Sunset tonight

Comfort Book

Ahhhhh. What a pure pleasure and comfort to read the latest book in Alexander McCall Smith's Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. I don't read these books for the plot so much as I read them for the characters and their common sensibilities. Charming and delightful.

Fall in the Garden

Hal's idea of fun is to get up really early on a vacation day and go umpire girls fastpitch softball all day long. Today my idea of fun was to walk through the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden and take pictures. Check out more pictures at my Picasa Site (these are for you, Rosemary!).

Peppernuts, Part 3!

Today was the time-consuming peppernut day. My mom and I started baking these spice cookies around 3:00 and were finished just after 6:00. I pulled the frozen snakes out of the freezer two at a time and cut them into small pieces, then Mom placed them on the cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and slide the next cookie sheet into the oven. Now they have to sit out overnight to dry, and then tomorrow they go in tins and sit for several weeks to season. You can't really taste all the spices (and especially the anise) until they are good and hard.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A lovely Thanksgiving today. My mom and dad are here, and we were joined by Dick and Kathy Olson for a relaxing and fun time. This is our first Thanksgiving without either daughter at home, which is a little strange, but we managed!

Orchestra Happiness

My little orchestra at Vista has 6 players, the smallest group I've ever had. Last week I decided that my two beginning cellists at Vista were ready to join us, especially since the music has mostly open strings for them. They came to rehearsal today and did great, with smiles on their faces. I also bragged about them to the rest of the orchestra telling them that I chose Sarah and Grace since they were some of my beginners who actually practice!

We will be ready to play for the Winter Sing next month - yay!

Milestone

Yesterday was Hal's birthday! We had sandwiches from Saca's, Greek Salad and Cheery Pie. My folks arrived from Colorado in time to share with us.

p.s. yes, the cherry pie WAS cheery! (thanks, Rosemary... ; ) )

When the Weather is News

I was surprised to look at my blog just now and see that it reports a temperature of 38. It is not that cold! Weather.com says that it's 65, and I can believe that. But the exciting thing is that we may actually get rain tomorrow night!

Thanksgiving Sunday

Today is a busy, fun day. We had our annual Thanksgiving dinner at church after the service which was delicious, as usual.

This afternoon Hal and I put in some sweat equity into the yard. I was designated "wood nymph" (which meant that I raked leaves), and Hal was the "planter guy" who moved some of the manzanita plants from the parkway across to the front yard, and replaced them with tall grasses.  With the new gutters, we are all ready for the rain which may come this week.

We also had a lovely 90-minute skype with Claire. She loves London and is having a marvelous time. Today she went to one of the Tate Museums.

Now we are getting ready to go to book club to discuss Ann Patchett's Run. Since it is set in Boston, we are bringing clam chowder. Now that the weather is cooler, soup is good.

Peppernuts, Part 2

This afternoon I was ready for the second stage of peppernut production. I took the dough out of the frig (to make room for Thanksgiving....) and rolled spoonfuls on a floured countertop, placing the "snakes" onto waxed paper in layers. Now they are resting and freezing in the freezer, waiting for baking day.