My goodness, has it been nearly 3 months since I last posted? As I recall, I promised to get back to you after the summer. It's not over yet, but so much has happened in this crazy life of mine that I thought I'd forget. Lists are a part of life these days! That seems appropriate as I just celebrated my 69th birthday!
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| Magic Pass |
To start with, I had a wonderful, wonderful trip to Disney World and Universal Studios with Adam's family and my grandmother-in-law (Shanna's mother). I had not been to Disney in many years. The last time I went, we had paper tickets and no fast passes. Now the passes are like credit cards and your presence in the park is tracked digitally. Your park pass is key to everything. Technology is so amazing. Whatever you give up in privacy is made up for in convenience! I guess if you are worried overmuch about privacy, you should become a hermit.
We spent one day in Magic Kingdom, a fun spot for kids of all ages; a day in Animal Kingdom, and a day at Universal Studios, mostly in Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, though we did find our way through Seussville, and to Shrek. Over the course of three days we walked 21 miles (I know that because of the health app on my iPhone, another technological wonder). I was so glad that it was time to go home on Monday because I do not think I could have spent another day walking a park. I did make it my mission to get over my fear of roller coasters, and depending on Adam and Avery (age 7) for support, I rode nearly every coaster in the parks we visited, and went from being a scared little wuss to Queen of the Roller Coasters! I guess you're never too old to conquer your fears. My favorites were "The Yeti" in Animal Kingdom, which (among more common coaster elements), also rode you backwards in the dark. Fun. I also liked the "Dragon Challenge" in Hogsmeade. It took you upside down. It was a very intense ride, and it was SO MUCH FUN!!! The best part though, was seeing the parks again through the eyes of a child. Gracen and Avery were as wide eyed as my children were the first time we took them. Not bad for a second childhood, either.
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| MiMi and Ghi Ghi with Avery and Gracen |
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| Up Close and Personal in Animal Kingdom |
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| Fire-Breathing Protector of Gringotts Bank |
Gracen celebrated her 9th birthday while we were there and it was also Mother's Day. I was happy to be with my baby boy that day!
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| Happy Birthday, Gracie!!! |
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| Adam and Mom in Seussville |
The day I got home a rain storm left a beautiful rainbow in the sky. I thought it was a wonderful way for nature to say "Welcome Home!"
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| Welcome Home |
I believe that I told you I would be going to Texas to keep the girls for a week while their parents went to Aruba. As is common in this life, plans change and the girls came here. I shared their visit with Ghi Ghi (the other grandmother). When I picked them up we went to Charlotte for a couple of days to see "the cousins". The five of them do not see each other very often and everybody had a good time. MiMi (me) got to spend a day with the five of them together, a very special time to remember. We all had lunch together and then went to "Dish It Out" to make some ceramic creations. It was great fun.
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| Dessert Makers, Reni and Avery |
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| The Crew at Dish It Out |
Several days later Adam and Shanna came home, and Jon and his family came to the ridge and we had a too short (but fun) family get together. I love having everybody together. It gladdens my heart and I cherish every minute. The pics are MiMi and PapaJim with all the grands and Mom and the boys. I love these pictures.
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| The Grands |
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| Mom and the Boys |
I think I told you about the bees which we had just gotten when I made my last post. Well, the season has wound down and our results have been mixed. One of our hives has performed as it is supposed to. The other has failed to thrive and we have had to combine it with the healthy hive to insure its survival through the winter. We do not know why it has not thrived. There is no disease, but it has gone through two queens with no apparent success. Our last examination showed that there was no queen in the hive (having died or been killed for some reason). It is too late to requeen so the next best option was to combine the two hives. The winter population of hives is much smaller than the summer one, and these two hives together appear to have sufficient honey for winter stores, so it should work. (But that's what we have thought all season when we tried everything there was to try to support this hive). The other hive, however, has been gang busters. We have harvested 1 of the 3 honey supers and got the equivalent of 25 sixteen ounce jars of honey. It is beautiful, clear, and delicious. We will harvest another super this weekend and the last one weekend after. Then we will prepare the hive for winter, and plan to split it in the spring. This has been a real experience and we have had lots of fun. I got some beeswax to melt and managed to cover my whole kitchen, in addition to rendering useless for anything except for melting the wax a number of utensils. Also, my wax was pretty dirty, so I need to remelt and filter through a better filter. Then I am going to try to make some lip gloss and some soap. They appear to be the easiest things to do as a novice. No candles for me right now!!!
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| Beautiful Honey |
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| Dirty Wax |
The garden, as always, has taken up a large amount of my time. I have canned beans, made pickles and squash casseroles, and frozen peas. We bought corn to cream and we finished that yesterday. It is such hard work, but if you survive a day or two knee deep in corn husks and corn sticky all over the counters, the eating is good in the winter! I am still harvesting beans, and the tomatoes have not stared ripening in any quantity yet, but that will happen in about a week. We had a huge raspberry crop this year. I ran out of time to do anything with them, so I froze them using a vacuum sealer and I will make some jam this winter when I have more time on my hands. They were delicious! I don't really mind all the hard work because when I look at my larder and its bounty, my heart is filled with thanks and joy.
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| Pretty Pickles |
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| Green Beans |
The rest of the summer and fall will be busy with friends and family. I am also going to have some dental work done that I really, really dread. But it has to be done so I'll do it.
We hope that all of you have a good fall and we'll be back later! Love to all.
