Fall is in the Air

 My oh my, I have so much catch up to do!  I will get into some of my trips later.  Jules and I have started taking trips with Jenna and her Nana, Gretchen.  Jenna and Jules have known each other since they were babies as they both stayed at Gretchen's house while their Mom's worked.  Now we both have the girls alone in Thursdays, so we have started going on fun trips together some Thursday mornings.  The girls are like two peas in a pod.  They talk nonstop and are both very imaginative.  They run, giggle and play.  This picture was taken at the Children's Museum in Phoenix.  They are both painting the castle in the art room.  They ended up with purple paint on their faces, arms and hair.  It was great fun!

Jules and Jenna playing on the Bill Keane statute at the Scottsdale Train Park

This is the front of the statue with Bill Keane and all of his children featured in the comic strip on his back

BFF

Riding the train

Jules on the carousel

Ice Cream snack.  I've known Gretchen for a long time because her three kids went to Madison #1

I had a very busy summer.  I worked and took 3 trips.  I went to Alaska in May for Bailey's HS graduation.  Bailey is my grandniece (Sean's oldest).  That was a wonderful, but quick trip because I had to get back for work which seemed to get in my way all summer!  Then I went to Salt Lake City to visit Star and Kirsten's family, Rob, Rowan and Dilly.  I will try to put up a video of Rowan playing the fiddle and Dilly playing the guitar.  Well, I will have to try that later because they are too long.  I must figure out if I can edit them.    Well I must decide if I am going to wake Jules up for choir practice, so gotta go for now. 

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness! Happy July 4th! Happy Summer Time!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Right, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. 

 It's summertime and hot, hot in Phoenix.  My solar dryer works amazingly well, drying clothes in record time.  I know we have a choice in clothes dryers.  However, hanging clothes and smelling their wonderful sun filled freshness after drying in the sun is it's own reward.  Takes me back to a time when we had no choice.  Mom hung lines at our kid height and we would help hang out clothes and gather them in also.  I remember having one of those umbrella type lines (an Australian invention, I think), but we were a large family (normal for those days) and we sometimes needed extra.  Sometimes we would have lines going between all the trees.  We thought it a treat to be able to help and reach our own line!

It's officially the Monsoon season here in Phoenix.  It used to start when we had 3 consecutive days when the dew point reached 55.  Now it states June 15 no matter what.  I like the old way because there were always people betting and guessing when it would start.  I still follow the dew point because I have a swamp cooler and an air conditioner.  The swamp cooler is very cheap to run and works wonderfully if the dew point is lower than 45.  I can turn it on in the spring with the fan set at low, then as it gets hotter turn the fan to high, usually waking up in the morning with temps in the house in the low 70s.  Now I turn off the cooler in the afternoon when  dew point it high and switch to the AC unit.  Turn the cooler back on before I go to bed, still wake up with house temps about 77 or 78.  Back to the Monsoon....no sign of rain yet though we have been in the Monsoon for about 2 weeks!  Please thunderheads come our way!  I think it has been close to 100 days w/o rain!

Yours truly with Rosie the Bear, photo by Jules

Another great pic by Jules

I'm trying to get all the oranges off my front largest tree.  Anyone want to come help???  All the oranges and/or OJ you desire!

My orange trumpet vine covers my back fence in the Spring, Summer and Fall with flowers the bees and hummingbirds love.  When I'm working in the yard early in the morning or coming and going other times, there are many hummingbirds feeding at these beautiful trumpet like flowers. 

Ah, Iced Tea!  It's summertime for sure!

Jules and I playing in her tent.  Tents are big.  She now sleeps in a tent in the back bedroom when she's here because she is too big for the pack and play.  Addie still sleeps in the pack and play, so I must keep it for awhile longer. 

Nana and Jules

Faye and Jules

Faye and Carol

Jules with cape and boots being Wonder Woman

Twirling in her boots and cape to go save the day!

My beautiful daughter and Granddaughter!

Harvest Time at Carol's house

Lettuce and kale for fresh from the garden salads

This is my herb garden, planted in a raised bed on wheels so that I can move it into shade or even inside when it gets hot.  We will see if it lasts the Phoenix summer.  I have regular Basil, Cinnamon Basil, Parsley, Chocolate Mint, Thyme, Rosemary, Parsley, and Chives.  It's great fun to experiment adding them to dishes.  The chocolate mint makes wonderful tea.  The container is from a company called FoodMap Container.  It is pretty deep, so I put pots upside down in the bottom as I was adding soil and planting. 

Tomatoes.  I have several kinds growing.  There is nothing like a garden tomato.  Nothing store bought tastes as good.  I have some yellow cherry tomatoes also which are great for salads or for stir fry.  One of my favorite lunches is toasted peanut butter, bacon and tomato sandwich or a toasted cheese and tomato sandwich.  I will try to keep these alive through the summer, but they will probably not last the heat. 

I'm  experimenting with several kinds of sweet peppers this year, yellow, orange and black! 

Some of my many apricots.  They ripened so quickly, almost overnight.  I made apricot jam yesterday.  I need to give some away and/or can some.  We had apricot trees when I was a kid and we would always can a lot.  I Love the taste of home grown apricots.  The store bought ones are tasteless and very expensive.  I used to sit up in one of our apricot trees when I was young, reading a book and munching on apricots. 

I have 2 different types of peaches, one ripens in May the other in June, so I have 2 months to enjoy fresh peaches!

Here you see tomatoes, peaches, an apricot and oranges.  I still need to pick the high oranges.  Anyone want to come and help yourself??  I have juiced, enjoyed, shared with friends and filled my freezer up with OJ to last the summer and fall till the oranges are ripe again in January. 

Peach Jam in progress.  You have to drop them in a hot water bath so the peals will slip off.  To the left you see my kitchen compost container which I put all non edible vegetable matter to turn into black gold (compost)

Ginger for the ginger peach jam

Strawberry Jam we made because strawberries are cheap and delicious now and people love strawberry jam.  I actually have wild strawberries in my garden, but they are small and tasteless. 

Slightly blurred self portrait before my helpers arrived

Mom and Elisa cutting up peaches for jam

We have the process down.  I was taking off peals and Mom and Elisa were cutting up fruit.  Then we measure exact amount, add dab of butter, lemon juice and pectin mixed with 1/4 cup sugar, bring to boil, add rest of required sugar (we always use the low sugar pectin and recipe because it is plenty sweet), bring back to boil, boil for exactly 1 minute (smells wonderful), take off heat stir for 4-5 minutes so the fruit doesn't float to top, pour into boiled jars, put on lids, place in a canning pot and boil for 25 minutes.  This is quite the process, but we love it.  I can do it alone, but done with friends is the really fun.  We love jammin!

 

Some of our jam (strawberry, ginger peach, plain peach and apricot). 

Eclipse turns the moon red, What a heavenly show!

This was taken when the eclipse was almost complete (300mm lens, ISO 400, F5.6, Exp 3 sec).   You could also see the star Spica (upper left) and Mars (lower R)

I took these from my back yard with my Nikon D7000 camera.  This is in the very early stages using 300mm lens, ISO 400, F-11, 1/60 sec

 Gary came over and brought his telescope which gave us a close up and personal view

I used a longer exposure here (F 5.6, exp 1.3 to 3 sec) and the picture above revealing details of the shadowed part of the moon

What an amazing sight when the Sun, Earth and Moon line up

This was so amazing and I'm glad I stayed up for it.  It made it more exciting that Gary came over, so we could share this celestial sight together.  We didn't really plan it in advance.  We were talking on the phone as we do each night.  I said, I'm going to stay up and watch the eclipse.  He said, OK, I'll come over and bring my telescope.  I knew he was interested in Astronomy, but didn't know he had a telescope. 

There will be 3 more Lunar eclipses in the next year and a half!

 I really had no idea what I was doing or what setting I should use.  I read somewhere to use ISO 400 which I wouldn't that thought to do myself, but it worked.  I kept that setting throughout and experimented with F stop and exposure time.  The longest exposure I used was 3 sec, but I must learn more about my camera because I couldn't figure out how to get a longer exposure than 3 sec.  I think the next lunar eclipse will be in October.