once again ...and even more frozen whiteness

 There is a wilder solitude in winter 

When every sense is pricked alive and keen.

        --May Sarton ("The House in Winter" A Private Mythology)

It came again this past weekend. We sat by the blazing fire, socked feet resting on the coffee table sighing at its hushed beauty.

These photos were taken the next morning on our 

before-breakfast walk.

bird-watching

 I was pleasantly gifted the book The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan for Christmas. Imagining myself to be a full-fledged amateur bird watcher with my own sort of sketch books recording my experiences with the watching of birds through the years, I was curious to discover how this writer undertook her love and interest in a birdwatching journal. I am halfway through the reading of the book and I am enjoying her illustrations immensely, and while I do not have the upfront talent she has, I believe that everyone can learn to illustrate at the least for their own personal pleasure alone if they invest the time.

One thing I can say about backyard birds, or "my birds" as I lovingly refer to them, is that some of them seem to fuss at me if I am late getting out to them in the morning with seed. While others I can as well sense and imagine are thanking me with joy in their song. Much like humans. Today I put out suet at one feeder and  seeded peanut butter atop an orange at another one. Presently I have three separate feeding places. I am very concerned bout them getting water because of the cold temperatures so I make sure all the containers outside are not frozen throughout the day.

It has been rather cold outside today, though sunny. It was the first time I have been home alone in a few weeks and many things had to be done as I am having my Precepts Bible Study ladies here Friday for lunch as we are starting our study in Matthew. 

 My husband's instructions to me as he was walking out the door were to keep the fire going, he had stacked plenty of firewood.  As you can see from the photo I was successful. 

After my walk down to the creek I came inside to sit with a cup of tea, red rooibos was my choice this afternoon alongside a biscuit with just a smearing of honey. Since I drink my tea with no sweetener I decided eating a little honey was acceptable. My grandfather ate honey every day and he lived a healthy and vibrant life until he died at the age of 91. He just went to bed one day, said he was tired and died within a short period of time. So eating more honey instead of cane sugar might seem a wiser choice.

it's snowing!

 Therefore, my husband and I went outside and walked down to the creek, we simply wanted to be out in the magical world of large snowflakes and wintry beauty. I restocked the bird feeders while I was already bundled up and came back inside to sit by the fire with a mug of hot tea. It is not expected to amount to much and the weather report informs us it will turn to rain and more icy conditions by tomorrow morning. But right now we are loving it to the uttermost!

I made two soups yesterday, a vegetable beef and a sausage and kale. I actually need some more kale to add and we were planning on stopping by the garden to pick some before we walked through the woods but the joy of the moment made us somewhat distracted. I told my husband I have some kale I froze last year that is in the freezer in the shed. But we are thinking about going out again before it is dark to pick a mess.

He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes.

                                                                             Psalm 147:16

For all my northern blogger friends who experience snow often in the winter, I would love to hear your thoughts on a first snowfall.

recalling last week and entering the new year

A good fire roared and hissed in the grate. I read this line from a light  Christmas mystery I was reading recently before bedtime. And this just happens to be the setting for this post. As a blustering wind is blowing in this afternoon with an expected cold front arriving for the weekend.  Snow? Maybe. I hope so!

I had sauntered the ridge earlier while the sun was shining bright and my woolrich coat, ear band and mitts had to be discarded to the front porch while I continued on with my turtleneck and wool sweater sufficing well. I like that feeling of warmth when I take wintry walks.

Now I am resting by the fire and drinking some holiday blend decaf coffee. In order to detox this beginning of 2025 I am foregoing sugary treats for a spell. It is not as hard as I imagined it to be after the holiday splurge and especially my ongoing delight in an afternoon tea/coffee break. My Christmas cookies are having to be eaten now that the crowds are gone solely by my husband. I threaten to throw what is left to the chickens and my husband tries his hardest to finish them up, but he is loosing ground fast. These cookies were baked last week, no preservatives added and face it the taste and texture is lost greatly after a few days. We do not like waste, but to me feeding the chickens the leftovers is not a total waste.

I am adding a few photos here just to finish off the season. Remember I do blog to keep the memories so I want to try to be true to that intentional purpose too.

My sterling silver was taken out of the drawer for its annual shine. It was my son, Alan, who volunteered to do this job. I do love the shine of polished silver.

The table setting chosen this year was gold and white.  We had eight people joining us for Christmas dinner. The Christmas tree was placed in the dining room and that was enjoyable and festive, but that  also meant some of my African violets having to be removed and put at a window upstairs.

Through the days before Christmas and even on Christmas Day we hiked through the woods and fields with family and friends.

I prefer to decorate as much as possible with fresh greens gathered from the yard and woods.

We have several magnificent magnolia trees I am able to cut and use as well as a large hedge of huge old holly trees across the front border of our yard facing the road. But to find this wild holly tree with berries in the woods was a treasure.

                            And as always Louie was pretending to be the best present of all! This year Charlotte's old bedroom was designated the gift wrapping room. When my children grow up and marry, leaving and cleaving, their bedroom will be called their old bedroom for a time, but I  personally have no problem making the room into something else in the future if needed. 

simple things...of this past week

Car knitting today as I rode along with my husband over the river and though the hills to the hometown of Andy Griffith where Mayberry is personified as much as possible, even to offering sheriff car rides siren included, all for a price. 

These TV Slippers are a revisited knitting project originally popular in the 1960's.  Back in the 1990's I knitted several pairs for some of my friends and family for Christmas gifts.  Jane posted about these slippers and a little lightbulb went off in my brain with happy memories. I went upstairs and easily found the pattern. A bin of my stashed yarn revealed a ball of Brown Sheep wool yarn perfect for knitting a pair. These will be gifted to my granddaughter.

Over at the cottage baking molasses ginger cookies this evening.

The kerosene lamp was found in a little local vintage shop. The "Home Sweet Home" was etched into the glass globe, a good find even to the blue colored vase.

A $20.00 artificial tree purchased at Big Lots. It is really quite festive decorated at the cottage.

"Christmas we must keep. We must have a tree, and sing carols, and light the candle for the  Christ child".

                                      The Book of Stillmeadow   Gladys Taber

second birth

Hail the heav'n born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings,

Ris'n with healing in His wings

Mild He lays His glory by,

Born that man no more may die;

Born to raise the sons of earth

Born to give them second birth

"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", 3rd stanza

Charles Wesley, 1739

Born to give them second birth, just as Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3

"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."

John 3:16

I am hoping to post several posts of the last few days. 

Rejoice!

dumplings and cookies

"We'll all have chicken 'n dumplings when she comes...."

( 4th stanza, She'll be Coming 'Round the Mountains, folk song)

Here in the south where I have always lived, I've noticed that most people have deep opinions, far and wide, about chicken and dumplings. Sometimes it has to do with the region one grew up in or how a grandma always made them. And it has been my experience that you either love chicken and dumplings or you can just leave them for others to enjoy.

Yet it is equally true that if I want to please my husband with a delicious comfort food all I have to do is put on a pot of chicken and dumplings and he is grinning from ear to ear. How can I resist that?

 My husband and I have had very distinct differences in how we've viewed dumplings in the past. He grew up with chicken pastry, a rolled-out flour dough cut into wide strips and placed into the cooking chicken stew. While I grew up with dumplings, little balls of sticky flour dropped down into the lightly boiling pot of chicken stew.  Through the years though I have successfully made a true dumpling lover out of him. 

                                      Simple Dumplings

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon dried thyme

2 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients. Cut in the butter with pastry blender or fingers.

Add the milk. This dough is a bit sticky, you may want to have extra flour for you fingers as you drop the dough into the hot stew. I try to make them no bigger than a teaspoon because the baking powder causes them to expand to nice-sized dumplings.

I was at the cottage the other day to bake these cookies.

Instrumental Christmas music was playing on my iPhone, a Christmas pine-tree scented candle was burning and the cottage's oven baked these cookies to perfection. It was cozy and bright with the twinkly lights I'd placed across the kitchen shelves.

He became flesh and dwelt among us...

From Heav'n above to earth I come to bear good news to every home;

    Glad tidings of great joy I bring, Whereof I now will say and sing.

To you, this night is born a Child of Mary, chosen mother mild;

   This tender Child of lowly birth, Shall be the joy of all the earth.

'Tis Christ our God, who far on high Had heard your sad and bitter cry;

   Himself will your salvation be, Himself from sin will make you free.

These are the tokens ye shall mark, The swaddling clothes and manger dark;

   There shall ye find the young Child laid, By Whom the heav'ns and earth were made.

                                                                   ~ From Heaven Above to Earth I Come 

                                                                                    Martin Luther, 1531

Written for his five year old son, Hans, this Christmas carol was simply called by Luther, "a Christmas child's song concerning the child Jesus" and was sung in the Luther's home at their Christmas Eve festivities. 

I wrote the words as they were written on the sheet music. The tune sounds very familiar to Martin Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God".

I sit here on this bleak, though not quite winter day, and I listen to the excellent performance of Handel's Messiah performed by the Queens College of Oxford while addressing my Christmas cards. Chicken and dumplings were made in the mid morning hours and are keeping warm in the crockpot for tonight's supper. A candle of balsam pine glows and makes my house smell just like the evergreens of the forest.

advent beginnings

 God's infallible, inerrant Word will not allow us to trade the glory of the incomparable God for the glory of created things. Indeed, regarding Christmas, the Scriptures summon the world to come and behold a wondrous, glorious display of God's immeasurable love for the world. God revealed in His Word the Advent of his beloved Son-the incarnation of God in Christ who had come to dwell among us. This Immanuel, "God with us"(Matthew 1:23, ESV), broke into a sinful world-lost in dark depravity-that he might cast the saving light of redemption. This is the glory of Christmas

Recapturing the Glory of Christmas

                                           R. Albert Mohler,Jr.

This year I have already been gifted an Advent book that was on my list of things I would like for Christmas. 

In years past Advent was celebrated with my children in various ways with various resources, many times using the same ones year after year.  It was one of the highlights and favorite things to do as a family leading up to Christmas Day.

Last year was the first year I realized we were no longer doing anything special for Advent daily or even weekly. Something was missing and I was the one missing it the most.

Therefore, this book is recapturing a place of an Advent devotional in my daily schedule. I can now do this on my own or with my husband. Either way I want the worship and adoration of celebrating my Savior's birth to be lighted from within and from without.

Two years ago I did a few Christmas posts including some of the stanzas of Christmas carols that might not be as familiar. I truly enjoy reading and even singing the words of the carols so much I thought you might like it too. Once again I am recapturing some of these Christmas hymns. Let me know if you know these stanzas.

King of kings, yet born of Mary, as of old on earth he stood,

Lord of lords, in human vesture, in the body and the blood,

He will give to all the faithful his own self for heav'nly food.

                                  ~Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence, 2nd stanza

                                           Liturgy of St. James Fifth Century

we give thanks

          The housewife who sets before her family on Thanksgiving Day        a  perfectly roasted goose(turkey), is an artist.

Willa Cather, 1927

Thanksgiving Eve and finally I am taking a break off my feet now to rest a spell until the next round of bustling begins in earnest, hopefully most of that being tomorrow morning. I must not give allowance for the preparations to become frenetic, therefore, I must make haste slowly...

I had made my lists days ahead of time and now I trustingly work my list. And I trying to engage my family's help whenever and wherever needed because I do need their help! 

We will have seventeen people coming together to give thanks in my dining room tomorrow afternoon and eat a traditional Thanksgiving meal, eleven adults and six children.

mMMMenuMenu:

Roasted Turkey

Dressing/Gravy

My dressing is not stuffed inside the turkey, but cooked as a separate dish. I do use the drippings from the turkey for the dressing and gravy.

Cranberry Sauce

This is made with fresh cranberries, oranges, coconut sugar and honey.

Roasted root vegetables(carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes,

 turnips and onions)

Macaroni and Cheese

Claire prepares this dish with gluten free noodles.

Green Beans

Roasted Butternut Squash Salad

 Onions and butternut squash roasted in the oven and placed on a bed of green lettuce with the additions of dried cranberries, nuts, feta cheese and a vinaigrette that I must share the recipe here because it is simple to mix up and very delicious:

1/4 cup olive or avocado oil, I add a bit of both

2 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1-2 Tablespoons maple syrup

salt and pepper

Sourdough bread/rolls

For Dessivir:

Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream

Pear/apple crisp with vanilla ice cream

We certainly have much to be thankful Happy Thanksgiving

being my own guest

The weekend was approaching at an alarming rate, but then every weekend arrives faster than a speeding bullet in the grand scheme of daily living it seems. We were having guests coming to stay on Friday night at the Cottage and I especially wanted to stay there myself overnight to see what it was like to wake up in the cottage and to get an overall feel of just being there...in my PJ's...as a guest, so to speak.

The next morning I observed the morning sunlight's marmalade toast appearance as I poured my coffee into one of the cottage's mugs. I settled in the comfy cushioned rocker to read the Word and pray. 

The bed slept well, my husband did stay with me, and the queen mattress was comfortable. The propane gas heated the cottage quickly and warmly. The only thing we must get adjusted is the water pressure in the bathroom. When the hot water was turned on the pressure went down. My son says he has a solution to that issue and he will remedy that when he comes. I love easy solutions to problems. 

The dining room buffet glowing in the afternoon sunlight.