Waiting For Spring!

  "In the Spring, I have counted 136 kinds of weather inside of 24 hours."--Mark Twain


"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."       --Mark Twain


Spring Break was great, although it had a rough start.  We drove to California and stayed in Angel's Camp, Calaveras County, the home of Mark Twain's Celebrated Jumping Frog.  It's also near where the gold rush all began.  But on the way there, traveling through Nevada, we ran into a dirt storm and chipped our windshield in several places and ended up with a crack down the side.  We got to Donner's Summit and had to chain up because of the snowstorm.  One of the wipers actually broke off due to the built up ice.  It was slow going for a few hours but we were very happy to finally make it to our destination.  After a day of rest we visited Mercer Caverns and Calaveras County Big Trees State Park.  I'll tell about other places we visited in a future blog.

Snow storm at Donner's Summit

You can walk through this tree without ducking!

Tree stump dance floor holds 30 couples!

Snowy and muddy trail to follow.

We had a great Easter with all the family and others here for a ham dinner.  Now, what to do with all that left over ham.  A simple solution is Ham Fried Rice.  It's easy and even my picky eater likes it.  Add some fresh fruit and some stir-fried veggies and you have a complete meal.

Ham Fried Rice

3 cups cooked rice                                1 cup frozen peas and carrots, thawed

5 eggs, scrambled                                 1-2 cups ham, diced

3-4 green onions, diced                          soy sauce to taste

2 tablespoons oil 

Prepare individual ingredients beforehand.  Chilled rice works the best.  Heat oil in wok.  Add each ingredient gradually and stir until well mixed and heated through.  Add enough soy sauce to flavor rice and give it a light tan color.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Even though Spring is taking it's sweet time to get here, this quilt helps us imagine it's toasty warm outside.  I made this one for my youngest daughter for her birthday.  It's from Nancy Odom's book Vintage Rose.  It's called Lost Spools.  If you look hard enough you can find the thread spool shapes.