His faithfulness like the ocean tides

We are heading to the shore tomorrow. And with sheepish intention I declare that last week we were holding our breaths as Hurricane Dorian began to roar past the coastline. All is well, the boards have been removed from the windows and we are looking forward to sitting on the porch to watch the beautiful sunrise and observe the shifting tides. It has been an entire year since I was at the shore and it completes a year with its steadfastness.

But there is this small matter of packing and alas, I am so desperately home bound.

she makes bagels

Being a person that eats bagels but a few times a year,  and a quick stop by*Panera will provide delicious bagels at any time, to even entertain the thought that I should actually bake bagels at home seemed rather ambitious. But since this has been the summer of baking, especially with Einkorn flour, I became progressively intrigued with the process of making my own bagels. The boiling of the risen bagel-shaped dough shaped by my own hands (fun!) in baking soda water was definitely the most unique part of making a batch of bagels. And toppings certainly seem essential for presenting good tasting bagels to over-the-top delicious. A mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon is my family's all time favorite topping, but I believe  caraway or sesame seeds make for a tasty savory bagel too.   

Have you ever tried to make bagels? They are chewy, delicious and seriously taste like bakery bought bagels. Who knew?

the first monday in September

Sweet September. It  is as if the month molds a story, one of lingering yet moving on. A threshold anxious to be crossed while "dinner is still being served in the big dining room". Once I accept what can not be changed, I can enjoy its sweetness.

The day was warm, a day that made you sweat even while you were sitting still. But the fluffy clouds dotting the blue skies, the girls begging to go to a park, not alone we say, made us gather our chairs,  thermoses of cold not too sweet tea, our current reads, and off we went. Under the shade of old black walnut trees we sat as if we had nothing else in the world to do. And for the moment we didn't.

It was sweet.

the time of the swallowtails

Late summer is hanging around but some things remain constant and are looked forward to with great anticipation. Such are these days when the swallowtail butterflies have left behind their tiny eggs, almost overnight they hatch and the "munching begins".

I can hear it, if only in my imagination.

 

 Let me do a turnabout in time with the dream of a new perennial garden late last summer, and thus  a garden space was began in the back yard back in the fall. The few photos depict the different stages of growth in this garden. Like all evolving gardens, I have made decisions for next year's garden based  on what to plant and where to plant. The swallowtail butterflies would arrive on hot, sultry afternoons fluttering from sweet flower to flower while I watched from the comfort of air-conditioned rooms. 

Now back to the munching scenario which actually begins in the spring as I am walking through the nurseries gathering parsley plants. " One for me, five for them" is my chant, yet knowing full well that the swallowtails could choose all six of those lush parsley plants munching them to the stubs! 

It makes me happy, knowing the swallowtails will return in numbers once again next year.
And it is as the parsley was only pruned!

springtime in the south

"This is spring."

I remember the years we were living on the farm and lambing season arrived with so much  highlighted anticipation. We would do all we could in the autumn to allow breeding with the intention that all the ewes would lamb somewhere between early to late March, this was shortly after shearing their long wool fleeces in mid- February.

Some of those days of lambing would be balmy and beautiful making all the extra time at the barn light and delightful, but there would certainly be those nights of freezing cold weather too, and you  simply took the good with the bad. It was springtime in the south and it was lambing time!

I walked today and spring settled deep in my soul. The potted pussy willow is blooming, the pear and plum trees are blooming vigorously, the daffodils are dancing in the breezes and spring has opened its door wide. If and when the colder temperatures do show themselves again, it is okay because its springtime in the south.

daily measures

I have been reading quite a bit lately about the renewing of the mind. The basis of this thought for me is based on the Holy Scriptures which states that I am not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of my mind in order that I would by proving, discern the will of God (Romans 12:2). First and foremost I renew my mind through the careful reading and meditating upon His Word regularly, trusting fully in the Holy Spirit. I am dependent on the Holy Spirit to renew my mind in all that I do, think, or say. Renewing my mind also involves looking at everything I do in the light of God's Word, and then giving application from His Word to the daily happenings in my life, no matter how big or how small that might look at any given moment.

This morning while I was busy in my kitchen, MR. C. came to tune our piano. I continued with the making of a loaf of sourdough Einkorn bread and made a tasty vegetable beef soup; Charlotte sat at the kitchen table doing some of her school work occasionally interspersing  questions about a paper she was writing. It was restful hearing the dramatic rising and falling pings of the piano in the next room mixed with gentle choppings and occasional stirrings of the soup while the levain was set with the flour to rise for five hours.

 The field of ornithology fascinates me, and my husband is kind to indulge me in allowing the backyard feeding of these creatures year round. Recently I ran across excellent sites, here and here to aid in learning to recognize various bird sounds. As I take my daily walk many times I hear more than I see, therefore it would be extremely helpful to being able to detect several of the birds by their beautiful calls and songs. 

(Above photo): During the cold months I will sometimes place sunflower seeds at my kitchen window ledge, then as I am busy at my kitchen sink I am able to enjoy my feathered friend's closer visits.

yarn along, winter successes

Here it is yarn along time with Ginny as the month of March has come in like a lamb...thus far in my region of the country,  and after missing last month's yarn along I was happy to be able to post on what I am presently knitting and reading.

I continued most winter evenings knitting on this fascinating cabled vest by Thea Colman, which I am  happy to announce I am almost through with the cabling side! Then its on to the front of the vest which is all stocking knit and should go much more quickly, a project to tote along while I ride in cars or wait in coffee shops allowing knitting  on it more devotedly. The cabling pattern required a pattern board and concentration....

But my serious lack of finished knitting does not mean I have neither been learning new things nor immersed in other worthwhile pursuits. The making of bread with sourdough starter and einkorn flour has been a journey worth traversing, and one which I have loved.  Along with my three cats, outside birds at the feeders (not mentioning the squirrels), I am now feeding a sourdough starter and a bowl of live brown planaria. Think tenth grade biology invertebrates, and the dissection of earthworms...

Reading....one of my goals was to find some very good clean crime/mystery novels this winter. This had a two fold purpose since my mother-in-law loves to read mysteries and crime novels and I would like to have some new authors to recommend to her. I believe I found it in Charles Todd. Why is it that crime and mystery writers can be so fecund? Their minds amaze me. I am presently reading through the Bess Crawford series by this author. And what is a winter without a little bedtime/soaking in the bathtub while reading Miss Read's Winter in Thrush Green? Truthfully, I must read that novel every winter and it never ceases to hold my delight and interest. I found another good read in the library recently, Ann Hood's Kitchen Yarns, an autobiography of her life from childhood (first memories) until the present. And she  disperses recipes at the end of every chapter enticing my tastebuds to tie on a apron and get cooking!

rainy day sewing

Awakened to much rain this Saturday morning, and from what "they say", it will be an incessant rain throughout the day. Ivy will turn three next month, so today appears to be an excellent day for spending time in my sewing room and concentrating on completing the quietly engaged book I began for her back in the summer. 

After one brief breach of focus to straighten the closet, I regained my momentum and spent several happy hours sewing until the already cloudy, dark day inched into even greater darkness outside my window and "hungry calls" were heard downstairs. I knew it was time to stop and begin supper.

“I am reminded that every day I have the chance to pick up a needle and some thread and add to the story. To stitch together something beautiful and unique, to patch a small scrap of fabric to the story..."
― Jerusalem Jackson Greer, A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together

how pleasant is the light

Surely the light is a pleasant thing: it is a good thing to the eyes to see the sun.

Ecclesiastes 11:7

Late afternoon, the sun pours in the windows making the living room warm and cozy. A good place to take a bit of a break with a cup of tea and a bit of knitting before supper preparations begin in earnest.

The tiny twinkly white lights put up in December are left up in the kitchen during the darker months of January and February. It is such comfort to turn them on as the night closes in, and in the evenings magic is created in the room until they are unplugged right before we go to bed.

a collation worth mentioning

For lunch I like to consider eating simple, healthy meals, but I certainly want them to be tasty and enjoyable as well. I love it when I find such a meal that makes me anxious for the arrival of lunchtime just because the meal is so good! I would like to share a particular lunchtime meal with you  that falls into that approbative category

 Brown rice is my rice of choice and I prefer soaking the dried rice for about twelve hours before it is cooked. One cup of rice per two cups of water is placed into a bowl and covered until the next day. The soaked rice is then cooked and kept it in the refrigerator until needed for a dinner or lunch dish. A favorite midday meal is reheating the rice and topping it with a helping of homemade kimchi. Lately, I am  also liking the addition of a dash of Braggs Liquid Aminos. I do not usually include soy in my diet, but I have not noticed any problems with the "once in a while use" of this seasoning.  There is a high content of sodium in Braggs and Tamari sauce (but not as high as in regular soy sauce), therefore, it is a seasoning I would use sparingly and not very often.

What do you prepare for a healthy, delicious lunch? 

happenings of the home kind

That week beginning immediately after New Year's Day, which  as you know happened to be on a Wednesday this year, I have found to be much kinder to body and soul if that week is eased into  with as much calm and home kind of activities as possible. Not unlike yeast being added to the bread flour, it jump starts the forthcoming return of daily life's schedules.

Usually on New Years Eve I will pull out a new jigsaw puzzle on the table in the sun room. I begin with a marathon amount of hours working on it that evening, then it might rest until I absolutely must finish it. It "calls my name" if you know what I mean. It took New Years Eve and two day bouts of popping in from time to time to complete this 1000 piece puzzle this week.

 And in the kitchen, one of my most favorite places to be when I am home, a non-knead bread from this book was baked, and a  whole chicken roasted,  from which the meat was pulled off the bones in order to make a much requested dish for my husband, a pot of chicken and dumplings. How that man of mine loves a bowl of brothy rich chicken and dumplings! The bones were used to make the chicken stock. Between those two recipes January began with being surrounded with high levels of comfort food!

I  have no interest in drinking Chai Tea until the winter months. Last year I planned to try experimenting with making my own recipe for chai tea. But honestly, this loose leaf tea purchased from  Mountain Rose Herb Company is quite delicious. And having milk warmer and frother is excellent for adding hot milk or froth to any warm beverage. Last winter I spent some time reading reviews about several on the market via amazon and decided that this inexpensive one by eurolux would meet my needs, and it does so, most excellently.  I was pleased to hear how Michelle had created her own recipe for Chai tea this Christmas.