First of the season.....

Our grandson, Christian, sitting by our first wood fire of the season - enjoying his first hot chocolate. He's always ready and willing to "start a fire" when it starts cooling off. :) Sullivan, the bulldog, seemed to enjoy the fire, too. The next evening we roasted marshmallows on the fire..... burnt ones are my favorite! :) Eventually, we will roast hotdogs, too ..... and we've made grilled-cheese sandwiches on the fire before. If we had a flat-top wood stove, I'd have a big pot of chili or soup going all afternoon!

I LOVE the cooler temperatures - and Fall, in general. The Fall colors perk me up, as does the cooler weather. My husband, today, was saying how he dreads the coming winter; but I have to say I look forward to that, too (sorry, all you winter-haters). I get as excited as a little kid about the first snowfall.....and love sitting by this wood-burning stove, when it snows, with a good book/the newspaper/watching t.v. - and some great HOME MADE hot-chocolate. ( The down side to winter is that the fibromyalgia can have some worse days - but, since the fibro is around every day anyway, I'm still gonna love winter. ha)

We got a bale of hay yesterday for Mopsie the bunny, who arrived at our house with Christian. Christian was just out cleaning Mopsie's cage and putting in some of the new hay. "Nonny! Nonny! Come look - look at Mopsie!" When I hurried out to the back porch to see, there was Mopsie burrowed into the pile of clean hay Christian had put in for him. He (Mopsie) seemed as excited as a little kid let loose in a candy store! He burrowed right into the hay, making his little tunnels and munching on the hay. One contented rabbit. And one happy boy. :)

When the temperatures begin to cool off I begin thinking of more things to cook. Like soup. Chili. Baking - rolls, muffins, cakes. Trouble is, today I don't have many ingredients for baking much..........need a trip to the grocery store. However, I DID find enough to mix up a pan of rolls to go along with the potato/hamburger chowder we are having for supper (which I made this afternoon). My roll-dough should be just about risen enough to shape into the rolls right about now. So......................