Whirlwind pt. 2

(My iris are blooming, for the first time.  Loving it!)

For some crazy reason, my last two posts have posted without pictures! 
Then I had to re-post the pictures to see if they WOULD post.
Then I had to go back and add the text.
Anyone else experiencing this blogging glitch?

Ahem.

I'm going to give posting this post another try.


Sunday morning we were pretty tuckered out from all the fun we had on Friday and Saturday.
A quick trip up Cottonwood Canyon to Silver Fork for their locally famous sour dough pancakes finally got us out of the house again.
Back home we retreated downstairs for a private showing of Laura's Texas/Argentina/Uruguay pictures.
(Notice how Hart is snuggled up with Laura and Bernie.  Shy Hart usually will have nothing to do with visitors, but as soon as he saw Laura on Friday night he came right up to her and wanted to sit on her lap.  He hadn't seen her for two years, but clearly remembered she was a friend.  And people say animals don't have memory...)

A couple of thousand pictures seen on the TV screen with her Argentina purchased music CD playing along was a fantastic way to join her on her adventures.  She had sent us her "best of the best" shots via Picasa web album.  We wanted to see ALL of her pictures, so she flew into town with her camera chips and we got to see almost every minute of her wonderful trip.

(And wasn't it very bloggerish of me to take a picture of her picture on the television screen?  Well, my camera just happened to be right next to me, so why not?)

Surfer Girl Laura hangs ten on an old canon.
That's something you just don't get to see very often.

I thought it was interesting how someone in Uruguay had crocheted  a window cover.

Sadly, Bernie had to fly to Houston late Sunday afternoon, leaving us girls to our own devices.
A quick drive up to Neff's Canyon for a short hike on a trail I hadn't known about before, and then a quick run up Mill Creek Canyon to try our luck at morel hunting.

About a five minute trail walk, then I spotted a morel.
Then Laura spotted a HUGE morel.
Then we just kept finding them until I had filled my new willow creel full of mushrooms.

Nice collection of 'srooms!

This one was huge.  Absolutely blew me away when I saw it in the forest.
We had been invited over to our neighbor's home for a glass of wine; they had not had an opportunity to meet Laura before so we just left the unwashed mushrooms on the plate as we headed next door.
My neighbor had graduated from her surgical internship the night before.  We toasted her success and endurance.  Not only had she completed the two year program, but had produced two babies during that time as well.
Whew!

When Laura and I came back home about an hour later I went to pick up the plate of mushrooms so I could wash them before cooking.
That whitish spot:  The mushrooms had spewed spores all over the table while we were gone!
Laura was totally grossed out.  She had refused to actually touch the mushrooms in the first place; she used a large spoon to lift them out of the earth and over to my awaiting creel.
I would never have guessed my nurse daughter would be so squeamish about mushrooms and spores and such.

A little olive oil, garlic salt, and the mushrooms were cooked up for dinner.
Anyone have any other suggestions about how I could cook morels?
I am thinking with butter and a splash of wine might be good.  Maybe chopped up with some pasta?


Then we just talked and talked and talked into the night.
We often talk on the phone together, but lately with work and school our conversations have had to be rather short and farther apart.
That night we got all caught up.

Mother-Daughter talk.
Friend to Friend talk.
Heart to Heart talk.
The kinds of talk that I had always hoped I would have someday when my little girl grew up.
It was even better than I had imagined it would be.

It was just a grand long weekend together.
A whirlwind of memories and good times together.
I'll take those kinds of times together, any time.