Campfire Stew

When I was little, I was a Brownie and a Girl Scout. One of the things I remember about our little "camping" trips, was the Campfire Stew - sometimes good, sometimes not. Each of us were required to bring a can of soup or vegetables along, and when it was time for dinner, they browned a bunch of hamburger, and then tossed in everybody's cans - sort of a huge pot of soupy, sloppy veggie and burger stew. I don't remember them requiring that they were a specific flavor or anything, but I guess we figured out pretty early that it wasn't cute to bring clams or something gross, because they would make us eat it anyway.

I've got a big pot of campfire stew going on over here, metaphorically speaking anyway. A little bit of this and that, all thrown together and bubbling away. Orders are perking along, shows are non-stop, Collage has it's little wine and treats event tonight. Trying to keep it all up is a little bit of a challenge, but it's going well. It feels a tad bit less stressful this year, and maybe that's because there wasn't the Vasa Park and Lord Hill shows to add to the mix, which I'll miss dearly when the numbers are all tallied later.

It's been 17 years since I moved to Seattle. Yes, that seems like forever to me too. But I have to say that I've never had a nicer, more pretty autumn than we've had this year. Many years we are suffering storm after storm, flooding, and days of soggy messiness. But it's been a dry October and November. Somehow, the way the change of temperature and weather played out, we've gotten full colors for weeks now. So many times it's just been boom! dead overnight and the following week is an endless wind and rain storm, resulting in no color at all, no leaves on the trees, no nothing except the soggy mess to rake up. As I make my way around town with shows, restocking, errands, etc, I can't help but stare at all the incredibly rich reds, yellows, oranges in all the trees. And it's just continued to develop and get better each week. I love the fall season anyway, but this has been a reat treat this year. I didn't even know we could get this close to a New England type season, but we have.

What I don't like about it all is the total lack of daylight. Now that daylight savings is over, it gets dark by mid-afternoon, and it feels like bedtime right about the time you finish dinner.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz.