I'll miss you Judy!

Today has been a long day.  I had to say goodbye to my dear, dear friend, Judith Ann Palmer.  I can hear her bubbly laughter, see her plug her ears and sing "Lalalala" if someone was trying to gossip.  I can hear her say, "Dahling, You looook maaah-veee-lous!" Judy wore shorts as often as possible and drove a convertible with her trusty Charlie Dog sitting beside her.

Friday I got to spend the entire day with her, sewing, laughing and admiring her new jewels....she'd discovered Brighton jewelry. Saturday I saw her for a few minutes and this morning she never woke up.  I am devastated!  Judy's dear husband has been ill and in and our of the hospital of late and she had just picked him up from his latest hospital stay last night.  When we heard the sirens we thought they had come for Warren.  Mr. Scottie Dog, Liz and I spent most of the day doing what little we could for the family and Bill is spending the night with Warren.  Her daughter Bonnie will arrive from Hawaii on Tuesday and we'll know the details of the memorial service then.

Judy loved life.  She loved Sydney as her own "Precious" and Syd adored her "Doo-Dee" as she called her years ago...now updated to Jude-Dude.  She never said an unkind word about anybody, she loved dogs (especially her Charlie Dog).....when she worked at the store, she knew each customer by their dog's name! She adored the ocean, Alaska and never met a Batik fabric she didn't love.  Her sewing machines were encrusted with Bling...crystals and stickers and sparkle. 

Judy loved tea parties and we attended several.  Here we are all dressed up with our gloves and pearls at the Eureka Inn a couple of years ago.  She collected Tea Cup fabrics for a few years in order to make a quilt....she had so much fabric she made several full sized quilts, wall hangings, table runners and more.  Just this past Spring she sewed a bunch of table runners and helped hold a Tea Party for the women at the Rescue Mission and then served them tea.

She had a huge heart and loved doing for others.  We had so much fun together.  Judy I miss you so much already.  What am I going to do without you?  You promised to come visit me in Minnesota!!!!  My heart is aching.

Since we last met......................

Since I last blogged many things have happened.

My cousin Glenn and his lovely wife Rosalyn visited here in Eureka.  Glenn's mom, Hazel was my mom's sister.  We were raised in So. CA and most of our Christmas, New Year's and Easters were spent together.

 Glenn, Rosalyn, me, Mr. Scottie Dog and Liz (guess what?  8 year old Sydney took this photo!).

 Liz celebrated her birthday...don't ask me how old she is...I keep goofing and she delights in it!  On her birthday I took her 3 GIANT donuts from a local bakery.  Can't begin to tell you how many people they fed!

A day later we took the trailer up to Gold Beach, OR for a few days.  Liz and Steve stayed in the hotel and we parked in the adjacent RV Park....great view of the ocean.  We had bonfires on the beach, marshmallows and a huge sandcastle building event.

This lighthouse was right at the trail to the beach.  You could climb the circular stairs to the viewing porch on top.  Bill took a bit of the romance out when he informed me that this was the sewage lift station for the RV Park....the pump to move the sewage up to the street and sewer system is housed in the lower part of the lighthouse.  I'm just happy it doesn't look like a huge pump!

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

For breakfast one morning Liz made us bacon pancakes.  They were good, but personally I think I like my bacon and pancakes separate.



I've been in a canning mode for the past couple of weekends.  Mr. Scottie Dog has been bringing me 5 gallon buckets full of pears...not one, not two, but four buckets one weekend and two the next.  I've made pear jam, spiced pear jam, pear tarts, pear butter and more.  This weekend I needed something different.  I saw a recipe for Pear Chutney.  I don't think I've ever had chutney but you certainly hear about it often.  I knew I liked everything in the Pear Chutney.  One blogger said she liked to put it on cream cheese spread on crackers.  That sounded pretty good!  Emeril said it was good on chicken or pork.  So I decided to can up a batch of Pear Chutney.  I gathered up my ingredients: apple cider vinegar, mustard seed, pears, onions, crystallized ginger, the zest of two oranges and one lemon, golden raisins, crazins, black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, apples....oh so much goodness.  I made so much I had to process the canner twice.

Sunday night I opened a jar and had it with a perfectly grilled pork chop (Mr. Scottie Dog is a master griller!).  YUM, double yum!  I ate a couple of spoon fulls right out of the jar!  I'm going to a fun sewing day on Friday and I'm taking a jar of Pear Chutney, cream cheese and crackers.  I might share.