§ A Wet Furbaby...Watching its Masters Fishing...

It was an overcast morning, but no threat of rain, when I left home. About five miles down the road a fine mist was falling on my windshield and my plans of going to the island and Port Aransas, were nixed. I did drive to Padre Island and pulled off at the Packery Channel jetty to walk before the rain fell more heavily...I wanted to enjoy the pleasant temperature and maybe see some shore birds while walking. I saw quite a few birds, along with many many brown pelicans feeding in the early morning hour. As the sun tried to break free of the cloud cover, it didn't take long for the storm front to move in. I had a soaked head and damp clothes before I returned to the car, but it was worth it. MUCH better than the wet clothes from the sweat created from high humidity...any day! Some photos look black and white, but the mist makes some images appear so,...they're all color, just moody like the weather. Here's some of what I saw...

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Arriving home, I decided a warm pan of apple dumplings would be good with our evening meal of Polish Sausage, potato salad, and a tossed salad. Yummy.
By the way, did you know that cinnamon in your diet lowers blood pressure? My nutritionist, after my heart attack, told me that cinnamon is very heart healthy. So many benefits from consuming cinnamon; not only heart but diabetes, etc....click here for 10 proven facts.

§ Cosmic Crisp and Completed Crochet Craft

... finished the gnome...

Two days of rain and below normal temperatures kept me indoors for the most part.  I crocheted.  It was more difficult than it looked on the pattern website. In fact, I followed the directions, and found there were several errors and the individual rounds didn't come out. I ripped out my stitches and began again, making sure I did the stitch count according to the instructions. Still, it didn't work out. I tried again, and a 4th time, then...gave up, and using the photo of the gal's finished gnome, I did my OWN pattern stitches and it worked. Just okay, but it worked. I also added arms and mittens, plus inserting a thin wire in the hat to make it 'bumpy-bulky' and bendable. It's done. Honestly, I'd much rather BUY them already made. lol


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I also played my own personal allotted  hour on the laptop, designing a new blog themed wallpaper/background and header for 2020.  Will put it up after Christmas of course.  I'm hoping to go for a more simplistic photo frame and a more monotone [black and white] theme for next year.  Perhaps it'll be less distracting with a too busy header and photo frames.  Waiting to test it out and see if it's a visual improvement.   Bud and I also worked on a new jigsaw puzzle now that the extra bedroom has been set back to normal after Erik's visit....we were able to set up the puzzle table this week.  The puzzle is Thomas Kinkade's Nativity [1000 pcs.] and we have 872 pieces yet to 'patch' together to complete. 

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A couple of weeks ago, on the national news, there was a segment on a NEW variety of apple. From Washington state. It has taken twenty years of research and developing the fruit. And it's exclusively exported from Washington for now. I imagine, eventually, the trees will be grown elsewhere. Anyway, I've been waiting to see them in our local produce at grocery stores around town. Wednesday, I had to stop at the store on the way home, and was picking out a couple of bananas and noticed THE apple! They're huge!! About the size of a small grapefruit...supposed to last in the refrigerator for a year, crisp and juicy, tart and sweet. I haven't tried it yet for a taste test, but the apple seems like a perfect specimen. I do like the more tart, tangy apple instead of the mealy, sweet. Only time will tell. Oh and by the way...for now at least, they ARE expensive. Here in Texas $3.67 a pound. My two apples I picked out were nearly $7.00!!!  The name, which is the blog title today, Cosmic Crisp, is reportedly ...

"Out of this World" good.

ADDENDUM:  Bud and I split one apple in half Thursday for lunch.  I must say I've never tasted an apple so delicious.  The meat is white and remains so without "browning" after it's cut like most apples do.  The flavor is like a fine wine...seriously.  And ever so juicy and crisp.  More on the tart side without much sweet.  Awesome.  It's gonna be the only apple I buy from now on for snacking.  [too costly for pie.  lol]   Did I mention that the apple will remain refrigerator fresh for up to a year?

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