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Thursday, November 21, 2019

EVERYTHING IS DUCKY ~~ FALL IS LEAVING US (LEAFING US?) ~~ A NEW ADDITION ~~ PARTING SHOT

EVERYTHING IS DUCKY

Last week we ran out of sunflower seeds and cracked corn for our bird feeders. A short trip to Walmart was in order to stock up. Since it has been getting pretty cold over the last few weeks, we decided to once again buy some cracked corn for the birdies at the park. We left Walmart and stopped off at Randal Park on the way back home. We cut a hole in the 40 pound bag of cracked corn, and distributed it around the feeding area by dragging it across the ground. I thought it might be fun to put it out in a spiral, and that worked out pretty good for my pictures.

Fall is spiraling down
The mallards saw us as soon as we got out of the truck and they made a bee-line over to where we were. Before we could even finish getting the corn distributed, they were on it like nobody's business. It is so satisfying to watch them gobble up the corn and make that little ducky sound they make, kind of like a duck-purr. You might be able to hear them in the video below (taken with my phone so the quality isn't all that good). You can see that huge goose running over in the background, coming late to the party.



I overheard these two below talking (I speak duck, you know.) He was taking credit for the cracked corn, claiming he had "taken her out to dinner." The nerve of that guy!

A gourmet meal

FALL IS LEAVING US (LEAFING US?)

This past Sunday Linda and I took a little trip outside the Yakima city limits in search of the Ahtanum Mission Park. I had seen some photos of this nice little park in one of my Facebook groups, so I wanted us to go check it out. Alas, it was closed for the winter. So, next Spring we will have a new place to visit and hopefully get some great pictures.

Since it was on the way back home, we stopped off at Randal Park to take a short walk. We parked at the other end from the pond, so we walked down to the little creek that runs alongside the park. There wasn't much happening there, but you could see that Fall is in its final days here in Yakima.




Linda took the next two pictures below. She has a good eye for seeing what makes a great picture.


Ice skating may be possible soon
She wanted to get a closeup of these dried berries, but we couldn't get her camera to focus on them. I think we need to read the manual on that camera! The berries were too pretty to pass up, so I got a photo of them anyway.



Back at home, there are also signs of Fall's imminent departure. Linda snapped this picture of one of our rose bushes in the front yard.



A NEW ADDITION

We have a new addition to our family! Let me introduce you to Zorro, our nephew. Linda's sister Wendy and her husband Robin have finally gotten a dog. He's a Labradoodle, a cross between a Labrador Retriever and a Standard Poodle. We look forward to meeting him, but it will probably be next Spring before we get over there. In the meantime, I am enjoying all the photos I get of Zorro. Summer Girl approves because he is the "right" color. Just what we need, a Black Dog Ninja as well as three Black Cat Ninjas in the family! (Summer Girl, Oz, and Indigo)

Zorro, BDN

PARTING SHOT

Little Summer Girl had to take a trip to the vet this past week. She had gotten to where she didn't want to eat anything, so I crammed her little butt in the cat carrier and hauled her off to the vet on Tuesday. It turns out that she had some inflammation in her lungs that was making her not feel like eating, so the Doc gave her some shots and fluids and sent her on her way. As soon as she got back home she immediately went to her food bowl and ate...and ate...and ate. Poor little thing must have been starving! After she got a full tummy she assumed one of her favorite positions...sitting on my lap.





That's all for this week, my friends. Next week is Thanksgiving, so the blog is going to take the week off because I will be cooking up a storm. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you spend your time being thankful for all that you have, you won't have time for any negative thoughts! (I saw this on a Facebook post and thought it was brilliant!)



Wednesday, November 13, 2019

A SURPRISE AND AN ANNIVERSARY ~~ HOMEMADE STUFF ~~ JUST A WALK ~~ PARTING SHOT

A SURPRISE AND AN ANNIVERSARY

Way back when I first became a member of Facebook, I joined a group that is now called Steven Raichlen's Project Fire, Project Smoke & Primal Grill (<---Facebook link). It was just called Primal Grill back then, but has since expanded to include smoking and cooking over an open fire. I met a lot of nice people in that group, all of whom love to grill and cook outside. One of the members, who lives in Monticello, Mississippi, is an avid quilter. She messaged me last week that she was going to send me one of her quilts. It arrived on Saturday.


I was completely stunned by this because, as you can see, this is an absolutely gorgeous quilt! My friend said that she has gifted several quilts to members of our grilling group over the years. I thought this was such a sweet and generous thing for her to be doing. I know that Facebook gets a lot of grief for some of the things that it represents, but I have to give it credit for allowing me to become friends with people all over the country...people I would never know otherwise. I placed this quilt on the big bed, on top of a quilt that was made by Linda's grandmother. It keeps my feet nice and toasty at night. The colors of the quilt blend in with the room decor very nicely. I love it! Thank you, Catherine!

Now, Saturday was a good day for this to arrive because Linda and I celebrated our 21st anniversary on that day. It definitely doesn't seem like it has been twenty-one years since she moved out to North Carolina, driving all the way across country by herself in her little Toyota. The day kind of sneaked up on us, as we had both forgotten about it until we received a card in the mail mid-week from Linda's sister Wendy. Since we had planned to go to a Holiday Bazaar at Glenwood Square on Saturday anyway, we just said that was going to be our celebration. It was just perfect, although the only thing we purchased was a couple of baked treats to enjoy at tea time. However, we did get to sit for an hour and listen to a free concert by the Flute Troupe of Yakima.

Program from the concert 
(please excuse the creases)
We had heard this group play on a previous year at this same bazaar, so we had been hoping they would be there again. It was such a joy to sit and listen to live concert music, performed entirely on flutes! Who ever knew that there were so many different kind of flutes. There is the regular type of flute that you usually see someone playing which is called a "concert flute." But there is also an "alto flute" and a "bass flute." And of course, we can't leave out the "piccolo," which is also a flute. Before seeing the Flute Troupe I had only ever seen a piccolo and a concert flute. The different flutes have different tones, so it makes for some very lovely music when they play together in a group. If you would like to find out  more about these flutes, click on the link here to read a short article.

Below is a picture of the two treats we purchased at the bazaar to help us celebrate our anniversary. Both of these were made by a local company, Ahtanum Berry Patch (<---link). This farm right outside of Yakima grows all of the berries that they use in their baked goods. We had bought from them before so we knew these were going to be good, and let me tell you, they did not disappoint.

Tea time, anyone?
Our trip to the bazaar was just the thing we needed on our anniversary. It got us out of the house, we got to listen to some beautiful Christmas music, we got to see a lot of pretty things, and we got a couple of treats to share over the weekend. Then we came home and did some puzzling and had our cocktail hour. Pretty much just a normal day for us, but that's the way we like to do things.


HOMEMADE STUFF

Every now and then I get in the mood to make some homemade jelly. Since I've been making my own yogurt in my Instant Pot, I felt like I needed something sweet to add to it. I like to make plain non-fat Greek yogurt, so it does need something to kick it up a notch. I saw this recipe (<--link) for Carrot Cake Jam and was intrigued. Last Friday I decided to make a batch. It uses canned pineapple, fresh pears, and grated carrots. It was easy enough to do and the resulting jam (more like a jelly if you ask me) is very tasty, and also quite pretty.


This jam is bound to go well with this bread, recipe here (<--link) from the Cup of Sugar Pinch of Salt website. I just took this loaf out of the oven four minutes ago. Right now, the house smells amazing!! I'm patiently waiting for it cool down, then for lunch I will have a slice to go with the soup I made the other day. Has to be done!

Healthy multi-grain whole-wheat bread

JUST A WALK

Sometimes Linda and I like to take walks somewhere other than Kissel Park, usually once a week or so. This way we get a change of scenery and I often get some interesting pictures for the blog. This past week we took a walk at Calvary Cemetery, which is right down the road from us and beside the Tahoma Cemetery. Calvary is a Catholic cemetery maintained by the Diocese of Yakima and is much smaller than Tahoma. We walked all the way to the back of the cemetery where the mausoleum and cremation niches are located. While we were looking at the niches, a sweet elderly gentleman (he was 83, he told us) drove up and walked over to us. We got into a conversation with him about his wife and son-in-law, who are both buried near where we were standing. He showed us their markers and told us a little bit about them. He said he tried to get out there every Sunday to visit them. It was very nice meeting him. As we left the back area, something caught my eye a little ways over from there, so we walked on over.


This is the Tree of Life. It caught my eye because it is obviously not a real tree, but rather an iron rendition of a tree. The Sisters of Providence and local hospitals cooperated to provide this as a monument to the unborn. There was a plaque beside it telling the story of the Tree of Life, so I took a picture of it (below). The monument was created by Matt Orthmann (<---link) of LaGrande, Oregon, who was born and raised in the Yakima Valley.


Linda and I have walked at both Calvary and Tahoma cemeteries numerous times, but it seems like every time we go, we find something new and interesting. And we usually learn a little bit more about this Valley in which we live.


PARTING SHOT

Ah, Summer Girl. She loves to sleep on the big bed, especially if she can catch a sunbeam while she's at it. There aren't very many things that are quite as sweet as a sleeping kitty.


But, lest you forget, the blades of death are always at the ready.



That's all for this week, my friends. Join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!




Wednesday, November 6, 2019

NOVEMBER, ALREADY

It's hard to believe it is already November. This year seems to have flown by, but then every year seems to go by faster and faster. Halloween is over and now we've already begun with Christmas advertisements on the television. They don't even wait until after Thanksgiving anymore. I wonder how soon they will start with the Christmas music on the radio? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Christmas music. But I'm not sure I could stand almost 2 whole months of it!

Our yard flag for this month

I know you may find it hard to believe, but I do think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Even though there aren't any presents involved, there is the next best thing...food! And lots of it. It's the one day we are allowed to overindulge ourselves and not feel guilty. Linda and I usually drive over the pass to spend Thanksgiving on the Seattle side of the state, but this year we are staying home and hoping that some of the family may be able to come over here to join us. It's still too early to say for sure, but we can always hope.

SIGNS OF WINTER

There are signs of winter everywhere you look. We were threatened with snow one night last week, but it didn't happen, thank goodness. We did, however, have an overnight temperature of 11 degrees, so I'd say that qualifies for winter. Yesterday as I was walking into the grocery store I saw bags of ice melt and tube sand just outside the entrance. For those of you back East who may not know, tube sand is a tubular shaped bag full of sand. The purpose of these bags is to put them in the trunk of your car or bed of your truck to add weight and help with traction in the snow. Each bag weighs about 60 pounds. It is a struggle each year for Linda and me to get these things into the back of the truck, but it is necessary to have extra weight back there. I am not looking forward to loading them in.

Heavy stuff
More signs of winter can be found around the yard. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today, but I grabbed my camera and took a stroll around the yard. I can always find something interesting to photograph, and everything seemed to fit in with my 'winter's coming" theme.

There's this:

Outside faucet cover
and this...

Frost-killed hosta leaves

not to mention this...

Leaves on top of the flower bed
(with a kitty catching the sun)

But some things can still be found that have survived the cold (so far) and have still managed to add a bit of color to our existence.

Like this...

Beautiful kale leaves in our garden
and this...

Parsley leaves in the herb garden
and of course, this...

Leaves on our three Sage plants

There is also another thing that has survived the cold temperatures, mainly because it now lives on the back porch.

Ah, rosemary!
I bought this little rosemary plant towards the end of summer because I wanted to make sure I had some fresh rosemary to use when I cook my Thanksgiving turkey. The label said it was cold-hardy, so I am hoping it makes it through the winter. We will have to wait and see. I have purchased many rosemary plants since we moved to Yakima, and all of them have fallen victim to the low temperatures at some point. At least this one may make it until Turkey Day, and then go to that big Herb Garden in the sky later.


PUZZLE UPDATE

I am slowly getting into the puzzling mood. The last few puzzles I have actually helped Linda put together somewhat. She always gets more of the puzzle done than I do because I am so slow. I will spend hours looking for one piece, while she will move on to another section of the puzzle. I guess that's how we are different as far as puzzle-making. At any rate, this is the one we finished this past weekend.



Linda put this puzzle together last year, but I hardly helped her at all because I had just had my eye surgery. So it was like a brand-new puzzle to me. This one was very hard, but also was a lot of fun. We have a new puzzle we are working on now, one we have done before but also one of my favorites. It's called "The Bizarre Bookshop #2."


PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has always loved to wallow in the dirt. That's why one of her nicknames is "PigPen." I caught her this morning in the side yard, where she was able to find enough bare dirt to get a good wallow.



That's all for this week, my friends. Join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!