It's That Time Of Year!

Ralph and I would like to welcome you to Whispering Pines at Halloween time! Beware, you never know what you may find....

Tucked in the kitchen fireplace are some friends who don't need a fire to light up their life!

Careful in the dining room...she's just waiting to cast a spell on you!

Yumm...a snack anyone?

The book shelves are filled with the latest novels..and some "witchy" tales!

Careful where you park, you don't want to be "Toad"...

Stop and pay your respects at the Lost Souls Cemetery...not hard to find, it's "DEAD" ahead...hehehe...

Sometimes a spell can backfire..ooopsss

Yep, it's that time of year! 

9 Is Fine!

Today was our Granddaughter Addy's birthday...a big 9 years old!  A party was planned and everything went according to that plan...lots of food, games, friends, and a very happy birthday girl! Happy birthday Rae Rae ( Everyone calls her that)!  Welcome to the carnival of fun:

You need a ring master to get everyone ready for the festivities.

A giant tiger to jump in will keep the kiddos busy and tired.

The guest of honor! Addy Rae!

Some friends to help celebrate.

Presents to open!

Throw in some cotton candy and it's a party! Poor Phil was covered in spun sugar...he's already too sweet!

Blow out the candles and eat some yummy cake.

My Daughter-in-law, Evelyn helped Jack with the popcorn.

View from top of the hill.  There was tons of food...corn dogs, walking tacos, hot dogs, cheesy potatoes, mac and cheese,  just to name a few of the treats.  Fun was had by all and the birthday girl declared it the best party ever!  I kept thinking..."What ever happened to pin the tail on the donkey and some plain old cake and ice cream?"   Oh well, the weather was perfect and everyone had fun so I guess you can call this "Mission completed!"  Happy Birthday Addy girl! We love you!

Down At The Farm

Happy Fall 'y,all!  Friday was the first day of my favorite season.  Mother Nature is having the last laugh however, as our temperatures around these parts have been in the high 80's and even 90 over this weekend.  Very hot for us this time of year.  Plus no rain in the past few weeks.  Well, it looks like by next weekend the very cool temps are coming our way and truly that will make it feel more like Autumn.  One of the things I enjoy about this time of year is going to all the Fall festivals around the area.   Saturday Jack and I headed over to Malabar Farm for it's annual Heritage days.

Malabar is the homestead of the author, Louis Bromfield.   He was a conservationist and did many things on the farm to help with new farm techniques.  He also had some of his books made into movies.  Malabar is now a state park and has fun activities all year.   I guess the most famous thing that happened here was the marriage of Humphrey Bogart to Lauren Bacall.

Most young folks won't even know who that is but they were pretty famous in their day!

This is an outside pic of the "Big House" as it's called.  Inside it's pretty much the way it was back in the 40's and compared to how famous people today live, it's pretty modest.  It's also supposed to be haunted!  I went on a ghost hunt here with friends from work.  It was alot of fun, but not much in the way of ghostly happenings!  Here are some of the happenings that went on Saturday.

Inside the barn where they hold many dances during the year, it was filled with vendors selling all kinds of things.

Outside on the front lawn the Civil War was taking place.

I'll just label this pic...LOUD!

Maybe they didn't realize that old Abe Lincoln was in the back of the house?  We saw quite a few different characters.

The French and Indian war was also being  reenacted. 

The costumes were amazing!

We ran into our friend Daryl who used to do the Civil War but has moved back in time!

As we were walking down the lane I heard a noise in the woods.  I turned and saw this guy watching us....click on the pic and check him out!

The day was hot and taking a ride from one end of the area to another was made a bit easier by horse and wagon...well, easy on us but not sure how the horses felt about it!

There's an international Hostel on the farm and yes, it's haunted too!

This is the Cilia Rose house.  What makes it special? Well, Cilia Rose murdered her family by poisoning them...and yep, it's haunted too!  We enjoyed all the things down on the farm Saturday and ended with a lunch of  a grilled trail bologna and baby swiss cheese sandwich.  We washed it down with some ice cold lemonade and then it was time to head home.  There were many vendors selling everything from antiques to walking sticks.  I managed to escape without buying a thing...a miracle!  So let the season begin...go for a walk among the leaves turning colors, sip some cider or make a delish apple pie:
It's Fall y'all!

In A Fog

After coming home from vacation it takes me a bit to get back into the groove. There's some catching up to do and getting back into the work mode.  I only worked 2 days the week we came home but it felt like a full week to me!  This past week went better and I felt like the fog was lifting from my brain.  I had Friday off and woke up to a real fog!

The house was fogged in.

Chubbs was doing his exploring in a bit of a fog.

The corn field across the road was blurry.

Creepy woods was, well....creepy.  Fog does that!  It's quickly turning into Fall.  Next week will take us to a new season.  Around here the leaves are slowly turning.  The apple orchard is open for apple picking but we were able to get our own this year from our apple tree's first harvest.

They are crunchy, sweet and delicious!  I mixed them with a couple of other types and made an apple dish that went to work with me...and disappeared by 10AM!

As always the sun eventually comes through and burns off the fog.  I'm hoping my brain fog burns off completely too!

There's mums to plant..

Flowers to enjoy until that first frost hits.   Hope all's well in your neck of the woods and I hope our friends down south have  power back on and clean up under way.  It's been a heck of an end to Summer.  I'm ready for Fall...my favorite season!

I'm Baaaaackkk!!!

 We returned from our trip to the great state of Oregon to visit our #2 son Craig and his wonderful family.  I mentioned that I'm not fond of flying, but we had good flights coming and going and all was well.  As always when your on a vaca it goes way too fast and is jammed full of fun things, family things, just plain good things.   Here's the trip in a nutshell.  First and foremost was seeing the Grandkiddos.  They are growing fast and involved in tons of school, church, family and other activities.  Here's how they were featured day to day:

Katie can be found reading every chance she gets.

Taylor enjoying the camera we gave him to learn on.  He loves it!

Sophia is ready for a photo op at every turn! I think I have more pics of her than anyone! Hey, a willing subject matter too cute to pass up.  Then there's the scenery of the Pacific Northwest:

Astoria, Oregon where many movies were filmed...Kindergarten Cop, The Goonies, and Short Circuit just to name a few.  Beautiful little town!  There was big tower that everyone climbed up on and then flew little airplanes off of it.

I started to go up the winding staircase and my fear of heights kicked in and I decided to not go.

Jack flew my plane for me!

 Mount Hood as seen from Trillium Lake.  We had such a fun time in the beautiful weather.

Jack even found us a retirement home!

Bigfoot wanted in...who would say no to him?

There was a project that needed done....a trampoline for the kiddos!

That will keep them hopping!  Another reason we took the trip at this time was for Craig's 40th birthday! Can't believe it he's soooooo old! Ha!

There was decorating to be done.

Flaming dinners to eat.

Gifts to open.

Candy bar birthday wishes to be had.

Candles to be blown out.  Happy Birthday Craig!  We finished off the trip with the usual other things..

Family photo moments.

Swimming at the lake.

Paddle boarding.

Water balloon fights!

Silly string antics too!  So much fun... not enough time.  As everyone probably knows, there are lots of fires burning out west.  Portland was getting the ash and poor air quality problems that go with that.  It became overcast and the sun was always a crazy red color.  I captured this shot during the day.  The sky wasn't black but the sun was exactly this color.

Hopefully there will be an end to it soon.   Even though we had a great time, it was good to get home.  A big thanks to Jordan for staying at the house to take care of Chubbs.  

So long sweeties!  Big hugs to you all!