Slight Detour: Wet and Lovely; TBT's

Wetness continues.

I thought it was supposed to be a relatively dry day yesterday, but Mother Nature had other plans.

Off and on throughout the day, the rains came, adding to the barnyard mud but bathing pretty much everything else.

Dry and dusty fallen leaves, in some cases, now provide a touch of beauty as they lie strewn around the yard.

I had a chance to walk through the woods and the hay field yesterday afternoon, and pretty much everywhere I looked needles, leaves, shrubs and fence posts had an extra sheen, thanks to the moisture.

This pineapple express, as they like to call it, ain't that bad because it's warm outside. I've even seen blossoms budding on a few leftover annuals in the pots along the deck.

Speaking of the deck, my outside Christmas lights are up.

I brought a big bag of lights from the shop and laid them out on the lawn as a trio of dogs lay close by watching my every move.

It's always nice to have an audience.

Turns out, of all those lights, only two strings were working, but just enough to extend the length of the deck.

So, in a few days, I'll start turning them on at night. With the extra time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I feel the urge to light up the night but am also thinking it will be nice to wait until Advent.

So, that's what I'll do.

The extra time and the relative quiet of this week after company has allowed me to get organized with cards and cookies.

Baked my first batch for the cookie plates last night. If you want to enhance an already good cookie, buy a couple of boxes of the Betty Crocker sea salt caramel brownies.

Follow the directions but add a few nuts to the mixture.

THEN, sprinkle the top with butterscotch chips.

We had those last week, and they were so good, I decided to add them to my Christmas cookie ensemble.

I'll also plan for Cherry's pecan praline caramel squares and one of my favorites: soft gingersnaps (photo below).

I add nuts and raisins to the recipe, and once again, YUM YUM.

Annie always wants snickerdoodles, and I don't mind making them cuz they're the first cookie I ever baked, back when I was ten years old and a member of the Mountain View ABC's 4-H club.

The snickerdoodle recipe appeared in our cooking project book, along with purple cows and wienie boats.

I still make wienie boats.

Like pretty much every recipe, I have enhanced them from the good ol' days when we used those skinny wienies, slit 'em down the middle, stuffed in some cheese (probably Velveeta) and topped 'em off with a healthy dose of Ketchup before baking them in the oven until the cheese melted.

Nowadays, my love for Wood's German sausages and Tillamook medium cheddar cheese has meant great improvement to the wienie boats of yesteryear.

The German sausage, in both size and flavor, and the more substantial cheddar adds a lot to the original models.

As far as purple cows, my memory of concocting that requirement is pretty vague, but I do know some relatives who have a classic "purple cow" story, which is probably best left untold this morning.

All this talk about food, and I'm getting hungry so it's time to change the subject.

This is Thursday and it's throwback day.

I found a few photos from around this time in 2010 when Willie and I were teaming up at book signings for my first two books and the third one where Willie collaborated.

He provided a story among the collection which offered HIS perspective to a "Willie roast" provided by Mom.

It was only fair AND it was a great story.

Another photo shows that the weather was much different on Nov. 28 2010 from Nov. 28, 2018.

Yup that manure spreader in the north lawn takes on some rather dramatic seasonal looks.

Also, in 2010, Debbie and I drove up to Bonners Ferry to attend the Mennonite Craft Sale.

Then, we moved on up the valley and dropped in on my college friend Billy Krause who had moved back home to the long-established family farm.

I hadn't seen Billy for years, but she quickly brewed up some coffee and invited us inside.

We had a great time visiting with Billy AND her horse that day. We'll have to do that again some time.

Finally, a photo from an old slide depicting a nice reminder of two gentlemen who meant a lot to all of us in the Brown/Tibbs family: Uncle Frenchy and our dad Harold.

Uncle Frenchy was our mother's brother who lived in Hoquiam, Wash., where he had a wrecker service.

He and Harold had a lot in common, especially fishing, and we always loved it when Frenchy would come for a visit.

Good times. Good memories.

It's another dark morning, and I think the earth may still need a little scrubbing.

So, it will be a good excuse to spend part of the day inside, baking those gingersnaps.

Happy Thursday.

Special note: My blog editor Helen just sent me a text, noting that what I had called the "banana" express was, indeed, the "pineapple" express.

Guess my mind was on food concoctions and I was thinkin' about banana splits!!