Outside (And Inside!) Adventures In My New Home State

 

I'm sitting in my cozy little (rental) house, waiting for the rain and "wintery mix" (snow/rain/sleet) to arrive this afternoon!  HOW EXCITING!

Here's what has happened outside this afternoon:

And then this!

It might turn to SNOW soon!

Don't worry; I managed to get the car (which my parents have been generous and kind enough to loan us my Dad's car!) into the garage, I'm all stocked up on groceries (I actually bought extra of everything just because I was feeling like nesting!), and I'm wearing a super cute toasty outfit!

The cats are all cozy, too.

While I'm on the topic of possible snow, here are my new winter boots!

(Yes, I was trying them on while still in my pajamas!)

They are comfy and pretty cute!

Good reviews on Amazon, too.

Find them here if you're looking for a pair.

In our Arizona house, the hallway had half-walls, which made the house feel very open, but which also allowed us to have a nice place to dry our clothing!  Well . . . now that I don't have that anymore, how do I dry my clothes that need to dry flat?  I decided to try this drying rack!  It actually works great and it's pretty neat looking, too.  (Off topic comment: the neighbor's husky mix does not like the chilly rain and he's howling in a very chatty way.)  I put the whole rack together all by myself!

 I have kept up walking a lot outside.  Sometimes I just walk around the neighborhood (which is very interesting), sometimes I drive to a nearby park and enjoy a trail.

This day I got to wear my red coat!

When I came back, my glasses FOGGED UP!  This almost never happened in the desert.

The leaves are pretty all the time.  I bagged up enough to fill THREE large bags, but there are always more.

On an inside note, my sweet Auntie Cindy loaned us her 3 nesting tables so that we have a table by the couch and two side tables!  It's much easier to function and the tables are even pretty!  That's a new coaster from Marshall's.

The cats are pretty relaxed in this house now.  Of course, they'll need to adjust all over again when we find our permanent home, but they'll do just fine!

Claude likes to keep an eye on what's going on outside.

But sleep is important, too.

Sometimes Stephen is very concerned about what he sees!

I did some research to find grocery alternatives to Whole Foods around here (I miss Sprout's!), and discovered Lakewinds Co-op nearby.  When I drove into the parking lot, I realized it backs up to a nature preserve!

Of course I had to take a walk before checking out the grocery store.

I saw this egret:

And a heron!

What a beautiful trail.  And there were fun bridges to tramp over.

There was poetry posted along the trail.

Look at that gorgeous sky!

There were funny geese, too.

Eventually I made it into the store.  I didn't spend much time browsing around, so I'll have to go back soon.

Allistair was happy when I got home.

On another recent day, I got to start out with sweet sunshiny snuggles.

I needed some stuff from Target, and then spur-of-the-moment decided to stop by the park that I found by accident last week to walk a bit in the autumn air.

I took this dusty blue hooded sweater out for her first adventure!

It was quite windy and I quickly realized that I wasn't wearing quite enough clothing.

But it was glorious!

The lake was slightly wavy and the sun made it shine.

The leaves were glowing and rustling in the wind.

I followed the path around the lake and discovered that it turned into a trail through the woods!

I sat on a bench, and after a couple of minutes, I heard some crunching.  

It was deer! 

The trees were spectacular, as well, and I thought I might have stepped into Eden.

 

The sun set over the marsh.

By the time I got back to the lake, I could see the sun setting there, too.

Some fun indoor things have been happening here, too.

I got another long striped sweater from Amazon and I love the shape, texture, and color.

This is my favorite view in the mornings. That blanket tent has at least one cat in it!

I've been enjoying cooking in a different kitchen.  I liked my Arizona kitchen, of course, and I had more equipment, but this kitchen is working just great!

I've made veggie mushroom stroganoff, fajitas, chocolate chip cookies (twice!), brownies, veggie pasta stew, pancakes, and lots of smoothies.  Oh!  And pizza!

While on the topic of food, I have to say that the stove and oven smelled TERRIBLE when I cooked.  Everything was horribly greasy.  I don't understand it; I guess I don't know how "normal" people cook!

I cleaned the stove top and scrubbed the metal parts.

My dear friend Cindy told me that the house she moved into also had this stinky and gross issue with grease.  She used baking soda paste to scrub and vinegar water to wipe down.  So I decided to try it!

I added peppermint oil to the baking soda mixture and left it on for 24 hours.

And it's MUCH better now!  Tonight I cooked brown rice and fajita filling on the stovetop and brownies in the oven, and there was NO icky grease deep fat frying smell!  Yay!

The bedroom gets nice light in the afternoon when the sun is setting.  I keep getting confused about which direction this house is facing, but the front and back face the same directions (east and west) as our house in Arizona!

The cats are of course, being adorable almost all the time.  They miss their Daddy (so do I!), and they sometimes get weird and crazy, but they have been a comfort and a joy, as usual!

Here's my foxy Claude:

My silly Allistair:

Allistair and Stephen keeping each other warm.

Everyone!

Allistair curled up next to Claude the other day and Claude was too sleepy to even growl.

My Auntie Cindy also loaned us a couple of lamps, which I put on the nightstands in the bedroom, so I was able to move this cute book lamp onto the entry table.  It looks homey.

Here are the lamps from my Auntie.

The sunrise with clouds was beautiful.

On this past Monday, I went adventuring outside again.

I found another delightful place to walk!

I love walking near water.

Ta-da!

I saw some buckthorn.  I had to look it up (using Google Lens).  I thought the little purple berries were cute.

The walk was beautiful.

I came around a corner and realized that this trail hooked onto the trail I walked on my birthday a couple of weeks ago!  Here it goes under an interesting bridge.

I didn't keep going around the loop because it suddenly started getting dark!

I heard a lot of owls!

Don't worry; I made it out okay!

This morning, I ran for the first time in this neighborhood!

It was chilly, but refreshing!  It's a great way to start the day.

I was ready to get rid of this blouse before I left Arizona because I just didn't really like how it fit, but it's super adorable underneath a sweater, so I'm extra glad I kept it!

It's very fun to figure out different ways to wear the same stuff - and it's fun to get some new stuff, too!

I also found Whole Foods all by myself today without the help of Google.  Yay me!