Looking Up

I gathered these photos earlier today and just realized I had better do the post because we are off to the doc again early in the morning.

Looking up during the Prosser Balloon Rally

Looking up in London



Looking up inside one of those huge wind turbines

Looking up at the playground.

The preceding photos were gathered from files of the last few years. Those below were done this weekend at Cousin Camp.

Sasha shows his climbing abilities up a tree.

Masha looks as tall as the trees as she stands on a stump in the campsite.

 

The original from which I am creating my header. Looking up into the trees.

 

 

Other headbangers are linked in my sidebar.

Children's Toys -- a headbanger theme

We are empty nesters.

We have been empty nesters for quite a few years. Our youngest child will be 35 this fall.

Our grandchildren all live some distance from us, and because of schedules we are much more likely to visit them than they are to visit us.

I have been retired from teaching for about seven years. I taught first grade for a number of years, but the last several years I had older kids.

Not a lot of toys around our house, so I went looking for the pictures of two summer events from the last few years for some great toy images.  Cousin Camp and Vacation Bible School.

Each summer for quite a few years we have had a camping trip with at least one of our kids and their families. These trips evolved into Cousin Camp, with several of the families coming together in the planning of the event. We always have plenty of  games and toys for the outdoors.

fun with light sticks

lawn checkers

playground toys

simplest toys are often  best

chess game

bubbles



paddle boat

 

Over the last few years we have done Vacation Bible School and guess who has usually been the official photographer. Here also some of the simplest toys are the best.

crayons

parachute games outside

big ball

parachute and big ball inside--it was 100º outside.

hula hoop

sidewalk chalk

 

Pretty good for empty nesters.

Hmmm. I think only one of our headbanger challenge group still has kids at home, so we will see some creative thinking in the submissions this week. You can find their blog links in my sidebar near the top.

Header Challenge--Birds

If I stroll back through my photo archives I am sure I can find a goodly number of bird photos.

There are the Camp Robbers at Mt. Rainier (actually Gray Jays and Clark's Nuthatchers) who will beg and steal any food you leave unattended even for a second (as the strip of bacon when I turned to the stove to cook the eggs)

or even if you don't.

Here are some other birds of some note.

Great Blue Heron

Chaffinch--taken in Scotland

Some more large birds--the Sandhill Cranes

We spent a couple of days with the kids at the lake this week, and the birds we spent time with were the ducks.

But on the way at a rest stop this sign made me laugh.

I laughed because it reminded me of these gulls when we camped at Sun Lakes a couple of years ago.

 They were quite determined.

  A collage suggested itself for the header image.

I am sure that my header colleagues found some great birds for their entries this week. You can find their posts through the links in my sidebar. The theme was suggested by Craver VII.

"What is that!?"

This week's Headbangers theme was proposed by Tom the Fishing guy, who is wondering WHAT IS THAT?

My daughter saw this from inside the restroom when we went to Deep Lake while we were camping. And there was movement. What is that?

 

Hangry Birds.

Still at Deep Lake.

My daughter was the one with the eagle eye.

WHAT IS THAT?

 

Another local resident out for a stroll.

 

Deep lake was fun.

The kids went swimming and kayaking.

That works up an appetite.

 

WHAT IS THAT?

Something is cooking in the Dutch Ovens.

Add another pan with a little ingenuity and some foil.

 

Pizza for dinner!

 

 

Once again posting the evening before Headbanger day as it's another doctor day and the appointments start early tomorrow.

 

What's that that the other Headbanger challenges have found? Check their posts and headers from the links in my sidebar.

Oh, dear, what will I do for this week's theme?

UNDERGROUND.  That's what our theme is for this week.  And more than one of the headbangers expressed the same sentiment. Thank you, Lew. You must have an idea for this theme of yours.

As we traveled to Idaho this last weekend, I was searching for an idea for underground. It isn't exactly the easiest thing to take a picture of. I remembered the tour of the Seattle Underground years ago. My pictures did not exactly turn out so well, and no idea where they might be to scan anyway. Pendleton Oregon offers an underground tour--that might be interesting sometime, but wasn't to be on this particular trip.

We camped overnight--testing out whether we would remember everything for our campout with grandkids next week. There were a few sorry possibilities for underground. There are quite a few critters who live underground. The hole above was the largest we saw--about a foot across. Not sure what lives there, And not sure I want to know.

This hole in the side of the firepit seems to be a bit of an iffy location. Of course, there is probably more than one entrance.

Under the tree might be better. I wonder who lives here.

And a warning of what lies below prevents some danger and a blackout. I wonder if the critters follow the rules.

This might have been a possible underground shot, had I got the other side where there are two tunnel entrances. It is a puzzle that I wonder about each time we pass this way.

 

Well, if you should happen to be looking at this before the new header goes up, let me tell you that I have just now decided that the header post will be totally separate from this one. These follow my search for the underground, but then both my husband and I had an aha! moment. He knew I had pictures, and I knew I had pictures and you will see late tomorrow what we found underground. (Headbanger day is Wednesday, but that is often problematical as it is usually a doctor day for himself. )

D

D is for Dutch Oven and Dump Cake

These Dutch Ovens were baking pizza when I took the picture, but one of our favorite Dutch Oven foods is Dump Cake.

 

You might have a Dutch Oven to use on stovetop or in the oven, but these are specially made for campfire cooking with three legs to hold them above the coals. This makes it also possible to stack them and use the coals on top of the bottom one under the next. You can stack several Dutch Ovens this way if you have them, but we only have the two.

 

We use charcoal when cooking in the Dutch Oven because it is easier to control the heat. You can really be pretty exact. The above meals cooked pretty fast--two or three fewer briquettes would have been enough.

 

Dump Cake

Ingredients:

One or two cans of fruit. Peaches are good, and we also like to use fruit cocktail.

Cinnamon (optional)

One cake mix--yellow or white

some butter or margarine

 

In a well seasoned Dutch Oven, put in the fruit and sprinkle with cinnamon. Dump the cake mix on top. Don't stir it, but you can kind of push it down into the fruit a bit. Dot with butter or margarine.

 

Place in the campfire pit with coals below and on top of the Dutch Oven. If you have the heat just right it takes about twenty minutes to bake.

 

A related recipe is Bears in the Apple Orchard. It is made the same as Dump Cake using apples and gingerbread mix. Yum!

ABC Wednesday is here.

 

I just went to post my link. I did not know that the introduction would be using the Dutch Oven. Really. I mentioned it last week, remember? And I provided a recipe.

Headbangers--Smoke

Craver gave us the theme of Smoke a couple of weeks ago, before this:

 Which I described here.

Smoke is a good thing or a bad thing.

The smoky haze which has hovered over the Valley from the Mile Marker 28 fire in Satus Pass joined the smoky haze from the Colockum Tarps fire to the north of us. Both fires are still burning, but more closely to being contained. The smoke made breathing more difficult, especially for those with respiratory problems. We were advised to gauge activities to limit exposure to the smoke.

Smoke and clouds combined to limit the view of the mountain.

 

A little smoke from the campfire just adds to the warmth and relaxation of the day--as long as it doesn't chase you no matter where you sit. Smoke follows beauty. Yeah, sure.

The best smoke!

Again I am posting early because I am really busy this week. The other Headbangers, linked in my sidebar, will have smoky posts and headers up by Wednesday afternoon.

ABC C is for Cousin Camp

Each year we camp with grandkids in what has become known as "Cousin Camp". The cast of characters varies slightly from year to year depending on which families can make it. This year we had ten of the sixteen grandkids make an appearance. It became a two generation Cousin Camp when my nephew John and his wife Debbie joined us as well. This stump became a popular base for hide and seek, but if Leeza is going to hide this time, there will be no problem seeking.

Pizza is a popular Cousin Camp food. We cook it in the dutch ovens. John regaled us with his prize

dump cake, also cooked in a dutch oven, and since they had a freezer in their travel trailer, we had it with ice cream. John has recently retired from seventeen years as scoutmaster. His specialty is dutch oven cooking, and he has seventeen dutch ovens, though he only was traveling with two. I only have these two. Hey, dutch oven dump cake could be my D next week.

Grandma's game bag makes an appearance every year. I think this intent competition concerns chess,

And there are always bubbles.

 

I post my ABC Wednesday early because Wednesday is the day we do our header challenge. Well, sometimes I post that early as well.