Pop!

We enjoyed our company this weekend! Mick's grandparents came down to camp, and thankfully survived the two solid days of rain. We enjoyed cooking hot dogs with them at the property and chattin' at the house, and they shared with us delicious ginger cookies and snack mix. We put them to work helping us identify some of the plants around the property that we hadn't been able to look up.

Martha came to visit last weekend too, which was lots of fun! We went to Ithaca Saturday - she spent time with a friend and we spent time with the Wegmans. :) She played at church with me on Sunday, which was loads of fun, much more fun than playing by myself! It seems like it worked out to be a relaxing weekend for her too.


Gerard provided the entertainment for one of our dinners. We were eating chicken (thanks, Mom, for supplying us!) with a honeysuckle candle (80% off at Michael's!) burning on the table. Gerard loves chicken, and perched hopefully on a stool at the table. While he waited, his tail was twitching -- and he consistently twitched it right through the flame of the candle. He would even hold it there for a couple of seconds until we saw smoke. It didn't seem to bother him, but it certainly gave us lots of laughs! Well, after a few of these tail-twitches, he resolutely set his tail down in the hot wax. Mick decided to intervene once we saw tail-flames! The result was a wax-tipped tail for our cat (not a very flattering picture, unfortunately, but posing was not first on his agenda at this moment):


He also managed to flip some on his side, which is still a bit wax-coated, and drip wax on the candle, placemat, stool, and floor. That's our genius cat!

It is really beginning to feel like fall these last couple of days. Mick broke out a bottle of his red lager, and it was beautiful!


It tasted wonderful too. Mick also made a second batch of brandied peaches, which have such a beautiful color.


He saved the sugared peach water to mix in drinks, and it is SWEET but delicious, and what color! An excellent use for Manischewitz bottles. :)


For my part, I was quite pleased with how this French bread turned out while Mick was at AT.


We went to Tractor Supply last week, and I spotted a stovetop popcorn popper on clearance, sitting all by itself on the top shelf. I quickly decided that some of the money I received for my birthday would go towards that, since we had already been talking about it. I think it tastes better than any other popcorn I have had, and it is quick and easy to make!
Before...

During...

And after!

Next year we hope to grow our own popcorn too! mm-mm.