Week 122, 4-22-2018

Thoughts and Quotes: She thought she could, so she did.  R. S. Grey

The Tea Book is finished and off to the printer. I didn't get my order in until after closing on Friday, but I believe I'll still have a proof back sometime this week.  

Here's the Tea Book cover. The black border goes all the way around. I didn't change the size before I printed this. 

And the Tablescapes cover, and I did change the size. I see I already have a boo-boo where I repeated "gifts" when I decided to put in "flea markets" instead of "Craigslist" and tried to balance the look of the wording. Oh, well. Easy fix. The colors are really distorted. The Tea Book red is like my blog red, and the Tablescapes Book is light turquoise.

I agonized over the cover for the Tea Book, but I had the cover for the Tablescapes Book finished in thirty minutes. A little experience goes a long way. Most of my time was spent deciding on the photo and color.

And the goal of the book is to inspire others and it's already working. Joey told me that she's going to have a tea just as soon as she gets her book. Hopefully, others will want to do the same.

Now I can get on with my life, and quit making excuses and giving you boring posts. I am, however, eager to get on with the Tablescapes Book. That said, this week is another skimpy offering.

I dedicated the Tea Book to someone I never met. We were both posting on the Crochet Bulletin Board back when we had dial up Prodigy instead of the internet as we know it now. Our chat evolved into writing letters and sending birthday and Christmas gifts. Cancer took her away, but I saved a blurb I cut from one of her letters in my Goals Book.

I'll dedicate the Tablescapes Book to Carolyn, daughter of my late friend, Peggy, who asked me to send her a copy of one of my travelogues. Carolyn answered with this:

So I thought that maybe I could give you some travel stuff and you'd forgive me for the last few boring posts. They liked it - maybe you will, too. But first -

Thank you to My Amazing Children: For the straight from the tree to me best grapefruit in the world and avocados to make guacamole for my cooking club lunch on Thursday, as I'm making Mexican food.

and

Time for Confession: Joey and I started back on the Zone Diet on Monday and I was eating things like this for breakfast:

But on Saturday, we had a girl day of book sales and shopping at Michaels, and breakfast at Cracker Barrel where we had this:

Two eggs, a piece of ham, a sausage patty (it's under the ham), a piece of bacon, grits, hash brown casserole, a biscuit with gravy, a corn muffin, and fried apples. We decided that we actually did eat in the Zone. We just can't have another meal for two days.

The Joke's on Me: When I was testing my Tea Book on the printer's website, it told me the photo on page 17 had low resolution. Oh, no! Another delay, and I can't see why this is so.

Then I thought, "Oh, well. I don't like that photo anyway, so I'll just fix it". I went to the market, bought the ham and bread, came home, made the sandwiches, took the photo. There, that's better.

Then I realized that page 17 to them is page 13 to me because they count according to the PDF and my first four pages aren't numbered. This is really the page they meant.

The background is the family room showing through the fireplace, and the glare from the fireplace glass makes it even worse. However, there's no way I was going to recreate this photo, and besides, I was trying to show the food, so I let it go. Just one of the many bumps on the road to completion of my first book. Now about that -

Travel: This is an Elderhostel trip from 2006, but since it's Northern California National Parks, I'm sure not much has changed. The trip was rather long, so we'll take it in segments. 

Northern California National Parks

September 23 through October 7, 2006

Saturday, September 23 (Springfield to San Francisco)

Here we go again.  We were over an hour late because of mechanical difficulties.  This time it was United.  I’m beginning to think it’s the Springfield airport.  I ordered a turkey sandwich to go, and when I got on the plane, it was ham. 

When we arrived in Denver, my connection was already boarding.  I wondered if my luggage would get transferred.  It didn’t.  The Denver-San Francisco flight was pleasant.  I had three seats all to myself and lots of legroom.

The first thing I spotted in the San Francisco airport was a See’s Candy stand, and the first smell was wonderful Chinese food.  I got a little homesick.

I was told my luggage would be in on the next flight and be delivered to my hotel.  I went ahead and caught the shuttle to the hotel and checked in.  I was told dinner would be at 6:00 p.m. and we’d get a lot of information then.  The “later flight” from Denver was due in around 6:00, so I had a choice to make – dinner and info or suitcase?  I’m always so pushy, never trusting, but this time I decided to leave it to United Airlines.

We had a wonderful green salad.  I’ve learned to accept the produce we get in Missouri, but that salad tasted really great.  We also had a chicken breast with Madeira sauce, almond-rice pilaf and a mixture of yellow squash, zucchini and carrots cooked the California crisp-tender way.  The dessert table was beautiful when I came in, but I was last in line and all that was left was a white cake with white frosting and strawberries.  I was happy with that.

Our guides seem knowledgeable and congenial and very efficient.  I’m looking forward to lots of information about California history, as well as geology, botany and who knows what else?

I called the airlines and got more run around about my missing bag.  At 10:30, I called again and every time I called I got a different answer.  I got on the shuttle, went back to the airport, asked a lot of questions and finally found my bag stacked on a cart with a lot of others.  I told them, “I want that bag and I want it NOW”.  I was back at the hotel, bag in tow, by 11:15.  I washed my hair, showered and was in bed within 15 minutes.  Thankfully, the hotel was quiet, so I slept well for about six hours. 

Sunday, September 24 (San Francisco to St. Nicholas Ranch in Dunlap, CA)
So nice to have all my belongings.  I really hate wearing dirty clothes.

We had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel.  The watermelon and cantaloupe were really yummy.

We were off by 8:15 and stopped at Casa de Fruita, a fruit stand turned amusement park, less than two hours later.  Sure wish I were driving.  They have such exotic chutneys, salsas, jams and fruit butters.  You can’t take these in your carryon luggage anymore, so why chance even one jar in your checked luggage?  I’ve seen how they toss our suitcases around.  I bought some nuts, some chocolate-covered pecans and a tangerine.  The tangerine came from Australia and cost $1.40 – it better be good.

Our next stop was the San Luis Reservoir, where we learned something about the California water supply and saw a short film of the groundbreaking with President Kennedy and some California bigwigs – the first federal-state joint natural resource management program in America.  We take so much for granted; just turn on the faucet and out comes the purified water.

Doubletree packed our box lunches; ham or turkey sandwich, chocolate chip cookie, apple, and a bottle of water.  We ate under the trees at picnic tables beside the lake at San Luis Reservoir.  I ate my tangerine and saved my apple.  I told everyone how good it was and tried to sell the seeds to “grow your own” for a quarter each so I could recoup some of my money, but no takers.  The park was full of Mexicans, chattering away in Spanish.  I felt right at home and realized how much I missed CA.  Actually, I was wishing they’d invite me to lunch. Everything looked so authentic Mexican.

We had a long bus ride ahead through the California I know, with lots of houses, apartments, retail businesses, some rolling hills covered with golden grass and green live oak trees, fields of cotton and other crops which were unidentifiable at 60 m.p.h.  It’s good to see the names I know – Vons, Panda Express, Mervyns, Der Weinerschnitzel; but when I left home, gas was $1.99 per gallon and here it’s in the $2.80’s.  I had a nice long nap – nothing new here for me to see.

We had a rest stop in Fresno.  It’s really growing.  Then we drove through vineyards, orchards and fields of strawberries.  That was fun.  Then the cattle and the golden hills with big boulders scattered over them appeared.  We wound our way back into the mountains, passing a house here and there – some neat, some looking as if they were in the junk business.

St. Nicholas Ranch is tucked back in an isolated spot on a hillside.  Several frame buildings with guestrooms, a meeting room with a big stone fireplace across one end, a kitchen and large diningroom, living quarters for the caretakers, multi-level patios with wrought iron furniture, a swimming pool, and farther up the hill, a beautiful Greek Orthodox Monastery, plus a church of several domes, each topped by a golden cross. The living quarters for the fifteen sisters are in an L-shaped building which also includes a little conference room and a gift shop where they sell soap, candles, jellies and jams, pickles and vinegar.

 

The nuns dress in long black full skirts, long-sleeved black blouses, and black scarves similar to the ones Muslim women wear.  They sleep in the same clothes, so that they’re always ready for God.

They’re up at 1:45 a.m. to pray for their own and other’s salvation because early morning is when God is the most receptive.  After praying alone, they all get together and pray – then they have breakfast and go back to their “cells” to rest a little.  Then they start their work.  As we were leaving, we saw four of them unloading big boxes from a good-sized pickup, which another nun had driven onto the grounds.  The nuns’ priest has his own house, and I suspect the nuns do his housekeeping, cooking, laundry, etc.

The grounds are beautifully landscaped with a fountain, flowers, palms, shrubs and walkways.  Best of all, they have two kitties (one fluffy light-beige and one white with yellow tiger-stripe spots) and a little black dog.  There may be others, but we saw only these three.

Before we could enter the church, the women had to put long skirts over their pants and scarves on their heads.  The skirts didn’t match the scarves, and our pants hung below our skirts, so we looked like a bunch of peasants.  Too bad we couldn’t get a group picture. I do have photos of some of the group, and they're quite a sight, but I never post photos on my blog if the people are identifiable. You'll get a glimse of our rag-tag group inside. The church is beautiful, and my photos don't do it justice.

The grounds are beautifully kept, and I suppose the nuns do all that work, as well.

Dinner was wholesome and tasty – seafood chowder, fettuccine Alfredo with carrots, broccoli and green beans, a salad of mixed greens with whatever you wanted to add; tomatoes, cucumber, onions, garbanzos, kidney beans, parmesan.  Dessert was different – baked peach halves with cherries and chocolate sauce made using a Greek dessert wine.

After dinner we went to the meeting room where Jason gave us a lecture on plate tectonics, continental drift, the Sierra Trench, the Franciscan Trench, how the USA used to end at the western Nevada border and how some of the rocks from the Sierra Nevada Mountains ended up in the Klamath Mountains, which are much further west. Then he talked about the three kinds of redwoods - coastal redwoods, giant Sequoias and the dawn redwoods found in China. 

California’s giant Sequoias have nothing to do with Cherokees (from Georgia), but were named by a botanist who admired the Cherokee chief, Sequoia.

I washed some undies, had a nice soaky bath and bed by 9:30.  Didn’t even read very much – too sleepy – 11:30 to me. There are no locks on the doors here, which made me a little uneasy that night, but I slept like a baby anyway.

You can read more about St. Nicholas Ranch HERE. I see they are still hosting Elderhostel (now Road Scholar) trips. 

Monday, September 25 (King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks)

Breakfast at 7:00.  Dinner cooks are better than morning cooks.  I had a thin piece of ham, a soggy pancake with canned fruit cocktail and a little syrup, and some plain yogurt with the same.  We’re having a picnic for lunch again.  Goody!

We weren’t far from the parks, just minutes up the steep mountains.  King’s Canyon and Sequoia National are joined, so it’s difficult to know where you are.  To add to the confusion, Sequoia National Forest is sandwiched in there as well.

When we were climbing into the forest, we passed two black bears right beside the road – one even stood up as if he were going to wave – and the bus driver sailed right on by, didn’t even slow.  There was no one behind us, so we could have even stopped for a photo.  Bus drivers have one speed – as fast as possible.  They never slow through scenic areas – it’s “All Ahead Full!” no matter where you are – one of my major pet peeves when traveling.

Sequoia is the second national park – Yellowstone is the first.  As the park came into existence when the Civil War was still fresh in everyone’s mind, the trees were named generals – Grant, Sherman, Robert E. Lee.  General Sherman is estimated to be 2,200 to 2,600 years old.  Thirteen of the twenty largest giant Sequoias are located in Sequoia National Park, one is in Yosemite, five in various other parks and forests and one is on private property.

As Sequoias are brittle and unsuitable for lumber, only 35% of the original trees were harvested, as opposed to the desirable coastal redwoods, where 97% were cut down.

The trees were so dense in some areas, we actually drove through darkness.  We entered at Sequoia and found the trees remarkably accessible.  We did a one-mile loop hike through trees and a marshy meadow, but always on black-top paths which were nicely sloped, benches along the way, and even a drinking fountain and restrooms.  It was called “Giant Trees Walk”.  Pretty original.

Jason is so knowledgeable and he’s so enthusiastic, you can’t keep from getting excited.  He knows lots about the history of California and geology.  Now he’s working on learning how to recognize all the different trees and there are many, many species in the parks.  They’re identified by flat or round pine needles, whether the prickly ends of the pinecone tabs turn up or curl under, how many pine needles in a bundle, whether they’re individual or attached at the end.  It goes on and on and he carries a mini-library with him plus his computer.

 

The trees are so large, photos can't do them justice. For instance, take a look at the tiny little man down by the highway, just to the right of the bottom of the tree. 

We had a stop to see General Sherman, and we walked through a fallen tree (from one side to the other) to get there.  He’s truly magnificent.  In addition to the generals, there are The Presidents tree, President Lincoln tree, and President Washington Tree.  Now that the hurricanes are named after males as well as females, maybe a tree will get named for a woman.

General Sherman

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center, which is very small, and I picked up a couple of post cards.  On to King’s Canyon National Park, which comes in two parts, separated by the Sequoia National Forest.

My picnic lunch consisted of a ham-turkey-cheese on rye and a bag of chips.  They even packed some lettuce and sliced tomato separately so it wouldn’t make the sandwich soggy.  I saved my cookies and peach for later.  We had very little time at the visitor’s center, and I saw only part of a very good movie about the parks.  I would have liked more time here.  Didn’t even get a peek at the gift shop, and I could have bought stamps and mailed my cards at the post office.

On to a spot where there are deep holes worn into flat boulders where the Indians pounded acorns to grind them into flour for mush.  After they were pulverized, they had to be washed over and over with cold water to remove the tannic acid.  One lady on our tour quipped that her family would definitely have gone hungry most of the time.

Another loop through the trees where we saw a tree which had fallen over and used to have events held inside, but now considered unsafe and blocked off. We also saw President Lincoln and General Grant. I tried to get cars or people in my pictures, because it’s hard to even imagine the size of Sequoias without something familiar for comparison. 

We drove part way on the King’s Canyon Highway to stop at overlooks and see the river far below.  The Sierra Nevada are really BIG.

You can read more about Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks HERE.

Back at the ranch (no, really) we had an hour before dinner at 6:30.  Dinner was baked chicken, spanikopita, roasted potatoes, green beans cooked with tomatoes and onions, salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion and feta cheese, and rosemary bread.  There was some sort of fried bread like donut holes in a honey-walnut sauce which was a little strange.  Jason gave us some recipes using acorns.  Sorry, I don’t have an oak tree in my yard. (See, I've always been a foodie. Wonder why I didn't take photos back then?)

I talked to the cook and she teaches some local cuisine classes which are historical in nature.  She knew why the Indians had grinding holes for acorns when there were no oak trees.  They were hunter-gatherers, and they traveled up and down the river.  They brought the acorns with them in the shells because after they’re ground, they can become rancid in a short time.

Bath and suitcase packing to move on to Yosemite.  In bed and reading by 8:30.  So nice and quiet. No TV's.

You must be tired by now, so we'll continue next week. 

The National Days this week.

4/23 Monday: National Cherry Cheesecake Day or Picnic Day (I love both)

4/24 Tuesday: Pigs in a Blanket Day (yum!)

4/25 Wednesday: Zucchini Bread Day (yes!); Hug a Plumber Day (No! my faucets experience was enough plumbing for awhile); Open the Pool Day.

4/26 Thursday: South Dakota Day (Read about South Dakota HERE).

4/27 Friday: Prime Rib Day (Oh, yeah!) Also, Arbor Day, so plant a tree.

4/28 Saturday: Blueberry Pie Day and also Superheroe Day (Take your Superhero to lunch and get him/her a piece of blueberry pie for dessert).

4/29 Sunday: Shrimp Scampi and also Peace Rose Day. If you don't like garlic or are allergic to shellfish, you can plant a rose. (There's book about the rose if you're interested - HERE).

START PLANNING A CINCO DE MAYO PARTY

MAKE THAT ZUCCHINI BREAD ON WEDNESDAY

AND BLUEBERRY PIE ON SATURDAY

HUG YOUR LOVED ONES AND YOUR PETS

GO TO A LIBRARY BOOK SALE 

THANK YOU FOR SHARING MY LIFE