Leaves and Halloween Spooky Treats

 Fall is my favorite. I love the golden glow of our front trees.

I love the trees of 700 West that (used to) make a golden canopy. They have trimmed the trees back a lot.

 I loved finding this anomaly in the grass. Those center leaves are WHAT? It has to have just fallen out of the tree, but was it radioactive or something? It is NOT a normal cluster. 

 I drove to SLC and met Kaylee at the " Lift up your Heart--A Magnify ( Pod last) Gathering"  like a women's conference. Lots of great presentations, good speakers, fun lunch out with Kaylee, good catch- up time, we exchanged birthday gifts and cards, enjoyed the gathering. 

My day started very early, so I enjoyed the sunrise.

And the sunset. All along the I-15 corridor.

It's been a leaf day. The neighbor kids came to play in the huge pile Mike made in the front yard. We have to settle for neighbors kids since our grandkids are all far away. Two are neighbors and two are the Murray's grandkids.

There are four tiny heads in there.

I finally made those cool and creepy Halloween Treats for a party tonight. Red Rice Krispy treats with labels that say "Mummy Meat," "Ground Vulture" "Zombie Meat," and "Fresh Roadkill." It turned out really good. And tasty, too!! 

Mike and I each did an extra shift in the Cedar City Temple Office last week. On Friday, he drove my car to go get Mom in Fillmore from Robert. She spent the week up north with Robert and with Aunt Tuny. I have a hard time parking my new car, much less his truck. Ha. It's between the lines. Barely.

The last roses of the season. About half our garden is put to bed for the winter.

Truth and Treason, apples, and a sunflower

 Excellent film. Youth against Hitler in Nazi Germany. True story.

Highly recommend. Bring a tissue for the ending . "Truth and Treason.". We got there JUST in time for the feature film and missed the previews for upcoming films. But that was okay.

This was our activity of choice tonight because we were tired after picking apples.

And I FINALLY got my kitchen cleaned up-- just in time to have it become a disaster for the apple juice project. He's getting serious. No trees have very many apples on them, but we've gotten them where we could. So many wormy ones . Ick. I miss my lovely, worm-and bruise-  and bug-free apples. None this year! 

They are almost all sorted and Mike SAYS that after we pick the last two peoples' trees we will be done and next week we start juicing. 

The three boxes on the right are icky ones. . . I mean REALLY icky. And he got some from a dwarf Golden Delicious Tree and the apples are dwarfs, too! They are the size of crab apples. Ugh. Those will be a big pain. 

And this is Mike's new tool. Apple corer/slicer. The trouble is, so many of the fruits are SO SMALL that it won't work on them. It's made for perfect fruit, which we do not have. Oh well. It makes lovely French fries, however! 

And here is my lovely sunflower head. It's HUGE. I should go measure it. It must be over 12 inches across! But the kernels haven't developed. Most that I've picked and opened ( only 4) have had nothing substantial in the shell. So sad.

Oct 2025

 We have had lots of rain! 

So much so that some towns ( New Harmony, for one) have had flooding.

Brian Head has snow. Zion had a skiff of snow in higher elevations.

We played games with the Larson's on Monday night at their house and ate lots of yummies goodies.

Mike and I went to the St. George Temple on Tuesday.

I went to my book club on Tuesday night. "Time Traveler's Masquerade" by Sian Bessey. Next month is " A Lantern in Her Hand".

I have been a slug and have been sitting around, reading silly novels. Not listening to Audio Books and multitasking, but sitting. I love Mrs. Pollifax mysteries. 

I finally got my rear in gear and made a nice dinner and shared with neighbors. I fried fish, shared some with Jim Harrison. Belinda Harrison hates fish, so he never gets fish. So I share with him when I make it. Sometimes. If I remember and we have enough. And Marcia Day came by to pick up a package I brought in for her last night while she was out of town, so I invited her in to eat with us. Jim, her husband ( yes, two Jim's on our street) is off hunting in the mountains for elk with his brothers. 

And then I vegged out and watched movies tonight! 

Such a slug! I'll do better tomorrow. I promise😉

Pretty fall leaves

Eric and the Girls

 We had a nice little visit and Lunch with Eric today. He was on his way to Boulder,UT for a campout with Matt ( Matt will join them tomorrow). They have been together for ten years.(!)

Tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches, cucumber slices.  Don't ever cook with Kya around! That stinker licked my butter on the counter AND stole some sliced cheese! Bad dog. 

Tomato sauce--never again!

 

I will never make tomato sauce again! These 9 little pints took ALL DAY!! 

They might be good for making spaghetti and pizza and such, but ALL DAY?????!!!!!

Granted, I didn't start really early as I slept in until 8 am today.  But between preparing the tomatoes and onions, simmering that, then straining it all, then reducing it to half while stirring all the while to prevent scorching. . . .I was standing over the hot steaming kettle for hours and hours. Ugh. I'm such a baby. 

So much for doing anything else today! That was it. No pickles, no other bottled tomatoes or tomato soup or tomato juice( yes, there's still MANY tomatoes left). 

Another day, I suppose. But never again seasoned tomato sauce. Not unless it can just simmer on it's own withOUT constant stirring.

I expected it to freeze last night, so yesterday I picked the rest of the tomatoes. 8 more bags to go. Most are still green, but they will ripen.

Next year I shall plant only TWO tomato plants. Maybe only one. 🍅