A few May flowers

At first glance - you see cherry blossoms - then you notice the nice long thorns among the beautiful flowers. So you know better than to put your nose too close for a sniff.

Just an ironwood blooming - telling abe that it is time to go fish the big cats in the salt river - or so the legend goes.





We have had too many dry years here and so with a wet Spring the saguaros are trying to make up for time lost by putting on flowers everywhere. They are very interesting indeed this year.


The desert is truly putting on its finest and we have been able to go out to enjoy it all.

Capoons

If you look at the deliciousness that is in this picture you see raisin filled dumplings wrapped in Swiss Chard and covered with bacon drippings and bacon bits. A familly dish that our SD relatives used to make. From the Swiss side of the family that is and this recipe is what Aunt Florene gave me during a phone call. Just don't try to find this listed anywhere else, except in a Ramona SD cookbook.

The recipe

Take large swiss chard leaves and wash well. Set aside and make dough.

3 cups of flour

3 eggs

1 tsp of salt

3 cups of raisins

1/3 to 1/2 cup of milk (to make a soft dough)

Mix together and spoon large teaspoon full of dough onto the top of chard leaf. Roll tightly tucking in ends (like making a burrito) We usually end up doubling this amount to fill our six quart stock pot.

Place a few extra leaves into the bottom of a large stock pot. Place the tightly rolled bundles into pot. Cover with boiling salted water (don't overfill or it will boil over when you are cooking capoons) then cover pot. Return to heat and cook for 20-25 minutes. Drain

Cook and crumble one pound of bacon, drain reserving some of the grease. Pour the bacon grease and crumbles over the top and serve. If you don't have bacon you can just put a little melted butter on top.

Don't worry about leftovers as they reheat nicely.

The Oregon trail to Canada

Thanks Alex's Human and Chester Copperpot. We had a great time on our journey. We've got to come back to hike the rest of Silver Falls - leaving out these 76 steps.

Even if it rained all day Easter, we still were able to enjoy the nature that you showed us.

Visiting Herman the Sturgeon at the Salmon Hatchery on the Columbia River

Multnomah Falls were an awesome sight.

After two days near Portland we went North to visit our Bear. We went to the Seattle Underground and enjoyed the tour while we learned a little fun history about the area.

We also managed to take one day and drive to the ocean. It was too cold to even think about putting our toes in the surf.

After spending a couple of days with the Bear's we drove the rest of the way to Blaine, Washington. Time to get to work, with a little time to enjoy the beauty that is Washington. Our favorite was this eagle who was sitting there on two different occasions.

We'll have to come back sometime when the weather is a little less rainy. Oh, and by the way Alex's Human it wasn't allergies to green - I caught a cold but thanks to ZiCam was able to get over it in just a few days.