Some spring flowers

Larry and Ellen's front flower garden with freshly spread mulch

Guess what, it rained

and rained (on a daffodil)

and rained (mobile in dogwood tree)

and rained (geranium leaf)

this hibiscus was kept in the greenhouse

a color that we really like in a geranium or any flower

And it ain't a surprise lily, but it was a surprise Christmas cactus blooming in late April.  It sits on the stair railing to the basement.

We just enjoyed a very hot 85-90 degree day, BUT the forecast for most of the week is for more rain the rest of the week!! @%*&!!??

London Broil with Deane

Thanks Deane for  a wonderful dinner, but taking pictures was TOUGH

Carol looks less than enthusiastic

Deane shuts his eyes

They both give each other credit for goofing up the shots

And Ron ends up with his mouth wide open.

Thank goodness the food and conversation were Great!!!

Thanks again, Deane.  Traffic was really heavy on Friday afternoon and evening.  Since it was raining and dark when we went home, it was not much fun driving.

Mammoth Springs Park

The sign on the nice building which has clean restrooms, too!!

Carol taking a stroll.  The actual spring is behind her head at the north end of the park.

The explanation

The hydroelectric dam at the start of the Spring River

More info

Making electricity

Pose 1

Pose 2.  Did you know that Wayne State College, Nebr has rugby teams???

The end.  If you get anywhere close make sure you stop and rest awhile.

People in Arkansas

Carol E, Larry, & Ellen on their front porch. 

A closer look.

As we were planning our trip back to the lake with a different route.  Larry's right finger is where we were starting and left hand is near Mammoth Springs.

Larry was able to supply hiway numbers and exits!!

Carol was our navigator.

We started home about 9:30am via a route that went east of Little Rock for a gas stop at Beebe, Ark, then up to Mammoth Springs AR, where we enjoyed the park and into Thayer MO for a Subway sandwich.  We turned westerly at West Plains and then north on 5 at Mansfield (home center, where we stop to shop  --- an ad heard on TV almost daily!!)  We had planned to stop for ice cream at Mansfield, but hiway 65 is north of the town, so we headed for Lebanon "knowing" that some little town would have an ice cream store.  NOT!!  But they have just built a store called Grandpa Joe's Old Fashioned Chocolates (6 miles S of Grovespring or 8 miles N of Hartville on Hwy 5)  It was a fun stop with a clean bathroom.  No, we didn't get ice cream, BUT we did get some chocolates.  When we got to Lebanon we did stop at a DQ so we could "make" it home, which we did by 6:30pm so we could watch "Big Bang Theory" and Carol could enjoy "Dancing with the Stars".  The trip to Larry and Ellen's takes 8 to 9 hours depending on the route and the number of stops.  We had great weather (some wind!) for the weekend but woke up on Tues to rain, rain, gray, gray!!

Happy 18th Ashley

I had some earlier photos but couldn't get them to load.  Sorry.

A little trip thru time.

Happy Birthday Ashley

We Love You.

Eat some cake for Grandpa Ron and Grandma Carol

Enjoy the 23rd.

Hope to see you at graduation.

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta

We left the lake about 8:30 am on Friday Apr 19 and headed to Camdenton to fill up with the $3.16/gallon gas and continued (with one rest stop)  to Springfield to 65 South.  Just across the Arkansas border we stopped again at a rest stop and  tourist info site to get an updated Arkansas map.  On to Conway for gas at $3.25 where we joined I-40 to Little Rock, then to I-430 to I-30 and finally left the interstate at Malvern and Hiway 9 to Holly Springs and arrived at Larry and Ellen's at 4:30pm.  Ellen had just made it home and had changed into comfortable clothes and Larry was about to feed their 2 dogs.

Their plan for the weekend was to show us how to make pasta and of course to eat pasta.  The photo above is Larry at the stove with the boiling pot of water and some squash filled ravioli.  Ellen is at the butcher block tossing the ravioli with a butter and sage coating.

They had prepared and frozen the ravioli which was about 1/4 this size before it hit the boiling water.

Ellen coating some more.  When it got time to eat, we failed to take any photos, but trust me, the ravioli disappeared quickly!!  and with gusto!!!

Saturday afternoon project was to make linquini from scatch using the Kitchen aid with a dough hook and here Ellen is passing it through a double roller which kneads and flattens the dough.

Normally they would attach a cutter to the Kitchen Aid and pass the dough sheets through to get 1/4 inch wide strips, BUT the power went off!!  Plan B:  Larry got a knife and cut the dough sheets (under the towel to prevent dry out) into strips using the ruler we sterilized earlier.  Thank goodness this happened about 5:30pm and it was still light outside.

However, the pot of boiling water had cooled toooo much so plan B-2 involved hanging the strips on a drying rack.  The strips were dry enough to remove the next morning and put into the freezer.  Pasta meal #2 was put on hold.  Larry had cooked chicken on the grill, so we grab some lettuce and veggies from the frig and made a salad and Ellen took some frozen broccoli and added to the hot water on the stove and "wallah" we had a very nice dinner.

This was taken when we started eating by oil lamp light in the middle of the table.   Note how dark the living room is thru the door between Carol and Ellen.  There are windows that face south and NO light was coming in them.

Larry has fired up the grill for the first time in 2013 and is fixing chicken breasts.  Their property goes to the tree line in the upper third of the picture, just past the bright yellow-green grass area.  The monster tree to the left is a willow oak.