Snow Geese

When we were in Harney County for Easter, we decided to go out for a ride Saturday afternoon. It had been migratory bird time there, and I wanted to see some of the beautiful snow geese. My mother-in-law was doubtful if they were still around. She told me that they come in late February, stay for about 40 days feeding to gain strength, and then continue on their journey north. They really are a sight to see in their giant flocks. JoAnn, Mom and I traveled around the country, looking at different familiar landmarks, but no snow geese were to be seen. Finally, after turning back for home we spotted some in the air circling. Mom pulled over to the side of the road and watched them to see where they were going to land. They were headed west so we followed them, watching them fly in their patterns above us. As we grew closer to town we could see they were settling behind the Fair Grounds. The gates were open, so Mom drove through to the back and we were in luck. They were feeding in the grass, and we could drive right up to them. There were actually hundreds of them, but at a short angle we could only capture a few on film. Mom stopped and we watched them for a while. They were on the ground and in the sky, a wonderful sight. But they are very skittish, and when we pulled forward just a little for a better shot....

up in the air they all flew. They are all white, except for the black marks on the bottom edges of their wings. From above they look snow white, but from below like in this photo, they look much darker.

They circled and some flew off, others landed in the water a distance from us, more protected. This is only a small amount of geese, compared to the thousands that land in this country...only the remaining ones. But we were thrilled to get to see them up close and personal, as well as their stunning sky display. I love the photos above, just because you can see that Harney County is 'Big Sky Country' too, and you can see from horizon to horizon. A great place to visit!

An old chair, well used and loved

This is a child's wooden rocking chair that we have inherited. I showed a photo of our granddaughter Macy in it last week. When we visited Burns we visited with our Aunt Wilma, the original owner of this chair. She and my mother-in-law were eager for me to post a few photos of the chair and it's history.

On the bottom of the rocker we have taped the information about its origins to preserve the story. It was made for Aunt Wilma by her grandfather, Joe Williams of Ontario, Oregon. The paper says 1919, but it must have been closer to 1917 because of the photo below this .

Here is Wilma in her wonderful new chair with a dolly. Since she was born in 1916, I would say that she had her chair by the following year as a toddler.

Here are Wilma's two sisters Bethel (my mother-in-law) and Elna in about 1937. They are a bit too big for the rocker, but it works really well for their two dolls. They entertained themselves on their farm in Ontario.

Here are the three sisters, almost grown up...Wilma-top, Bethel-right, and Elna-left, along with the rocker. They are entertaining their cousin Edith's son Gene in 1940. The rocker is just right for either toddlers or baby dolls. It really is big enough for larger kids too, and so heavy and sturdy that I could sit in it...if I could fit in it! Interesting that all the photos of it in Ontario are out of doors.

This is my oldest grandson Samuel. He is enjoying the rocker on a visit to my house, and I'm enjoying photographing him. This was in 2002 or 2003. After Aunt Wilma had to give up living on her own, we inherited her precious rocking chair. There is also a table that was made for her, and Aunt Elna has that to pass down in her family. Since we brought the rocker home, all my grandchildren have enjoyed it. When Julie has brought a little one home, she sometimes uses it to feed them in...and it works great. The only casualty has been when Calvin got turned around in it and got his legs stuck through the slats. We soon had him rescued though.

And this is another shot of Macy covering herself up and watching Veggie Tales in the rocker. What a precious heritage. It's so sturdy it will go on for several succeeding generations I'm sure...

Easter Cookies

We were at my in-laws for Easter week-end in Burns. For dessert my mom-in-law served home grown and canned apricots and sugar cookies decorated with little Easter egg candies. So festive and spring-like. We all took a cookie to enjoy when she popped up with this warning "be careful when you bite down!" We all stopped and looked at her and with a mischievous grin she let us know that she had hidden a quarter in one of the cookies. "Of course I gave the quarter a bath first" she informed us. "Whoever gets the quarter gets to keep it" was her last comment.

My insurance man was the lucky winner, and not only did he get a delicious cookie baked by his Mom, but a quarter as well. What a fun dessert time!

Girls at Easter

There is so much one could say at Easter. So much to think and ponder on. Today is Good Friday and I really appreciated Nancy Wilson's blog on why the word 'Good' is used on this day. I look forward each year to our service at Church on this night of Christs Crucifixion.
But in the end, I decided to show some of the beauty of Easters past, in keeping with the theme of this blog....beauty in our daily lives. Little girls dressing up for Church on special Easter mornings is certainly a beautiful sight.

This is my daughter Joy dressed up for Church in 1976...in Burns, where it is always cold at Easter. Julie has the hat and gloves in this picture, and she asked me to find a picture of her dressed up in them. I couldn't find a photo of her...mainly because she never kept anything on long enough to get a photo of it. Also her hair was a bit unruly, and was usually done up in pigtails, so not good for a flat hat. The closest I could come was this picture of Joy wearing the gloves and hat. The gloves I bought for her, and the hat was mine when a small girl. Add a dress and coat passed down from her cousins and she was ready to go. Julie is planning on using these same gloves and hat for Millie on Sunday and I can't wait to see the photo she will post. We really like to pass things down you see...

As long as I was looking for Easter photos of Julie I thought I would pass along this favorite of mine. She was one year old in 1977, and in Grandmas' back yard hunting for eggs. Aunt Peggy was just in the nick of time to rescue her from biting into the hard boiled egg, shell and all! Grandmas' dog Dondie was watching all the fun too. Usually it was too cold to hunt eggs out-of-doors, and we ended up in Grandmas' basement...but this was an unusually nice year.

This was Joy and Julie in 1978, ready for Church and posing for a picture in our back yard. The gloves are back on Joy's hands, but with both having pig-tails, there was no hat.

After finding pictures of Joy and Julie, I wanted to find one more that included JoAnn. We had moved to Portland and the weather was usually more moderate with flowers blooming. Julie has a funny smile here...kind of like her William sometimes makes. I made JoAnn's dress and had so much fun doing it. I think it is the one I enjoyed the most in the making.

And one last photo of dressing up for Easter. This is 1957, and the frilly girl is me. Julie asked if I had a photo of me wearing the above hat...and I searched but no such luck. So I decided to include this instead. I love patent leather shoes and frilly dresses!

But why should we concentrate on clothing at Easter? After all, Jesus' clothes were taken from him and Romans cast lots for them. I think the answer lies in the age old answer of doing and looking our very best for him. I imagine on the feast days of Israel that the Jews put on and out their very best. And the tradition goes on...it is part of our celebration. So, I hope each of my girls and their girls is celebrating this week-end.

2 Year Birthday, 2 Generations

My mom dug out this picture for me and scanned it. This is me, Julie, on my 2nd birthday in 1978. My own daughter, Millie, just had her 2nd birthday and I tried to make a similar cake. It was fun to see the cute cake that my mom had made for me and feel loved by that 31 years later. I wanted Millie to have the same thing. :-)

Canned Cream of Chicken Soup Replacement

I recently tried making a cream of chicken soup substitute for the canned variety that is called for in so many recipes. I've never particularly loved the flavor of the canned soup and I know it isn't very good for you. What I tried was so easy and succesful that I thought I would share it. The only catch is that it's more like the equivalent of reconstituted canned soup. It's not thick and globby, but smooth and creamy. Most recipes that call for canned soup usually call for another ingredient, such as milk, to thin it anyway. You have to be able to make some adjustments to your recipe or you could add more flour to thicken the homemade one more, if you like.

Cream of Chicken Soup

3 cups chicken broth (I use all-natural soup cubes to make this)
1 cup milk or cream (I used some of both)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
salt to taste

In a saucepan, mix all ingredients. Whisk until smooth and thickened over medium heat.
(If you wanted to make a cream of mushroom, you could use water instead of broth and add in sauteed mushrooms.)

I used this to make a sauce for chicken enchiladas and it was certainly better than the last time I made it with canned soup. Much more homemade flavor.

Happy cooking!

Spring Break

We had a visit from our oldest daughter Joy, three of her daughters and husband Kirk last week during their Spring Break. I thought I would post a few of the photos of fun things we enjoyed.

These first two pictures are of Macy Hope, now 1 1/2 years old . She like to watch Veggie Tales movies, so she found a comfy chair just her size and a doll bed blankie to make herself right at home. Aunt Wilma, I trust you recognize your rocking chair....and that it's being put to good use. What a sturdy rocking chair it is too...90+ years old and going strong.

I had some fun time playing the piano with Macy...and she enjoyed it too as she is showing one of her rare smiles for the camera.

We spent one day in Sisters, had lots of fun and went to see a herd of raised elk.

I used to have a tradition of decorating a small tree out front as an 'Easter' tree as our trees don't have buds or leaves as yet. This year our oldest granddaughter Kory did the decorating..and it looks as good as ever. I can hardly believe she's old enough to reach the branches and decorate herself.

We celebrated my insurance man's birthday while they were here with a prime rib dinner Joy cooked for him, and a basket full of goodies.

Macy decided to help do the laundry with Papa one afternoon, and ended up with some clean undies for decoration.

And here I sat, watching and enjoying all the fun.

Our girls....Kory on the left, Lilly (our adopted granddaughter) and Kendall on the right. They did keep things interesting! A good time was had by all : )