The sky is blue and our ornamental grasses are golden. The Goldenrod is in it’s prime.
I’m patting myself on the back for being able to tackle a cart load of weeds.
We are so grateful to be able to see the layers of our mountains again and blue skies. The smoke has cleared and we are breathing easy.
Hope all is well where you live these last few days of September.
I’m at our Women’s retreat today. I won’t be getting around to blogland until Monday. Cheers!
It’s Fall y’all and Joyce has a fresh batch of questions for Wednesday Hodgepodge.
1. Fall officially rolls into the Northern Hemisphere on Monday (9/22)…what’s your favorite thing about fall?
All the things! I like the weather, the changing colors, our local Corn Maze, Cider Fest, Thanksgiving, Flannel and the end of mosquito season.
2. What’s one thing on your real or proverbial autumn bucket list?
New England or Prince Edward Island would be nice to visit during the Autumn months.
3. Apples, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and cranberries are some of the top fall foods. Which one is your favorite and how do you like it prepared?
A Thanksgiving dinner favorite is sweet potatoes/yams baked in buttery brown sugar and marshmallows on top golden and delightful, a favorite of kids young and old.
A good butternut squash soup with a little spice is delicious!
Any on the list you don’t eat?
I can eat any of those things.
Which one have you had most recently?
I might have had dried cranberries in a nut mix the most recently.
4. ‘Fall is proof that change is beautiful’ is a popular sentiment. Would you agree or no? Elaborate.
I am a fan of Fall so I could describe it as beautiful. I also like the changes that occur from summer to fall. Not all change is beautiful and not all the changes from Summer to Fall are beautiful. This isn’t a sentiment that would come out of my mouth. That’s a little nitpicky but I’d share another sentiment for Fall like “Fall is the season for cozy hugs and warm mugs.”
5. Is there a spot near you where people go to see the leaves change color?
Around our parts you can see the Larches/Tamaracks in some nice groves that have taken on their golden hue.
Will you try to leaf peep somewhere this fall? Lonely Planet lists the following ten places as the best for leaf peeping…of those listed which would you most like to visit?
Stowe, Vermont~Shenandoah National Park, Virginia~Columbia River Gorge, Oregon~Zion National Park, Utah~Tennessee/North Carolina border~West Virgina~Northwestern Wyoming~Wisconsin Northwoods~Northern Nevada~Ozark Highlands Scenic Byway, Arkansas
We are closest to the Columbia River Gorge and that would be a nice Fall road trip.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
We were thrilled to hear on Tuesday that all evacuation levels were suspended for the Crown Fire which is the closest fire to us. We are so thankful for all the fire fighters that have been battling these fires. Thank you, LORD, for them and for the rain we received on Sunday!
Happy Autumn/Fall to all hodgepodgers and visitors here!
Autumn is beginning and so are some Autumn hues on our property. Fall is a favorite of mine. Do you tend to say Autumn or Fall when talking about this glorious season?
Our weekend started with an early trip to Spokane to pick up Greg’s new eye glasses with his new correction that is appreciated. On the road to Spokane we pass this bill board in Clayton.
They change up the message about twice a year and I always keep an eye out for it.
On Sunday after our church service we watched the Memorial for Charlie Kirk. We appreciated several of the speakers. Erika Kirk, his widow, was an inspiration to listen to. It was a beautiful service with the Gospel of Jesus Christ shared more than once. Many shared it well. The music was beautiful and worshipful. It must have been amazing to sing with 70,000+ voices together.
Our Westside family sent photos of their experiences in California and Scotland on the weekend!
Josh and Laura were in Southern California. Our Laura and my nieces and grandniece along with my sister Kathy enjoyed a Sound of Music sing along at the Hollywood Bowl! That was epic and fun for all. They were celebrating birthdays, especially Avery’s Sixteenth!
Further birthday celebrations were enjoyed with my other sister, Vera, with nephews and grand nephew and our son, Josh.
And then all the way across the Pond in Scotland, Katie and Andrew enjoyed dinner at the same restaurant Josh, Laura, Greg and I enjoyed a year ago in Stonehaven, Scotland.
It brought back so many good memories.
Today they will be hiking to Dunnottar Castle. We’ll be waiting to hear how they survived the climb there and back again.
It’s time to pull out my Autumn/Fall swag. How was your weekend?
This photo is from the last event that we wore costumes to and it is from this season of life.
Jo From This Side of the Pond has challenged our memories once again for Wednesday Hodgepodge.
1. What are your current priorities in this season of life? Elaborate as much or as little as you like.
At my stage of life I’m one fall away from a nursing home. My priority is to end life well. I want to keep cooperating with the Holy Spirit in conforming my life to be more like Christ. I want to love Jesus more because my life and my future are all tied up in what He did for me on the Cross. For that I am so grateful. Thankful that I am not spiritually dead anymore because I’ve been born again. I thank God the Father, who has qualified me to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered (rescued) me from the domain of darkness and transferred me to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom I have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:12-14
2. What’s one thing you wish you had more of?
Retention. Being able to keep what I’ve read and or heard or studied in my memory bank.
3. Do you celebrate Halloween? If so, what are your Halloween traditions? Any special plans for Halloween this year?
Some of our family in their costumes.
The only Halloween tradition that we have kept in the past was handing out candy to trick or treaters. I say in the past because here in our country setting we do not get any random trick or treaters. We do enjoy our grands being driven over to show us their costumes and us treating them. That is the only plan this year, to have a treat ready for our Grands when they drop by.
4. Last thing you ate that contained chocolate? Last thing you made that called for chocolate?
How is this for a complete Chocolate experience. On our Scotland trip we stopped at Highland Chocolatier and enjoyed some amazing world famous chocolate. I wrote about the experience here.
I haven’t made anything lately that has called for chocolate.
5. Do you prefer laid back weekends or do you like to have a lot of plans? Thinking back to this past weekend… which was it?
I prefer laid back weekends with a touch of accomplishment. I don’t like to get to Monday morning wondering why I didn’t accomplish anything. Rest is important but laziness is not necessarily rest. This last weekend we attended our granddaughter’s basketball game in town on Saturday and then we had lunch out. Sunday, as usual, we attended our services at church and in the afternoon we had our ‘connection group’ and then had a quiet evening. That was the ideal amount of activity for me.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
We are enjoying Fall and enjoying getting photos of our Grands enjoying Fall to the fullest!
And this is one of my favorite Fall photos of their Father’s property before he had any inkling he’d have a beautiful wife and two children of his own.
I’m joining a new to me monthly blog party today called Share 4 Somethings 2024. Coming in late since there are only 3 of these left in 2024. Thank you to Jenn at Overflowing with Thankfulness for the party.
Today we’re talking about the things we loved or disliked, accomplished, improved upon/needs improvement, and noticed this month.
Since I’m coming in late, I’ll keep it simple.
Loved or Disliked…
October was a great month watching our kids (3 adult children and their spouses) and grands (two grands, a girl and a boy) soaking in the October moments on the westside of our state. I love that they make an effort to keep their relationships growing and enjoy time spent with each other.
I also loved seeing our grands with the pumpkins they picked at our local Pumpkin farm and corn maze. (photo at top of post)
I disliked the fact that our property taxes practically doubled this year. They are due on October 31st…scary. 🙂
Improved Upon/Needs Improvement…
I could use some improvement on my food plans for hubby and me.
Noticed this Month…
We live in a small country town in Northeast Washington State. We were on Main Street this week and I noticed this sign outside Redbird Boutique (a clothing store). The sign made me chuckle. Hunting season is real in these parts!
Wow! Here we are in the last weekend of October! Enjoy it while you can!
Thanks again, Jenn, for the linky party!
Thank you to Jo From This Side of the Pond for our fresh Wednesday Hodgepodge questions!
1. Monday was National Apple Day…did you eat an apple or enjoy something made with apples on Monday? Do you like apples? Do you prefer your apples raw, baked, or in cider? Do you have a favorite variety of apple?
I did not eat anything apple on Monday. I do like apples but don’t have them often. I enjoy them raw, baked or in cider. I like the tart apples.
2. Do you think there’s any truth to the saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’. Of the following healthy habits which do you find easiest to incorporate into your life and which is the most difficult for you to adopt-
adequate sleep, a balanced diet, plenty of water, eat breakfast, don’t smoke, exercise, limit alcohol, include fruits and vegetables in your diet, manage stress, limit screen time
There might be some truth to that saying as far as it being a part of more healthy choices.
The easiest for me is; don’t smoke, since I’ve never smoked. Unfortunately I did inhale a lot of second hand smoke in the 60’s and 70’s working in offices where smoking was still okay. The most difficult to adopt is a balanced diet.
3. Who taught you how to drive? Do you enjoy driving? Would you rather be the driver or the passenger? Do you have a favorite scenic drive near you?
My brother, Fred, taught me to drive a stick shift. He even let me learn in his VW Bug. I think I taught myself to drive an automatic. While I’m typing the answers here on Tuesday the 22nd, it happens to be Fred’s 75th birthday.
This photo of my siblings and me from 2009 is the most current photo I have of our brother Fred. Left to right; Kathy, Vera, Fred, me, Lana and Steve. My brothers Tim and Leonard are missing from this photo.
The first car I purchased with a car loan and the first car I owned that I actually liked was this VW Bug.
I do enjoy driving if it’s not snowing or raining hard. On a scenic drive, I prefer to be a passenger so I can take photos. On a shopping trip that involves navigating parking lots and getting to several different store destinations, I prefer driving. We are blessed with many scenic drives in our neck of the woods. Driving to Wal-Mart is scenic. Driving along the Columbia River is a favorite!
4. What small habit has had a big impact on your life?
Smiling. Since early years I have found it easy to smile, especially to smile at people. Smiling has opened up some interesting opportunities and conversations.
5. Tell us about something nice that happened to you recently.
It is so nice living close enough to our grands that we can see them and get that ‘hello’ hug and that ‘goodbye’ hug and any snuggles in between.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
We have been enjoying some beautiful fall colors on all our drives here in Colville.
The golden larches are my favorite!
I’ve figured out my photo issues and I hope my photo platform is slow in making any new changes for me to figure out!!
This is a quote I copied from an article I read this week.
“Discontent makes a wasteland of the greenest garden—-even Eden. But contentment bears fruit in any circumstance.” Andrea Hoglund
Happy Wednesday, Hodgepodgers, Faithful Bloggers, and readers. I’m thankful for you all.
Our Colville kids traveled over the mountains to visit the Westside Aunties and Uncles and oh boy did they load a lot of fun into a few days!
Thomas Family Farm in Snohomish was a great destination for a variety of activities!
A Monster Truck ride!
Sifting for treasures.
The epic Apple gun!
Pumping water for the duckie race.
Putt putt.
And some excavating!
Thomas Family Farms for the win!
I was sent many more photos of this packed long weekend that I will be sharing for my memories of the life and times of our family.
If it’s Wednesday it must be time for the Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce for the questions!
1. How did you meet your significant other? If you don’t have a significant other, tell us how you met your best friend.
We met at a church where this Christian singing group was performing. Greg was in the group and my best friend became a part of the group. I went with my friend to her first performance with the group and met Greg there. Later when they needed to replace an alto in the group, I auditioned and became part of the group. We are on the far right in both of these photos while on tour in England. The sign that got chopped off in the photo above says Jesus is Alive Today. In England we sang in schools during their religious education classes. In the evening we would sing in a church or community center. Our relationship blossomed during our 70’s Christian Rock band tours of England.
Here I am being mobbed for my autograph by young girls at one of the schools we performed at.
During our tours in England we’d have a holiday week after 3 weeks of singing at least 3 times a day across parts of England. This photo of Greg is from when we were on holiday at the end of our concert series.
2. It’s Department Store Day (October 16)…do you still shop in department stores? If not do you miss that kind of shopping experience? Do you have a favorite department store? Any fun memories of department store shopping when you were a child?
Living in the country my department store experience is limited to Wal-Mart. I don’t have childhood memories in a department store. When we lived on the other side of the Cascade Mountain Range my favorite department store was Fred Meyer. I suppose Costco is a type of department store or at least it fits the definition. That is a store we always stop at when we travel south to Spokane.
3. Something you’re currently nuts about?
I love Autumn/Fall. I’m enjoying the change in weather and all the fall color that is showing. I love soup weather.
4. What’s your favorite nut and is there a favorite recipe where this nut is used?
I enjoy nuts and my favorite nut in recipes is the walnut. Our mom’s Russian Nut Roll (Roolyet) is my favorite.
5. On Wednesday we officially reach the ’70 days until Christmas’ mark. Have you purchased any gifts? If you don’t celebrate Christmas then how about Hanukkah presents?
I have purchased a few things. While in Scotland, I bought a couple of new ornaments for the tree, too.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
Me and my guy waiting for our charter flight to England in 1973.
My photo sharing site is giving me grief again so it might be a while before I can post more from our travels in Scotland. These kinds of problems are never easy for me to solve. OYE!
Thursday Night was another colorful Night!
Wishing our Canadian Neighbors a Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!
We got a prompt from our son who was working nights that there were Northern Lights on view in our area. We walked out on our deck and I started taking photos on my phone to see what we could see. Later I walked out front of our home to capture some different views.
It was fun to capture these colors in the night sky outside our home.
These photos were taken on Monday night October 7th. We are supposed to have more views on Thursday the 10th of October.
My laser eye surgery went well yesterday and was so quick and easy, so surprising. Here’s hoping my eyesight will be improved and the glare issues will diminish.
We are still following the aftermath of Milton and Helene hoping for good response and help for all who were affected.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 