Fun with Friends

It's been at least two since I've had a visit with my childhood friend, Gloria, and her husband, Larry, so the past two days were special. The Meyers live in Cincinnati and arrived yesterday (Monday) shortly after noon. I had lunch waiting for them--Brat and Sauerkraut soup made in the crock pot.

When we get together we always sit down for an afternoon of Bridge. They both are excellent players, Larry especially, as they play several times a week.

Larry adds up the score while Gloria shuffles the cards

When we had played a while and it was time to take a break, Ray took them on a tour showing them sugar maple and persimmon trees, etc. Then, because the weather was so beautiful we played quite a few games of corn hole.

After our evening meal we played some more cards and finally went to bed close to midnight. That's really late for us.

This morning we played some more bridge and then went outside to see if we could find some tomatoes that they could take home with them.

The tomato plants have nearly died because of lack of rain in August

There are many tomatoes on the ground and some are definitely overripe

We had harvested our watermelons last week and offered one to Gloria and Larry.

Larry smiles as he is about to pack the watermelon in their car

We said farewell and vowed not to wait as long to visit with them as we have since the last time.

Ray brought in extra tomatoes since I had a recipe for Spiced Tomato Jam/Butter which I wanted to try. The recipe called for 2-1/4 pounds of tomatoes which isn't a lot but with added sugar we now have four pints in our pantry. Looking forward to trying some on toast!

144 Knots

Today was beautiful, but I didn't get to spend any time outdoors. This morning I went to church to help make quilts for Lutheran World Relief. LWR's goal for 2013 is 500,000 quilts that they'll send all over the world whenever and wherever there is a need.

Today I was the only one knotting. The other three ladies were involved in other areas of making quilts. I knotted three quilts for, according to my calculation, a total of 144 knots!

This quilt was made with very large squares--I made four knots in each square.
Most quilts are pieced together with smaller squares putting one knot in the center of each square.

Here are some of the precut squares sorted by color.
The pieces are laid out in a pattern to make a 60 x 80 quilt.

Miriam has designed a new quilt that someone will sew together.
Later, a backing with a warm inner lining is added and the three
layers are knotted together. One final step is sewing the edges.

We finished about noon and headed home. Later in the day Ray was mowing the lawn and suggested I take a photo of one of our flower beds.

At the moment I can't remember the name of this flower. Several years ago I got one plant
at a plant exchange. This flower self sows and blooms late in the summer. We enjoy seeing
it bloom when most other summer flowers have faded.

The New Guinea Impatiens on our patio hardly bloomed all summer.
Now that the season is nearly over, they are looking pretty!

Purdue wasn't a match for Wisconsin today but shortly after half-time, Indiana has tied Missouri. Hope they can pull out a win. This is the biggest test of the season for Indiana.

Rain!

Shortly before our usual wake up time we heard thunder and then heavy rainfall. After a bit Ray got up and closed the windows and discovered that we has an eastern wind and some water on the window sill and floor. There was a break in the rainfall as we drove to the Rec Center but I decided to use the treadmill rather than the outdoor trails. I think that was a good decision since it began raining again and I might have been caught outdoors.

When we returned home Ray measured 2-7/8 inches! That's the most rain in several months and will help our lawn.

Late this afternoon Ray checked the garden and brought in several watermelons. While he was out he also brought in 50 or more Paw Paws. We'll have to decide quickly how to take care of them since they don't have a long shelf life.

I went to get a green pepper for our evening meal and realized that we need to decide what to do with the excess. One possibility is making stuffed peppers and freezing them. I did this several years ago and we enjoyed the quick and easily prepared meals all winter.

Weekend is Half Over

Who doesn't love this cooler weather? I dare you to stand up and be counted. After a record breaking 96 on Tuesday we had a big cool off and turned off our AC and opened the windows again. Seems like we've done this several times this year. The temperatures were in the high 40s this morning, but warmed nicely with sunshine this afternoon.

We started our Saturday with a trip to Greenwood so I could help in the church kitchen. A while back we had decided it was time to give the kitchen a good cleaning. Some came early and left for other activities and others, like me, came a bit later and stayed until about 11:30 when we declared the job completed.

Perfect timing to drive to Joe & Nancy's house not far away. Kylie & Josh were hosting Jayden's 6th birthday party at noon. Josh was preparing hamburger patties for grilling and soon other guests and relatives arrived. We hadn't seen some of Kylie's extended family in a long time and there were some little children we had never met before.

Jayden shows Ray an action figure he just received as a birthday gift

Before I could get a photo, Jayden removed candles and decorations from his cake, but it was still colorful and delicious when I had a piece later.

Kylie dishes ice cream and Josh serves the cake

One of our gifts to Jayden was his name carved in wood

When we arrived home I realized I still had a few good hours left to complete some important tasks: wash the car, bake some Amish Friendship Bread and get started on some fall cleaning by washing a few windows. Now I'm looking forward to accomplishing more tasks tomorrow.

Mining for Gems

We are nearing the end of the summer season and looking forward to the cooler weather of fall. Before that happens though we have had several of the warmest days of summer. Yesterday we set a record for the date -- at least 96!

Today was not as warm and a nice day to spend outdoors if you weren't exerting yourself and had plenty of shade. We met the Walkers in Nashville (Indiana) to do some panning for gems. We stopped in at the Copperhead Creek Mining Company where each person gets a bag of sand with a guarantee that it will contain gems.

We poured sand in the trays and lowered them into the sluice channel that
has water flowing through it

I think we were all surprised to find small gem stones in our first panning effort.

A couple of keepers including the blue gem that caught my eye

We each picked out a geode to take home hoping to find beautiful crystals inside. We haven't cracked ours yet but will save that for another day.

When we were finished panning, we stopped at a local ice cream shop for a delicious cone and then posed next to a "goofy" stranger at the shop next door. Maybe he's a long lost miner. Even though there were no fall colors, Nashville was pretty busy as it always seems to draw tourists.

Ray, Brown County Stranger, me and Pat

Now we're looking forward to cooler weather maybe even as early as tomorrow but definitely by Friday.

Reminiscing--the past three weeks

One thing I notice at this time of year is the song of the annual cicadas. Whenever I'm outside I hear their buzzing sound but it's not nearly as loud as the 17-year cicadas from years ago. However, it's always a sign of fall.

Now for some catching up. Following our visit from the Fowlers, we were back in a regular routine, sort of, for a few days. Ray picked tomatoes for our first batch of sauce which made 8 quarts and is now in our freezer. On Thursday, August 22, we packed our bags for a trip to Sturgeon Bay, WI stopping in Mundelein, IL (about half-way) to pick up Ray's sister Veronica. She served us lunch and we were on our way arriving at Karen and Carl's place about 6 or 6:30. Karen had dinner waiting for us.

Karen (Ray's sister) and Carl are movie junkies, for want of a better term. We saw three movies, one each night, while we were in Sturgeon Bay: Flight with Denzel Washington, Mud and Life of Pi. 

Last December, Lindy Brewer, daughter of Ray's cousin Irene, lost her long battle with ovarian cancer and a few months later her husband Ron took his own life. Another family member, the son of Ray's sister Suzanne, decided to host a celebration of Lindy and Ron at their summer house on Saturday afternoon. However, before that a graveside memorial service of sorts took place. Quite a few people, most of them unknown to us, were there. Our hostess, Chris Reeve, noted that many of Lindy's friends came and she was happy to meet them since over the years she and Lindy spent time together but had never met the people that Lindy would speak about.

Crowd gathers waiting for the service to begin

Warm day with light breeze as family and friends gather to remember Lindy & Ron

Ray plays a round of Corn Hole with Hunter, the grandson of his cousin Sandy Hansen of Green Bay.
Hunter loved playing--very competitive 8-year-old.

When we returned home, we turned on the AC again as we actually had the hottest day of the summer a few days later -- 94! We met our friends, Pat and Max, for a tour of "The Catacombs." The Catacombs are located under City Market in downtown Indianapolis. We learned about the history of the former building that was on the site.

The next day a crew of about 5 began the long-awaited installation of fiber optics for Internet and TV. After many years of subscribing to DIRECTV, we have cut the ties. Reception and sound from our new system is very good even though we have an older TV. Perhaps someday we'll get a HD TV, but for now we are satisfied and just need to learn to use a different remote control.

On Saturday, August 31, I ran in the 3rd Indianapolis Women's Half Marathon. The day was very warm but 1,011 women finished (either running or walking) and even I did some walking and didn't set any personal records but still was good enough to win first in my age division.

Ray also worked on repairing holes in our chimney a problem that the local woodpecker population is responsible for.

That's a 24-ft ladder and it takes two of use to move it.
Notice the dry lawn. August was very dry.

Our cantaloupes have slowly ripened -- more than we can eat at once. We have also had one watermelon from our patch plus quite a few green beans.

We cancelled our usual Labor Day routine (cleaning the garage) this year because of the heat. A week ago today, Ray bent over to take something out of the dishwasher and since then has been having lower back pains that are gradually getting better. We'll eventually get around to cleaning the garage, I'm sure. By Wednesday, his gimpy knee was bothering him so much that he called a doctor for an appointment and was lucky to get one on Sept. 18. This is the same doctor who did some repair on his right knee about 10 or 12 years ago.

On Friday evening we drove to the local Monrovia Festival which we hadn't been to the last two years because we were out of town. They have lots of booths selling wares and food. We purchased our dinner at the Lion's tent as they are raising funds for youth soccer.

The NFL season is underway. Can you believe what Peyton Manning accomplished last  Thursday? The Colts were lucky to defeat the Oakland Raiders today.


I've posted photos taken during August on Flickr.

I think it's going to be a hot week and if I'm going to tackle my to-do list I need some good shut-eye. I'll be back in a few days for an update.