Seasons Change and A Recipe

It`s not Autumn here yet, still warm with cool nights. I couldn`t resist the graphic above! In fact we`re having cooling rain since yesterday. When the nights stay chilly Fall will be here soon. The best part is being able to really cook and not worry about heating up the house.

Our Festival went well. The doilies I labored over sold at good prices. Entrants in the Gold Nugget Contest and Treasure Hunt were happy with their prizes and had a lot of fun. Fry Bread, Chili and potato curls were on the menu filling many a tummy. Most importantly money was raised for Feed The Children. I sometimes think people forget that children in America are hungry too. My husband runs the Nugget and Treasure hunts, I was home with a virus. Not good.

Photo and recipe courtesy of What`s Cooking America

Here is a Navajo Fry Bread recipe. Not great for the hips and waistline, but it is goood!

Till Later,
Cathy

Sun, Rain and HEAT!

I have been trying to keep cool the last few weeks. It`s been very hot, between 101 and 107 degrees F. There was humidity yesterday making it all the more miserable. We had afternoon showers and it cooled off nicely. Phoenix was 117 Thursday. We are usually 10 degrees cooler because of our higher altitude.

Lovely thought but I would have been in one of those tents tearing off a couple layers of clothes and the corset!

This is a double rainbow on Thursday afternoon this week. Just a few drops of rain and a bit of cool breezes.

Double Rainbow Thursday August 25 2011

Warm again today. I am soaking a Quaker lace tablecloth and several dingy doilies today in a Dollar Store oxygen cleaner. Works as good as Oxyclean for a lot less money. I`ll post those pictures Monday. I collect Quaker lace tablecloths and use them. They have a quaint beauty and are well made.

This is Friday afternoons double rainbow. There were showers with big rain drops, thunder, lightening and cool air. Loved it!

Double rainbow Friday 26 August.

Prayers for all you folks on the east coast. I`m calling my sister in Pennsylvania soon as I finish here. Thanks for visiting,
Cathy

Big Rain and Desert Pictures

A soggy day in Northwestern Arizona thanks to a front moving in from California. We are told to expect 5 inches of rain today and tomorrow. That`s a lot of water!  I know there will be lots of flash flooding and deep waters on the roads. We live on a dirt road so we`ll have lots of fun driving on wet sticky clay. It`s not a freezing rain and happy we won`t have snow. I noticed last week the Joshua trees once brown and dry are brighter and greener thanks to rain a month ago. The persistent drought caused a large die off of trees. Ours is one of the largest Joshua forests in the world.

 Removal of the trees from residential lots in our area is discouraged and permits are needed to remove them from the desert. It`s amazing how much shade Joshua`s provide. In the summer they are covered with pungent flowers that produce seed. Cactus Wrens fill the branches with nests, ravens perch there watching my dogs to see if there will be leftover food, owls communicate nightly from the tree tops. I like hearing the comforting hoot of owls. The desert at night is beautiful. We are covered by a star filled canopy. Many of my neighbors have telescopes and there is an enforced night sky ordinance forbidding the use of certain types of outdoor lights so as not to obscure the view.

Time for hot chocolate. Take care and Merry Christmas.
Cathy

Rain and Recycling Household Water

Wow! Rain two days in a row and looks like more today. Most vegetation in my area is brown and crispy dry. My lilacs are suffering as are my herbs and my one and only fir tree.  I water, but we haul our water so try to be judicious in the way we use it. The deep soaking rain is far superior to my  watering. I recycle gray water, using my scrub water on the trees,  lilacs and small willows.

When I clean the dogs and cats water dishes  (I have three labs), I dump the water bowls into a bucket using that water for house plants. Very soon we are running a line from the washer to the back yard,  watering the wild flowers and trees. Water from the sinks goes straight to the septic and we are allowed to run gray water on the ground here. Black water goes where it belongs, the septic. I use a homemade mix of yeast and sugar to keep the septic flowing nicely.  Small things, but effective.

I hope you all have a cool, relaxing weekend!
Cathy

Enough Of The Drought Already!

This first picture is what I am impatiently waiting for, cool fall weather and rain.This is a picture of today`s sunrise. There was lightening, no thunder and lots of wind. And no rain. I am grateful for temps of 60 to 70. The sun is up now and I expect we`ll only get to 93. Yipee!

Have a wonderful weekend.
Cathy

Weather, Projects and Whining.

Very hot today, but better than yesterday at 106 with lots of humidity. We haven`t had measurable rain in three months except for 5 minutes a week ago. We put water out for the quail, rabbits and whatever else might come along that needs a drink.

I started a set of quilted placemats, pictures later in the week and I`m adding aprons to Catherine`s Vintage Linens, my little shop. It is hot in the house and my ambition went away with the cool weather. I hope to build up the stock in that store a little every day. I have a few aprons to add that I`m selling as cutters. They are 1950`s embroidered gingham and only have a few teeny tiny holes you can`t see, no stains.

I hope cooler weather finds you and for you folks in the Gulf, lets hope that cap holds on that well.

Till later,
Cathy