WHAT’S GOING ON
On Tuesday as we were having our coffee, I happened to look out the front window, whereupon I exclaimed to Linda, “It’s snowing!” Yes, indeed, that white stuff was coming down from the sky. This is a bit early for us to have snow, although the mountain passes have been inundated with it for a couple of weeks now. Tuesday is my usual day for going to the grocery store, so I hurried up and got ready. By the time I got home, it had stopped snowing, but it did stick while it was coming down. A portent of things to come. Linda took a walk to Kissel Park while I was at the grocery store and took some pictures for me to put in the blog. Here they are.
Usually the leaves are all off the trees by the time we have snow, so these pictures were especially pretty with the fall colors.
I think Linda did an excellent job with the pictures. She also took one showing our back yard with our two flamingoes, Fanti and Mingo, trying to stay warm.
The temperatures have steadily been getting colder over the past week. A couple of days ago I took this picture of our Drinking Gourd hosta, showing its beautiful fall colors.
GIZMO
When Linda walks at Kissel Park she sometimes meets up with her walking buddy, Dennis. Dennis has a special needs Pug doggo named Gizmo. He walks Gizmo around the park in a baby stroller, letting him out for a few minutes so he can walk around some and do what dogs do. But Gizmo is barely able to walk, hence the stroller. Below is a picture of Gizmo in his stroller.
Dennis and his wife got Gizmo from the Pacific Pug Rescue located in Portland, OR. It is amazing what they have done for little Giz so that he could enjoy life despite his special needs. Dennis told me the specific syndrome that Gizmo has, but it was one of those long, unpronounceable words so I don’t remember it. Needless to say, it is a ton of work taking care of him, but when Gizmo is down at the Park, everyone stops to see how he’s doing. Sadly, it seems that Gizmo hasn’t been doing very well lately, but we hope that he continues to hang in there.
ANNIVERSARY
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that today (Wednesday, Nov. 9) is our 24th anniversary. It doesn’t seem like that long ago when Linda took the trip across country by herself in her little Toyota (which was stuffed to the gills) to move to Lumberton. Here’s a picture of us in our little house a few of years after she moved. I don’t seem to have any earlier pictures of us on this computer because we put them on disk years ago. But oh my, we were so young back then! That day 24 years ago changed both of our lives forever. We have had tons of good times and not too many bad times, and I can say that these have been the happiest years of my life (so far).
APPLES
In case you didn’t know, Washington state is a big producer of apples worldwide. There are apple orchards all over the place here in Yakima. Other fruit is also grown, such as pears, apricots, cherries, and grapes. But apples are the top farm commodity produced in the state. We like to get our apples from Johnson Orchards fruit stand. They have a huge variety of apples during the season, and it seems like every year there are more new ones available with names we have never heard before. This year we happened to get a new apple called the Lucy Glo apple. It was a surprise to cut into an apple and have it look like this below. As always with anything we get from Johnsons Orchards, it was delicious.
PARTING SHOT
Sleeping on the big bed in a sunbeam…Summer Girl was in kitty heaven! So much nicer than having that white stuff coming down.
Join me every Wednesday (barring any unforeseen circumstances) for more from the Southerner in the Northwest
Southerner in the Northwest 
Johnson Orchards has been our go-to place for peaches, too, as well as pies. Expensive, those pies, but well worth the wallet’s contents.
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We looovvveee Johnson’s chocolate chip cookies, we get one apiece every week. I’ve had their pies, but I’m not a big pie fan unless it’s chocolate or pecan.
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The only pecan pie I ordered from Johnson’s was awful! They crushed the pecans and mixed the stuff into the filling instead of arranging them on TOP of the custard filling, the Old Virginia style. I simply couldn’t eat it without getting tiny bits of pecans enmeshed between my teeth.
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Wow! Haven’t had one of their pecan pies. Definitely not the way I’ve made them, I do the Old Virginia style too, I guess.
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Oh, and those shots from Kissel Park are quite inviting.
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Congrats on your 24th anniversary! I also have no idea what’s going on with the weather here in Los Angeles. We went from excessively high summer temperatures to winter lows.
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We’ve had wacky weather here all year. Spring was late, summer was late, fall was late, and winter was early. Go figure!
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Congratulations!!! The apple kind of reminds me a bit of a Pink Lady, only tastier. Rescue animals can be a joy. Our neighbor has a little dog that has a big yippy bark. She got it from TX and drove to Seattle to pick it up. LOVE your snow pictures. We got a dust here, although, later was in a meeting where a couple of the folks said it was like a blizzard in some spots! It always puts a different spin on snow when the leaves are still on the trees. Do you leave your flamingos out all year??? Never remember to bring mine inside!
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Yep, we leave Fanti and Mingo out all year. By the time I think about pulling them up, the ground is usually frozen and I can’t get them up!
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Linda’s photos are gorgeous! It looks like autumn and winter are happening simultaneously; crazy. Congratulations on your anniversary! I hope you have many more happy years together.
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I think Winter is here for good now. Thank you so much!
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