Crab Apples

It is a nice but cloudy day. Hoping for a little rain.  Another 10,000 acre fire bloomed in the night here a few days ago. Because it was grass it spread fast cutting off both 720 in Oregon and highway 12 where it turns to go to Kennewick, WA. And, because it was grass the firefighters managed to contain it right away and now it is nearly out. Fearsome. The air here is clear again and the roads are open.

My sojourn in the hospital's gratis exercise program is over. They divided their clients into heart and pulmonary and assigned pulmonary, that would be me, 2 days instead of three on Tuesday and Thursday. I can't come on Tuesdays so I re-joined my old gym. Not an expense I wanted but c'est la vie. I just can't walk often outside here in the land of smoke and dust most days with my grumpy and underpowered airways. Move it or lose it.

Yesterday was a pretty day and I took two grandkids, Isabel and Adam for a "school outing" at the Whitman Mission National Park. Not much of a school budget here for field trips and one child is home-schooled.  Last Tuesday we went to the Fort Walla Walla Museum. Turns out the Mission visitors' center is closed on Tuesdays so as a school trip it missed a piece but we'll try another day.  I have two pair binoculars in the van and they were thrilled to take them and hike clear up the hill to the monument there on their own.

 

Photo courtesy Wikipedia. My phone picture was a fail. You can see the covered wagon across the Mill Pond.

I found a bench near the mill pond and watched the birds and the sky. The turtles that occupy the mill pond in season had already left for their winter digs. Fall is coming fast.

There is a surviving piece of Oregon Trail here, more of a side trip for pioneers, especially those too late to make it over the mountains before snowfall.  Below is the view from the Mission grounds looking east towards Walla Walla.

 

When we were driving the circle out of the Mission parking area we saw a young buck with a small set of horns approaching.  There was also a tour bus with people sitting at many picnic tables and the deer was very cautious of us all but seemed to want to come into the area anyway.

I stopped and the kids were thrilled when he strolled up and looked in the window at them. Adam had never seen a real deer close up. Then it went around the back of the van and stopped in the drive and watched the tourists who by this time were all very still and watching him.  More few steps and more watching and he made the grassy area in the center of the drive. Scanning the area he bent down and started eating. That's when I realized the small trees in the grassy center were crab apples and the ground beneath was covered in them.  He'd come for dinner and found it surrounded by two legged visitors.  Once again phone no pictures. Operator error. Instead we had the privilege of spending the moment with the deer. Probably better for me to be in it than be recording it,

We celebrated grandgirl Julia's 16th birthday last night at the Tuesday night family dinner. She asked me to buy her a specific kind of Bath and Body lotion and I did, online, no store here. It didn't arrive until yesterday's mail.  Her birthday was last week but she was sick but she'll never know the stuff didn't arrive on time. She opened her gifts including a Walla Walla High School hoody sweatshirt. She thought the 16 candles on her cake were too many. Oh dear. I hope she didn't mean what I think she means. I suspect the thought of growing up and being on her own is intimidating. One foot in young adulthood.

I made the main dish, chicken in a sauce made from a yam soup recipe I altered. It has cinnamon sticks and some maple syrup in it among other things. Everyone seemed to like it including those who wouldn't touch a yam with a 10 foot pole. My daughter-in-law Heather made a nice rice dish and someone else brought salad and small homemade corn muffins. It was a satisfying meal.  Heather picked up my chicken dish when she came by to get Adam and Isabel. Too heavy for me to carry. Over a certain weight the likelihood I will drop it goes up exponentially.  I did split it into two Tupperwear containers.  I am making a small collection of 18 person recipes. Who'd have thought it?

Must be nap time; the young men who do the condo lawns are here. Wednesdays are a recovery day from Tuesday for me.  Just about the time I think I could lie down they show up.  These guys are very nice and do a nice job.  It just seems like a little joke from the universe.