Clump #236:  Bake chocolate chip and Reeses Pieces cookies; day one of 7-day bake-a-thon.

Not to mention any names, but a few people in my life might possibly accuse me of taking too many pictures.  Once I start, I find it difficult to stop.  I admit, it can get annoying, but if I didn’t have so many images to choose from, I may not have had the one above, which, now that I see it again, is the perfect illustration for my blog-making machinery in full-stop.

I took the photo at The Mill at Anselma on a recent visit with my husband. From its website: “Constructed in 1747, the Mill stands as the most intact, authentic example of a custom water-powered grain mill in the United States …”

Let the blog-wheels turn again!

When I last posted, I was riding a wave of adrenaline on a 30-day challenge before a visit from two of my husband’s sisters.  We truly had a grand time together.  Here are the three siblings watching a sunset “down the shore,” as they say around here:

After a challenge, the question arises, “What now?  How often do readers really want to hear from me?  Does anyone care?  Is posting every day too annoying?”  (Dark night of the soul existential blogging questions.)

My husband and I were skyping with our younger daughter today (she’s the one studying in Russia), and I was fretting over the fact that she will not be here to do her usual amazing baking job for our Quaker Meeting’s Fall Festival.  And I don’t use the word “amazing” lightly.  I have a certain tendency to come up with great ideas for fun baking projects, but lack the time management skills to pull them off.  Not so with our daughter.

She, wisely, told me, “Just bake one thing every day before the festival … One clump a day.”  Oh my goodness, why in the world hadn’t I been able to figure that out?

So here we go!  Day one, starting easy.  Basic chocolate chip cookies made from the recipe on the Ghirardelli chocolate chip bag with Reeses Pieces to add seasonal color and pizazz.  I noticed I was using a potholder with a fall festival theme … tra-la!

This is what’s fun about baking for the festival.  I’d never tried this before, sticking candies onto cookie dough …

but it worked!

Double-bagged and popped into the freezer.

Voila, indeed!