Random Stuff

Pictographs just a few miles down the road from us.

We seem to have six regulars;  deer, hanging around our house.  They provide a lot of entertainment.

Very curious about Felix who was out chasing squirrels.

Yes, Scarface may be gone, but Chelsea is still hanging in there.  (Minus 10 teeth).

We've had foggy mornings.

And frosty mornings.

We've had some snow on close hills.

The hens are roaming and seemingly becoming more comfortable with their new surroundings.  Still no eggs though.

We're relieved at how well the cats are adjusting.

I've been doing a lot of knitting.  Felix thinks too much.

But so far so good for our retirement.

Road Trip: Part One

Kim and I decided to give the cabin work a rest and do some sightseeing.  Kim had heard of an alternate scenic route between Kalispell and Missoula on highway 93.  We've often driven the blue route to and from Kalispell but this time we drove this loop:
(You can see our little town of Marion to the left of Kalispell on this map.)

Our first stop was Swan Lake.  Very pretty.

We timed our trip to coincide with their Huckleberry Festival, of which there seem to be many in our area.

Very pretty setting.

Lots of interesting crafts.

I loved these journals.

They had everything huckleberry, including fudge.

We settled on sharing a cup of ice cream.

Find more info on huckleberries here.
Continuing on Highway 83 South;  lots of pretty scenery:

McDonald Peak at 9820 ft is the most impressive.

More about McDonald Peak here.

This was Saturday.
On Monday we made the decision to put Scarface down.  It was sad but it seemed the right thing to do.  He had developed cancer in a paw and if that had been his only problem it would have seemed bad enough but our new Montana vet pointed out his other issues we'd been overlooking as simply old age so we made the tough decision.  We'll miss that old fart.



On my next post I'll show Part Two of our road trip.

Post Christmas

Our Christmas happened later as usual, on the Sunday after Christmas.  This year it was just the four of us;  Kim and I and my daughter Vanessa and her husband Chris.  Or five of us if you want to count the baby boy.  (Which I do of course!)

(We're all soooo tired!)

Scarface continues to enjoy the Christmas tree.

Food was eaten.   I won't give you the full run down this year.  I made all appetizers again, it's one of my favorite meals.  And the winner was.......Endive Petals with Rosemary Chevre.   Delicious.  You can find the recipe here.  I wanted to use the red endive but it wasn't available.
Here is a super easy recipe for the candied pecans.

Another hit was the White Chocolate and Raspberry Trifle Cake.

Here's the recipe.  It's a Donna Hay recipe but I couldn't locate the exact recipe at her website.  It calls for sherry but I didn't want to buy any and we don't usually keep sweet wine around the house.  I ended up using hazelnut coffee flavoring, the stuff they use at coffee shops.  I diluted mine just a bit with some water,  I was afraid it was going to be too strong.  But everyone loved it.

A big disappointment was Brownies a la Resolution.  You can find the recipe here.

The recipe sounds delicious, but it was a bit too cake-like for me.  If you try it I suggest you don't do as I did and follow the instructions to bake "until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean."  In my experience that's always a mistake when baking brownies, the toothpick should come out with some clinging crumbs.  But that's me and I wish I had followed my own advice.  On the other hand, if when eating these brownies you tell your brain "Cake!", they taste just fine.  

Hope your holidays have been great.  We're looking forward to a new year.  Another new grandchild in March, more knitting, more Montana visits, and perhaps Seattle to see this sweetie?  I sure miss my granddaughter and her parents.

And I think Scarface is telling us it's time to take the tree down.