in re-enactments of the WWII era and the number of events in the PA area.  I first found out about this event last September while attending a smaller WWII event at the Eisenhower property in Gettysburg, PA.  I would highly recommend both of these events to anyone.  The next Mid-Atlantic Air Museum WWII weekend will be on June 7, 8 and 9th 2013.  More information can be seen at maam.org