Fall Is Falling

We had some dark stormy days this past week, and I have been having a lot of uncomfortable dental work, so I was happy to get outside in sunshine for a few hours this Saturday morning.

The autumn leaves have been glorious this year. In our garden the dogwoods and maples have been going through their color changes, each tree at its own pace. I have seen the same sequences in the trees over at the park where I walked when it was dry.

In the back yard, the red Japanese maple, the Korean dogwood, and another red maple. maple. 

In the front yard, the Fern leaf Full Moon Maple and another Korean Dogwood. 
 

And now this weekend the leaves are falling and forming a colorful carpet under the trees. 

Over at the park.

Yesterday Tom picked a rose, maybe not the last rose of summer, but close, and a perfect accompaniment to my grocery store bouquet of mums in autumn leaf colors. 

We'll be back outside again Sunday morning, grabbing all of the Autumn beauty we can before the rains return again. 

Annual Norquist Family Cider Bee, 2025 Edition

 

The weather was good! Dry is always good. 

The apples had been fetched from east of the mountains. Thank you, Ben and Laurie.

The clan began to gather. Coffee and yummy bakery goods were available to get us going. 

While this is the Norquist Clan, no one here has that surname any more. Since the brothers moved east, it is the sisters and their families who are maintaining the tradition.

Manning the apple presses.

Tom, Jake, Isaac, Andy, and Coral. 

Troy and Nora's boyfriend, whose name I should know but don't. :-/

Bottling the cider,

Laurie and Heidi

Drinking coffee and supervising. 

Tom

Supplying cuteness.

Cutting apples.

Laurie, Hannah, Jill, Stewart, Seila

Coral, Linda, Stewart, Kathy

Brothers. Ben and Andy

Sisters, Heidi, Nora, Hannah

Group selfie. Thanks, Katie, for many of these photos. 

Seila, Isaac, and Jill

Laurie's daughter Katie, Troy, and their family

Linda, Tom and their "kids".

Ilene's sons Stewart and Tim with some of the Grady bunch (DJ, Kathy, and Tim and Kathy's grandson.)
Laurie and her "kids".

Our hosts, Ben and Ericka. Their daughter Mia and Ilene's granddaughter Stephanie joined us later via Zoon for the cabin meeting. 

The product, lots of fresh apple cider. 

Once again we enjoyed lots of visiting and laughing and eating and some Rockaway cabin business, a legacy we all share. 

Halloween Fun

 With no young grandchildren around any more, we have pretty much let Halloween go. But I miss the fun of costumes and candy and decorations and people just enjoying themselves. 

I decided not the skip Halloween this year. Since it was on a Friday I dug my costume out of the back closet and resurrected Arachne, the Spider Witch.

This is me, Friday morning, getting ready to go to breakfast. Let me tell you about this costume.

In the summer of 2009 I found this hat at the gift shop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory, the original one before they "upgraded" to a not fun gift shop. We were there for our annual early August stay at the Rockaway cabin. I'm sure Jill and the grands were there with us. That year Isaac was six and Irene was four. I saw this hat and had to have it. 

In October we decided to go to Colorado for Halloween, where Jill and family lived in Fort Morgan. I made a cape for Irene to wear over her Cinderella costume and a pirate costume for Isaac  and I needed something for myself. The answer was this cape. We had fun with the kids!

So this year, I wore my costume to breakfast, where we passed out candy, and then to the bazaar at Wesley Gardens, where our 98 year old friend Dede lives. I wasn't sure about doing it, but Dede said the people there would love it like she did. They did! I got so many rave revues over my costume, and had fun with a few other "witches" there.  It gave me a warm, glowing feeling to make people happy.

I bought a few thigs there too, items made by the senior residents.

I couldn't pass up these wood working items, at $5 each. I bought a few other things but they have to remain secret until Christmas.

After we left the bazaar, we stopped by to visit our friend Jan who is in the health center there still recovering from a broken hip. I wore my costume and passed out more candy. Jan loved it, and on my Facebook page wrote, "You made so many people smile today!"

I was tired but happy when we finally got home. In the afternoon I paid the bills, something I usually do on Halloween. It began to rain, dampening Trick or Treat fun. We don't have sidewalks on our hilly street, and hardly any kids anymore, so we keep our lights off, but this year, in renewed Halloween spirit, I fixed treat bags for the two young boys who live in the house in front of us and delivered them at 4:00 when I went out to get the mail. I told them these are from a Grandma, just not yours. They were very excited. I was grinning. 

I celebrated Halloween!

Now it is November. Today we've had rain and wind and sunshine. This morning I did my PT exercises by bedroom windows with this view. 

This afternoon I made pumpkin muffins for the freezer, and a mac salad to take to the Norquist Family Cider Bee. Traditions live on in this family of mine, and this year, so did Halloween fun.