1. One of the fun things about moving to a new town is that you get to discover new shops – new grocery stores, new gifty stores, new eye-candy stores. And in those new stores, you might discover a new love. Like Noosa Yoghurt. My latest obsession. (I like it even though they say “yoghurt” instead of yogurt.) Wish it wasn’t so pricey. Do you have Noosa near you?
2. There is an elementary school about 4 blocks away, and we can hear the school bells. I should follow them and break for lunch and recess every day, don’t you think?
3. Our mail doesn’t come until 5 pm on weekdays. I’m not a fan of that. And I think the mail lady hates me because I get packages from Loopy and she has get out of her mail truck to walk them to the door.
4. The Aspens are absolutely beautiful right now. Can you pop in the car and come see them in person this weekend? Because you ought to. WH took this up near Breckenridge this week. If you click on it, it almost makes you dizzy. I was going to use it as my screensaver, but I think I’d feel like I was being sucked in. (As if I didn’t already feel like that with computers from time to time.) I’ll share a couple more of his fall photos next week.
5. I made this soup and it was a big hit. Perfect for a chilly fall evening. And it does not taste at all low fat, which I like. 🙂 I should have photo-ed it in a colored bowl so it would show up better. Although I don’t have colored bowls. I might need to go shopping.
Creamy, Low Fat Potato Soup (from Monica at The Yummy Life)
4 baking potatoes (2.5 lbs.) OR 4 cups leftover mashed potatoes
2/3 cup flour
6 cups 2% milk
1 cup low-fat extra sharp cheddar cheese (divided)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 cup low-fat sour cream
3/4 cup chopped green onions (divided)
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
If you are using baking potatoes, bake them (400 degrees for 1 hour in the oven, or microwave them). Don’t forget to poke them with a fork before baking. Peel and mash. OR use leftover mashed potatoes.
Add flour to a large pot or Dutch oven. Whisk in the milk and stir until blended. Cook over medium heat until it starts to thicken (about 8-10 minutes).
Add in the mashed potatoes, 3/4 cup of cheese, salt and pepper. Stir until the cheese is completely melted. Stir in sour cream and 1/2 cup green onions.
At this point, I used an immersion blender to thicken it up a bit. (Love that blender. Also good for smoothies.)
Serve in individual bowls and garnish with green onions, shredded cheese, and bacon.
You might want to serve this with Monica’s Cheesy Jalapeño Cornbread – also yummy.
6. I will be working on a Cladonia Shawl and the little Hexapuffs this weekend. Speaking of the little puffs, thanks to ALL of you who entered to win a free Mini Skein kit in last week’s blog contest! The random number generator picked Iris in NY for a free Lorna’s Laces Mini Kit. We’ll let you know as soon as the kits are in stock and ready for everyone.
So back to the mail-which-comes-too-late – what time does your mail come? And does your mail person hate you, too? I think I need to bake her some cookies and do some brown-nosing. Or stop ordering yarn. (Yeah. Like that’s going to happen.)
Sheri hopingyouallhaveawonderfulweekend.
Andthatyourmailcomesearly.
Something wrong with my mailman, he seems to alter his route daily, sometimes arriving at noon, once not until 6pm. I didn’t even know mailmen worked past five.
Also, Noosa is my Kryptonite. Their rhubarb flavor may kill me someday. Mostly because I’m allergic to milk. *sigh*
Ours is late afternoon, too- between 5 and 6 pm. earlier on Saturdays- by 2 pm.
Our condo development is under the mailbox cluster system and there are large boxes for packages.
Mmmmm…I love this time of year when I can start making soup every other night if I want!
My mail comes usually between 10:00-11:00 each morning. I so would not like my mail coming that late. 🙂
My mail come any where from 11am to6:30 pm which SUCKS. depends on if it is our normal person of some one else that has taken on the route
Mail varies according to who delivers, but what does bother me is one carrier will bring the things right to the porch while the other balances the boxes on top of the mailbox. it is across the street and I keep wondering when a box will fall and be run over or tossed down the street… 🙁 I would be quite disappoibnted if it were a LE box..
Mail comes at a normal time? I don’t believe you. Mine will arrive anytime between noon and 4pm. I have only met my mail carrier twine – and it wasn’t the same person…
Now I’m all suspicious of the USPS.
Well, DH has gone and done it now! This picture may replace the one on the laptop of the snowcapped mountains in the background with the yellow clump of wildflowers in the lower right corner. I have to know, did he lay on his back to get this shot? Now if there could be the sound of the wind through the leaves. He should have a show.
Sarah, our mail carrier is amazing but she and I have a problem with our delivery time now about 4 months ago they added to her route and instead of letting her decide the most productive way to deliver all her routes the powers that be decided what order she would deliver and so when my mail used to come by about 12 we are lucky to see her by about 3 and she says this winter when her loads get heavier we will be lucky to see her by 4:30 or 5pm. This makes me very unhappy but under the circumstances I cannot be at her but I am unhappy with our local postmaster and in my quest to help her I call our local postmaster about 1 a week to tell them they should let her decide the most efficient delivery route for her. (After all she knows her areas the best). I have been supplying her with goodies over the years and currently plan on a new scarf for her for this winter to help keep her dry. She is the best carrier around I have never see her without a smile for anyone
Our mail comes as late as 7 pm sometimes. Just depends on which carrier we get.
In the summer you know how hot it can get, well when it is one of those 100 degree days, I put a bottle of water in a plastic bag with ice and put it on the mail box.
My mail doesn’t come to my house. We live in a small town and have to go the post office to pick up our mail! Boo Hiss! It used to be sorted by 9 am but I just noticed a new sign that says mail will be sorted by 1130. I hate having to go to post office to pick it up!
OMG Noosa! I absolutely love it. It has spoiled me for all other yogurt. I get a 16 oz tub delivered with my milk every Monday!
My neighborhood has a common mail area, so I never see my mailman (who delivers my mail after 5 too. Hate that!). This summer, I happened to stop to get my mail as the mailman was just finishing up. He saw me open my mailbox and and said excitedly, “oh, you’re Zimmerman! You must do a lot of knitting.” I don’t know where he got that impression. 🙂
My mailperson is not reliable on time, can be there by 10am or not till 3pm. Makes it very difficult to plan when to check the mailbox.
As a “mail person” (actually, a Post Office-person, since we don’t have home delivery of mail here), I can say with certainty that any and all brown-nosing is very much appreciated! We get our mail “up” each day by 11, and often earlier. We do our best to get it all done quickly, but know that the PRIORITY (Priority Mail or otherwise) for most people is the PACKAGES! (And it’s a running joke in my little Post Office how many yarn packages come addressed to me!) It is heartening to hear how many of you are happy with your mail carriers, and saddening to hear how many of you are not. Some of you have observed that we postal workers are members of an endangered species of late. Not to justify any bad behavior on anyone’s part, but we are all very much afraid for our jobs these days, and while that may not bother some of our customers, it will be a sad day for this country if / when the US Postal Service as we know it is no longer.
Our mail comes around noon these days, but our former mailman always ran much later…and he NEVER came to the door. He would just pull down the driveway, sit in his truck and honk the horn until one of us came out to get whatever he had that wouldn’t fit in the mailbox! If we didn’t go get it, he would just leave and try to deliver it the next day so I would always run out there because I knew more than likely it was a Loopy package! I will have to look for Noosa when I am near a store that carries it – My new love is Oikos Greek yogurt – Yummy for breakfast on the run!
Mine arrives at 5pm or later if a substitute is working. Fed Ex comes at 8pm or later!
My mail delivery is random – seems they are always changing the carrier & route.
None of them are fond of me, though. 10 years ago they made a push to move from house mounted boxes to street boxes (they even provided a free post & box if you switched!). It was not mandatory, so I did not switch. I am now the only house left in the neighborhood that they have to walk to the door to deliver my mail. I am sure that some day they will force me to change but until then I don’t have to walk through the rain to get my mail!
My mail usually seems to come around 2. It is hard for me to tell cause the box is not close to my house. And we have boxes right there for the packages so the mail person doesn’t have to bring them to our house.
We used to live near the end of a rural mail route and I often thought that when it got too near five o’clock the carrier/drive would abandon the rest of the route and head back to town. There were far too many days that we got no mail followed by tons of mail the next.
This place has way better service. Mail is here by 10am, 11 at the latest. Never realized how nice that is.
Glad to hear you’re enjoying CO so far. I lived in CO for years in both Summit County and Basalt. The blue sky and gold aspens are spectacular (CO is one of the prettiest places to live IMHO :D)
The mailbox is at the bottom of the road where we live now, and it’s usually here between 10 and 11 am.
My mail comes at around 3-4 pm and is delivered by the radiant Anna. Anna makes me smile just thinking about her. She always seems to be in good spirits and is just a pleasure.
I am so lucky – my mail comes at noon and my mail carrier is a really sweetie. He puts my packages (I get a lot of them) in a Tote on my back porch. I think that is really going over and above his job description!! He is definately getting something special for the holidays!!!
Since I moved house last year my mail doesn’t come until after 3:30 everyday it’s delivered. A few weeks ago we got a new girl and she didn’t get to my house till after 5. Believe it or not she got chewed out right in front of my house by an a person in a mail truck, ( I live in NJ where things like that are normal). Since then were back to 3:30.
It stinks when I’m expecting sock club shipments, and I know it’s on a truck, and I just have to wait.
I drove past Copper Mountain & Vail last weekend. Good thing
I was the passenger and got over 400 photos of the aspens, pines and birches. Awesome..literally. I’d move there in a New York minute, given the chance!
Living overseas, at least you are getting mail. Ours only comes Monday/Wednesday/Friday if there has not been any natural disasters or wars blocking mail from coming or getting reprioritized to being taken off the boat/airplane.
Otherwise, the guys working the mailroom are the best. I love getting emails from the them saying I’ve a package. Bonus- they love looking at all the new yarns that I’ve ordered. They are pretty excited when the Loopy packages come because they don’t have tootsie rolls over here so I share them with them. Win/win. They get candy, I get yarnie goodness. I think they deserve a handknit as a thank you. Off to look for more goodies.
Keep up the great work!!!
Sheri, this is also a great time to hear the elk bugling…Rocky Mountain National Park (just above Estes) is a great place for that!!!
My mail comes at varying times but never earlier than 12:30. Sometimes it comes as late as 5 o’ clock. Has the shop moved to Ft. Collins? If so, where is it located? If not, when will the move occur?
Our mail comes around 5; and, my mail carrier is not happy with me either. My daughter recently got married and all gifts were mailed here and had to be hand delievered to my door. The wedding was last weekend and I do believe the mail carrier is a bit happier.
Don’t get me started on the mail. Since you asked… there isn’t a usual time. As early as noon & sometimes well after 5PM (what’s up with that?). Then there’s the whole already been opened issue, the not my mail issue, & the “we got your mail last week & are bringing it by now” issue. Two years in a row I have been unable to get my contacts delivered to my house because my address appears as undeliverable somewhere, even though I have lived here in the burbs of St. Louis at the same address for over 20 years. grrrr
(waving hi from down south of you!) Our mail used to be delivered mid afternoon; the last few months it’s been delivered around 5 PM. Our mail carrier is pretty cool and makes sure the mail doesn’t get stuffed into our standard size metal mailbox.
(makes note to self to order from TLE soon to see if she freaks out at boxes)
We’re pretty lucky in that our mail carrier delivers between noon and 2 p.m. He’s a great guy and doesn’t seem to mind walking a package or two up to the door when they don’t fit in the over-sized mailbox. He does, however, joke with me about “yet another yarn delivery, huh?” so I guess he’s gotten used to reading the labels, or I’m a little too easy with ordering online. LOL! When he has his days off or takes his vacations, he is very missed, but we have some really great substitute carriers, so there aren’t any complaints here, even if the mail does show up at 5:00 p.m. from time to time.
Our postal carriers treat us well, so we feel we have to return the favor throughout the year and especially during the holidays, knowing it isn’t an especially easy job.
Beautiful Aspens! The trees are barely turning here yet. I can’t wait!
I was so interested to read about Noosa yoghurt. My Grandma lived right on the beach at Noosa and we had all our childhood holidays there, including Christmas.
Hi Sheri, our mail comes between 4 and 5 too, but our mailman seems a happy guy. Your mail carrier is probably just tired – they’re making so many changes at the P.O these days (I hear from a knitting friend who has a hubby in the P.O.). She’d probably appreciate a treat just to know she’s cared about.
Maybe do it quick before ordering more yarn. Good luck.
My mail is here by 9:30 every morning and I have the best mailman in the world. He brings treats for my dogs, gives me bulbs for my garden, and provides my daily eye candy too!!
When I broke my leg this summer and was gimping about, he rang the doorbell each day to see how I was doing. Also he asks what I am working on because he sees the boxes of yarn and cross-stitch bliss.
Last winter I made him a nice new warm hat, scarf, and fingerless mitts just because he is so terrific.
Our mail shows up around noon–later on Saturdays and Mondays. He gets a kick out of the glee I get from some of the packages–like the ones I order from The Loopy Ewe.
I live in a very small town, and all the post office ladies know me and my yarn addiction. As soon as they see me walking in front of the window, they get my parcel ready. 🙂 The other day, the little paper that tells me I have a parcel was tucked into another paper, so I walked out of the post office (the counter is in a separate area), and one of the ladies came running out “Hey! You forgot your parcel!” I was confused since I hadn’t seen the paper… I was so happy she did that! 🙂 Oh, and I can usually pick up my mail around 11 am. But since I’m in Canada, it takes like 2+ weeks for anything to get here from the U.S. 🙁 Boooo!
my friend Kay in Michigan calls her mail carrier the Funny Farm mailman, as he reminds her of a character in that film. He flings the mail, or squashes pkgs, or drops it, or leaves it anywhere but the mailbox, and peels rubber as he grinds the mail truck brakes and squeals out of their driveway. She says they never know what time of day he’ll come. Do we wonder why the PO is in such financial trouble (or could it be all those zillions spent advertising the PO’s wonderfulness)
My mail is normally delivered around 4-5 pm which is okay with me, as I don’t get home from work until 4:30pm. We have a great mailman, always greats you with happy smiling face!
Most of our mail is delivered to our PO Box in Moccasinm where my husband works. we lived there (it is a company town, owned by San Francisco) for two and a half years, about 17 years ago, and now live about 18 miles away. the mail that goes to the PO Box is brought home by husband, Mondays through Fridays. He gets home from work before i do, so the mail is waiting for me. It usually takes an extra day or two for mail to get to Moccasin as opposed to Sonora, and i have no idea why that is.
Hey! I’ve always spelled it with an “h” – yoghurt. Lately, I’ve been a little self-conscious because I see “yogurt” everywhere, but I’m sticking to my guns! yogHurt! yogHurt! yogHurt!
I see that Sprouts carries it, so I’ll have to check it out! I’m always game for trying a new yogHurt. But what is it about Noosa that you like so much?
My Mail delivery person is a crafts person too and loves to see what I get from TLE so we pet the yarn in the front yard together and Oh! and Awh! together. Neither one of us has the guts to sniff yarn in the front yard so I do that after I shut the door. I might also pet the yarn again a couple of times before it gets laid down so I can fix dinner. Yeup, my mail comes about 4-5pm each day just in time for dinner…almost.
We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Noosa Yoghurt. Best ever.
We are the last house on our mailman’s route and sometimes, he used to skip coming by if he didn’t have any mail for us. That meant our Netflix returns just sat in the mailbox. 🙁
Now, I give my mailman gifts. Little bags of candy, a Christmas present every year, whatever treats I can think of. We get exceptional mail service. 🙂
My mail comes while I am at work, so I don’t know what time! Maybe between noon and one. My mail lady really hates us though – we have called to complain at least twice so we are not her favorite customers!
Once she left a package containing a fragile clay ornament balancing on the open mailbox door instead of bringing it to the house and I found the package in the street when I got home!
The other time was an expensive necklace for my SIL’s birthday gift that she delivered to the house across the street and then sent back to the sender when they said I didn’t live there. I was tracking the package so I called that day when I saw it was attempted delivery. She was insistent that she brought it to the right house, but said a short Asian man (many of which live across the street from us) answered the door. My husband is 6′, blond-haired, and blue-eyed. The postmaster actually said he was concerned that there was someone we didn’t know in our house!! So now we joke about the short Asian man that lives in our coat closet and only turns away packages.
3:30 p.m. on the dot. And we live in a condo with 24 hour security, so there’s never a worry about our packages – we just claim them from the security gaurd….
….all of whom know exactly what is in all the boxes and packages I get! YARN!!! I have to tell them a lot of it is sock yarn for my husband!
I am a mail carrier. I am always keeping my eye out for a kindred soul who receives knitting magazines or yarn packages. Alas, not many do! If I had a yarn-loving customer I would be sooo happy to deliver those packages, knowing the joy I would be bringing! I’m sorry to hear about bad experiences with the Postal Service. These are very hard times for us right now, with lots of changes. Quite a few of us do take pride in our job and try to provide the best customer service possible. It’s too bad that there are stinkers out there who give us a bad rep!