Heres what you missed "FRUITA ORCHARDS PHOTOVisitors of Capitol Reef are often curious about the orchards that lie within a mile or two of the Visitor Center. These trees are the most obvious remnant of the pioneer community of Fruita, which was settled in 1880. Usually no more than 10 families lived in Fruita at any one time, and the last resident moved away in 1969. Early settlers planted the orchards to insure subsistence. Today, the orchards are preserved and protected as a Rural Historic Landscape. The orchards hold approximately 2,700 trees and are composed of cherry, apricot, peach, pear, and apple, as well as, a few plum, mulberry, almond, and walnut trees. The National Park Service now owns and maintains the orchards with a 2-person orchard crew that is kept busy year round with pruning, irrigation, and orchard management. You are welcome to stroll in any unlocked orchard and you may consume as much ripe fruit as you want while in the orchards. Fruit may not be picked in quantity until the designated harvest begins. Orchards that are open for picking are signed as such. A fee is charged for all fruit picked and removed from the orchards. Signs listing fruit prices, scales, plastic bags, and a self-pay station are located near the entrance of open orchards. Please select only ripe fruit and leave the rest to ripen for other visitors. "

First time poster on these threads but read them all the time. Annie, I feel your pain! Hubby retired 9/1 of last year, we put our old home on the market 10/4, moved and arrived at our new home the night before Thanksgiving (dinner last Turkey day was hot dogs and mac&cheese). We knew that we were going to be downsizing drastically when we were house hunting down here so the fixing, tossing, donating, going thru everything, yard sales, getting the house ready for listing, packing and dealing with the moving company almost did us in. Dinner last night (Friday) was ribeyes, twiced baked potatoes and brussel sprouts with garlic and bacon, roasted in butter and a little bacon grease. The best part was that hubby did all the cooking, which is very unusual (but much appreciated). Ate in the living room while watching the latest Star Trek movie that is now on DVD. Tonight we're having a very simple dinner. With my new found skills with making a good meatloaf, we're having meatloaf sandwiches, which we both prefer over a meatloaf dinner. Meatloaf is in the oven right now. Hubby had wanted to go out in the boat today but I nixed that idea as I'm feeling really lazy today. Mainly because the lake is always crowded with out of towners during the weekends. Most of whom think drinking and boating are one and the same. So we're going out tomorrow as most of the boaters will have left or will be working. A late lunch or early dinner will be at a restaurant that faces the London Bridge after we get back. Haven't been out on the lake since August when we had a large almost two week long get-together with very dear friends and family. When we moved here we were told that there were a few months when it's actually too hot to be boating (unless you spend all of your time IN the water instead of on it) and that even swimming pools often get too hot to be enjoyable during the heat. We scoffed....but found out how true that was. Went thru our first monsoon season here and boy was that interesting. Now that the temps have cooled off somewhat we want to take advantage of it. Hope everyone had a terrific weekend. Lifting my mug of cold coffee in toast to everyone. Jenna

P.S. Google "gardenerguidezonemap" (all one word, minus quotation marks), for an explanation of ALL U.S. zone maps, and the necessity for their creation. There is a "Heat Zone Map", (officially named American Horticultural Society Plant Heat Zone Map) commonly used (by growers) in the U.S., that notes the average number of days, annually, for a given region, when the temperature exceeds 86 degrees (F), or 30 degrees (C). This is an important consideration for growers/suppliers in the U.S., also: Example: I'm in USDA zone 7, Maryland, the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. If our highest (Summer) temperature here exceeds 90 degrees (F), 32 degrees (C), for more than 5 days, it's termed a "heat wave". I have a grower friend in Arizona, 3,000 kilometers West of Maryland, smack dab in the middle of the desert, also in USDA zone 7. It is not unusual for his highest (Summer) temperatures to reach 120 degrees (F), 49 degrees (C)! Obviously, though many plants can tolerate our lowest (USDA zone 7) temperatures, few can tolerate his highest temperatures. I wonder how many plants in the U.K. could tolerate 49 degrees (C)? By the way, for those who have not experienced 49 degree (C) heat, or been in the "desert", I am reminded of my first excursion there, many years ago, west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. I took a Summer day-trip into an area to photograph Jack Rabbits (a large hare, nearly a meter in length, which, at the time, I had never seen). I was duly warned by locals to be extremely careful, not to remain for an extended period, and not to wander from sight of my vehicle (for fear of becoming disoriented, and lost). I listened, but disregarded the advice--and later, became somewhat disoriented and (temporarily) lost, when I lost sight of my vehicle. I was a smoker, at the time, and remember my cigarettes snapping like twigs, when the 49 degree (C) heat removed all moisture from the tobacco, and the cigarettes became as brittle as dried twigs. My tongue swelled to nearly twice its size when all saliva left my mouth, and I found it difficult to talk. I believe the extreme heat was the cause for my disorientation--that, and the fact that the landscape looks completely the same, North, East, South and West, and if one loses sight of a particular landmark (like a vehicle), one has no idea from which direction one came. The only plant life I remember were knee-to-waist-high shrubs that we call "tumbleweeds" (once they're dislodged from their roots and proceed to tumble across the desert floor). "Mirages" abounded--strange visions, caused by extreme heat. The only wildlife I saw were Jack Rabbits, Coyotes, and Sage Grouse, all of which I flushed in my wandering (searching for my vehicle, that I had lost sight of); I thank the Lord that I didn't stumble upon any Rattlesnakes--always a clear and present danger in the desert Southwest. Where desert dwellers find water to drink, I have no idea; I saw none.

A good lamington is my fave! I have baked hundreds in my time :-) Often they are sold in bakeries split through the middle and filled with red jam (usually raspberry) and whipped cream, or just the whipped cream but I prefer mine plain. Pink lamingtons are made by dipping the sponge in raspberry jelly (US jello) that has been made with a little less water and allowed to get to the thickening up stage of setting before rolling in the coconut.