I AmBack

After a busy summer when I did no blog writing, it is time to get back into the swing of writing to you all regularly.

During the early summer it was cool and rainy followed by sunshine.  This meant a bump crop of strawberries and blueberries.  Bruce and I picked (on hands and knees) 16 cups of wild strawberries.  Every berry went into jam.  Blueberries have been made into jam too except for a supply kept in the freezer for pies, scones and pancakes.  I thought there were not too many raspberries but we still ended up with 36 jars of jam.

The lodge was busy for most of the summer.  Right now we are in that quiet time between fall color and the holidays.  It may still officially be fall but the snow is coming down while I write as if it is winter.  We have also had some cold weather that is more like winter than fall.  Who knows what the rest of the year will bring but right now we are on the way to good skiing conditions.

Hunting season is just over and deer are starting to come down to the lodge.  Apparently the does and young ones know that no one is hunting them.  Meanwhile we have the meat from a nice forked buck in our freezer.

Bruce and I took off for three weeks.  We went to Tanzania on safari with three other couples  We saw the most game in our lives.  One thrilling moment was being in our car while a herd of about 200 elephants walked past on all four sides.  It took 25 minutes and we loved very minute.  Another day we saw a mother lioness bring her four young cubs out to play.  You can imagine how cute those fat little cubs were.  Each day was filled with surprises as game appeared when we least expected it.  Who would think that a dung beetle could be so interesting?

After the safari Bruce and I took off for a week in Paris.  We rented and apartment and walked all over the city.  Our estimate was 4 miles a day.  Our days were divided between museums and monuments and street fairs and shopping.  Of course, the main events each day were lunch and dinner.  All those wonderful starters were our favorites – escargot, mussels, French onion soup, pates and foie gras.  It is a good thing we walked every day.

Now we are home and about to go down to Robert, Miranda and Zach’s for Thanksgiving.  I have been warned to prepare for a big surprise.  It seems that at 14 years of age, Zach is now up to 6 feet tall!  I have no idea how those kids grow so fast.

One of the highlights of the fall was the birth of our first great-grandson.  Tanner and Molly’s son, Oliver, just takes our breath away.  Aren’t you supposed to be “old” before a great-grandchild is born?

The lodge has just a couple cabins open for Thanksgiving.  Christmas and New Year’s are almost full too.  It looks like we will be ending the year with a bang.