Sunday August 20th...

Busy Busy Day...

Participants:

• Mr. Wyndham
• Mama
• Rozzilyn
• Sadira

This day started off with me baking...

a lovely apple pie! Yes, I have bags of yummy organic apples from my mother's trees...And finding stuff to make and bake with them is going to be a fun, and appetizing challenge...So, I started off with an apple pie, which both my mother and I (not Rozzie because she didn't try it) decided was very yummy, mostly because I am lazy and don't take the peels off the apples before I put them in the pie, but it turns out that it makes the pie have that wonderful tart taste...Plus, I use unrefined Sugar In The Raw, and I think that it gives it a taste between brown sugar and regular sugar! (and I cheat and use the Pillsbury crust, which is very good too...Probably not very healthy, but tasty!) I don't actually like crust, but I tend to spend a lot of time on crusts when I make a pie, either making them lattice, or using my canape cutters to cut out little shapes (this one had apples...Obviously) and putting them on the pies (wait till' you see my pumpkin pie!) Since I don't make pies all the time, I enjoy making them a little special.


I then scooted over to my mother's where she also had baking on the mind as she made these yummy apple turnovers using her biscuit recipe...Which were very good, not too sweet, perfect to have with a meal, or even for breakfast or a snack...Not too much sugar...Which I love! (especially for breakfast) We both used recipes from The Joy of Cooking...Which lead to a lengthy discussion entitled "what would we do without that cookbook?" It is just priceless, full of the most perfect basic recipes, I can't even tell you how many times I have consulted that book...Plus, most of the recipes are so simple, they easily adapt into our no wheat, no dairy, no refined sugar favorites!

We then moved on to making some curtains for my mother's living room...

this is the most beautiful fabric (at almost $30/yard...It's well worth it!) Kind of like taffeta, tanish with light pink stripes and embroidered flowers all over it. There are 3 or 4 different designs in this fabric series at JoAnn's and while we coveted all of them, my mother was able to choose just 2...One for her living room, and one for the parlor.

We finished these today for the living room, and hung them up using wire stretched between the window sash...a very good idea that she's already utilized in her kitchen using vintage inspired embroidered dish towels for curtains! All of the curtains will be half window curtains (probably because of the expense of the fabric) The other fabric is beautiful too, embroidered flowers on striped silk...Wait till' you see them!

And then we got to laying my quilt out on the floor, where upon my mother taught me how to baste...And then helped me baste the quilt back, batting and front together...It's all ready to quilt now! So, you can probably guess what my project for this next week will be. (Sorry, I do not have a picture of us crawling around on the floor with our hieners up in the air...Something I'm sure you're sorry you missed) Rozzilyn spent this time practicing sewing with thread on paper, and I am telling you now, she's a mean needle threader! As I was tying the ends of her thread into knots, I remembered how many times I had to ask my mom to do that for me, even though I could embroider and sew and thread a needle...I could not figure out how to tie a knot...It's really a special feeling to do this now for Rozzilyn.

Then Rozzie and I played a board game together, and we all had our afternoon tea/snack accompanied by a wonderful downpour of rain...And some thunder and lightning. We packed it up and went over to my grandmother's house to deliver some pie and turnovers...And Rozz decided to stay with her for the rest of the afternoon while my mother and I escaped to the Peavine trail for a 3 mile hike.

This trail was once part of the extensive railroad system we had up here in the north country, but has since been abandoned...And incidentally made into a non-motorized hiking trail. There are lots of flat parts of the trail that follow along the water...And then you just come upon the most amazing rock canyons you've ever seen and get to hike among them for quite a while.




I told my mom that since it's such a nice flat trail, with some little hills, I feel like I can walk and walk for hours. Plus, the miles are well marked, and there are all sorts of little side trails up into the boulders of Granite Dells...And paths down to the water, bridges and little benches all along the way! There is also tons of wildlife, including (but not limited to...And some things we saw today): Herons, Hawks, birds of all kinds...a baby bunny...And lots of lizards, and some rattlesnakes, and other snakes.

I'm really wanting to pack in a lunch some day soon, and see how far I can go on this trail...It is just beautiful. There are parts of Arizona that can just take your breath away...Water and trees, huge rocks and rainbows:



All dramatic in their own way, and all beautiful! I am lucky to have lived here for so long, and now fortunate that I am out hiking and enjoying the country side even more than before. I heard we have the most beautiful sunsets in the world here...I've been a lot of places, and find that I like the sunsets over the ocean maybe a little more beautiful (the waves and whatnot)

...But this will do in a pinch won't it?