Book club ended up at my house this month - completely unplanned.  I was driving home from work at 5:00 when I got a text from Amanda - the scheduled hostess for the evening.  She was calling off book club because she was sick - flu like symptoms so no one needed to be around her.  She wanted to reschedule for the next week on Tuesday, but that didn't work for me, and I knew it wouldn't work for Meredith, so....I volunteered to have it at my place.  

Amanda volunteered all her food, etc. that she had prepped, someone would just need to pick it up.  Malorie volunteered to do that (it's 5:30 by this time) and then Amanda realized that the frozen lasagna she planned on serving took 2 hours to cook, not 1.....scratch that plan.  We had impromptu pork chili verde burritos for dinner, as I had all the needed ingredients to make it....and it's now 5:45 (book club usually starts at 6:00...)  Whew!  We pulled it off!  Lots of help in the kitchen to get everything pulled together at the last minutes, but it worked, and it was a fun night.

The book was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.  Wonderful book!  (Amanda chose it because it was also a movie out on Netflix so she could see the movie and not read the book...)  The bookmark was a pig.  Because of the rush to get dinner, etc. done, I didn't get a picture of all the pigs - here's is what I did get a picture of:

The pattern is here (I used Google Translate, but there isn't much to translate, since it is symbol crochet.)

Think Pink was last week as well - here are a couple of photos of the bridge, and from the bank.

Ralph and I ran away last weekend and went to Crescent City.  Cindy came in and stayed with Alli and there were no emergencies while we were gone!!  Crescent City was cold, cloudy/foggy and windy, but...it was still a weekend away!

This is just above the lighthouse by the jetty.  The lighthouse is actually in the background, but it's too foggy to see it.....

Our hotel was right on the beach, so just a few steps, and we were here....

We went to Trees of Mystery - Ralph hadn't been since he was a kid.

They didn't have the tram there when he went, so we made sure we got a ride on it.

This is pretty much the most sun we saw on the beach while we were then - just spots of it here and there....

I had a girl's weekend last weekend - up in McCloud on the Lazy E Ranch.  Leona's family has owned the ranch for years, and they have a two-bedroom "cabin" on the property that 4 of us stayed in.  The weekend was great fun, the scenery beautiful, and we stayed up way too late talking.....waaaaaaay too late!  

The view of Shasta from the flea market.

The four of us at the flea market

The view of Shasta from the old mill - Leona has a photo of this mill in the 'cabin' so we stopped by to see if we could recreate it.  I didn't manage that, but this was a pretty cool shot.

The view of Shasta from the ranch.

A toast on Friday night to the weekend with Shasta in the background.

I got up a lot earlier than the rest of the group on Saturday (surprise, surprise!) and went for a walk.  Here is Shasta in the morning.

The leaves were just beginning to turn in the area.

Shasta from the ranch

Sunrise in the trees...

  

Leona's uncle put up signs everywhere to slow down.....this was my favorite.

I think this is one of my favorite photos from the weekend....

Meredith noticed some coyotes running with the cattle Sunday morning.....

Meredith also talked to the cows on our walk.  The cows weren't too sure about us.....