My Big Backyard (usually on Wednesdays, sometimes Thursdays)

Because I'm a nerd, I want to see how my backyard changes throughout the year.

So! I'm going to take a few pictures of it each Wednesday to share.

November 8th, 2017

October 4th, 2017

 September 6th, 2017

Me= nerd!

I'm not going to do a comparison of my backyard today.

If for any reason you want to, you can click on this to see all the posts.

And that's it for this week---short and sweet.

November 8th, 2017

Big Backyard Wednesday

Because I'm a nerd, I want to see how my backyard changes throughout the year.

So! I'm going to take a few pictures of it each Wednesday to share.

This tree has lost a lot of leaves since last week

last week....

3 weeks ago....

And the back yard...today..

(actually every tree has lost a lot of leaves in the past week.  We are almost bare)

Last week....

Today...

Last week...

Today....

Last week....

They all fell off!!  And the Handyman rakes them into piles. Sometimes he has to come inside to do something else (before he gets them put into garbage bags) and then the wind will come up and destroy his piles--so then he begins again.

I have kept this up for 2 months.

Yay me!

I am the worst at following thru-- that's not to say I'm irresponsible--I am not.  

I just will probably get bored with pictures of my yard--especially when it is brown for a gazillion days in the winter.

The bleak midwinter!

You can check out the changes in the yard here.

https://thefridayfriends.blogspot.com/search/label/big%20backyard

Non-Fiction November - Week 1

I've mentioned this before--I think it was last year around this time-- but Nonfiction November is my favorite annual book blogging event.  

I always learn about so many great books and subjects from all of you!

Today's (this week's actually) topic is--My year in Nonfiction.

What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?  May I have a 4-way tie please?

What nonfiction book have you recommended the most? May I have a 4-way tie again please?  I love, love, love Foodie books, and I love, love, love memoirs, and I love, love, love travel books and I love, love, love history books. So from this year I'd recommend  "Eight Flavors",  "Stingray Afternoons", "At Home in the World" and "Captured". 

What is one topic or type of nonfiction you haven’t read enough of yet? As a rule, I wish I'd read more non-fiction than I do.  But because I love foodie memoirs the most, I guess I can never read 'enough' of them.

What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?  My short answer is above--I always learn about so many great books and subjects from all of you who participate. 

My list of nonfiction for this year is kind of short, but all were very good.  I'll go for quality of quantity for now.

I really liked all of these.

I can't wait to see what everyone else is reading!

Here are our hosts for the month...many thanks to them!!

Katie at Doing Dewey Lory at Emerald City Book Review Sarah at Sarah’s Book Shelves Julz at Julz Reads Kim at Sophisticated Dorkiness

http://www.sophisticateddorkiness.com/

Friday Friend Recipe #171 - Great Corn

I asked the Handyman, WHY is it that every time take a photo of something I've made from the Friday Friend Cookbook, and there is a pork steak (as there is a lot of times, because it's the easiest meat I can come up with for the HM. And he is a meat eater.  He'll eat anything I make, but when I'm spending the day making recipes out of the cookbook, I'll usually have him grill a pork steak)... back to my point... why does it always look like Pac-Man?  Pac-Man ready to gobble something up?

When I asked him this yesterday,  he just looked at the photo and shrugged and said he didn't get what I was talking about.  BUT, can you see it?  The eye? The open mouth?  Maybe it looks more like an iguana than Pac-Man.  Yeah, I think so. It's an Iguana.

This tho, is about the corn.

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #171!

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Barb's Great Corn!

and you know all the whys and wherefores of this countdown, right? Homemade cookbook, friends contributed, Handyman said I couldn't/wouldn't do it, I'll show him, yadda yadda yadda....

...and the rest is cookbook history!

The Handyman is sprinkling some Tabasco sauce on the Great Corn (and the Pac-Man pork steak)  (He likes a little spice in his life--that's why he has me. 😀)

Great Corn

Barbara Brown

Buckeye, AZ

My friend Barb.

Editor of the Friday Friend Cookbook.

Graciously giving of her many recipes. including another corn one on July 29th. (Swiss Corn Bake, #149 in the countdown), she has a sense of humor like no other--and she loves to laugh.  

The Handyman and I had not seen Barb and Doug's children for many years, so when they invited us to join them in Lake Tahoe in September, she decided not to tell her kids and let 'us' be a surprise!

We showed up like this....

The Handyman is on the left.

And it was funny!

You should have seen their faces. We all had a good laugh--they had no clue who it was until we took our masks off.

I sent the pic of me and the Handyman to my kids.  Just for fun.

Then we got caught up and ate and drank and visited.

And of course, had a little competition on some Minnesota Golf (that's what we call it, but I know that's not really the name)

played Cards against Humanity,  did some interesting football pool betting  (see previous posts about football leagues #166, #162 and #158)

And then of course decided that everyone needed the emoji photo taken.

It was a really nice weekend filled with lots of laughs.

When  we pulled into town after the weekend--there was the strangest sight--- a girl in a horses head getting her picture taken under the Welcome to Winnemucca sign.

I had to let my son know we were home anyway so I sent this picture to him in a text. I didn't mention the picture--just said we were home.

HE DOESN'T EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE IT!

I said WEIRD and he sent this back to me:

Touché!

but kind of a smart-alec!!