Cloud over the Winchesters

This cloud speaks for itself.  Magnificent! 

More Pillows!

Over the past few years, I have made more pillows than I can count.  Today I made more!  

Two for Audrey's home in Chicago (gold Greek pattern) and two for Carly and Colter 

(red with dark brown stripes).  Love them all!  More sewing is ahead over the coming days as I make a crib dust ruffle for Audrey and Dan's nursery.  Always happy to sew for grandbabies!

Mama Cow Nursing Two

Papa and I saw a calf nursing from the mother cow, along with a heifer cow.  The little calf swatted at the heifer a few times, but the heifer was larger and just kept on nursing.  The poor mother cow was stuck.  Poor Mama, it's hard to eat enough for yourself, a nursing calf, and a heifer as big as you!

Cowboy Hats

The hooks near the entrance of our home at the ranch are a daily reminder of how our lives have changed since Papa retired.  Before moving to the ranch, Papa didn't have cowboy hats that he wore daily.  As time passes, a couple of these have become darkened with sweat.  They are used every day!

Barrel Cactus Season

I love flowers and I enjoy the blooms of various plants throughout the year.  I count on barrel cactus blooms in August.  The various shades of blooms and the delicate petals are a contrast to the fishhook spines. 

Layers of Clouds and Mountains

The layers of clouds and mountains in this photo are beautiful.  They are magnified at dusk.

Fire on Bald Ridge

Late yesterday afternoon, there was a lightning strike on Bald Ridge that started a fire.  There was some wind, so the fire moved rather quickly uphill.  After dark, we could hear the fire popping from our house, about 3.5 miles away.  Around 10, rain started falling and fortunately doused the fire.  A burn scar is left on the mountain. 

Spoiled Horses

Papa normally feeds Oscar, Pablo, and Hank every evening between 5-6, with treats of sugar cubes and lots of brushing and cooing.  As we've had so much rain over the past few weeks, the horses prefer the fresh grass over hay, so they haven't been going to the corral for their normal evening routine.  Today they came into our house yard looking for attention.  They like to come onto the patio and smash their noses against the glass.  Papa chases them back to the driveway over and over.  This afternoon, they stood for some time just past the rock boundary of the driveway, rolling in the dirt and kicking their heels.  Oscar, Pablo, and Hank are spoiled!

Sidewalk Chalk

I have a large bucket of sidewalk chalk handy for when children are at our house. They always enjoy drawing with it, on the sidewalk or rocks. Papa and I enjoy their artwork for a few days afterward and it disappears after a rain shower, leaving the sidewalk ready for another masterpiece!

Baked Chocolate Pudding

This chocolate pudding is easy to make, rich, and sooo delicious!  I made it last night for our Summer Party.  The recipe is from the cookbook, Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.

Baked Chocolate Pudding

2 sticks unsalted butter
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good cocoa powder
1/2 cut all purpose flour
seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly butter a 2 quart (9x12x2 inch) baking dish.  Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar on medium high speed for 5 to 10 minutes, until very thick and light yellow.  Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder and flour together and set aside.
When the egg and sugar mixture is ready, lower the speed to low and add the vanilla seeds, cocoa powder and flour mixture.   Mix only until combined.  With the mixer still on low, slowly pour in the cooled butter and mix again just until combined.
Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared dish and place it in a larger baking pan.  Add enough hot tap water to the pan to come halfway up the side of the baking dish and bake exactly 1 hour.  This dessert is between a brownie and a pudding.
Allow to cool and serve with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired.  This dessert is sinful!

Summer Party

Madilyn spent the day with me a couple of weeks ago and during her visit she planned a Summer Party.  She planned the menu, the music, the candles, and more.  We enjoyed our Summer Party this evening, on the patio with a light breeze blowing. 

Colter and Carly, Madilyn, Colter Lee, Traven, Colter's parents and his sister, along with his grandfather and a summer ranch cowboy joined us for dinner.  I prepped much of the day.  The menu included steak with herbed butter, shrimp scampi, blackened salmon with caper sauce, orzo with parmesan, tossed salad with croutons, fruit salad with honeyed yogurt sauce, hummingbird cake, chocolate pudding cake, and chocolate covered strawberries.  After dinner, we sat outside and talked while the kids drew with sidewalk chalk and chased bugs.  The sunset was spectacular.  It was a summer evening to celebrate!

Observing the Ranch

Papa and I rode Bob across the ranch today.  We left at 8:45 and returned home around 4 hours later.

We stopped along the way to throw rocks out of the road and to open and close gates.  This summer has been kind to the ranch, with water flowing in most of our creeks, all the dirt tanks have water, flowers are blooming, and our cattle are fattening up.  The downside is that our road is a mess.  We'll suffer riding on a rough road for happy cows!

Mexican Bird of Paradise

There is a beautiful group of Mexican Bird of Paradise plants in front of our Tucson home.  They are deciduous and look rather like sticks during the winter, but come summer, they are prolific bloomers.

The Help

This afternoon I took Tucson neighbor/friend, Brenda to see The Help.  We both enjoyed it.  Growing up in the South, both of us easily identified with the movie.

The Help synopsis:
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett created three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel and movie filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

Almost Like Ireland

In the past six weeks, we've had over 10" of rain at the ranch.  Our mountains are covered in green.  They remind us of Ireland.  The difference as compared with early July is amazing.

Mango Salsa

I just made mango salsa to go with our roasted chicken for dinner.  It's good with fish and it's terrific with corn chips!  I am asked for this recipe almost every time I serve it. 

Mango Salsa
3 ripe mangos, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/2 sweet onion, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons lime juice
3/4 teaspoon salt or garlic salt

Combine all ingredients, cover and chill. 

More Painting

I've spent the past three days, painting at Carly and Colter's house.  It's coming along!  Papa went with me this morning and he painted the ceiling and the posts of the front porch.  I continued working inside, painting door and window trim.  Yesterday, I finished the walls and ceiling of the living room and playroom.  The playroom is full of toys plus all the kitchen stuff.  There were times with Carly and me standing in the toy box, trying to reach the wall.  It was an experience!   Everything we've painted looks much better, fresher, and loved.  It will feel like new to Carly and Colter.

House Painting

In America's past, communities came together to "raise" a barn for one of their neighbors.  In my case, I'm painting a house with our ranch manager's wife, Carly.  They live in an old ranch house on Colter's grandfather's ranch, our nearest neighbor.  Nothing has been painted in their house for over 20 years.  Needless to say, it is in need of freshening up.  I arrived by 8 a.m. this morning at their house and left a bit after 6 p.m.  Carly and I never left the kitchen in those 10 hours.  We caulked and painted all day.  I'm going back again tomorrow morning.  It's good to be reminded of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."   

Lots of Bags

I spent most of yesterday sewing.  I made lots of bags!  All the bags are reversible, washable, and have multiple uses.  Blue plaid for Toby, pink circles for Greta, and red polka dots for Emerson. 

Cloudy Days

We are having a terrific summer monsoon season, with over 8" of rain in the past five weeks.  The high temperature at the ranch has been in the 80's over that same period of time, with lows in the 60's to 70 in the morning.  We are loving this weather! 

Happy!

After I graduated from high school in Kentucky, I went to college in Florida, then moved to Arizona for my first job.  Papa and I met and married in Arizona, and then lived in Texas for 10 years, and Florida for over 10 years before buying the ranch in Arizona.  Through the years, I was so focused on providing interesting experiences, the best education possible, and independent children with high self esteem, that I didn't give much thought to their future or ours.  I assumed it would sort itself out.

Papa and I are happy at the ranch and enjoy our home in Tucson.  Our girls have moved around a bit and will continue to move over the coming years as they or their spouses make decisions based on careers.  What I never counted on was the distance and the difficulty in seeing each other regularly.  As the airlines were deregulated, air travel connections are fewer.  We all have busy lives and our own schedules, so getting together isn't easy.  I am grateful for video chatting! 

Keffiyeh to Baby Blanket

I received a package from Claire last week, containing 8 keffiyehs. Keffiyehs are the traditional Arab headdress fashioned from a square scarf, usually cotton. They are typically worn by Arab men. 

Claire went to a baby shower in Amman where one of the guests had made baby blankets from keffiyehs.  She asked me to make several baby blankets for her to give as gifts.  I spent some time sewing today, and made four baby blankets.  They are soft, colorful, and warm.