Category Archives: Fall

The Joys of Autumn…

A walk about the yard revealed some lovely fall color this week. Jenny at Alphabe-Thursday threw down the Fall challenge. This is the last Thursday to join in the fun so click over and leave a link.

One of the things that brings me joy in Autumn are the changing brilliant color on bushes and trees. The photos above are of our Dogwood tree and our blueberry bush.

Our Asian Maple which is more of a bush than a tree.

Sadly I forgot the name of this tree. It looks like a Golden Rain Tree. Part of the year its a brilliant green and at other parts of the year it has crackly pods on it. It really is flaming nicely right now.

Do you enjoy raking leaves? I usually vacuum them up with the lawnmower! I enjoy watching the leaves fall.

Papa Murphy’s is selling this Jack O’ Lantern pizza right now and I caved and bought one. Isn’t it cute?

Comfort foods and wonderful soups are way up there on my I like Autumn list. I also enjoy sweaters and coats.

What are some of your Autumn favorites?

Pumpkin Patch…

It’s Autumn, the season of orange, brown, and yellow. A wonderful time for hearty soup and hot drinks. The scents of wood burning, cinnamon, pumpkin, and hot apple cider fill the air. I love this season of cozy blankets and nice wooly sweaters. Instead of Alphabe-Thursday Teacher Jenny is asking for some Fall photos to share for the rest of October. Katie and I stopped at a local small pumpkin farm and took these shots…

It seems like the colors are finally changing here in the Northwest. On Friday I’ll be headed out again on an overnight to British Columbia. I’m joining several of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook for the Westcoast Women’s Show in Abbotsford, Canada. We will be signing books at the Winks Home Garden and Gifts booth at the show. We will be at booth #490.  On Saturday and Sunday we will be on the kitchen stage with special recipe demonstrations.

Where Oh Where…

…did Fall go?

 

The snow has been falling steadily since 7am this morning on our hill. Yes, we live on a hill which means for me “the driving in snow wimp” I’ll be stranded on this hill today and probably for most of tomorrow. Sometimes getting down the hill works but coming back up the hill doesn’t. Our daughter is a little concerned about her flight out of Seatac tonight. She’s headed to Florida to see her Marine who gets leave Thanksgiving weekend. She has all night flights with planes changing in San Jose and Atlanta. We’re praying for the best for her. Time will tell. Dear will be driving her to the airport not Mrs. Wimp. Our Thanksgiving company arrives tomorrow night from California. We already had our Thanksgiving meal at home but we are looking forward to being with a house full of our friends on Thursday. I’m bringing the Yams and a few other treats.

So how’s the weather where you are and what are your Thanksgiving plans?

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Pumpkin Patch

Last Friday I took a short drive to this pumpkin patch. There weren’t any school buses in the parking lot. I parked and trekked out to the field. There was a group of pre-school children hunting down the perfect pumpkin.

Pumpkin Pumpkin
Big and round
I’m glad you grow
Upon the ground
If you grew up in a tree
You might just fall right
Down on me!

 

It was a gorgeous Fall day with fluffy clouds, crisp air, and sunshine.

I observed a group of Hispanics picking pumpkin blossoms in the patch. Being the wondering person I am I asked what they’d be doing with the flowers. They explained to me how they saute them with onion to use in their Quesadillas. They said they really enjoyed the taste of them. They also reminded me I should wash them first.

 

 

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

That Pumpkin Time of Year…

 

The truth about me and pumpkin patches…

It’s all about the photos. I’m not fond of crowds and to arrive at a Pumpkin Patch with 10,000 10 school buses in the parking lot makes me wince. Have you seen the prices of pumpkins at Safeway? $1.99 and $4.99 for smallish and medium size pumpkins and there are a gazillion to choose from. I have to admit, though, the photo ops at Safeway were non-existent. Maybe, just maybe, since the weather has been dry here all week long and the mud will be in dry cake form I might try to make it to the pumpkin patch tomorrow. How about you…do you buy your pumpkins at your local market or do you trek out to the pumpkin patch? Do you make the trek even though you don’t have little ones to take along? Maybe you avoid pumpkins altogether…go ahead I’m listening.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Autumn Begins…

There are some tell tale signs of Autumn around here…

 

One of the first I notice every year are these great dew dropped spider webs.

 

Sometimes the creator is centered just right on the web.

We had a party yesterday afternoon to celebrate the Engagement of our daughter Katie and Andrew. It was a last minute open house since Andrew leaves today for his Infantry Training in North Carolina at Camp Lejeune. Twenty of our dear old friends and family came by to celebrate. Some of these dear old friends are only in their twenties, but you understand what I mean by old. When important events like these come about it’s interesting how you appreciate the ones who have been around and connected to your life through the years. It might not be that you see each other regularly anymore but they were there when Katie was born, or at her 5th birthday party, or her 10th birthday party, or at church with you way back when. You’ve kept up with each other over the years and now it’s time to get together again and celebrate another important milestone in life.

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.

We do not know when the wedding will be. We have to wait and see when the military will allow for some days off for Andrew. We are up for the challenge and we’ll get what little we can get done till we have an idea of the time of year we’re planning for. When the date is set we’ll be off and running with a lot of flexibility and we will “Choose Joy” in whatever comes our way! We do get to go dress shopping though~~ whoohoo!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

I Am A Blatant Thief!

This is too cute not to share so here’s my Ruby Tuesday! Visit Mary at Work of the Poet to see more Ruby!

 

Yes, I admit it! I stole this photo of my cutie patooty niece right off of Facebook without asking. I just had to have it on my blog so I could look at it every time I log in today!! Sorry brother dear and sweet SIL! Blame it on Pooh cuz this was just like honey that I couldn’t resist…

Speaking of thieves. Before we left Seattle to return to California I received a letter from a local police dept. in Washington informing me they had made an arrest of some person who happened to have my mail on them. They sent me a copy of what they found on this person. I immediately called a credit card company to cancel my card and let them know to be on the lookout for bogus charges from me. Yikes!! We will be informing our local police and the neighbors who share our mailbox kiosk of this ugly incident.

I am back at the Condo in California readjusting again to the simple life with the two of us. We were so thrilled that the temps have cooled down here in Southern California. We didn’t even turn on the A/C since we’ve been home!

Hope you are enjoying Fall wherever you are except for our friends down under who are enjoying Spring!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

The First Day of Autumn!

 

Here in Southern California we are still waiting for some good signs of Fall. Some Santana Winds and high temperatures are being forcast for the rest of the week . I am really looking forward to flying to Seattle on Friday evening and once I get there I hope to feel the cool, the cold, the crispiness of Fall!

Yesterday I drove out to my Niece and Nephew’s house to meet little Miss Grandniece for the first time. Big brother was oh so proud of this little bundle of pink and made sure to let me know that she was very little.

 

 

Such sweetness. We know she will be showered with lots of love!! Congratulations to Mom, Dad, Big Brother and Grandparents!!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

The End of Summer

It’s time for the Round Robin Photo Challenge and the theme is End of Summer.

The Southern California end of summer signs…

 

Another tell tale sign that summer is over…

 

Beautiful spider webs with sparkling dew…

And here is a view of the end of summer from the state of Washington…

 

For more Round Robin Photos visit Karen at the Round Robin Photo Challenges

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site. All my photos that I stored and uploaded from that site are now big ugly black and grey boxes with a message to pay big bucks to get them restored to my blog. It will take me a long time to restore thousands of posts.