Autumn Has Arrived

What a lovely brisk day we are having.  I guess I had missed the arrival of fall.  The weather has been nice and I hadn't noticed much color in the landscape, but here it is, so beautiful.  The girls and I went to an open house at the local fire station.  We got to climb the tower and look around.  There was a little show of changing colors and it was so nice.  This weekend we were able to skype with one of our dear friends who is doing missionary work in Africa, she spoke of the warm weather where she is and I started noticing, yep, it is starting to turn to fall here.  After our conversation David and I got to jump in the car and head up to the mountains to one of my favorite places in the world.  We stayed at Shore Lodge on the lake and it was so beautiful.  In the evening we found a cute little lantern in our room and got to go out on the beach.  The lodge had a bonfire going.  I jumped at the chance to make a smore and enjoyed the peacefulness of this area.  The next morning, while David was gone, I opened our hotel window which looks out over the lake.  The mountains were majestic, even with the clouds settling on them here and there.   It was just perfect to sit there, sip my tea, read my Bible, and enjoy God time with the creator of all this beauty.   We drove home refreshed and amazed at the show of red, yellow, orange and green decorating the mountain road.  There were pine trees that turn yellow in the autumn.  I had just found out about them a couple weeks ago and was so delighted to take note of them as we drove.  I wish I had had my camera with me. Then when I got home I was thrilled to see my Purple Ash that we planted a couple months ago had just turned it's purple fall color.

Today is another exciting day.  Latisha has finished her driving time.  So, today she took and passed her driving test.  She is now taking her written test.  Where does the time go? Well, off we go.  If it really is autumn it must be time to make some caramel apples.  Hope you are all having a lovely day.

PS  Latisha passed her test

PPS  Here are our caramel apples and recipe:

4 cups sugar
2 cups Karo
1/2 tsp salt
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 quart 1/2 and 1/2
1 Tblsp vanilla  -add at end
Wash apples and but stick in them.  Combine in large sauce pan sugar, syrup, salt, 1/2 and 1/2,  and milk.  Bring to boil, stir constantly until comes to firm ball stage.  I just test with an apple to see if the Caramel will stick ok.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Cassandra helping

Sierra stirring

Danika preparing apples

The girls swirling the apples to keep the caramel on

enjoying the fruits of their labor.