Pumpkin patches from an adult perspective!

 We spent a week-end in Woodland (western Washington) recently, visiting Joy and our granddaughter Kendall who was turning 16. We did a lot of fun things, but Joy and I slipped away by ourselves for a few minutes to visit a Pumpkin patch on the edge of town.

 

 Joy remarked that she thought this window display was worthy of Pinterest.

 

 It was fun to enjoy the patch from an adult point-of-view, and we just wandered around and ignored the corn maze and all the children picking out their massive pumpkins, enjoying the fall afternoon and the fun displays.

 

 The family who owns the patch are good and close friends of Joy and her hubby so we felt free to wander....and enjoy all the lady of the house has accomplished with her property.

 

 

 The farm has acres of all kinds of pumpkins, big and small, and Joy's husband drives his restored tractor and wagon around the patch on week-ends, giving tours and helping kids to get their pumpkins back to their cars. He even wears his overalls for the occasion.

 

This is my idea of one cute potting shed. Complete with sink and running water and electricity inside. Just kind of made fall seem so real...out on a beautiful property. We have all had a gorgeous Indian Summer, with the prettiest autumn I can remember in recent history. Now it's on to snow and winter over here. The cycle of seasons, what a delight!

A new precious granddaughter!

 

Granddaughter #6

 

We are so blessed to celebrate the birth of Bronwyn Elizabeth Jones, on October 12th. She and mama Julie are doing well. She was such a surprise to all of us. Julie had anticipated the birth of a rather medium sized boy, (they don't have ultrasounds to tell them the sex of baby ahead of time) but instead out came Bronwyn at 9lbs 2 oz! I am rather slow to get this on the blog, but I had an idea that took me some time to implement. I thought it would be fun to look back at the other seven children's newborn photos and see which one is most like Bronwyn. So, here they are in order of birth:

 

 

1.  Samuel Nils Jones born July 26, 1999

2.    William Carl Jones born February 6, 2001

3.    Benjamin Charles Jones born April 10, 2003

 

4.    Calvin Haddon Jones born February 24, 2005 

 

5.     Amelia Sue Jones born April 08, 2006

 

6.    Cecily Mae Jones born October 2, 2008

 

7.    Elijah Franklin Jones born January 29, 2011

 

And now #8... Bronwyn Elizabeth Jones born October 12, 2012.

 

Which one of her siblings do you think she looks like? Leave a comment if you want to tell us. I know she's pretty! After rounding up these photos and looking at all of them a few things occurred to me. First, although newborns are so precious....they are funny little things aren't they? They seldom look like the person they are about to become. I did notice that Calvin and Bronwyn are the only ones with their eyes open. (Cecily doesn't count because that photo was not really of her newborn. She was the only one I wasn't there for her birth and so have no newborn photos.) This was fun, and I have a hard time believing how fast the years have flown by. I think Bronwyn will be special to me, as my mother was #8 in her family as well. Hooray for #8!



Garden Goodness

It's such a blessing at this time of year to reap the bounty of a summer grown garden. Potatoes, baby carrots, kale...all the goodness God has given in working the land.

Autumn Cozy

 I'm feeling cozy inside this morning, with the overnight temps down to 22 degrees. It was a sudden abrupt end to our wonderful Indian Summer, but somehow with October here it's OK to move on. I fixed a breakfast of green onion, eggs and ham (Dr. Seuss anyone?) along with my favorite roasted pecan maple glazed scones. So good this morning.

 We did have to stick our noses outside, to take out the garbage to the curb, and found this Sumac just about frozen. The colors have been so beautiful, especially with the sunshine lighting them up. All are represented...orange, burnt red, yellow and still a little light green.

 I am taking an Old Testament Survey class, and have much reading to accomplish. It's Exodus this morning, and so enjoyable to be inside and gleaning from God's Word.

My first morning with the stove on, and it certainly contributed to the cozy feeling around here. Although the yard is not quite ready for Autumn, I am!

Camp Food

 For our last camping trip of the season, we took our camp trailer out to Walton Lake in the Ochocos. We met some good friends of ours out there, and had adjoining campsites. We met Jerry and Mary when we were all young newlyweds in the '70's, and have been camping with them ever since. We both are grandparents now, and probably will be 'great' grands in this next decade.
Jerry has recently taken up an interest in camp cooking, over the grill and with a Dutch Oven. On Saturday, we modified our menu to include items that we could fix over the campfire grill. For breakfast Jerry flipped 'Corn Meal Griddle Cakes' over the fire, and also cooked up some sausage in a second fry pan. Good camping food!

Doesn't this photo make you want to taste some? For lunch Jerry and Mary fixed a stew, and cooked it over the campfire, and we had some garlic bread in foil warmed up as well. It was delicious, and didn't take as long to cook as I would have thought.
For dinner, we grilled brats and steak over the fire, and warmed up some beans. A very successful day of camp cooking for sure! We are planning more of this next year as it was fun to experiment, and really fun to eat.