Fall and falling cloudberries

[gourmet.com]

Fall is in the air. There are the remnants of summer to take care of, and preparations for winter.

I've been hearing about "falling cloudberries", for some time now. This book is on my "would like" list. I don't own it, but have made the Pastitsio recipe from it, a few times now. (Jim really likes it.) Since it makes a large casserole, I freeze part of it for a "busy day", so I'll have something easy to pull out.

The day Bella got hurt, and had to have her surgery, we were babysitting, I had gotten a call to go pick up corn, and was putting it up for in the freezer. The last thing I wanted to worry about was "what's for dinner?"

Pastitsio to the rescue!





Bubbly, bechamel deliciousness.

Reward System

Mexican Corn Ice Cream.....yum

I made a batch today. Kind of a reward, to make up for some disappointments, yesterday.

We had plans to go to a concert with friends, and that fell through. So we made plans to go to the Hot Air Balloon Festival "Night Glow" again, instead, and that didn't happen for us either.

Our puppers, Bella, attacked a running, gas/blade weedwhacker, and turned her mouth into a bloody mess. She had to have surgery, stitches, and had to have a tooth extracted. She came home sort of loopey, with her poor little lacerated tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. She's on a soft diet, to say the least, but she's recuperating nicely.

A positive note: our pasture is getting mown today.....YAY! I'm Sooooo thankful for that. It always seems like Christmas morning, when we get it done...like I've just been gifted a brand new place!

This summer has been very different from last. It seems like I do a mental inventory when each season changes.....How did this one measure up to last year? What were the highlights? the accomplishments? The disappointments? What are the hopes and dreams for the next season?

Do you do that too?

Grandma's Bread

I've tried to recreate my Grandma's bread. She wasn't one for cookbooks and recipes. She just did what she had always done. Her bread had had a very unique texture and flavor. It wasn't overly lofty. She used unbleached flower and for the fat content....a throwback from the depression era....chicken fat. I remember one summer when Jen and I stayed a week or so with Grandpa and Grandma. I loved Grandma's garden, and the juicy, fresh berries. We would play all day out in the yard, under the big old trees, or down in the orchard. At lunch time, Grandma made delicious sandwiches from her homemade bread, mayo, and fresh onions from her garden. I made one from the onions in my garden this week, on "Grandma's bread",....for old time's sake. And ate it out in our yard...with some of my granddaughters. It wasn't as good as Grandma's, but the girls think it's the best ever. Who knows....maybe years from now, they'll try to recreate it for their grandchildren?

Weather Girl

I'm thinking I may go to Weather Girl School. It's a job where you get PAID to tell people it's going to be 80 degrees at the coast, and then when the people get there, it's......56, foggy, with an artic wind blasting from...... the south. But the people forgive you, when they catch glimpses of darling, tiny, camp trailers,

and very cute little fishing boats, with their own little brass bell.

When every little shell, no matter how tattered and torn, is a treasure.

When they brave the weather and have fun horsing around anyway.

When there are interesting sights

and the sun tries to break through

finally breaking through the clouds, parting into blue skies

Just in time to go home.

Yep, they forgive ya.

Scripture says it best.

"You don't know which way the wind blows,

so how can you plan tomorrow?"

I don't know...but this Weather Girl, advises carrying jeans and a hoodie.

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might...

[photo from SUMMER: a User's Guide by Suzanne Brown]
Sorry, I had to borrow a pix. All of mine turned out black as coal.
The little girls spent the night again the other night. The oldest loves learning about the Solar System. She put me to shame when she was in the 1st grade, with how much more she knew about it, than I. We made a "date" to watch the Perseid meteor showers together this year. They are most visible, mid August, between 2 and 4 in the morning. When our girls were at home, they and I used to take blankets up to the orchard, and lay out for hours, watching them.
This time, we got up at 2:30, sat wrapped in quilts in the Adirondacks, in the side yard, turned all of the barn and yard lights off, and watched the show. Next year, We've decide to pull the hammock from under the shady trees, out into the open, and watch in real comfort. There was a very freaky growling sound that sent us scurrying inside, before it got light enough for pictures. I'm not much of a 'fraidy cat, but there has been a real cougar problem in the valley this year.

Annie Update

Praise the Lord! Annie was home from the hospital and able to go to church with her family this past Sunday!

Country Roads, Take me Home...

Sarah and I took a trip to the family cemetery, to do some cleaning of stones and plots, and picture and note taking. I had taken some family history pages with us, and we noted stones of people mentioned in the stories.

I love going places with Sarah, because she "so gets" the "need" to take pictures.

We peeked through windows in the church, to see if we could get a picture of the pews, but there was too much glare. My great-grandfather built them, and they are still in use.

My great-great grandparents were charter members of this church. I'm glad to see that even though the congregation has made additions in recent years, to accomodate their growth, they've maintained the original character of the building.

We mosied on down the road to the Yoder store.

Where you can buy a straw hat, cold pop, or garden rake.

We chose to buy an ice-cream and sit on the porch out front, to eat it.

I wonder if my Grandma ever sat there eating ice-cream with Katie Yoder as a girl?

Chautauqua

We went to Kate's to help paint her living-room and dining-room. To get all "primed" for a great afternoon, we attended the Chautauqua Parade first. The kids had their goodies bag all ready to gather candies from all of the generous community members in the parade.
There were garage bands


and Elvis sightings

Dueling Elvis'

Vigilant traffic cops

Firetrucks, new....

and old.

Lots of friendly faces.

Upon arrival at home, there were decisions to make, pouring over their spoils.....which "ONE?"

Chautauqua, ( sha-taw-kwa ), was a educational movement in the late 1800's til the mid 1920's. Particularly popular in rural areas, in the summer, people would go to campgrounds, pitch tents, and listen to musicians, preachers, speakers, teachers, entertainers, etc. There are numerous references to our family's participation, as I study old family letters and history. This is an old photo of some of our family at the Chautauqua festival in 1917. (Something tells me, there weren't any Elvis sightings at that one!) Theodore Roosevelt supposedly said that Chautauqua was "the most American thing in America."

Campout

The girls were here for a sleepover. We decided to make it a campout. Even though we have a firepit up at the top of our orchard, it's been so dry, we kept our campfire confined to the barbeque grill. It's all forest behind us, and we don't need to be the cause of a wildfire.
The girls enjoyed roasting their own hotdogs though.

And eating them!

Afterwards, there were marshmallows to roast.

for S'mores.

And the new rage....roasted starbursts

Yay! Starburst Kabobs!

I slept in the tent with the girls. It was so heartwarming to be read Bible stories by the oldest, (while the youngest snored). She would read one, then say"OH! THIS one is my FAVorite!" and read another one, and then another FAVORITE. love it

I read her to sleep, reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "On the Banks of Plum Creek." We cheated and used a long extension cord and lamp in the tent, to save on our flashlight batteries, but it was still cozy. Reading about the Ingalls dugout was even more fun, because I've been working on family history/genealogy, and had just been reading a letter to me from my great uncle, telling about their family living in a dugout, and homesteading, when he was a boy.

Greenhouse Thyme

On our way to the coast, we stopped at one of my favorite nurseries. I think Mom and "the girls" are fans of it now also. There is a greenhouse tropical oasis and I found a new appreciation for Passion Flowers. In the past, the ones I had seen, had been rather pale and anemic looking lavender and yellow numbers. I hadn't been impressed. I don't know what variety these are, or the Latin name, but these little beauties really caught my camera's eye. I call them "Nature's Kaleidoscope."

Passion Flowers have been used herbally in treating anxiety and seizures, which would've come in real handy last night when Jim and I were caught up in a construction zone traffic snarl FOR AN HOUR at 10:40pm. Note to self* Don't tell hubby you can't wait to get home into your own cozy bed, that you're so tired you feel nauseous.....Murphy's law evidently says 2 minutes later you'll be in a Traffic jam. ;)

I'm not sure what this next picture is, I think it's lovely too. I just call it "flower within a flower." Or the "three sisters flowers" This particular shot reminds me of a fairy tale from a favorite book when I was a little girl. It was a sort of wierd one about sisters that all had different #'s of eyes. So meet Little One Eye, Little Two Eye, and Little Three Eye....

Grimm, I know.

I think, Jen got not one, not two, but three of these beautiful angel trumpets. One in each of the colors they had.



They won't survive outside in our climate zone, and since they grow into the tree you see here in the foreground.....

I'm seeing either a new VERY large sky-light in her living room or the construction of a pole-barn greenhouse by her hubby, in the future!