RECIPE THURSDAY BY SPECIAL REQUEST.

Thank you all for your generous comments about my photography here on my blog,  on Face book and email.  It is always so nice to know that one's efforts are appreciated and enjoyed by others.

So Thank You -  very much appreciated!

I'm sure there will be more photos on my morning walks as the fall season progresses.  It is one of the reasons I love this season so much.  Things change so quickly, and so completely.  One day green, the next colour, and maybe the next - it's all gone.  At least here in Manitoba that might be the case.  But we won't think quite that far ahead just yet, even though we did have snow here on the weekend...

We have had frost, and yes snow - so I hurried to bring the very last of my garden harvest in just in the nick of time.

7 cooking pumpkins ( 3 very small ones) and 3 butternut squash!

What a harvest!

This variety of pumpkin is a true cooking pumpkin, it has very little water content and very dense pulp.  Perfect for baking a pumpkin pie, muffins or cookies.

So I made muffins and cookies, and yes, that is my snowman cookie jar.  Family tradition states he appears on the first snow of the season, so he's here until spring!

 

One of my Face book friends has requested the cookie recipe, so Sherry - here you go... enjoy!

PUMPKIN COOKIES

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1- 1/4 cups brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup pumpkin ( canned or fresh cooked and mashed)

2 cups all purpose flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp.  salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. cloves ( ground)

1/4 tsp. ginger

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped nuts.

Cream butter and sugar together well.  Beat in eggs 1 at a time.  Add vanilla and pumpkin.

Stir remaining ingredients together and add.  

Mix well.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased pan.  

Bake in 375 F  oven for about 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Makes 5.5 dozen

Notes:

This is a very soft cookie, and stored in a cookie jar makes them softer.  But they are so good, that they won't last very long anyway, so you might not have to worry about this issue.

also

I only got 4 dozen from my batch...

I am off tonight, on a new adventure - well new for here, but not new for me.  I will tell you all about it tomorrow!

Till then...

                   

TIME TO GET BACK AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOO!

Here we are -  soon coming to the end of September, and I am just getting myself back up to my desk to start back to doing some serious blogging and writing.

September has been a bit of a weird month, really.  I have been up and down, physically and mentally, so it has not been my most productive month ever.

But first and most importantly - I will start with the Happy Birthday Wish!

Our Dear sweet Thomas turns 12 yrs old today!  Happy Birthday Thomas!  I hope you have a wonderful birthday!  We Love You!

While I am on the subject of Thomas, I will also tell you that Thomas has been very ill.  His journey with childhood cancer has not taken the best turn.  He is currently in isolation at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, awaiting a match for a Bone Marrow Transplant.  This is not the outcome anyone ever imagined for Thomas and his family when this journey began over two years ago.  Any prayers you could spare, would be greatly appreciated.

So many of my loved ones are enduring so much right now.  Cancer has hit hard in Thomas, but also in my brother Wayne, my cousin Lorne, and my Dear friend Sharon.  Having had cancer myself, I know how hard it is to stay positive, and I also know how very important it is to stay in that mindset - but even I am struggling with it while I watch those I love fight this ugly monster.

While my mind has been struggling through this, I have neglected my own health, and now I am paying the price for that negligence.  So this week I started a plan to get myself healthier.  I have started taking long morning walks for some much needed exercise, and I am back to eating a diet rich in the things that are good for me, and not the things I love.  I need to loose weight, I need to get off some medications that are holding me hostage, and I need to feel better.

It's not going to be easy - I tend to fall off the exercise bike very easily... so to speak.  Thankfully I live in a beautiful corner of this country where my eyes can feast away, even if my tummy can't.  I have a partner for my morning walks, and tho I try and not stop too often, my partner sometimes really needs to take very short pit stops.

Here are just a few of my partner's pit stops for you to enjoy!

Blessings to you all...

THE TRANSITION OF SEASONS!

I don't usually write a blog post on the weekends, but today I am in somewhat of a reflective mood, and I just felt the need to sit down and write something.

Fall sort of does this to me every year.  I seem to have to go through this reflective mindset of reviewing the spring and summer that now has past.  I see change happening all around me, but it is more what I feel than what I see that makes me want to pause and let it all sink into my psyche.

Am I the only one that gets this "feeling of change"?  This feeling of slowing down; gathering in; putting away; storing up?

It's comforting, in it's own way - this feeling of change.  For me, it's like I now have permission to sit with a book, gather some yarn and needles in a basket close to my chair; bring out the throws and afghans and snuggle into them whenever I feel like it, set up the spinning wheel, and place it where it will be used frequently.

Is it any wonder that I love this time of the year?  I get to do some of my favourite things without really needing to do them at all.  It's my choice if I do, or I don't - nothing is spoiled, either way!

I have loved the spring and summer gardening season - but I am really looking forward to the settling in of fall and winter.  Shorter days, and longer sleeps.  Nice thick socks:  woolly PJ's;  long sleeves, and yes snugly afghans. 

Meals that warm your tummy; hot drinks; soups; stews; casseroles; turkey dinners, cranberries, turnip...

And writing...

I have been really wanting to write again.

And so I shall...

Starting with a Short Story for an open writing competition from CBC  Books.  Deadline is October 31st,  and already the story has wandered into my brain.  I can't wait to start typing and see where it takes.

But for now, on this cloudy cool Saturday in Western Manitoba - I think a pot of my very own grown Chamomile tea is in order, and then maybe I will wrap myself in my afghan and take a nap.