Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover


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Haiku Moment: 24

frosted snap dragons,

sparkling sage painted with ice

24 is cold

24 by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley, hard frost


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2026 Pumpkin Report

Yesterday was pumpkin day! To celebrate, let’s have a 2026 pumpkin report! Read to the bottom to find out the grand total.

This year’s (very) ODD harvest was varied, colorful, and mysterious. I mean, some things grew that had not even been planted! It all happened because I decided to just toss last year’s pumpkins in the beds and see what happened. Well. Things happened.

Autumn LOVES pumpkin harvest. Even when the stems and vines are painfully pokey. We had a nice catch of white pumpkins.

Donavyn jumped in to help bag and transport old vines up to the compost heap. Let me tell you, that was a great help! We discovered that bag holding required 3 people. But then he was off on the 4-wheeler to dump the bag and return.

Note: Donavyn also wondered as I was taking his picture if I was telling people he was available to do odd jobs. If you are in the Yakima Valley, hit us up next spring and summer!

Loaded. One, two, three, . . . GO!

Donavyn’s plan was much better than me hauling them in the wheelbarrow.

We had some adorable teeny tiny pumpkins (which we also counted). Autumn especially liked these two.

This year’s total was about half of last year’s crop, with much smaller pumpkin sizes. But they are so pretty and unique, I love them all! Maybe for 2027, I will actually fertilize and till up the soil. This year was a resting year. At least for me. LOL

These pumpkins have been Monet approved. She adores working in the garden. I mean, she adores supervising.

And the 2026 pumpkin harvest total is: 128!

Not too shabby for my lack of effort and a resting year for the beds.

Happy Harvest! Thanks for stopping by. Did you grow any pumpkins or squash this year? What kind of harvest did you get? We’d love to hear!


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Haiku Moment: beware

little fuzzy friend

hiding in wait, meal stalking-

beware the flower

beware by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley


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Fall Garden: Frowsy Blowsy

left to its’ own devices

a frowsy blowsy garden

merrily dances,

grabbing partners willy nilly

twisting, winding, climbing, grasping,

a delightful chaos of

weeds and intentions alike,

beautifully melding

into a last-ditch party,

all

unapologetically abundant

unapologetically abundant

by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley


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Haiku Moment: plummet

surreal bubbles

pause in peril, waiting to

plummet, soak the earth

plummet by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley


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Happy Fall! And the winner is . . .

Happy fall, y’all! My favorite season has arrived! Bring on the pumpkins, fall colors, cool nights, and hot tea!

Thank you, Kim A. Larson, for visiting my blog last week and sharing about your new picture book. Congratulations!

Clavis Publishing Inc. has agreed to send a copy of Doll Trouble to one lucky person who commented on this blog post. Thank you, Clavis Publishing!

Drum roll please . . . And the winner is:

. . . (Monet wanted her minute in the spotlight) . . .

KIM BUSHO!

Congratulations, Kim! You have won of copy of Kim’s new book, Doll Trouble!

Kim, I will email you at the email associated with your comment and connect you and Kim! I know you will enjoy reading this picture book!

Happy Fall! Have a beautiful day!


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Apple Time!

Fall is my favorite season. Apple harvest is here! Fresh-from-the-tree apples are so yummy! I wanted to take advantage of the new crops to dehydrate some apples for tasty treats later this winter.

I purchased two boxes of apples (Honeycrisp and Golden) from a friend who is also a farmer. They were harvested the night before I met her to get them. Very fresh!

Wash. Slice. Spread out.

Add to the dehydrator and plug it in. I don’t add anything to keep them from browning. They do great without that step. I keep the peel on as well.

My tiny dehydrator has four small circle trays, but the results are just fine. I don’t have to slice apples for hours to fill it. I get a break, then repeat the next day. (And the next and the next . . . because I have two boxes.)

Cash (left) and Cowboy LOVE apple harvest season! They get the cores. I am currently a favorite person.

Here is batch one. Not all of them, but a pretty bowl full to show you. I store them in gallon zip bags or gallon lidded jars. And later, when I need a snack and taste of summer during the cold dreary days of winter, all I have to do is pop open a container and munch away.

I am so thankful for apples! Happy harvest!


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Fairy Houses by Autumn

One of the grands loves creating and spending time outside dinking around. This summer she asked permission to make a fairy house and garden in my potted lavender. I like fairy gardens, seeing kids use their imaginations, and watching them be involved outside, plus this is right where we would benefit from some nice garden decor! Yes, please, create away!

This is fairy house location number 1. Sadly, the lavender did not want a fairy house and/or garden in the pot. So, the grand had to relocate to a more fairy house friendly neighborhood.

Below is the artist at work at fairy house and garden location number 2. Sunflowers don’t care. They make excellent tall trees for fairy houses and gardens. And shade for the construction workers. Plus. Big leaves and strong stalks for walls and a roof!

Garden shears in hand, additional permission was granted to gather leaves and thick stems. Add rocks, water, dirt, and shells, and utilize existing cement blocks and nature protection from sunflowers and potted plants. Excellent ideas.

Et voila!

We were instructed to water carefully to avoid damaging the new location. We followed the instructions very well. But the leaves dried up, the wind blew, and the stalks fell over.

Never fear though. Miss Architect visited regularly to repair and rearrange the fairy house and garden.

She even established a bathing pool across the brick patio in the cement bird bath/waterer. I missed grabbing a photo of this when it was otherwise occupied by one of the fairy residents.

Imagination. Nature. Plenty of loose parts. Equals the best childhood!

I’m afraid to say that the fairy house might have to migrate south for the winter to escape snow and ice. But we shall see how mild or tough the winter is. Until then, we might consider charging a tiny bit of rent. ;0


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Haiku Moment: stars

not all bright stars live

sprinkled high above, many

dip their toes in earth

stars by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley


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Haiku Moment: wonder

feathered lace wings pose

delicate friend uncamouflaged

wonder in plain sight

wonder by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley, WA