Who the Wild Thing Is

Caleb is 3!

This is a day late because his auntie dropped the ball, but please join us in celebrating 3 years of Caleb. Hugs and kisses to you, little one - we're so glad you're ours!

October

These are the Japanese Gardens at the Arboretum. If you live around here, and have any sense at all :), you will hop in the car with the ones you love this very minute and get yourselves there. Gracious sakes, it takes my breath away.

Birthday boys

On Saturday we celebrated the wonder nephews' birthdays - Derek's 5th and Caleb's 3rd. As is often the case with this family, it was a very somber, subdued affair.






Every time we're with them, they make us love them more. It's a good gig, this uncle & auntie thing.

Fall all around

First of all, this is the tree that sits at the end of our driveway. We're dazzled by it every day this time of year, and it's one of the things that makes saying good-bye to summer awfully easy.

Second, a recipe from our friend Kristin, who is really very handy in the kitchen. I baked the cake just this afternoon and our house smells fantastic.

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs

Icing:
2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp well-shaken buttermilk
1 1/2 c powdered sugar

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously & dust with flour, knocking out excess.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour through salt. Whisk together pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.
Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl at med-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5minutes. Add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Mix until batter is just smooth.
Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top & bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack 15 minutes. Invert rack over the cake and reinvert onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.
While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk and powdered sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over the warm cake; cool cake completely. Icing will harden slightly.

Good-bye, old boat

Eric & Tessa are selling their boat. It was a sad day around here when we heard the news; we've had all kinds of fun tooling around in it over the years. I suppose, though, that because we aren't responsible for maintaining it or storing it (or hauling it or filling it with gas), we don't have much say in the matter. Anyway, on the very first day of fall, which was a brisk 80 degrees, we were invited for one last spin around the lake.


YOWSA.

Melakwa rewind

Is anyone else stumbling around in a confused stupor, wondering where in the world September went? I realized yesterday with a start that October is here already, and also that I only ever posted a handful of the pictures from our Melakwa Lake outing in early September. We're going back next year, armed with more of our brothers and sisters, better hiking shoes, and about 15 cameras.


























Tired and sweaty and starving and....
totally ready to do it again!