Our visit today on this Tuesday Tour is a place I absolutely fell in love with! I hope someday to return there just to further experience it. For the past few weeks, I’ve showcased the lovely quilt-designed gardens Papa and I viewed on our driving tour along Elkhart County Indiana’s Quilt Gardens Along the Heritage Trail last summer and I’ll return to those next week. But in addition to the quilt gardens, colorful painted murals with quilt designs were also on display. We realized from our tour map that our next stop in Middlebury, Indiana wasn’t a garden but just a mural mounted on the side o ..read more

It’s not gardening season quite yet in our little corner of the world. But the Papa of this empty nest already planted peas because they must go in the ground early. While he’s waiting for better weather though, he’s been planning our vegetable and flower gardens. This year, my city boy turned country husband is trying something different. In the past, he always purchased some ready to plant vegetables in our garden like tomatoes, green peppers, and maybe banana peppers. Other veggies, he plants as seeds – green beans, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins – in the tilled-up soil of our garden ..read more

Harness racing, tractor pulls, rodeos, and demolition derbies. Hot French fries, cotton candy, candy apples, funnel cakes, sno-cones, and real fresh-squeezed lemonade. Just a few aspects of a summertime fair that people enjoy. This country gal grew up going to county and community fairs and carnivals every summer. I have a lot of fun memories from those days. Some of them actually involved working at a couple fairs when family members owned a western wear/tack shop, and I was tapped to help sell anything from cowboy boots to horse halters inside fairground commercial buildings. I still enjoy a ..read more

I see green. I gaze out our home office window while I sit here at our desktop computer trying (and not succeeding) to dredge up some inspiring notion to write about in a new blog post. I see green. Outside our country home, the landscape is turning green. Green is a color that invokes many images and thoughts in my often cluttered mind. I’m happy to say that all the rain – even some snow flurries, yes in April as seen in my photos below! – we’ve had lately here in our little corner of the world is enticing our dormant brown yard into becoming an oasis of greenery – finally. Green is refreshi ..read more

I’ve heard of a kangaroo court but never a canine court. But that’s the thought I had when we visited one site on our driving tour of the Quilt Gardens Along the Heritage Trail in Elkhart County, Indiana last June (2023). Today’s Tuesday Tour details our fourth stop on the quilt garden tour in the city square of downtown Goshen, Indiana where the Elkhart County Courthouse is located. Back in 1831, the town of Goshen became the Elkhart County Seat. The historic three-story red brick courthouse that exists today was originally built during the years 1868 through 1870 and renovated in the first f ..read more

I’ve got my serious hat on today because I’ve been contemplating life lately. Maybe that’s what any human does when you begin aging and realizing most of your lifetime is behind you. Or maybe that’s what you do when you hold a newborn grandchild in your arms and wonder what his life ahead will be like. Whatever the reason, I’ve been thinking over the past and wondering what lies in the future. Realistically, my future holds only a couple of decades unless I’m one of those folks with enough longevity to become a centenarian (someone who reaches the age of 100 years). Just recently, I’ve read ar ..read more

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia! Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia! Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia! Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia! (Hymn lyrics written by Charles Wesley) He has risen indeed! And that is the meaning of Easter. “The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus means that one day everything sad will come untrue.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien ©mamasemptynest.wordpress.com 2024 ..read more

Easter arrives this Sunday and for many of us, it’s not about the bunny. It’s not about a basket full of brightly colored eggs. It’s not about chocolate rabbits and filled chocolate eggs, no matter how yummy they are, nor marshmallow Peeps or jellybeans. It’s not about Easter finery outfits, parades, or egg hunts. It’s not about a sumptuous Easter dinner with family and friends and a fancy table with a spring bouquet of daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips as the centerpiece. Dare I say it? It’s not even just about going to church on Easter Sunday. Instead, it’s about rejoicing because of Resurrec ..read more

We found ourselves in the “RV Capital of the World.” Prior to our stop there, the only information we knew about Elkhart, Indiana was it’s home to facilities that manufacture RVs (recreational vehicles); hence the nickname for this city of around 50,000 people. We stopped in Elkhart for lunch on our way back east from last summer’s road trip west. On today’s Tuesday Tour, I’m sharing some nice aspects we found there. After checking out the Elkhart County Visitor’s Center, we soon learned Elkhart is a pleasant city boasting outdoor recreation including parks, bike paths, and nature reserves as ..read more

It appears that Spring is finally beginning to spring in my neck of the woods. I’m not going to hold my breath though because winter just doesn’t want to depart yet. Yesterday we had a bit of snow on the ground and flurries so a few stray winter-like days may continue to descend on us this month. However, when I gazed out one of Mama’s Empty Nest’s windows before the cold snap set in, I noticed our 2+ acre yard is gradually changing from a dead brown expanse into a verdant green one. Maple trees that grace our little plot of heaven here in the country are busting out their little red buds. Ou ..read more