Say it isn't so.......

Say it isn't so.....I love Cooking Light magazine but this is what arrived in my mailbox the other day - the last issue!  I'm in mourning. I've had a subscription to the magazine from the first issue. Many of my all time favorite recipes that I make year after year are from this magazine. They will substitute Eating Well magazine for the rest of subscriptions, it's just not the same, I've read it before. They will have the occasional special issue on the newsstand but the chance of me remembering to make the effort to check out the newsstand all the time just won't happen.  So for the immediate future I have many recipes marked to try so I'll be ok for a while.......

On another note - anyone out there watch the Macy's Day Parade? I will be watching, or at least dvr'ing it to watch later in the day - the Grants Pass High School Band is in it once again. It's a huge honor to be selected but this is the second time. They went to Macy's back in 2010 - there were only 18 bands in the parade, only 8 of them from high schools and our band was the only high school from the west coast. It was announced 1 1/2 years ago that they were invited to the parade again, since that time huge fund raising events have been going on. It takes a lot of money to get 230 students plus many parents, chaperones, supporting staff, uniforms and instruments to NYC - a total of 444 folks. Each band member had to raise $2000 plus spending money for themselves but then there was all the extra monies needed for getting everything else to NYC. Everyone left here on Sunday being bused to big airports to the north for red-eyes landing in 3 different NYC airports. While there they will also get to see the sights and attend a broadway show. This year I know 2 kids that will be there, a friend's granddaughter who I've been giving bags of cans/bottles to for her fundraising efforts and a neighbor's son. This is very exciting for our small town. I'm not sure when the uniforms and instruments left aboard trucks bound for NYC - hopefully no storms will affect the cross country trip. So, if you watch the parade be sure to watch for the Grants Pass High School band.

A note of what's going on - too little fibery stuff, too much other stuff....nothing exciting to write about but hopefully life will get back to normal in 2019.

Yard art......

Now that I have a small yard where yard art won't be lost like on acreage in the woods I'm picking up fun pieces. These two pieces are from Rusty Birds in Vancouver, WA - the co-owner is down here for a holiday market this weekend.
 

 I bought this cute chickadee yard stake. I've got it against the fence so I can see it from the loom room window - it's along what I'm now calling rose bush lane as all the rose bushes are along this fence

And this is a armillary - it has circles that will spin around in a breeze/wind. It's hard to see here but it sits on the edge of my future garden beds, it's really tall, much taller than I am. We got it in the ground this morning - of course there's no breeze so it's not moving right now. And yes, those raised beds are in need of soil - that will come. I'm thinking of planting strawberries in the little cubbies in the blocks, then veggies inside the beds.

MIA

Yes, missing in action once again - sometimes there is just too much going on in my life and sometimes, like now, it's nothing I think would be of interest of anyone out there. Hopefully life will get back to normal in the not too distant future and I will have more creative 'stuff' to share.

I have been doing some sewing but it's for gift giving so I can't show it until after the holidays.

This morning we had freezing fog. I forgot to bring the hummingbird feeder in overnight but it wasn't frozen solid so the pair that visit were able to drink from it.

We have hummingbirds that stay here all year long which means I need to get back into the habit of bringing the feeder in at night so it's not frozen come morning.

It's hard to see in this photo but this hummie's beak is open - guess it's smacking it's lips and saying "yum, good sugar water"

And here just two hours later the sun has broken through and the feeder has thawed. These pix were taken through the window (with screen) right by my computer.