Summer Surprises..!

Our Family enjoys visiting Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast with Haystack Rock.  

A couple years ago Debbie, Angie and I spent a ladies' weekend there.

Low Tide

High Tide

Not Your Everyday News...

The thing of Legends!!

(Facebook photo)

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What does one do when it is too hot to be outside, there are no immediate airplane trips to plan for, social dinners are completed, no one coming to visit and one is on antibiotic for an infected tooth? 

PROJECT TIME!!!

Working on Maui album!  Oops, suppose to be a surprise...

Well, Indy folks will be surprised when they actually get it!!!

Fun to relive all the Maui adventures!

 

How to use lots of eggs and misc. food stuff that need using...

Egg bake for One!!

I was going to make a half recipe but decided to go for the dozen eggs.  With all the fussing I'm glad I did. Refrigerated half...4-6 servings...and froze the other half in single servings

(It froze well and stayed juicy)

I have enjoyed several fancy brunches on the back deck of my Vancouver summer vacation home! 

The past few weeks I've worked with a 92 year old lady to format a  musical skit she made up....all the info residing in her head. It has been a challenging, fun project.  She has been eager to get it all on paper so she can do what she wants with it. We got it finished, not totally professional, but enough to make her happy. Over the winter months we worked out a more complicated song she composed and had me figure out how to put it to the rhythm she heard in her head. Double challenging! This work has actually be quite rewarding.

Saw these at a local store.  I remember how much fun it was for the young'uns to play in and for me to watch!

Did Gram G finally make it to the summer spa??

NOPE!!!

Root canal time.  Healing has been slower than I hoped.  Probably need another procedure.

Sure cure for whatever ails you...homemade rotisserie chicken dumpling soup!  Very tasty!

Beware!!  Those unseen Pokémon critters are still randomly around!! 

August 1st featured the first of  two super moons for the month.

Around 11PM I sat out on the front porch for a few minutes, gazing at the rising moon.  The temperature was mild, a gentile breeze rocked the flowers in the  hanging basket, a cricket serenaded nearby, no mosquitos or skinny rabbits in the yard.  The echo of the Interstate mimicked the ocean waves.  A perfect late evening, only missing a lake to reflect the golden moon!  And perhaps a sweetie to share it with!

REFLECTIONS

I am astounded that August is already here! They say time goes faster as we get older, but I don't remember getting older.  Maybe that is not good! It has been good, though, to have a slower, relaxed pace this summer.  I'm starting to appreciate not being stressed because of "hurry". I guess it's a necessity and perk of being a senior. 

  

This has been a good 3 Geogram weeks in the life of Gram G.

"Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter."  (Psalm 74:16-17)

Local Summer!

The perks of staying home for the summer is the opportunity to catch up on sociability! 

Father's Day dinner at Deb's gave us a chance to try out the Ocean edition of Labyrinth with 

Angie, Rosie, Jake and Gram G.

Who won?  Not me....Angie had first win. Just cause it is her B-day present?

I think the varying blue colors made me a little sea sick.  Maybe?

 EPIC DUMPLING DINNER!!

The local family has been waiting since Christmas for dumplings and sour gravy.  With Jake being home from college for the summer it was time for the anticipated event.  Their only complaint is that there is never enough left overs.

It starts with several trips to the grocery for me to shop sales to get the best buy. Then its laying out the bread to dry for a few days

The day of the dinner Angie and Zach came early to help break up 6 loaves of bread, peel 10 pounds of potatoes and shape baseball sized dumplings

The dumpling gang...

Jake, Debbie, Angie, Keys, Carole, Frank, Zach,with Micaela missing because of work.

Gram G was in charge of baking several pounds of pork with caraway and garlic, cooking the sauerkraut, and fashioning the sour gravy.  The sour gravy is the focus of the entire meal, so much care is taken to have it just right!

Sour gravy is made from flour browned in melted lard, thinned into a thick liquid with beef broth, seasoned with cider vinegar and allspice.  A recipe from the "old country"of Wisconsin and "old,old country" of Germany. I learned it from my mother-in-law who boiled venison ribs for the broth.  

EPIC!

66 DUMPLINGS OF 3 VARIATIONS

2 CROCKPOTS OF SOUR GRAVY

1 ROASTER OF PORK WITH THIN GRAVY

1 PAN OF SAUERKRAUT

8 PEOPLE TO EAT AND TAKE HOME LEFTOVERS!

3 DAYS FOR GRAM G TO REST

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Our community had an Hawaiian pot luck dinner

I brought my own date

Proper Hawaiian macaroni salad...

macaroni, ham, shredded carrots, mayo

American add ins...

black olives, cheese squares, peas

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Community 4th of July pot luck

No date this time

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4th of July I had these little firecrackers and their parents over for dinner and late B-days. 

Saul, Kahana, Nainoa, Pomai

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My friend, Nancy, and I finally got together for a lunch out after a 3 year wait!  Covid put an end (for awhile) to socializing.  

We enjoyed a 3 hour visit while devouring Middle Eastern cuisine.

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 California College graduate, Jude

Minneapolis College graduate, Devin

Virginia High School graduate, Tyler

Next generation Vancouver Kindergarten graduate, Rosie

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To the Future and Now!

Grandson, Ryan, working on experimental solar powered car...sitting under solar panels 

University of Wisconsin, Madison, came in first of three rookie teams!  Drove it about 25-30 mph

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A touch of summer beauty!

REFLECTIONS  

There are times I feel lonely with living by myself. I get bored and annoyed with only my own company.  I am grateful for the blessings of lots of family and friends. They give my mind other  people and things to think about and plan for.  I enjoy the planning part of an upcoming event or trip, the actual activity,  the picture taking, the photo processing, the  fun memories and the satisfaction.  I'm thankful, too, for visitors to my  house cause it makes me clean it!  

This has been a good 3 GeoGram weeks in the life of Gram G.

"Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves." Romans 12:10

SUMMER!

With the arrival of summer I want to enjoy the quickly passing months.  This summer is different for me.  For the first time in many years I don't have a grandkid trip to plan for and enjoy.  There have been 18 and 1 to go. She is only 7 so there is a lapse of 3-5 years before we go again.  This is a stay at home summer...staycation as the modern term goes.  I want to remind myself every day that it is SUMMER!  Relax and enjoy...while getting some much needed cleaning done.  

There is a blue jay that hangs around.  She sits on top of the neighbor's pine tree.  I imagine she is queen and reigns over her territory with a bird's eye view (ha, ha).   

A few days ago she landed in my hobbit garden with a prize morsel in her mouth.

Three (tree) reasons I love Vancouver!

The big and the small!!

My Favorite!!

They are redwoods, also known as sequoia.

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I've had a bunny living in my front lawn.  He leaves abundant droppings as he enjoys the grass but also turns it brown from nesting. I read that bunnies do not like red pepper so sprinkling it around the yard might move them out.  

"A rabbit lay here..."

I applied the red pepper therapy a couple weeks ago, hoping it would work...unless they are Hispanic and then there would be 6 for dinner that night.

I have not seen a bunny since!!

What does one do when home alone on a rainy Friday evening??

How about fresh home made banana bread?  I don't care for bananas but I do like banana bread!

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Front yard tree trimming time...

Love it when the Irish moss is in full bloom with tiny white flowers!

I think this is called the strawberry moon!  It was yellowish in the sky.

Debbie invited me to fresh made pasta lunch on the Vancouver waterfront. Yummy outing with Debbie, Angie, Carole, Gram G!

A three generation stroll along the Columbia River!

Creekside Park hosted a community wide garage sale this past weekend.  I had Jake haul out several boxes of stuff for me to go through and get rid of at the sale.  I was having a stressful week.  That's when Deb invited me to pasta lunch and suggested, "Forget the garage sale".  Now I'm glad I did.  

So now the several boxes will sit patiently until I leisurely decide how to be rid of them.  Stuff I brought out here almost 11 years ago!

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IT'S HERE!!  WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR ALL THESE MONTHS!!!

The next chapter in Gram G's life story!!  I'm trying to get back to writing a first draft, chapter by chapter.  Life has gotten all absorbing.  Truthfully, I'm trying to do too many activities and mostly end up not finishing them.  I invite you to check out "Chapter 12...To the Nunnery" in the "pages" bar.  

REFLECTIONS 

It is SUMMER in Vancouver, Washington.  I am resolved to enjoy hanging out here for the summer months for the first time since I moved out 10 years ago.  My restless self wants to hop a plane and travel somewhere.  I hope to experience the satisfaction of tending to home matters, hanging out with family and visiting local attractions.  So with Olaf I sing, "SUMMER!".

This has been a good three GeoGram weeks in the life of Gram G.

"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22)