Tis Pumpkin Season!

Fall is here and that means Pumpkin Season! I have decided to dedicate my blog for the next couple months to all things pumpkin. This means pumpkin patches, pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattes and anything else you can possibly think of that involves pumpkin. Consider me the Forest Gump of Pumpkin. I even like the word "pumpkin." Anyway, if you have a pumpkin recipe you would like me to try out and share or know of a great pumpkin patch let me know!

To kickoff my pumpkin adventure I ate Pumpkin Pancakes at The Original Pancake House. They were very good and I would definitely get them again. What's awesome is there's an Original Pancake House in California so my family and friends out there can try them too! After eating breakfast, Derrick and I drove down to Amish Country for the day. On the way down we stopped in Wayne County at the Walsh Family Farm. They have an awesome pumpkin patch with rides for kids, mazes and giant pumpkins. It made me wonder if I was looking at The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown was waiting for. lol. I've been told other farms have Giant Pumpkins so let me know if you think you've found the biggest pumpkin of the year. If you happen to have a camera with you, take a picture and email it to me at vargievarg@yahoo.com and I'll put it on the blog. Don't forget to include your name, who's in the picture and where you found the pumpkin!

Fall Preview!

Today my friend Ariana gave me a tour of where she grew up out in the country. We stopped at Mill Hollow Metropark to skip rocks and while we were walking down to the river, there were tons of colorful leaves on the ground. On the way back to the car we collected a few and I arranged them on the hood of her car. I actually remembered to bring my camera with me so I was able to take a picture of my moment of foliage arrangement excellence. I love how the light reflected off of her car.

Veterans Memorial Bridge Tour

Yesterday, Derrick and I had the awesome opportunity to take a free tour of the Veterans Memorial aka Detroit-Superior Bridge in Cleveland. The tours are hosted twice a year and by some miracle we both had the day off! This definitely ranked up with the top experiences I've had so far in Ohio. There were lots of informative volunteers that were able to answer questions and I was really impressed with the details of their set-up. When you first walked into the old subway portion of the bridge there were tables set up with old pictures and information about upcoming events. There was music from the 40s playing from a stereo and two different old films about the trolley system projected onto screens set-up inside the subway. I felt like we walked into a time warp. I was a little freaked out at first walking across the bridge because you could see through the grate down to the Cuyahoga River. There were wood panels along the middle to walk on but of course Derrick and I had to freak ourselves out by walking on the grate. Plus, that was the only way to look over the edge of the bridge at the awesome view! Yet another, "This would never be allowed in California Moment."

After we made it to the other side of the bridge we walked around the flats and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Seeing all of the bridges and cool architecture while soaking up the sun made me fall in love with Cleveland even more. There's an upcoming event at the bridge on September 25th that you can get information about at www.clevelandbridgeproject.com.

Madison Library

Last month Lakewood had an Art Fest and the Lakewood Photographic Society (which I'm a member of) had a booth. After the festival our photos were put on display at the Madison Branch of the Lakewood Library. I wanted to check out the library all month to see my photo on display and I finally made it last week. Here it is in all it's glory! Thank you again to Alyssa for being a beautiful model!

It's Harvest Time!

The end of Summer is wonderful. There are all kinds of fresh, local produce available. My favorite place to go is Pickering Hills Farm in Avon on Detroit Rd. They not only carry their own produce but also local goods from other families. You can buy 5 pound boxes of blueberries for $20. Plus, when you buy your groceries there they give you two free ears of corn. lol. I ate a whole peck of peaches all by myself over the course of 1 week.

Take the time this week to try out a local farm. If you don't know where to look try www.localharvest.org. They're an awesome resource and you can even buy products from farms online! I ordered my sister's birthday present from Blossoms Wild Herb & Lavender farm and would recommend them to anyone looking for high quality lavender products.

Corn Festival!

A couple of weeks ago Derrick and I went to the Corn Festival in North Ridgeville with Derrick's mom, step dad and Zoey. It was a lot of fun watching Zoey learn how to roll down grassy hills. I had this great strawberry shortcake with ice cream and hard shell chocolate sauce.

The coolest part of the festival was when I met one of the local photographers and his wife. I love his photography and I read her blog. You can view their website at www.rowephotography.com.

Derrick and I also did one of those inflatable jousting games where you put on helmets and try to knock each other off of moving pedestals. Derrick totally kicked my butt! The only time I knocked him down was when I cheated and pushed him with my hands. He thought it was hilarious.

The Creative Princess Bag

Here's some quick pictures of my latest creation. I was in the mood to sew the other night and really wanted to use up some scrap pink fabric so I sewed this cute bag for Zoey. I got the idea from a bag I saw in a sewing store in Lakewood that I thought was really cute. I've had the pink star fabric since college. The girls at work think I should make the bag in different colors and sell them at craft shows. What do you think?

Go Browns!

The other day Derrick and I were trying to decide where we wanted to watch the Browns game when all of a sudden Derrick's uncle called. He asked what we were up to and Derrick told him we were trying to figure out where to watch the game. Then Derrick's uncle said, "Do you want to go to the game?" Of course Derrick said yes, so we ended up watching the game at the game itself. We started out at the top of the stadium but about halfway through the game Derrick's uncle called us from his seats (9th row up from the field!) and said there was room for us! So, not only did we get to go to the game for free, but we also ended up with a free upgrade to "The Dawg Pound." The pictures are from our two sets of seats. After the game we walked around W. 6th st. which reminds me a lot of Pacific Beach in San Diego. We danced at The Barley House for a few hours and then drove home. Pretty exciting Saturday night considering we didn't have any plans when the day started.

Tortilla, Tortilla!

I made tortillas tonight for the first time since I moved to Ohio. I learned electric burners are not superb for making tortillas because they make burn circles and cook all uneven. They still taste good though! Here's a picture of my little stack of tortillas. I made a quesadilla with one and it was awesome!

Feed Me Seymour!

Back when I was a park ranger I learned about Brown-Headed Cowbirds and how they lay their eggs in the nests of other species of birds. These eggs hatch and then beat out the other chicks for food. There used to be cages in the park specifically made to catch the Cowbirds in order to keep them from lowering the population of other bird species. They're actually considered a parasite. I always thought it was sad to see these birds trapped in cages.

A few years later on the other side of the Country, there's a Brown-Headed Cowbird chick who is being raised by a little Chirping Sparrow right outside my apartment. It's the weirdest thing to watch because the Chirping Sparrow is half the size of the Cowbird but it rushes back and forth from the bird feeder the the chick in order to satisfy it's never ending appetite. The Chirping Sparrow can almost fit it's whole head inside the Cowbird's mouth. I've decided not to interfere more than I already have by providing the birdseed and just observe the live example of Darwinism.