Trick or Treat and Hamilton Players Time

I made a short trip to Montana to see Pride and Prejudice by the Hamilton Players, with Julie as the assistant director.  She also did all of the artwork on the stage sets.  It was an outstanding performance and they were sold out almost every night.  I would love to post some pictures of her work, but photos are not allowed.

The night before I left, Retired Mountain Man loaded my bags in the car for me.  When I went out the next morning to get in the car and head down the road, there was one of his beautiful dahlias on my dashboard.

Sweet!

Ben had a tough time deciding which costume he would wear to which event.  Here we are at the GSK Halloween Party.

We ate a lot of candy and other junk food.  We also went to The Edge and had a cocktail and an appetizer before heading to the play.  We tried to balance it all out the next morning by having smoothies for breakfast.

It was a rainy, windy weekend for doing anything outdoors, even driving was difficult at times.  Fall is definitely here and there's finally some snow on the mountains.

From the Beginning.....for your listening pleasure.....

On the music front I have been learning three new songs on the guitar, Dust in the Wind, Blackbird and From the Beginning.  There are many hours of practice ahead of me, but I love rehearsing these songs.

I received my next cycle of Jazz Keyboard and music theory lessons and I am ready to dive into it again.

Greg Lake, 2005 Tour

I started growing a new SCOBY(symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast) so that I can make my own Kombucha.

It's a beautiful one!

Yes, those other bottles that you see are Bill's Plum Liqueur, the 2015 bottling.  Bill was here with us for a few days to hunt elk, but ended up spending the last day just hunting for his cell phone which he lost somewhere in the woods.

On the garden front:  My begonias are still blooming and even though the temp was 32.2 this morning, they are still with us.

Even the fuchsia made it.

Retired Mountain Man discovered another new dahlia blooming yesterday.  It's very pale yellow with touches of pink.  I am sorry that my photo does not do it justice.  I hope it has a healthy tuber.

This is the last bowl of tomatoes.  They are not vine ripened but they still taste good.

I dried the orange roses that Dylan and Sarah sent me and they ended up pink.  They will be fun to use in a centerpiece.

I Wanna Mooch A Kombucha From You! 

(Rich is a fabulous pianist)

Rich Dworsky and The Exchange Street Band 

Take a listen as it will be a great start to your day.  

Fridays are still busy even when you are retired.

Someone asked me the other day what I did to stay busy since Retired Mountain Man and I decided that we had done enough traveling and cruising.   He said, "What do you do?"

Friday:  
  It began with a trip to Sandpoint for an appointment and the weekly grocery shopping.   

It was a beautiful sunny day so when I got home I headed outside.  I am still working on putting my garden to bed.  Yes, I know you are probably thinking, "how long could that possibly take?  Hasn't she been doing this forever?"  It seems like that to me too.

I harvested the last vegetables from the garden, my carrots and a few beets.  They were in my raised beds and now the beds are weeded and covered with weed block for the winter.

I think I waited too long to dig up the carrots as some of them are a bit large. It's time for a meal with roasted carrots, beets, onions and potatoes.  

Next on the list was mowing my lawn for the last time.  At least I think it will be the final mowing for 2015, but this has been a strange year weather wise.  

As I was mowing the lawn I discovered that my new John Deere mower worked really well as a leaf blower.  There were a LOT of leaves on the lawn and it either blew them to the edge or it mulched them.  

 I love my John Deere, even if it is yellow and green.

In the evening Retired Mountain Man and I headed to Clark Fork for the Wampus Cats Homecoming Football game.   We had to get out our winter coats gloves and hats AND we took a blanket.  All of those items were needed as there was a cold breeze blowing down the mountains.

Jens is number 75.  He wore the pink socks in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  

We only made it through the first half of the game, but we did get to see Jens make a great interception!  
The Cats were playing without two of their key players so they struggled playing against Kendrick.  I don't know what they feed those boys from Kendrick but they all seem to be 6'6" and weigh 220 pounds.  

We were proud of our team as they never gave up!  

Go Cats!

As for how I fill up my days, I don't know.  They just seem to fill up.  It's like one of my favorite quotes that's posted at the top of my blog,  "Life happens while you are busy making other plans."   John Lennon 

Art, music, wine making.....not just another weekend in Hope. (updated)

Yes, yes, yes.  I am posting on my blog.  Last weekend was filled with fun events.  On Saturday Ann and I went to the Scotchman Peak's Plein Air workshop at the Outskirts Gallery and Marketplace.

 I can't say that I am an artist.  I do have watercolors and I have attempted to paint, but not very successfully.  I will say that I was encouraged to try it again after listening to the last artist speak and paint, Gregg Caudell.

This painting of his is titled, "Big Rock Candy Mountain".  How many times have we sung that song at our sing-a-longs?

"One evening as the sun went down......"

 ......and the jungle fires were burning."


He is a plein air artist.  It seems like it would be a wonderful way to enjoy the view and to try to capture the moment.

High Pasture

This one is, "Riders in the Sky".  Another song favorite at the sing-a-longs.

His painting technique was unbelievable.  It was so interesting to watch him paint and I loved all of his suggestions for a beginning artist.  I highly recommend taking the time to check out his artwork at Fine Art America.  He also has a blog.

I wonder if he has painted "The House of the Rising Sun".  If he has, I'd better start saving my $$.

The next day, I went back to the Outskirts to play some music with Bruce Bishop and Drew Brown.  It was a first time event for me playing with two very talented musicians.  It was another magical afternoon.  (Thank you to Paul for the photo and Vera for sending it to me.  It was a milestone event for me.)

Notice how serious I look?  That's because I am doing everything I can to keep up with those two!

photo from Outskirts website

On Monday, it was back to reality as it was time to start our 2015 wine.  It takes most of the day as there's a lot of sterilizing each step of the way, but the wine is in the vats and the little yeasties are already working away this morning.

The wine will be in the vats for about ten days, then we will rack it off into 5 gallon glass carboys.  The wine will age in the carboys until bottling time.  It takes about six months for the white wine and a year for the red.   Patience is required.

April Dawn from 2011

.....down the tracks came a hobo hiking, he said folks I'm not turning.  I'm headed for a land that's far away, beside the crystal fountains.  So come with me, we go and see, the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

No Way! Our cute "bug" can't be a senior already!

The years are just going by too quickly for me.  Retired Mountain Man and I are so lucky to get to know all of these beautiful kids.  It is so much fun watching them grow up and reach every milestone in their lives.

Here's a photo of our little "Lester Bug" back when she was just testing everything out at Elk Camp.

This would be a photo from her first Oyster Party, along with Jens.

Last Tuesday evening we went to watch Leslie play in her last home volleyball game, which happened to also be Senior Night.

This is one very proud dad.

The whole family was there!

We are looking forward to the next milestone for Leslie.  It's going to be an exciting year.   The Clark Fork Homecoming football game is this Friday night.  We will be going to watch Jens play.