From California With Love…

For the last 5 days we have been enjoying visitors from California at our house. My oldest sister and her daughter Michelle along with Michelle’s hubby and two kids have been staying with us. On Sunday we gathered at Josh and Laura’s for a birthday celebration for their Aunt Lana, my sister. Three out of the four original sisters were able to enjoy this time together. Our oldest sister, Kathy, on the left was born in Iran. Lana and I were born in California. Kathy and her family have been caring for our dear old pop. He’s getting a little lonely since she’s been gone but Kathy’s husband and her other daughter are keeping a close eye on him. I hope it’s a nice break for Kathy.

Sisters, Aunts, Mothers, Nieces, Daughters…

The current batch of Californians visiting and celebrating with most of the Washingtonians.

The weather was just right for an outdoor event.

During the visit Pandemics were halted and the world was saved by different groups of players in different locations. There were fairy worlds to discover by others.

On Monday some of the ladies headed to Snohomish to do some shopping along First Avenue. Since we only managed to hit about 1/16th of what this shopping district had to offer a return trip in the future is on the to do list.

The youngest among us on this family visit enjoyed using the fruit picker to help Great Auntie out by picking a small fraction of our apples. Our white hydrangea has some huge blooms as you can see with Avery standing next to it.

This extended family photo from our nephew Joe and Hannah’s wedding just popped up on facebook. In this photo from my side of the family there are 11 Washingtonians, 4 Texans and the rest are Californians. This wedding was in January just north of Santa Barbara, California. It’s nice to have visits from our family a fraction at a time. We have another small fraction of family arriving on Monday!

The Pacific Northwest is bracing itself for a heat wave. It’s all the news up here. Hope you are staying cool and comfy where you are.

Apples Anyone?

I got to break in my handy dandy fruit picker that my kids got me for Christmas on our apple tree today. The apples have been falling from the tree so it was time to do some serious picking. The wild rabbits and crows won’t be happy with me.

We are not sure what kind of an apple tree this is or what variety apples these are but…I saw some Transparent apples that look real similar but these have red on them so they are a different variety.

We got quite a haul and now I’m wondering what to do with them. What do you suggest? If you live close by come on over and grab ~~a few~~ a bunch.

We’ve had a nice quiet Sunday. After church this morning we stopped at Trader Joe’s to pick up a few things and besides some veggies, spice rub, Green Dragon Sauce, cereal, we bought three little potted herbs. I re-purposed this bulky candle holder into a herb planter. Now my mint, oregano and basil are sitting in style. So I suppose our Sunday has been largely green and I’m wearing a green shirt, too. How’s your Sunday?

July-photo-a-day 19-25

Joining Kati for July photo-a-day challenge.

Days 19-25

19. Black and White

20. Colorful

21. Red

22. Tree

23. An ordinary moment

24. Close-up

25. Far away

The Cape Flattery light house in the distance on Tatoosh Island at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Vancouver Island in Canada and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Yeehaw! We got a good amount of rain last night instead of just a drizzle. It’s nice to see the streets wet for a change and the droplets of water on the plants! Have a great weekend everyone!

An Apple a Day…

It’s time for another round of ABC Wednesday! Thank you to Mrs. Nesbitt for starting it up and for a wonderful team of people keeping it going!

A is for my apple tree and the apples that I have no inspiration to do anything with at present.

So time will tell if an apple crisp or an apple tart or an apple pie or applesauce is in our future! What would you make with my apples?

Quality Time Together…

Last Thursday Dear and I loaded up the car and headed East to enjoy some quality time with our kids. Our son-in-law Andrew wasn’t given time off of work to be able to join us and we missed him dearly.

On Friday (Halloween) we had a great hike on and above our son Dan’s property.

Our sons, Dan and Josh.

A Selfie from Josh and Laura.

Our daughter Katie and daughter-in-love, Laura.

Laura took this photo of Katie on our hike with her phone.

We had some great views and enjoyed lots of fall color.

My son shared some apples from his trees with the deer.

We enjoyed hiking, shooting, shopping, eating, and playing games together. We marvel at the world God created for us to enjoy and the people He has put in our lives to love and encourage us on our journey.

Dear and I stayed at a farmhouse close to our son’s home so the kids could enjoy staying up late and sleeping in while Dear and I tucked in earlier and woke up early each day. On Saturday morning all the kids came over to the farmhouse to enjoy a meal that Dear and I prepared for them. We bought some local made sausages and Dear made his fabulous Swedish pancakes and we added eggs to round off the meal.

Later on Saturday Dan and Jamie made us their famous fish tacos with their home made cabbage salsa. Dinner was so delicious. I’ll share the salsa recipe soon on Mennonite Girls Can cook. I’m so sad I didn’t take one photo of all the good eats we had.

We enjoyed three sunsets in Eastern Washington.

Dan and his girlfriend, Jamie.

Before we headed back over the Cascades to Western Washington we enjoyed brunch together.

We consider any time we are able to spend with our kids quality time.

I’m linking this post to ABC Wednesday for the letter Q. Thank you to Denise Nesbitt and the ABC crew.

Q is for Quality time spent together with family.

Across the Miles…

…we want to wish our son Daniel the happiest of birthdays!

Today is Daniel’s birthday. He gets to celebrate twice this week since his girlfriend’s birthday was on the 15th. Happy Birthday dear Dan! Happy belated birthday Jamie!

If you head over to MGCC you’ll see the apple tart I made from the apples off Dan’s property that he prepped so nicely and froze for me. We so enjoy Dan’s kindness and generous heart. He’s not a man of many words but when the time is right he speaks up. His one liners really make us laugh.

This was taken on Dan’s birthday in 1989. He’s the one in the green, yellow and blue t-shirt with the big smile. He loved choo choo train cakes. My photo skills were questionable with good old fashioned film.

This last photo was from our journey moving from California to Washington back in July of 1988. We stopped at Aunt Carol’s house in Yuba City and our kids got to ride one of their horses. I think it’s great that Dan gets to ride horses regularly all these years later in his new environment in Eastern Washington.

Left to right: Aunt Carol, Dan, Josh, and Katie

Gone are the days that being all together on each of our birthdays is a reality or expected. Separated by distance we take full advantage of the times we are all together and try to celebrate to the full.

We’ve been happy to have some dry days here in the Seattle area. The sun has even managed to shine through here and there. How are things in your neck of the woods?

Summer is Waning…

…but we are still enjoying what’s left of it.

Because of all our renovations at this old house we had the patio furniture cleared off the deck for the workers to set up their saws to cut the wood for the new flooring. Last weekend after using the clear path to re-furnish the house with all our furniture stored in the garage we put the patio furniture back in it’s place and were even able to have a meal on the deck with our traveling guests!

Fun end of summer times with Josh, Laura, Lana, Steve, Dear and me! What do you serve come as you are guests of hosts with no time to fuss over a meal? Dear and I had been working all day getting the house back in order so I didn’t have time to plan a meal but had time to throw together a meal! We had flank steak, cucumber and tomato salad and are you ready for the starch?? All I had were frozen hash browns and that’s what I cooked up and served. Yummy! I also steamed some frozen broccoli in their own steam bag. Love the carefree company that just enjoys sitting down to food on a plate! We had ice cream for dessert and Steve ran home to bring some of Lana’s homemade cookies and banana bread to add to the ice cream.

The hydrangeas are losing their summer brilliance.

I like them at all stages.

Don’t judge me but this is what’s happening with my apples this year. I do not have the energy to pick them all and make applesauce again. I’ve offered them to friends and neighbors and haven’t had a good response. I’ve been able to give away some of the pears and have offered more to neighbors.

This handy dandy pick up and reach tool that I bought at Goodwill a few years ago is really saving my back when I pick up the fruit that has fallen and been partially eaten by crows and some nocturnal animals. I’m content this year with letting the animals glean my fruit.

We are looking forward to the arrival of Katie and Andrew on Saturday. They have a 12 hour drive from Salt Lake City to us. Dear is making his Tomato Rice soup that you can find in our latest Mennonite Girls Can Cook Celebrations cookbook for their arrival and he’s adding some Lobster and crab leg meat to the pot which will transport it to a wonderful bouillabaisse!

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Summer in the City

…or summer in the burbs.

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty

Been down, isn’t it a pity
Doesn’t seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

We finally put our patio covers up on the last day of June. That’s pretty late for us but very timely with the heat wave that has been hitting us here in the Northwest. I took these photos in the morning so things are still cooler and pleasant.

We are going to have a few friends over on the 4th of July so it was time to get the deck ready for our celebration. While it was still in the 80’s instead of 90’s I walked about the yard to take some photos of the progress on our fruit trees and bushes.

Apples are moving along nicely along with our bumper crop of pears!

The blueberries on our large established bush are starting to turn blue.

The berries on our small deck blueberry bushes in pots are looking good, too.

You know you can invite friends over with all your floors torn up and they won’t mind? It will be a memorable 4th of July celebration here. We can call it “4th of July in the rough” or “4th of July before the floors”. Besides the good food we will share together we’ll mix up a pitcher of a very relaxing beverage just in case someone stubs their toes on our rough floors!

There’s More Than One Way…

…to skin an apple!

I had a timely $10.00 coupon for Sur la Table and I made a quick stop there to see what I could see.

Here’s the beauty I bought to peel and core my apples. My justification for this gadget is the fact that our apple tree is not going to get chopped down and I’m going to have to deal with apples every year!

I have it under some great authority that once this gadget is ready to go the male in the family might not be able to resist the job of getting the apples ready. We’ll see what happens.

My mother is settled in at her Care facility and is doing better than yesterday. We all have to remember she had some major trauma inflicted on her body and she will not bounce back as quick as a young person would. She likes the food better at the facility than the hospital. The Care facility is on the same street as my parents apartment just 5 miles north. We are thankful for that and that it is easy for my dad to get back and forth.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

When You’re Hot…

We were sizzling in Washington this past Sunday and our Seattle Sounders were hot hot hot on the field and beat L.A. Galaxy 4-0. I was happy to see that Beckham was back from London.

There were 60,000 people at the game and when we scored the noise was deafening! In other news…

The apples are falling off the tree and I’m slow in getting inspired to do anything with them.

My hydrangeas have really advanced to a deeper color. They are so nice to cut and have in fresh arrangements in the house.

We have cooled down around here today and it’s nice to be more comfortable while working around the house.

While I’m typing I’m watching the U.S.A. vs. Canada Women’s soccer semi-final at the Olympics. What a game! It’s a toss up on who is going to win. I’ll let you find out who does…

Tuesday my 89 year old mom will be having hip replacement surgery because she has been experiencing severe pain constantly for several months now. Could you pray for Nadia for good results from the replacement and a good recovery from the surgery. We are hoping for pain free days in her future. Pray for my dad, Moisi, too. He will be home alone for a while and he’s not used to that.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Apples