Places, Plants, and Animals

Places, Plants, & Animals: Great Cafe in my Favorite Local Town

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

Cafe Arabella is a great little cafe in Lititz, Pennsylvania. They offer a wide variety of drinks, as well as delicious breakfast and lunch items. They offer healthy dishes made from fresh ingredients, locally sourced whenever possible.

They have a sign on one wall with information about the name “Arabella”. Here is what it says:

ARABELLA Loveable 1) Origin: a female personal name. a Medieval Scottish variant of Annabella. from Norman-French Amabel. from Latin amabillis “loveable”. 2) Historic: a name made famous by Lady Arabella Stuart (1575-1615), a major claimant to the English throne in the succession of Queen Elizabeth I (Arabella’s first cousin, James IV of Scotland would ultimately assume the title of King); due to the political atmosphere of the day. Arabella’s marriage choices were denied for fear that such an alliance might strengthen her claim (she was English-born with considerable royal blood and possessed a classical education befitting a monarch; when Arabella secretly wed Lord Beauchamp (another claimant), the outraged king separated the newlyweds and imprisoned her in the Tower of London where she would ultimately find her fate; cursed by her own royal blood, Arabella is remembered by history as England’s would-be Queen; 3)Usage: use of this name is found since the Middle Ages (mainly in Scotland), spreading beyond by the 18th century.

STRONG THE DEEP THINKER INTUITIVE

ENCHANTING IMAGINATIVE IDEALISTIC

INDEPENDENT WISE UNCONVENTIONAL

This has become a favorite go-to place for lunch for a friend and me. We’ve been here twice so far. Both times I’ve had a different menu item and have found the food and drinks very much to my liking. My friend and I plan to continue visiting Cafe Arabella frequently.

Cafe Arabella also has a welcoming, comfortable atmosphere. I have seen groups of friends, families with young children, and men and women of all ages spending time in this cafe where the staff is always friendly. The cafe is also always clean and well kept.

Places, Plants, & Animals

/ kellyfbarr / 1 Comment

I am so blessed to live in an area where so many of the surrounding towns have a rich history. Last Friday evening, a friend of mine and I planned to go to one of these towns and have dinner at a coffee shop and then visit a book shop that opened not too long ago.

Unfortunately, the coffee shop was closed. Apparently, they changed their hours and didn’t update the changes on their website. When my friend checked the website, it said the coffee shop was open until 7. We got their around 4:30 and they were closed. I simply pulled out my phone and did a search and found a very nice restaurant that is open to the public, but is part of a very pretty retirement community. We had a delightful dinner there.

Afterward, we went to The Curious Quill Book Shoppe — see the sign in the above photo.

Below is a photo of the nice patio furniture the book shoppe has out front. I can envision myself sitting there on a nice early autumn day with a drink and a good book.

Above is the entry to the book shoppe, and below is the display for their “Christmas in July” theme, which is in the main room — the first room you enter after walking through the door.

Above is a lovely tree, made by the owner’s daughter, decorating a corner of the children’s room. The cute little stools beneath the tree remind me of mushrooms or toadstools, and they sit upon a green rug, giving an outdoor feel to the corner.

Below is a bookshelf with a nice variety of children’s books. Also in that room, there is a book shelf holding some very interesting games for sale.

Above is the book I purchased at The Curious Quill Book Shoppe. It is a hardcover book by an author, whose books I enjoy reading ever since seeing the movie, “Tuesdays with Morrie”. By the way, I own that Mitch Albom book and several others as well.

Below is the bookmark I purchased. I could not resist because the words on it fit me to a tee.

I look forward to returning to this bookstore soon. You can follow The Curious Quill Book Shoppe on Facebook.

Places, Plants, and Animals

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

The photo above is the home two doors down from me. Someone is growing a lot of something! It sort of resembles a jungle. I see some yellow flower buds. I’m sure they are growing some kind of food item. They remind of some kind of squash. I’m waiting to see what they actually turn out to be.

You can’t see real well, but there’s also something growing from the ground up, and I have no idea what it is. I’m enjoying watching the progress.

On a side note, my Places, Plants, and Animals post from May 30th, ended with me sharing a photo of a plant with little purple flowers that my son bought for me on a trip to Longwood Gardens. Some of you had left comments that you wanted to know how the plant fared for me when I mentioned that it didn’t seem to be doing well and that I transplanted it into a larger pot in hopes it would survive. Sadly, although the lady from Longwood said it would live through the summer, kept indoors, it did not. In the end, I realized that the roots of the plant had not been planted deeply enough into the original soil by Longwood, and that was its demise. I wish I would have noticed that when I did the transplant because that might have made a difference, but sadly, I missed that and so I no longer have that plant. I may check with a local plant nursery to see if they have any and can give me more information about, possibly, bringing one home that will survive. I’ll keep you posted.

Places, Plants, and Animals

/ kellyfbarr / 2 Comments

As a writer, one of my favorite things to do is to meet other writers at the various cafes or independent small restaurants in our surrounding area. I took this photo Thursday, June 20th, at a small, independent restaurant called “Hayloft Ice Cream”. They have delicious ice cream, milk shakes, and soft pretzels, as well as quite a few tasty hot food items. The decor and atmosphere are clean, welcoming, and comfortable. The most unique thing about this establishment is that the workers are all “volunteers”. They do not get paid for their work. Hayloft Ice Cream gives all their proceeds to support a local year-round wilderness camp for troubled boys. That is another reason I choose to patronize this local business. It is a blessing and a ministry. To find out more, visit their website: https://www.haylofticecream.com/

I live in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where there are many Mennonite and Amish people. Therefore, seeing horses pulling what we call “buggies”, which are small enclosed carriages, or open wagons like the one in the photo above are quite common.

You can’t see it clearly in this photo, but if you look under the front wagon, you’ll see the thing beside it only has two small wheels. It’s a sulky. Sulkies have become quite popular among the plain folk in our area over the past 5 years or so. They have two wheels and a single seat.

The thing I really want to draw your attention to in the above photo are the horses — especially the horse in the forefront. I took the photo because I noticed that particular horse. Looking at the photo, you can see that the horse next to him cannot be seen, except for its back end, which is farther back than the front horse’s. You cannot even see the ears of the other horse because the one in the forefront is so much taller than the other. Most of the horses we see around here are very similar in size, except for the large workhorses the local farmers use to work in their fields. Therefore, the size of this tall horse took me by surprise and captured my interest. Therefore, I took this photo.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post, which featured both a “place” and an “animal”.

Places, Plants, & Animals

/ kellyfbarr / 5 Comments

This is a lovely Double Daffodil! What a beautiful, bright spring flower! I love flowers. There are so many different types, shapes, and colors of flowers. Some bloom in the early spring and are gone in just a few weeks. Others bloom later in the spring and last into the early days of summer while some last into mid summer, and some even bloom all summer. Then there are some that bloom in the fall, like the different colors of mums that are often displayed in front of houses, right next to pumpkins and corn shocks, in the area I live.

You might be surprised that there are even flowers that bloom in the winter! I know I was surprised to find that. I’ve never seen any in my area, although if we have a mild winter or several warm days near the end of winter, I have seen my crocuses bloom while there were still patches of snow on the ground. One year, my rosebush bloomed early and we had another snow after it bloomed, so there was a light layer of snow upon the petals of one of my roses.

Not only do flowers add beauty to our outdoor surroundings, but they add some wonderful fragrances as well. Be sure to take some time to enjoy the beauty of the flowers you see as you take a walk or a mountain hike, and breathe in their fragrances. The world may seem bleak and dark, but the beauty of God’s creation is still here to remind us that God is still present and in control. If we only seek Him, He will draw near to us.

Places, Plants, and Animals

/ kellyfbarr / 3 Comments

The baby birds in the picture above are robins. You can only see three in the photo, but there were actually four in the nest. Their mama built her nest on a wooden board just under the roof of a pavilion in a local camp ground. We were there to celebrate a high school graduate on Sunday, June 2nd. There were quite a few people in the pavilion, and the grad and three of his family members and a friend also played some live music. It was a very nice party and the weather was gorgeous, but these poor baby robins were hungry and wondering where their mama was. We were certain she was around somewhere, but we also knew she wouldn’t come to the nest while we were all there. However, any time anyone bumped the post attached to the board the nest was built on, those little babies would stretch their necks up as far as they could and open their mouths wide, expecting food. I felt sorry for them, but it was really cool to see them.

This beauty sat on the fence between our front yard and our neighbor’s for a while yesterday. I took a shot of him on the fence, then he flew down into our neighbor’s yard and sat on the stone boundary around the evergreen tree in their yard. I was able to capture a couple photos of him in that location, but this is my favorite. I love cardinals. I love to hear them sing! Their song is probably my favorite sound of spring!

Do you have a favorite sound of spring or a favorite bird? If so, let me know in the comments!

Places, Plants, and Animals

/ kellyfbarr / 4 Comments

I was introduced to Longwood Gardens for the first time last fall. It’s a beautiful, (I think, magical), place not too far from my home in Pennsylvania. Then I was blessed with another trip to Longwood Gardens this year in the spring because my oldest son wanted to do something as a special surprise for my birthday near the end of April.

Longwood Gardens is a wonderful place where you stroll through lovely gardens filled with greens, flowers, water fountains, and more. There are also a few indoor places, like the Conservatory where you see beautiful indoor plants, and the mansion, where you learn about the history of Longwood Gardens, and see more plants.

The photo at the top of this post is one of my favorite outdoor areas at Longwood. It’s the bell tower and it reminds me of medieval times with kings, queens, knights, and castles.

My favorite color is purple, and the spring flowers this year at Longwood Gardens offered lots of flowers in many beautiful shades of purple.

Tulips abounded all over the outside grounds in bright colors, dark colors, and pastels.

Above, bright tulips surround the perimeter of a small pond with a center fountain. An exterior evergreen border and some tall trees add to the beauty of this area.

The Conservatory also held lovely flowers in shades of purple.

The above flowers were my favorite flower of all the ones we saw that day. I don’t know what they are but I love the purple shades and the combination of flowers with petals and the tiny clusters that reminded me of stardust or far off galaxies.

The above flower is an orchid. I love the combination of colors. This orchid was in a room in the Conservatory that was filled with orchids of many types and colors.

This lovely plant filled with purple blooms came home with me from Longwood Gardens, thanks to my son. I was looking at it in the gift shop and he came up behind me and asked if I liked it. I said, “Yes, but I asked a lady who works here about it, and she said it’s an indoor plant that will only last for the summer.” He insisted I bring it home to enjoy anyway.

I’m sorry to say that during the past week, it has begun to droop and look unhealthy, so I transplanted it into a large pot and set it where it can receive more sunlight. I’m really hoping to be able to keep it as an indoor plant for a long time. I’m not a great plant caretaker, but I have had plants gifted to me that I have managed to keep indoors that are thriving. A friend gave me a geranium about eight years ago and I have transplanted it and it keeps growing and it blooms every year, even though most people plant geraniums outdoors. So, I have hopes for my little purple blooms.

I hope you have enjoyed this little taste of Longwood Gardens, and the beautiful spring flowers.