Anticipation!

Oh I'm soooo excited!  So many fun things to do this weekend!  In Chewelah even!  Who'd a thunk it?  Let's see... where to begin?  Chataqua!  This weekend Chewelah comes alive!  Our annual fair comes to town.  There will be live music all weekend long.  Carnival rides, food galore, all of our talented local artists will bring their beautiful products to be admired and purchased.  I always spend a few hours wandering through the craft booths.  My favorite of course is my friend Donna Talbot who paints so beautifully.  I've shown you my painting before but here it is again :)  in honor of Chataqua.

If you look closely on the porch you can see Lucy, Tank and even Bud the cat.  :)  I always smile when I walk by this painting in my bedroom.  Last winter she painted a beautiful valley scene from somewhere here in Chewelah on a giant saw blade.  It had a pretty barn and was personalized for the owner with their old pick up truck out in the field.  You really have to go see Donna at Chataqua!

My bff Brenda along with delightful husband Dale (really?  Did I just admit that?  :) Someone slap me and nobody tell him!) are coming to stay with us this weekend along with an undetermined number of their girls.  My Aunt Jane and Uncle Jay are visiting us too with their puppies and so we will just have a big ole party!  There will be roasted hot dogs and smores down at the fire pit.  The dogs will tromp through the creek and shake off their wet bodies all over everyone.  It will be great!  Of course we will go into town and hang out at Chataqua.  I might even try a deep fried Twinkie :)  Or NOT!  Or maybe...

On Sunday we will get up early and head for Silverwood.  Yippy!  Always a blast.  It's become an annual event and so much fun!  I mean, where else can you observe so many American Blue Whales in their natural habitat?  :)  Yes, of course I'm including myself!  I'll make the biggest splash of all.  I can't believe it's been a whole year since we last floated the lazy river and spun crazily down the family size 8 person raft water slide.  :)

And then early Tuesday morning I get to fly to S CA to see my brand new grand daughter Kami.  She's one week old today.  Here she is snuggled in Mommy's bed...









And here she is with Mommy and big sister Charlotte...

I know... sorry, blurry pics.  I took a pic of the pics with my phone off of facebook :)  So... horrible picture quality.  But I just wanted you to see her.  Her mommy needs to email or at least text me some pics.  But I will take lots of pics when I go down there next week.

Other tasty things to anticipate from my garden... I say anticipate because they are not ready yet!

 Sugar peas

Zucchinni...

Fennel and green beans

English Cucumbers

Tasty herbs.  Chicken wire is self explanatory!  Stupid chickens!

Super Pumpkins

Tomatoes

This is a new kiwi vine I just planted.  The fruit is small and smooth skinned.  No fuzzies!

Beets...or is that beats?  No... what a dork!

And this is looking down on my tiny sunflowers.  It will be fun to compare this "before" picture with the one I will take when they are in full bloom :)

And finally, here are a couple of the special meals I have been blessed to share with my Aunt Jane and Uncle Jay who are residing in my yard.  I say residing because they rented a PO box in Chewelah a couple of days ago.  I don't have the greatest yard in the world to plug your RV into... but it's gotta be close :)  Not anything I've done mind you!  But my awesome husband has worked very hard on our place and God has blessed us with "world class" scenery.  Any of you who have not been to visit me... this is your invitation!

These are meals prepared at Diamond Dave's Micro Ranch and Orchard :)

This is Kokanee (land locked - lake salmon) that my neighbor Denny gave us.  Unc filleted them which was no small feat.  Well actually, yes it was.  It was a tiny feat :)  Tiny fish.  But they were fabulous seared in the grill pan and topped with his awesome fresh salsa.  This recipe came from a Weight Watchers cookbook.  Some of my very favorite recipes are from my WW cookbooks.  I've got different ones than he does so I'm going enjoy perusing through his.  If you have not picked up one of the more recent Weight Watchers cookbooks I recommend doing it.  The food is amazing!  You just have to limit yourself to ONE portion instead of the three you are going to want to eat.  Also in this pic is a salad I threw together from greens from my garden and a few of the other usual suspects.  Figs and goat cheese make this salad.  I also made a little crustini with oil and balsamic vinegar.  If you stalk my facebook page you will already have seen this but I thought it was very pretty and blog worthy.  A very healthy meal.

This you have not seen.  It was yesterdays breakfast at Cafe Taylor... aka Aunt & Unc's RV.  Mmmmm!  Huevos rancheros...  almost too pretty to eat.  But I did it anyway :)  He's quite a chef!  (Insert sly grin here)

Well... guess I better get busy!  It's a big day, big weekend, big trip next week.  My future's so bright I gotta wear shades!

Ciao!