Quick Breather Before the Next Wedding

Well, we got one daughter married off at the end of September, in a truly beautiful place for a wedding,

and then Sunday another daughter got engaged, so the wedding planning only took a short breather before it's time to plan the next one. 😀 Fortunately, this daughter is not in so much of a hurry even though she's older. Go figure.

The place at which she got engaged is one of our favorite hiking places, especially in the fall. It has a major overlook from which we get to admire the beautious maples turning a variety of stunning colors in a river valley below. The hike is 3 miles long, taking hikers a ways down into the the valley and back up. Last year we and some friends hiked it backwards and ended up with a steep climb at the end when we were tired. Not so smart, especially for an out of shape person like me. This year, we were smarter and started down the steep way.

When we used to live in this area and our six kids were very young, we made a tradition of coming to this place every fall to enjoy the colors and to roam the woods (though we didn't do the whole three-mile hike back then). There was a special indent in the forest floor, probably caused by a tree tipping over) which we called Mossybank Pond and there we would sit for a while, each one taking a turn at telling a made-up story. It was a fun time and I treasure those memories and always try to find our Mossybank Pond when we go back to this place.

But this year, as we hiked with our Bible study group friends, we had an engagement to celebrate as our future son-in-law had proposed very soon after we all arrived. The two of them had wandered off alone for a little while and came back grinning up a storm. Since my husband and I already knew what was going on, we understood the grins and were happy, too. They haven't set a date yet so we're just being patient.

In the midst of all the activity, I have had some time to do some embroidery, trying to not get too behind with Jenny's Scrappy Vintage Kitchen sewalong. I have to confess that I haven't had much time to do last year's sewalong, but with fall's onset, maybe I will. No more gardening to do.

But I do want to make some applesauce and apple butter, so I might get to do that. I've arranged the homeschool lesson plans so that I should pretty much have afternoons off now while PooBah does her independent work. 

I'm also starting something new - vermicomposting. Yup, I'm going to have worms in my house...deliberately. I'll report on that when the worms come that I just ordered.