Pancakes

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 beaten egg
1 c milk
1 Tbsp cooking oil

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Combine
egg, milk, and oil; add all at once to flour mixture, stirring till
blended but still slightly lumpy. Pour about 1/4 c batter onto a hot,
lightly greased griddle or heavy skillet for each standard size pancake.

-- from The Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook

Mmmmmm!!! I put frozen blueberries in! Yum. I remember my mom using this same cookbook when we were little; you know the one with the red and white plaid cover. Crazy!

Breakfast today was kind of like our yearly anniversary camping trips, because:

a) October: it's that time of year

b) Tents: we are living in plasticked-off rooms due to imminent sheet rock messiness

c) Food: I make Jay pancakes at least once on the Coleman stove

d) Cold: The bazillion-dollar brand-new heating/AC unit won't turn on and it's about 45° today

So, kind of fun, kind of annoying, kind of cold...but in 10 days we get to celebrate 10 years of marriage, so that pretty much trumps the annoyances. Besides, it's always easier to get warmer than it is to get colder!

More fun than an imploding refrigerator.

We went camping this gloriously summerlike fall weekend and enjoyed the brilliant colors of north Georgia. Didn't know you had it in you, GA, to be so mountainous and lovely. We certainly appreciated being able to go during the week (and not on a busy weekend) and to have the place almost to ourselves, but to add to it the joy of having perfect weather, lots of firewood (no fire ban, hooray!), and to get to miss the election hooplah, well, bonus! We did a rollicky trail of 8.5 miles that proved to us we're more suited to our desk-based professions than we are to actual work. But it was so much fun, even achy and sore and needing a shower. Here's what we saw below. And about the refrigerator, it apparently didn't appreciate the time change and tried to sabotage our trip, but we got the upper hand, at least til the repairman brought the bill.








ps. I believe "Gahuti" is Cherokee for "tortuous calf-killing incline".

GUMO

A few shots from my trip west...Guadalupe Mountains of Texas/NM!

More memories.

All I can think about.

I got these from my dad today. I can't stop thinking about them and trying to remember this trip. I have the world's worst memory [of important things!] and it pains me to think that all the little neurons and synapses that once held these in my mind have blown or just moved on. At least I can comfort myself with knowing that we enjoyed the moment at the time; that is for certain. Oh to be there now!

I do slightly recall that Mom wore bandannas, the pattern on that tablecloth, and that awesome nesting cookpot set that I am sure my twin and I will bitterly squabble over someday. We still have the Igloo cooler, somewhere, and also somewhere, out of the photo frame, surely must be the big old green army surplus type tent we all piled into on trips like these.

God bless my parents for taking three little kids out camping, showing them how to love it, to love nature, getting dirty, sleeping in a tent, and knowing to be quiet in a campground full of people. God bless them for hauling our gripy little selves around and making us behave and putting up with all the work that goes with all the fun. The fun I remember in my soul even if my brain leaked it out; the fact that the planning, the getting up early, the driving long distances, the food and smoke and stars and cold showers and everything involved with heading West to camp still gets me thrilled to the pit of my gut even in my old age proves it. I can barely contain myself from grabbing a handful of maps, the tent, and a sleeping bag right this minute.

Sigh. Yet I can't. I have to be here right now, doing the stuff I have to do, being responsible, making plans and arrangements and fulfilling duties. But it won't always be so; those mountains are still there, and I know the way. I can get to my tent in about one minute. Dad would drop everything and come with me in a second, forty-year-old campboxes full of vintage gear and happy memories. Just knowing that with one phone call and about two hours of intense preparation I could be on my way gives me a happy feeling deep inside, and I can almost deal with the fact that I just can't go right now. *sob!* But where's my cellphone...maybe we can at least start planning...

Two Loves.

Any combination of these will suit me fine. For whomever wants to go get them for me from the swell Ranger Doug site. Glorious American National Parks! My patriotism swells beyond my capacity to contain it! That is, til we get to a park overcrowded with noisy revelers. Then my loathing for humanity takes over, alas...

Communing without nature - CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/02/05/nature.interest.ap/index.html

then why is it so busy at every campground we try to visit here in TN???

Chilly Camping

This past week was our 8th anniversary, which we celebrated as we often do by going camping. This year's choice was a longer trip to Hanging Rock, NC. What we didn't know was that the governor of North Carolina had issued a state-wide fire ban... and this was to be a pretty chilly few days, lows in the low 30s! So.... we couldn't really go home, so we stayed, and are so glad we did. It was gorgeous as it was cold. Pictures are up on our Flickr.com site but here are a few you don't need to sign in for.

Camping fun.

Don't think I'm a creative. I just promote other people's stuff. Or sell it.