A busy weekend

We had a busy weekend but we did make sure to make time for a little bit of heart love on Saturday morning.Heart-shaped pancakes with blueberries and strawberry sauce (summer's goodies from the freezer).
And not a speck leftover.

Sunshine and muffins and pets...oh my!

Every year at this time the boys and I purposefully stop and pay tribute to the sun. We live tucked up close to a mountain and while we love the view this affords us all through the year we also find that we miss the sun very much when it disappears behind the mountain each winter. Last week (just as we returned from our sunny holiday) the sun returned. (hmmm, imagine that...almost like someone planned their holiday return time around this event or something);-)

Needless to say we were very happy. We took the time to sit right down in the sunbeams and while we basked in the sun we listened to Here Comes the Sun as is our tradition now.

I'm sorry to say that Sunshine On My Shoulders didn't make the cut this year as the CD was out in the car. But just in case you really want to hear it (and I know that you do) here it is...just for you. :-)



Soon enough all the animals joined us to get their dose of sunshine too.

This well-fed kitty decided to sit up on our coffee table in the sun. Having had free range with the kitty kibble for a month meant that there was a whole lot of her to perch up on that table...

a whoooole lot. Enough to drape over the edge, in fact. Oh my! Must do something about that.
This also tends to be the time of year that my thoughts turn to spring cleaning. I whir through the house seeing what I can get rid of; wiping walls down to get rid of fingerprints, Hotwheel tracks and other assorted messes; vacuuming in places I never normally get to and *gasp* even cleaning the windows. I know that in another month it will be Gardening Time (said with much reverence) and that I won't give a hoot for cleaning cleaning will seem pointless because dirt from the garden will be tracked in Endlessly!Yes, endlessly! we will be spending so much time having fun in the garden that I will be very pleased that I got the spring cleaning done early.

I also like to get moving on using up some of the fruit and veg. in the freezers that I tucked in their at harvest time. Having four large freezers plugged in all the time plays havoc with my conscious. Funnily enough when you cook up massive pumpkins and freeze all the pumpkin puree you then need to Do Something with the hundreds of pounds of pumpkin in the freezers.

Thankfully we all love pumpkin muffins and I can see the need for many, many batches of muffins to see us through all our cleaning efforts and then all our gardening work.

Edited to include recipe for muffins.

My third grade teacher's pumpkin muffin recipe (only slightly altered...no, really!)

3/4 cup oil (I use grapeseed) (originally called for 1 cup)

1 cup sugar (originally called for 1 1/2 cups - use your own tastes as a guide)

3 eggs

2 cups frozen pumpkin puree

3/4 raisins ( I do half with and half without because I always double the recipe)

2 1/4 cup flour (I use whole wheat)

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix wet ingredients in bowl. Mix dry ingredients together in another bowl. Combine and blend. Fold in raisins. Bake at 375 degrees for about 20 - 25 minutes (depending on size of muffins). Enjoy! :-)

Things I have been lovin' all January...

Beach time...aaahhh, beach time...

Good news...

Sunsets...and the sun that comes before them. Come to mama vitamin D. ;-)
Clouds with silver linings...Cool trees on hikes...Hikes along lava fields...past some wild goats finding a driftwood swing along the hike...

stopping for a rest at black sand beach with waves crashing against the lava...

beauty on the beach...

And, sadly, in amongst that beauty (way out the lava field on a secluded hike-in only beach)...

plastic garbage. W and I picked all this up in only about 5 minutes.

Hike up a ridge with a breathtaking view...(this is only part way up)

Plants and flowers actually growing instead of being covered in snow...

(I even found this tomato plant growing out of lava bits) Favourite fruits and veg grown locally...

(real tomatoes that tasted like real tomatoes - bliss!)

Other fun sights and things to do...
and the flowers....I love me the flowers... And my favourite hike on the 2nd island we went to was this one - on the Kalalau trail along the Na Pili coastline.that stretch of beach was where we were headed.
It was one muddy hike. Critters like crabs... red-footed boobies... whales...(you can just see him breaching there - not a great shot as it was taken from up high above the ocean at the lighthouse)

as well as green sea turtles, dolphins, eel, octopus, and much more.

A canyon hike...
And enough down time for knitting warm woollies for our return...

socks from my Kool-aid yarn and a woolen cowl.

and one Norwegian house slipper from the most unusual pattern.

If you want to see a few more pics I've posted on our shared blog too.

On our way to the airport to come home my 13 year old said to me, "Being here is like hitting the 'pause" button." That really struck me. As a person who for years has wished for a pause button to slow things down in our lives so that we could take time to enjoy it more I really liked hearing that from my son. Our month on the islands is like a pause button and we are very blessed to have it. We spend our time with no have-tos and only want-tos. It was a very good month indeed.

P.S.- thank you all for your comments and compliments on this blog. I was away all month so not able to respond to them all but I appreciate them very much.