Five Favorite Photos

Orange berries beside a country road.

What a fence post. A regular conglomeration.

My cranberry walnut pie baked for Thanksgiving.

Brenna meeting her new horse who she named Boo.

A sorghum field in the waning afternoon light.

Five Favorite Photos

I have several favorites of all the pictures I have taken this past week. 

Here is my #1 favorite.

This Canada Goose came toward me to see if I had brought any bread then headed back to the water at Kiddy Lake Park in Okmulgee. November, 2010.

An unmatchable color. So bright and happy.

This little boy in costume at the Dripping Springs Rendezvous told me he was drawing an Indian.

I spotted these old work boots when I was perusing the camp sites at the Rendezvous.

 They remind me of my dad.

Here is Olivia stunt riding on Brenna's very patient horse.

Leave a comment. Tell me which one you like best.

Canning the Pears

 My two pear trees are showing their age! Instead of the 15 to 25 bushels we have harvested some years there are about 6 or 8 bushels of pears. We picked all we could reach with the orchard ladder. We celebrated our annual Pear Picking Time with Ronee Jordan and her family.

These are Keiffer pears. They grow well in Oklahoma. The pears are big, crisp and sweet and keep well after harvest. 

Everyone joined in including the donkeys and dogs who were in it for the meal. Working here are Ronee, Quinton, and Ruth. 

This is Joe using the picker pole. Notice he came prepared with his own boy-sized work gloves.

 Today, I started canning pear sauce, which to my taste is better than applesauce. First, I peel and core the pears and set them to boil with some water.

 After they are softened, I add sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon and mash the pears like potatoes.

 In the meantime, I have boiled my pint jars in the water bath canner.and heated my lids in a saucepan.

 Oh, I dearly love my new (old) pottery bowl! Isn't it pretty filled with the pear sauce? Every time I use it I like it more.

 Next, I ladle the hot sauce into jars and add lids and rings. The jars go back into the bath canner. When the water covering the jars boils I cook for 25 minutes to seal the jars.

 After the twenty-five minutes, I lift the jars out of the boiling water and let them drip and cool on a dish cloth.

 They will keep for years or until we eat them all! Aren't they beautiful? I ate a bowl of the warm pear sauce and it was just right, sweet as honey almost, tart, and full of the wonderful taste of pear nectar.

The Lake in Late Autumn

 Dripping Springs Lake

American Coots are these black birds riding out the waves.

 Marsh grasses waving in the wind.

This is a cut stone bench on the water's edge where we stopped to rest.

These woods are made up of oak, mainly scrub oak and hickory trees.

 Rock work includes this retaining wall built in the 30's or 40's by the WPA.

Waves in water and waves in stone.

 A stone stairway down to the lakeside.

The upper part of the retaining wall along a parking spot.

 Oak leaves and rocks along the lake walk.

 Leave strewn path through the woods.

 Fallen log

 Hickory nuts nested in dry leaves on a lichen splotched rock.

 Not much color in Oklahoma woods, but every bit I savor.

 The water was stirred by the wind and deep blue in the afternoon sun. Another wall of rocks that has held  Okmulgee Lake for many years.

 Brown hills, blue winter sky and bluer lake.The lake looks so somber and different from its vivid green and blue of summer. Still with its oaks and rocks it is a beautiful place to explore.

Voices at the Fair

This year there were only eleven reported injuries at the Tulsa State Fair. One child whacked his head on a food booth and cut his face. One man sprained an ankle getting off a ride. One child fell out of the Boy Scouts Jupiter Jump and broke his arm and a lady passed out on the dreadful Sky Zipper ride.

  These were the only serious injuries I read about in the Tulsa World. All the others were too minor to list. Amazing, I'd say.

 It must be that most of those rides are not nearly as dangerous as they look. There are some real dangers at the fair though. I mean besides spending all your money on rides, junk, games, and deep-fried foods.

When I was a kid, I suffered a mishap when my daddy took the five of us to a county fair in Texas. Mama stayed home with the toddlers and the latest baby, declaring the fair a luxury we could not afford. "Now Freda," Dad replied, "There are times when a luxury becomes a necessity." (And so we went. :) )

 As we entered the fairway, I was star-struck. Everything was loud, and colorful, and bright. Everything was moving. The merry-go-round piped calliope music. People laughed, squealed, shouted, and called out. Hawkers pled with us to try our hand at their games. Rides sqeaked, squawked, rang bells, and buzzed as we passed.

 I stopped to watch the Ferris Wheel turn, but it stopped and the girls seated way up top screeched with delighted false fear as their seat swung. When I came back to earth, I saw Dad up ahead in the crowd and ran to catch up.

Zing, Zing, Wheeeeee!

 I grabbed at his big work-roughed hand, but it felt wrong. It was too soft, too old, not my Father's hand!

 The owner of the hand bent down and looked me in the eye. "I'll bet you think I'm your daddy, don't you little girl?" he asked sweetly in a not-my-daddy voice. I jerked my " little girl" hand from his, and ran and ran. I searched the crowd for my daddy. I blocked out all the noise, straining for his familiar voice. Then I heard it. I saw him and I ran to him and grabbed his hand. Ahhhh, the relief!

 The fair swirled back into focus. I was safe.

I enjoyed the rest of the day. I rode the Ferris wheel and ate a cinnamon apple and shared some pink cotton candy with my brothers.

My lost at the fair experience reminds me of the scripture that says, I am the good shepherd. My sheep know my voice and another they will not follow.

I hope I know the voice and the guiding hand of my heavenly father as well as I knew that of my earthly father.

 Oh, the fair. The fun the noise, the sights, the smells, the people.

I hadn't been to the fair in many years until this fall and I enjoyed it immensely.

 I ate a bright red candied apple just for luxury's sake.

This zipper thing would surely make anyone pass out. It scared me just watching from the ground. Oh, my!