Whitman County Birthday Trip

Colleen and I spent last weekend in eastern Washington for a little fun trip to celebrate our birthdays. Friday night we stayed at a B&B in Uniontown that was a convent in a former life. There was a huge Catholic presence in the area as it was settled, and every small town has its own church and cemetery, and in this case, its own convent. There was a lot that could have been done to enhance the property, and the experience, but it was fine, and served as a launching pad for our weekend.

There was a Harvest Festival up the road in Colton so we took that in and left with silver earrings, heirloom tomatoes and apple cider. Moscow, Palouse, and Viola were all on the trip of the day, and each had its own charm. Viola has about two houses, and there was a quilt show at Granny's out in the country. We drove several miles and arrived at a non-descript rather unkempt house, but it was full of quilts and fabric!!

We stayed with Rod and Karen on Saturday and Sunday nights, and I spent Sunday afternoon visiting with Mike, Mary, Becky, and baby Ben who is walking around things but hasn't quite taken flight yet. Mary presented both Colleen and I with homemade apple crisp (Colleen's most favorite thing), and in fact Karen had apple crisp for us when we arrived on Saturday evening. Colleen scored big time.

We went to Green Bluff on Sunday and came away with some honey and various beans and lentils. I bought many different varieties of lentils at the Moscow Co-op so we are well supplied. On our way home we stopped in Gleed (between Yakima and Naches) and bought some fruit and squash. What a fun harvest weekend.

Now I am in the throes of a bunch of appointments to get ready for another back surgery on October 28th. The problems are similar to what they were five years ago, and I have ignored them for as long as I can. I am looking forward to being able to walk more than fifteen minutes at a time and to effortlessly turn over in bed at night. Surgery will be in the afternoon, and I will go home the next day.

We have loosely planned our winter trip down south. We are going to spend the second week of January at Tecopa Hot Springs that we visited two years ago, and Karen and Rod will join us. Then on to the desert at Quartzite for a few days before settling in at Foothills West in Casa Grande the middle of January for two months. We are happy to see the price of gasoline come down, but we had already taken higher gas prices into account as we made our plans.

Ciao

Leavenworth and Wenatchee

We had a great time on our little jaunt last week to Leavenworth and Wenatchee. In addition to four nights in a grass field at the foot of the mountains, we stayed at two local state parks both of which were very nice. There was a parade on Saturday in honor of the Fall Leaf Festival, and it was exactly what you would expect of a small town parade complete with a number of horn-carrying, non-playing out-of-step school bands.

We learned of a particular place to buy apples at a good price so came home with a box of Jonagolds and a box of Golden Delicious. I have apple butter simmering in the slow cooker at the moment, and I suspect there is a pie or two in the near future. We also visited Icicle Winery in Leavenworth so of course bought some of their wine. The tasting room is the home of the owners and is a custom built log house that is full of detail and imagination. And their wine isn't bad either!

Tonight is a fund-raising dinner for Fuller Seminary, so we will meet some of the staff and faculty that Colleen works with as well as hear a speech by the president of Fuller Seminary. The dinner is at a private club in Bellevue, so it should be quite enjoyable.

I have been puttering at quilting projects with finishing up some odds and ends and contemplating what to do next. Yesterday I started cutting strips for a quilt designed by Kaffe Fassett, one of my favorite designers, which is intended to look like strips of faded wallpaper. So far I quite like the effect I am seeing. It is a very simple pattern and process so there is no excuse for not finishing it. I do pretty well with getting the tops pieced, it is the rest of the process where I fall down on the job.

So I am off to the sewing machine. It is overcast and damp today so it is a perfect day to sew. Ciao