Mid October Musings

Sun rise shining on the maples

It's hard to believe that it's already mid October. Where did our summer go???

My garden this year was pretty much a bust with the cool wet spring and early summer we experienced. But, on the positive side (there's always a positive side), our autumn has been spectacular with some of the best leaf color we've had in years. We don't often see beautiful sunrises as we face southwest, but our winter sunsets can be breathtaking.

We've had a few cool, rainy days and guess what Giddy does to keep busy? Why cook and bake, of course! I was perusing some of my favorite blogs and came across this recipe for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Scones on Dash of Sass's blog. She always has wonderful recipes that showcase good, healthful, and most importantly very tasty foods. You'll find the recipes, along with step by step photos on her blog.

And, of course, I can't have a baking day without baking something from the "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" book (See my post of January 15, 2008 for basic bread recipe details and video). Yesterday's choice was Caraway Rye Bread. It went together easily and came out of the oven looking great. Needless to say, H and I did not wait long to cut in to it. It did not disappoint.
I also highly recommend the book author's blog, Zoe Bakes. She always has something interesting and tasty baking.

And finally, I made a batch of my Guilt Free Dark Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies. I developed this recipe with our own tastes in mind and we love them! They're full of whole wheat flour, old fashioned oats, craisins, grated fresh ginger, pecans, Ghiradelli cocoa and Ghiradelli dark chocolate chips.

H and I worked hard the other day getting the deck ready for winter. We drained the fountain and put it in the garage and put all the deck plants into the "winter garden" downstairs. The winter garden is simply a spot in our mechanical room. The heat from the water heater keeps the temperature from freezing and most of the plants do quite well over the long, cold winter. Come spring, I'll cut them all back and begin feeding with Miracle Grow. By the time summer comes along, everything will be looking fine and I will have saved a bundle of money. Giddy is quite the tightwad.

My Muse has left me and Sluggo is bugging me for his lunch, so I'll have to sign off now.

Life is Good,

Hugs, Giddy

Road Trips

Well, folks, life has been a wee bit busy around here. Autumn brings so many wonderful opportunities and it's difficult to pick which ones we will avail ourselves of before the season ends. Soooo, we begin this post with a continuation of the apple picking fun.

As you recall, in our last post, we had such fun at the orchard and before we knew it, we had picked 38 pounds of crisp, juicy apples. Of course, the first order of business was baking a Dutch Apple Pie. Oh, yeah. It was delish! Since it was too much for H and I to finish all by ourselves, we shared it with some friends.


The next order of business was the annual batch of Apple Butter! I think this was the first time H had really tried it and decided it was yummy. He's not big on sweets, but I don't put a lot of sugar in my apple butter. He spread it on a piece of my homemade toasted rye bread and was hooked!

My Mom made that Owl cookie jar in the background and it still holds doggie treats for any visiting canines.

We then made our annual road trip to Eastport, Maine which sits right next to the Canadian border. We stopped by Raye's Mustard Mill for a visit and picked up a jar of Hot and Spicy mustard. They are the last mustard mill in the US and their mustards have a wonderful flavor, tasting nothing like the mass produced mustards found on the grocery shelf.

After our visit to the Mustard Mill, we headed on in to Eastport for lunch and a quick walk around the downtown area. Since it was a bit chilly and windy, we didn't stay long, but a nice couple from Nashville was kind enough to take our picture in front of the giant fisherman.

The trees from the deck are showing color changing every day now.....


and across the bay, Bar Harbor is seeing daily visits from the big cruise ships for leaf peeping.

In between road trips, I still have my volunteer duties at the clinic. In addition to helping out in the office, I also plant and maintain the landscaping. This autumn it is looking particularly nice since I also planted mums which were used for a fund raiser.

Our next road trip was to Greenville, Jackman and back home via the Old Canada Road. This bit of historic roadway was exceptionally beautiful.

These bold fishermen were sitting in the middle of the river in their anchored kayaks.

We stopped by an historic marker and marveled that revolutionary troops could actually maneuver this far north!

The vistas were incomparable!


and the colors, all too fleeting.

On those days where road trips are not possible, we begin our days with yoga and exercise on the treadmill and stationary bike.

Sluggo, loves to participate......

and Spike just looks on in lazy disbelief that anyone would exert that much energy on purpose.

So, Dear Ones, such ends another post.

Oh, and if you've not read enough here, and want to see what my alter ego, The Downeast Knitiot is up to, check out my knitting blog.

Life is Busy and Oh So Good!

Hugs, Giddy