As you can see, this week's PCJ is late. We went away for the weekend to visit Sarah in Detroit and didn't get back until tonight. I’ll write more about that later.
Our Indian Summer weather came to an abrupt end on Monday. On Sunday it was 80° and by Monday night we were in the 30's at night again. The colder weather arrived with rain and wind that finished off our fall leaves too. Now things are looking a bit bare and scruffy. It will look like that until snow comes to hide it all. I hope that doesn't happen for a while. I’m not ready to deal with snow yet. The weather is still fine, but more typical for October.
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| Frosty morning. |
We worked all week on canning tomatoes and pumpkin and, I’m happy to report, we are done with them at last. We just have a few batches of elderberry jelly to make from juice we froze last month and then the canning season is finally at an end.
I had a chance to do some intensive work in the yard. I finally got the garlic planted. There’s still a lot to do.
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| The garlic planted at last! |
On Friday afternoon we left home and drove to Detroit to spend the weekend with Sarah. It took us seven and a half hours to get there. The drive was pretty. The world away from Potter County is still in the midst of autumn with bright colors and leaves still on the trees. By the time we arrived at Sarah’s it was late and we just had a light dinner and went to bed. Traveling is exhausting.
On Saturday we went to the Detroit Temple. Stacey and I went inside while Hannah, Josiah, and Sarah did some sightseeing and shopping close by. After that we drove over to Lake Saint Claire and toured the Edsel and Eleanor Ford estate. It was beautiful. The grounds were gorgeous. The house on the shore of the lake was beautiful. We saw some classic Ford cars in the garage museum. On the way home from that we stopped at Sarah’s favorite fruit and vegetable market, just down the street from where she lives. They had an amazing amount of produce, most of it grown locally. We bought apples, pears, plums, and a pineapple (not a local item). Sarah made an apple pie which we ate for breakfast the next morning.
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| At the Detroit Temple. |
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| The Detroit Temple. |
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| A Classic Lincoln Continental. |
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| Inside the playhouse at the Ford Estate. |
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| The playhouse. |
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| The Ford house. |
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| Lake Saint Claire. |
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| The back of the Ford house. |
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| The Rose Garden. |
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| The main lawn at the Ford Estate. |
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| Apples at the Produce Market. |
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| Sarah's Apple Pie. |
On Sunday we went to church with Sarah. She attends a singles ward in Ann Arbor. Her meetings don’t start until 1:00, and we were early, so we went to a little park nearby for a while and walked around. After church we drove around Ann Arbor and saw the huge campuses of Michigan State University. When we got back to her house we had dinner, chicken tacos. Sarah and Josiah made cookies. We sat and played games. And then it was time to go to bed.
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| Getting ready to make cookies. |
Sarah left for work early this morning and we hit the road shortly after she left. We drove across Ohio and stopped at Kirtland to tour the church history sites there. That was a great experience. They've done a wonderful job in restoring the buildings there. From Kirtland we drove down to Hirum and toured the Johnson Farm. Then we drove home.
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| The Kirtland Visitors' Center. |
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| The Whitney Store. |
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| A room in the Whitney house. |
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| The Ashery at Kirtland. |
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| The Johnson Farm. |
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| The barn at the Johnson Farm. |
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| On the steps of the Johnson Home. |
The drive home seemed very long. We arrived at 7:00 just after dark. We had a great trip, but it was short and went by so quickly. It was wonderful to be with Sarah. I don’t know when we’ll have the chance to see her again.
It feels good to be home again, but a bit sad to have everything go back to the old routine tomorrow. I hope the weather holds so I can keep working on cleaning up the gardens.
