birthdays in December

 What's considered "normal" when your birthday is five days before Christmas? More than lately you will attend some other holiday event or a fancy occasion of the season. This year my dear husband's birthday was willingly shared with a piano recital held at our house. Charlotte's three students, two piano and one violin, arrived dressed in fancy party attire with the nervous anticipation of playing their two pieces in from of the parents and siblings.

He requested a pie for his birthday, chocolate or lemon. I did not have enough fresh lemons but there was plenty of cocoa powder on the pantry shelf, so a chocolate chess pie it would be. I fixed a special dinner of steak, baked potato and salad for him and it was nice to celebrate two outstanding events on this last Saturday before Christmas. 

Wednesday, December 16

A dear friend left her warm home on this gloomy, rainy day to make the 35 minute drive to my house. Lunch was served in the sunroom, even though there was no visible sunlight, just twinkling colored lights around the doorway and a lit kerosene lamp on the table.. A pot of hot tea was kept hot by a knitted tea cozy, and the best and by far easiest part was doing what girlfriends always do the best, we celebrated our friendship! 

We are both knitters, so of course there were patterns to compare and yarns to show as she had brought along her knitting bag in order to share her future projects.

 

sharpening

 Hanging on the side of a kitchen cupboard by the window over my sink is a magnetic knife holder, one of those extremely handy items useful in any kitchen. I first heard about them from a Julia Child video. But let's face it, my family managed just fine before with a "knife drawer" or a knife block.

Depending on how much I use a particular knife will determine how much that knife will need sharpening. Daily use leads to daily sharpening, if you want a sharp knife to do the job. 

Which leads me to an ongoing matter of my faith being sharpened, requiring rather severe mercy at the present. There are many opportunities, however pressing and uncomfortable they may be prove to be, that are sharpening my faith right now. My faith tends to grow weary and  become limp around the edges and I must not negate a daily sharpening...and that means "to walk by faith and not sight"...which can be arduous, therefore, sharpening is absolutely necessary many times more than once in a given day.

Early this morning I began with  praise by the light of a beeswax candle. My faith was being whetted. I began to pray to the LORD God Almighty and I was immediately strengthened. I opened His Word:

 "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty for pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."    (II Corinthians 10:3-5)

Mid-morning I pulled my most favored chopping knife off the magnetic board and guided it though the hand-held knife sharpener, steel across steel. I had ingredients to chop for a batch of desired kimchi. The process of sharpening made the chopping rewarding, and much easier work.

Not unlike my faith walk today. 

'tis the season for gingerbread

I pulled the pan of spicy gingerbread from the oven and carefully set it on the wire rack to cool. Glancing at the clock and deciding I had just enough time to take a walk before the young people arrived for Bible Study at three, I hunted for my wool finger mitts and ear coverings. The sky arrested me in its clear blueness against the mostly bare branches of  the tallest trees. About halfway through my walk my bundled-up self had unzipped my jacket, removed my mitts and flung off my ear coverings due to the sun's warmth. I arrived back home to the delicious smell of the gingerbread and quickly whipped up a bowl of sweet cream for dolloping on the top of this seasonal treat . 

(photo credit: food network)

December Yarn Along

 The  temptation was to title this post "Knitted Together and the Greenness of Life". Yet the post was truly intended for Ginny's December Yarn Along, so I am keeping it simple and favored as I put together this post on this bright first Wednesday in December.

                                One of the chapters of our morning's Bible reading, as Charlotte and I are reading the Bible through in its entirety once again this year, was Psalm 139. I could not help but notice that the NIV says "You knit me together in my mother's womb..." . What knitter does not feel the tangibleness of yarn and needles in hand and a picture perfect visual when the word KNIT is mentioned? It is just one of those kind of words which stirs a knitter.

                                          "For you created my inmost being: 

                                       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

 

                I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

                                                                      your works are wonderful,

                                                                         I know that full well.

                               My frame was not hidden from you

                                                                     when I was made in the secret place,

                                         when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

 

                              Your eyes saw my unformed body;

                                    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

                                                                  before one of them came to be. "

                                                                                   Psalm 139:13-16 

There is much to concern us in our world today, no one is not affected in some way concerning a plethora of matters. We all possess our own worldviews that have been shaped by something or someone, and in fact, these world views should shape the way we live, speak, and act. And in a land, upon which God has shed His abundant grace, makes laws that say an unborn child has no rights to live, I am grieved. I will state boldly and without excuse that abortion is deplorably wicked and is a fight worthy of a continual fight in the citizens who believe in the sanctity of life. 

Green signifies life and growth to me. This Easy Folded Poncho by Churchmouse Classics knitted in Kelbourne Woolens in a soothing mossy green color way is one of my most favorite" good things" of 2020, and I must elaborate there are many good things happening in 2020. But I will not take the time here to count all the ways I have been thankful for those ongoing good things😊.   

John Flavel makes me think hard, and it is no wonder that this present edition of his marvelous work, The Mystery of Providence, is giving me assurance of a Great God that is "even greater than (I) even thought when( I) first trusted for salvation."

And to share even more greenness, the pullover and book rest in the corner of our turnip patch.

filling the larder

“That last summer, the kitchen reeked of pickling spice, anise seed and juniper berries. Watermelon jam, lavender jellies and crystalized fennel cooled on the pantry shelves. Jars with mango pickles and pickled onions, an old habit from his days in London, were set aside in the wine cellar to cure. Honeycombs were stacked in bowls on the sideboard, draining, waiting to be melted into candles mixed with olive oil and pressed into soaps. Thunderstorms were canned along with plum jam. Memories seeped onto the pine floorboards.” 

― N.M. Kelby, White Truffles in Winter

 

My larder is becoming stock full and I am so very thankful for His provision. It has taken me several months to get to this point in which I have been working hard to achieve in filling my food stores for the year.  Many foods such as wheat berries, oatmeal, popcorn and rice were ordered in bulk from Azure Standard and are now safely stored in buckets with gamma seals. Other food items have been canned, pickled or preserved. Glass mason jars are filled and are holding things such as beans and other ordinary staple items. 

I have not canned this much since the days we lived on the farm when our garden was huge with long rows of green beens and field peas, rustling  rows of tall corn, row after row of tomato plants in many varieties, and open plots of growing beets, cucumbers, squash and okra. Yes, every year we sowed and  every year we reaped. Canning and preserving food was a necessity as not to waste the fruits and homegrown vegetables; we planned our garden with the intent to preserve what we grew and our summers were busy with putting food up. Sure we got tired from the long days of hard, ongoing work, picking, washing, preparing, canning and freezing our produce, but that feeling of  observing the preserved foods on the larder's shelves was and still is extremely rewarding.  And we ate from its stores all winter. Our children too had the added benefit of helping and learning gardening and preserving foods. Witt even entered some of his canning efforts in the state fair.

Since our garden this year is small due to space limits from living in town, most of the food have been bought at local Farmers Markets or ordered from Azure Standard. The evening I came home with 20#s of cucumbers, 25#s of carrots, 20#s of beets and several cabbages it was like the house was on fire as we wasted no time in beginning our preserving, especially the cucumbers which were the most perishable. But we are already feasting on opened jars of bread and butter, spicy sweet, and fermented dill pickles.

And with all the jams and jellies put up, homemade buttermilk biscuits spread thick with them with be a literal feast this winter. I had been wistfully mentioning to my husband that I would love to have some pears in order to make a batch of pear preserves. Remember the fig story? I was wanting to gift the owner of the figs a jar of the fig preserves one afternoon last week. She said, "I have pears too, help yourself." 

He does hear, which makes me think I must remember He also hears my grumbling and complaining. How patient He is, and how kind and good. 

sun tea

 

This is the summer of sun tea brewing. It has become habit forming.

About every other day I fill a gallon sized Fido jar halfway with water, add about 1/2 cup of sugar, and plop in one large black tea bag. It brews outside in the sun for at least 5- 6 hours. We have discovered it has the most mellow yet vibrant taste of  Just Right Sweet Tea, the kind even I enjoy drinking. I have thought of that special  jar my mother had years ago when this was "the thing" to do! Do you perhaps have memories of those jars too?

cooking on a rocket stove

Camping essentials, and that must most certainly include cooking campsite, have never lagged around in my thoughts if ever at all. I camped once when I was in high school and that was enough for me to make a personal decision that camping would not be one of my pursuits in the present or future. And I married a man that while he had camped more than once, it was not exactly something he would be disappointed to leave behind if necessary. Maybe I just gave him the excuse not to camp, that one I will leave alone.

But I do delight in the joy of cooking outside either around a fire or on some other sort of burning wood stove. Enter the rocket stove...I'm inveigled. How did I ever live this long without one? It is super cheap to build, quick to assemble, and it takes only bits of twigs and small wood pieces to keep it roaring; hence the name, rocket stove. 

Last night we christened our backyard model by first heating water in a kettle, which took about five minutes to get to the boiling point, with that success under our belts we were on to frying bacon and eggs, eaten outside just before dusk. 

You can have one for your very self  by just watching a few videos on YouTube. As the season changes and autumn brings the cooler weather I plan to be frequently outside enjoying my rocket stove, stirring meat and vegetable soups, simmering pots of beans, flipping sourdough pancakes, and boiling kettles of water for coffee and steaming mugs of tea.

feeling figgy

A tall, verdant fig tree abides in the very far corner of my backyard. I glance at the three-lobed leaves outside my bathroom window as I draw the blinds every morning. Alas, this tree is "figless". I have read that it might take six years for a tree to produce fruit, if this is true this tree has one more year to prove itself.

 On the farm we had a fig tree that sat in front of my little white spinning house. Every summer it produced a most outstanding fig crop. What a delicious treat to pick one of those luscious sun-warmed figs off the tree and bit into its fleshy sweetness.

               

             This is the only photograph I could put my hands on quickly to show our fig tree there in the background.

                   That's four year old  Rose with Tar in front.

A fig tree grows on the side of the road where I have walked  for many years. I've watched figs bud, mature, and grow ripe year after year. Memories of eating fresh figs tantalized my taste buds every August. No one has ever gathered these figs, they were simply food for the birds, or they just sadly rotted on the branches. This year I decided I would try to find the owner of this tree. One day she was in her yard and told me to help myself. And I did! I believe fresh figs might perhaps be an adult taste, but if you enjoy the taste there is nothing quite like them.

And today I made a very easy fig preserve. I do wish you could taste them. I wiped the pan out with a bit of bread and I had to close my eyes as I slowly chewed its figgy sweetness. These jars of fig preserves will be a taste of late summer this cold winter.

And there are more figs still waiting for me to pluck and bring home to make even more sweet goodness.

fermenting cucumbers...

...to become the best pickles in the whole wide world!

Deliciously salty, garlicky, dilly...oh, my mouth is bouncing alive just typing these words. You would not believe how amazingly simple these pickles are to make and have as your very own to eat.

And I have found the absolute best way to keep them crisp...oak leaves! Yes, something that is readily available to most of us. All I have to do is go to the garage, carry the green step ladder out to the cement driveway, hold my breath and pray as I step up several steps on the ladder gingerly reaching up to the lowest branches of the overhanging boughs, pinch a few of the sturdy green leaves, bring them inside to wash before layering them between the cucumbers, tucking two on top beneath the smooth river stone weight.

I make a brine of one quart water per 1 1/2 -2 Tablespoons of salt, truly its to your taste, but I prefer to have the pickles more on the salty side and I have found it will make a better ferment in the long run. I like to add  black peppercorns, cayenne pepper flakes, fresh garlic cloves, fresh dill, and bay leaves. After a few days I taste my pickles and if they are the right taste to my liking I will store them in the refrigerator, but usually I will give them one or two days more....a total of about five days usually does it for me.

My few cucumbers plants have produced a good crop of cucumbers  for me this year. I have been able to eat them raw almost daily plus fermenting several batches as well as pickling a few jars of bread and butter pickles for the pantry shelf.

castles in the sky... part one

"Dreams, hopes, or plans that are impossible, unrealistic, or have very little chance of succeeding."

                                                          EARLY JUNE

 I do believe it is a rather fitting name, Castle in the Sky, for one of my newer laid gardens, the one my husband helped me create back in the spring. 

There lays a certain shadier area in our backyard lining up on the backside of the house. A row of holly trees and a small spinney face out behind it. Every summer we have struggled with growing grass on the sloping area and for years it was to me, a place of waste and neglect. 

But I had dreams, hopes, and plans for this particular space. I could visualize it in my mind, what could be.

The day we tackled this particular garden space began by us cutting out some of the thick holly trees and planting ligustrum which we hope will provide a privacy wall as it grows. Ligustrum is one of my most favorite hedges smelling perfumy sweet in the early summer and attracting busy bees.                                                            

LATE JUNE

EARLY JULY

Since I've always envisioned a pretty bench at the end of the path, we decided that the purchase of this bench would hail a wonderful anniversary remembrance.

  This garden certainly has plenty of room for continual growth, the addition of plants and even get down and get dirty toil...I am still visualizing what it will become in future years. But this I can say, it is well on its way and I am loving it!  Hydrangea bushes will be bowing their heady blooms and blushing Lenten Roses will be nodding gracefully as I meander down the stone path. To the right of the bench are the beginnings of oak-leaf hydrangeas, to the left a bed of bright red bee balm and 

along the back mounds of sweet- smelling lemon balm. 

                                                               
                                                                   EARLY AUGUST

The bench provided a moment of conversation for Charlotte and Breanna one afternoon.

cultivating appreciation

"Cultivate a sense of appreciation. Love your work, trust your work, keep in touch with today. Teach yourself to be practical, up-to-date and sensible. You cannot fail"

-Henry van Dyke

The chorus of the cicadas is loud and intensifying, rising up and dipping down, reminding me somewhat of labor pains...the rising and falling that is. I hear the breeze in the gentle tingling of the chimes and I see it in the movement of the cucumbers plant leaves. The wind stirring the ninety-three degree heat,

 I sat on the back porch, the porch I swept and straightened up after lunch, shaking the debris sprinkled cushions and fluffing the saggy pillows. I love summer afternoons when I am able to sit a spell outside, to read or perhaps sew a hem, such as the binding I am sewing on this 1920 apron, a pattern made from directions found in this book. I had finished my daily chore of ironing and thought a spell of rest and sewing before the preparations of supper began could be done outside. I brewed a teabag of Yorkshire Gold and laced it with unfiltered apple cider. 
The addition of a slice of chocolate-chip banana bread seemed sensible to me too!

Including beets in your diet and drinking unfiltered apple cider make an excellent tonic for gall bladder and liver health. It is good to treat these organs to a tonic from time to time and this is a simple and easy way to do so.

The finished apron being modeled by Theodora.

Yarn Along in August

Calm knitting sometimes in the evenings, but for the most part knitting seems to be on furlough these summer days.  I knitted a pair of these mitts  with the enticing name of  "Fetching" several years ago.  They are a favorite hand mitt of mine to wear in the winter, hence I decided to make a pair as a Christmas gift for someone in my Smocking/Sewing Guild. (We are to make a gift this year for an exchange.)

My daily reading habit never stops, but it sometimes takes longer than I intended to finish a book. I find myself nodding off many a night when I had hoped to get an hour or so of reading done before bedtime.

I am almost finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South. After seeing the BBC movie adaption, I was planning no ill affects leading to a less enjoyable read. While the movies are usually wonderful to watch, the books are just better and worth reading above all.

 How Should We Then Live? by Frances Schaeffer, a book on my bookshelf I felt destined to read some time during my lifetime. This book gives a broad overview of Western Civilization beginning with the Roman Empire including areas such as art, history, music, science, and philosophy, written with Schaeffer's strong  Biblical worldview. I am greatly looking forward to getting to the chapters of the modern age, understanding it to have significant impact.

The third book on my stack arrived in the mail last week because "I could not help myself" and ordered it one afternoon on a whim. I loved reading Marta McDowell's book, The Gardening Life of Emily Dickinson immensely.  A book of this nature adds beauty and calmness to a soul. And who does not need more of that these days?

Joining in with Ginny's Yarn along...

Fried Green Tomatoes...appetizer or meal

 As summertime gets rolling along many southerners look forward to a certain delicacy that expresses a taste of summer perfectly.  Therefore,it was a wonderfully pleasing and good thing to have plenty of firm green tomatoes on my vines to pluck and bring in to flour, dip and coat before frying those green jewels in a cast iron skillet of hot coconut oil.

 I  personally think you should at least try them once in your lifetime if you have not. You can fry them in whatever oil you prefer, any type of oil works just fine, I happen to prefer healthier oils such as coconut or avocado.  Fried green tomatoes may be served as a tasty side dish to any meal and they will add wonderfulness as a fixin' to a hamburger. But I believe I have settled the question of what is the absolute best way to eat them. Go into the kitchen a bit earlier than your normal supper time, fry up a batch, drain them on paper towels, sprinkle liberally with salt and enjoy them while hot, even while standing at the kitchen counter, a delicious appetizer. In this way there is absolutely no competition with other foods and usually it is when you are your hungriest so the enjoyment of eating them is even greater. And you might just decide it is enough to make them a meal in themselves.

a borscht lunch setting

The coop (Azure Standard) truck arrived in the Walmart parking lot one afternoon, the sun was high in the sky and blazing hot while the asphalt in the parking lot only intensified the heat. Some of us felt comfortable enough to unload and place all packaged boxes, bags, cans and jars in separate piles for the others to pick up and put into their cars. I was especially thankful for this delivery because in this particular order were some organic beets and cabbage. The beets were outstanding and delicious as was the cabbage, and since I had an adequate supply I decided to make borscht soup. The main ingredients are onions, garlic, beets, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, and spices. You may prefer to make it entirely vegetarian and use vegetable stock but I used chicken stock in this day's batch.

This soup involved quite a bit of chopping and shredding, yet the cooking time was no more than an hour. But like so many other soups the taste only becomes richer and tastier as it sits in your refrigerator. The soup may be eaten cold or hot. Now my husband is good about trying new things, even some of my healthier concoctions, but as long as I warm this soup before serving it, he enjoys it and even calls it very good! I topped mine with a dollop of plain yogurt, too lazy to run out into the hot sun and snip a sprig of dill to garnish.

You may use your imagination😊 

goldfinches dining on the hyssop plant

The kitchen table sits with a wall of large windows on one side, these windows look out onto the paved patio and some of the gardens. From this place backyard nature is observed and recorded.

At least twice a day, I sit at my kitchen table and while I am eating my meals I witnessed the most wondrous sight. The goldfinches come to the hyssop plants and dine on the seeds of the flowering spikes of the hyssop plants. A bright spot of yellow radiating amidst the green leaves and lavender blossoms. They bounce and flit from one spike to another.

And many times the shared meal of a couple will romance the moment. 

hope, truth, peace and joy

Quite often I want to open my mouth and give my opinions on a number of things these days... and sometimes I do. But when I looked up the word opinionated in the dictionary I was thinking that was not the word that I would prefer others to have when they think of me.

Opinionated (adjective)- obstinate or conceited in regard to the merits of one's own opinions; conceitedly dogmatic.
Yet, the truth is, I do have opinions so that distinctly makes me opinionated.However, I must keep them under guard, until the right time and even the right people.

So... on to other matters on this typically hot and humid summer day, I want to give everyone a spell of renewed hope. This is not unusual, slack, deceptive, or worthless hope. It is truth, it is life, and it is freedom.

"I(Moses) call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: That you may love the LORD God and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave to Him: for He is your life, and the length of your days:
 (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)

"Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father but by me." (John 14:6)

"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." (Col. 3:4)

"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers and the prophets, has now these last days spoken to us by His own Son, whom He has appointed heir of all thing, by whom also He made the worlds; Who seeing the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"  (Hebrews 1:1-3)

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Hims shall not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

This is the Holy Word of God, not my opinion. And it brings everlasting life in Christ Jesus.

I am thinking after spending time meditating on the truth of HIs Word, an uplifting hymn can also provide an avenue for creating joy and peace in our dailiness. 

Choose a Hymn of the Day, read the words carefully at first and then sing with unadulterated praise to The LORD. You may find yourself humming and singing the hymn throughout the day.

Today's hymn choice for me is "Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord."

Then this thought came to me today in a serendipitous moment. I was driving to the pool  to swim, as I glanced to my right I noticed something that tickled me and made me smile, even giggle, a horse trailer going down the interstate with the horse's tail blowing in the wind outside the opened window. Flipping and flapping...it must have felt good to that horse! It was enchanting even in its barnyard essence. So daily, I am going to record at least one such moment that stirs that "tickling in my innards" smile.

after a storm and other fancies

What would any respectable  summer be that failed to send those brief storms that stir up the rumble of thunder, the intensity of lightening, and the spate of pouring rain and then just disappears as a contented guest? But immediately following the storm there exits a strong pull to step outside to seek for rainbows and to splash in the rapidly flowing puddles. It is for those things I look for, observe and cling to when the storms of  unpredictable things rage elsewhere in our world.

"Let not your heart be trouble, neither be afraid....

A collage of  random photos were recently found on my camera, fancies that make the little things, the simple things of a beautifully created world.

"Let all that has breath praise His holy name!"

I certainly wished I had taken a photo of the pair of mockingbirds swooping to chase the garter snake away; the tenacity of that pair of birds speaks to my heart of guarding myself.

"Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.

I choose to believe the LORD sends a special treat to me in early June year after year. Again on a morning walk this terrapin was waiting for me to notice him as he crossed the street along my path. I gently scooped him up and carried him home for all of us to enjoy for a brief spell before he was released into my flower garden, amongst the tall monada and hyssop.

African violets are extremely easy to root, but one must have patience because they also grow slowly. A sewing friend stopped by my house back in late winter and handed me an assortment of African violet leaves. She assured me that in those grouping of plucked leaves were all colors and varieties of violets. I  recently repotted some of the more flourishing ones and I am very pleased with their growth. I will patiently wait for future surprises.

"But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Johnny jump-up flowers in my salad, which I found out many do not fancy, but I do!

And there are those fancies that slip our mind for a spell, which certainly was the case with the  flower press we made several years ago. These particular flowers and leaves were pressed and forgotten until recently. I happened to recognize the press resting high on a cupboard in my sewing room. This has given me motivation to start my own herbarium after reading about the one Emily Dickinson kept.

"Have you made an herbarium yet? I hope you will if you have not, it would be such a treasure to you." 

                                     What are some of the fancies you are enjoying in these stormy times?

June Yarn Along

I am not knitting anything new these days. But I am spending time in the gardens absorbed in happy industry and calm puttering, spending time walking, spending time praying, and spending time reading good books.  When one considers the extremely concerning turmoil of these present times, the fact that I was able to don the heavy woolen knitted shawl one recent morning because of the chilly temperatures to the sudden calescent temperatures of these past two days is nothing surprising. The  blocking of this shawl was a booger, because of its length and weight. I decided to use my guest bathroom for blocking it and it took several weeks due to the smaller space. But finally it was blocked and packed away into the cedar chest, until it was cheerfully unleashed  earlier this week for soothing warmth.

I do appreciate Ginny with her monthly yarn alongs providing a safe place for us to share our knitting projects and current reading materials. I had been looking forward to reading this child's novel since I chose it for my 2020 Reading Challenge. You might recognize the author's name as the author of Heidi. I found this treasure at a library book sale some time ago, its pages yellowed and worn with age, but you can not fail to note the quality in its original form; the story of Cornelli  has a semblance to Heidi, so how could it not be an enjoyable read?