enjoying every hour...

"The seasons are what a symphony ought to be:

Four perfect movements in harmony with each other."

              ~Arthur Rubenstein

 A halcyon moment this afternoon, right before dinner prep was to begin in earnest. I sat outside and stitched, alongside me was a cup of tea and fuzzy Louie.

I am reading more these days. The challenge of choosing to read certain classics and a sound feeling of I must "get on with it" faces me daily.  Interestingly enough, I look forward to the extra hours I spend reading,  somehow this self-imposed challenge is quite enough to justify those extra moments.

  Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanhouken is lingering in my thoughts, and I expect it will for quite some time.  This book gets five-stars, and I highly recommend adding it to your reading list.

As I closed one book I opened another, thus, beginning at the top of my 2020 Reading Challenge, a 19th century classic. I remember reading Wuthering Heights in high school, the movie was seen in the theater and that is what I do remember. "Oh, Heathcliff"!  But after reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte in the past few years, it only seemed fair to give Emily another chance. This novel is slow and  slightly vapid in the beginning, but I am sensing a slight change, so I plug on...

Louie jumped down and I fancy he is pondering one of my gardens, noting the rebirth of flowers, herbs and garlic...yes, this year I am growing garlic in several garden spaces!

books, books and more books

                                                                              (image here)

I have always intended to be a woman of my word, and since I distinctly stated in my last post that I would give the books I was considering for my 2020 Reading Challenge soon, I believe soon has arrived this evening. These books are not necessarily written in stone, nor will I carve them there until I am reading a noted book and it proves itself to be a book I will want to continue reading. As you might well notice the list is not fully complete, I am open for suggestions...

1. 19th Century Classic   Wuthering Heights   Emily Bronte
2. 20th Century Classic   One of Ours   Willa Cather  
3. Classic written by a man    Jayber Crow   Wendell Berry
4. Classic in Translation    The Confessions  St. Augustine
5. Genre Classic  4:50 to Paddington  Agatha Christie
6. Classic with a person's name in the title   Celia's House.   D. E. Stevenson
7. Classic with a place in the title  We Bought An Island   Evelyn E. Atkins
8. Classic with nature in the title   The Country of the Pointed Firs  Sarah Orne Jewett
9. Classic about family  The Fountain Overflows  Rebecca West
10. An Abandoned Classic   Villete  Charlotte Bronte
11. Classic Adaption   North and South  Elizabeth Gaskell
12. Childhood Classic   Cornelli  Johanna Spyri
13. A Perennial  A Praying Life  Paul Miller
14. A Religious Classic   How Should We Then Live?   Francis Schaeffer  
15. A Grace Livingston Hill   Homing(?)
16. A biography/autobiography  Severe Mercy  Sheldon Vanauken
17. A non- fiction   Emily Dickinson's Gardening Life  Marta McDowell

What is it about typing something that makes reality spring into focus? This list seems terribly ambitious, especially in light of other things I love to do beside reading, and unfortunately, I have never been one that enjoys reading while doing something else with my hands.

      "A fondness for reading, properly directed,, must be an education in itself"

Jane Austen Mansfield Park

housewifery comfort

Ironing, cooking nourishing foods, baking bread, and preserving stock, these are only a few of the things I do in my home on a regular basis. My home duties are done with gratitude and for bringing pleasure to my family, therefore, I am the recipient of a double blessing.

Winter has had a bit of a strange feel to it this year. Some days of high unseasonable temperature  warmth, and then cold days with bitter, biting wind.
This cold, but pleasantly sunny day, I pulled out my husband's shirts that need ironing and it was worth the extra effort to set up the ironing board and iron in the sunroom where the morning's sun provided the comfort of being  home and ironing.

I know I have mentioned probably more than one time that I prepare soups on a regular basis year round. But I especially love when winter allows those deeply nourishing and comforting winter stews and soups. Chicken and dumplings is one of my husband's most requested winter soup. It requires so few ingredients, along with chicken, all are staples in most kitchens
.

There is much written about porridge, and certainly there are varied opinions from  people regarding their childhood memories or preferences, but to me a bowl of pre-soaked cooked porridge, sweetened with maple syrup, a dollop of butter, fruit, nuts and cinnamon must be awarded a gold star on a spectrum of satisfying comfort.  

I will not say I have mastered the art of baking a good loaf of bread, yet I can say with confidence that I am learning and that I have discovered several new recipes that my family enjoys eating. Plus, I am learning about baking with ancients grains and sourdough starter, and it is extremely difficult to go back to plain flours and yeast.

And I can not remember if I have shared this on the blog before, and if I have just think you have been twice informed. I make chicken bone broth about every other week, and would do it weekly if we could eat enough chicken! But a tip that I have enjoyed is freezing some of my stock in ice cubes and storing the cubes in a plastic container. You can then add as much or as little of the stock as is needed for your recipe. Excellent for sauces and such.

2020 Reading Challenge

 I love perusing library shelves. Yes, with ebullient memories of library days during childhood,  still one of my simple pleasures is meandering through the library book stacks, reading the various titles while pulling certain books off the shelves as possibilities to take home and read. Books are friendly to me.

 Since every year is moving by at an extraordinary rate of speed, and since I am only getting older, I thought I would take the time and effort this year to create a purposeful Reading List, after all my "want to read" book stacks are only getting larger. I  fancy calling it my 2020 Reading Challenge, join along if you would like.

 The book blog, Books And Chocolate, recently posted a 2020 Back to Basics Reading Challenge which piqued my interest in adopting a similar reading list, mostly classics (books written at least 50 years ago). I have chosen to follow the basic mainstay of her list, adding
several other novel types as well.

1. 19th Century Classic
2.  20th Century Classic
3. Classic written by a man author
4. Classic in Translation
5.  Genre Classic (fantasy, mystery, science fiction, western. etc.)
6.  Classic with a person's name in the title
7. Classic with a place in the title
8. Classic with nature in the title
9. Classic about family
10. An abandoned title (one you had begun in the past and had not finished)
11.A  Classic adaption(movie or TV series)
12. A Childhood Classic
13. A perennial ( a re-read)
14. A religious classic/book
15. A Grace Livingston Hill book
16. A biography or an autobiography

Scribbled on yellow legal pads are the actual book titles I am planning to read or have already begun. I will post them soon. I would love any recommendations!

bolognese sauce

Some mornings I will get up and know it is destined to be a sauce or soup making day.

The weather is usually cloudy, rainy or even drizzly such as was today.

I bring the fresh vegetables to the cutting board, sharpen my best chopping knife and begin a session of serious chopping. Today it was to make a delicious and simple bolognese sauce.

Years ago I was browsing through the Willams-Sonoma store and this sauce recipe was one of their free handouts. I usually make it several times a year and since it makes a rather large portion of sauce, I have discovered it freezes extremely well. My most favorite way to serve this sauce is over spaghetti squash topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

I realize that with Pinterest and Google, the sharing of recipes is almost obsolete, but I photo shop the recipe ...just in case....that is all I'm saying.

And you get the added bonus of exercising your neck too!

going to nearby places

I walked in the cold overcast afternoon.

Maybe it is because I have enjoyed reading so many books set in English villages where the town's hub is a square with several up and down lanes branching off from the main street, a street that accommodates quaint shops for the needs of any village- abiding person. I love the thought of living in such a place. I recall a woman friend telling me how she lived in a small town in Connecticut  with her husband well over forty years ago; they owned only one car and she was able to walk to the grocer, pharmacy, florist, or any place she needed to outside venturing into the larger city. And I also have vague memories of my Grandmother walking to a street of shops near her house in the old part of the town of which I grew up that maintained such a street of shops within walking distance of the residents going back to the 1940's.

As for this afternoon, my mind's ruminations were due to not getting into my car and driving the few miles to the host's house where our monthly bridge meeting was being held. Instead I  bundled up in my aubergine woolen coat  and with my Stegmanns wool clogs , I briskly made the twelve minute journey. And speaking of  Stegmann's clogs, I bought this pair of clogs in 1992, and they are still in excellent shape. I slip my socked feet into them and my feet remain toasty warm, plus the comfort they provide is almost like wearing slippers.

After another twelve minute walk home, I hurriedly began supper preparations.  For tonight I was preparing my own version of Swedish meatballs to be served over tagliatelle noodles, so for that I needed to gather a few springs of fresh parsley from my leaf-strewn garden.  A crisp green salad  served on the side should be just right.

handmade gifts

 Mad last minute shopping frenzies in my opinion are a choice you make and as for me not a way in which I choose to spend the last days of Advent. I desire to be home making lists of cookies to bake, meals to prepare, planning how I am going to set my Christmas table, and getting the house ready for the arrival of family. And since I do like to make simple handmade gifts for the grandchildren if at all possible, these days leading up to Christmas may provide just the needed time to do so. I have been nursing a sore throat for several days, drinking mug after mug of herbal teas and taking elderberry syrup, therefore, sitting in my sunny sewing room to sew those gifts are delightful,  just before Rose and Ivy arrive tomorrow night and my days will look quite different.

A flannel nightgown for Ivy(31/2), an apron for Breanna(9), and I am just now ready to begin knitting red mittens for Gordon(23 months).

He's coming home, arriving at the airport late tonight after traveling for twenty-two plus hours. It has been five years since he has been home for Christmas, therefore, celebrating Advent with Alan this year is making this mama's heart stout.

Amidst the busyness of this past week we are decking the house with festive things, which interestingly is apparently the thing to do in Thailand too!

onstage

I have about forty minutes to write a brief post. The Christmas lights are shining brightly warming me on this bleak, cold rainy day, and anticipation is on overdrive since tonight is Opening Night for the annual Nutcracker Performance from which Charlotte dances, her twelfth year!

This entire week was spent practicing at the theater for Tech Week and this year there were two performances of Act Two for the local schools.

 Shhh! No photos are allowed, but during this morning's school performance I snuck upstairs to the balcony and took this shot with my phone.  I have been helping with the costuming and backstage for about nine years now and what a privilege to be such a huge part of my daughter's life. My fingers are sore from all the hand stitching and my older self is weary from being at the theater every night and out of the house by 7:30 for the past two mornings, but what a joy to see her onstage.

And Breanna, my granddaughter is also a part of the performance. I am doubly joyful!  

seeing and hearing november

November brought steady rainfall as well as glorious days of sunlight on color.  I choose to stay outdoors as much as possible on the days that were fair. The pleasant job of setting the garden to rest began in earnest with pulling up the zinnia and nasturtium plants that finally succumbed to the cold night's freeze as well as the snipping and cutting back of the other plants and herbs in the garden beds. November is also a time to plant bulbs in the still soft earth looking forward to the hopeful arrival of daffodils, tulips and crocuses yet several months away.  Intrusive leaf blowers were certainly heard, either your own or your neighbors at any time during the day for weeks on end.

This Thanksgiving morning I was antsy quite early to get outside for a walk; the sky was pewter gray as I set out, yet I expected the sun to be shining by the time I got back to the house.  I observed the few tenacious dusky leaves that remained on the tress.

Home to preparing the breakfast I had promised my husband.

From here the photos stop, therefore, seeing the wonderful foods gracing the Thanksgiving table at Witt and Claire's house are not possible. The happy family time that followed kept my mind on other things besides picking up my camera to snap pictures. The voices of excited children as we arrived, the stirring of the gravy in a cast iron pan with Breanna by my side being given careful instruction. Imagine a vase of bright sunflowers in the center of the table, cinnamon ornaments with our written names on them set in the middle on each plate, and the abundance of delicious traditional foods surrounding us. Hear the prayers and the giving of thanks to our loving Father in Heaven.

a november junket and afternoon tea

"Now in November, the leaves spread cloth of gold and red on the ground. The open fields take on a cinnamon tone and the wild blackberry canes in the swamp are frosted purple."

Gladys Taber

The Stillmeadow Road

                                                                                                                         

At sunrise the sky displayed a most gorgeous tangerine glow and as I stopped at the window to get a fuller view of its boldness, I knew it was only  teasing because the skies were going to be grey, but windless, on this cold day. Regardless, my husband had invited me to ride to the mountains with him and I had no reason to cavil the weather.
Along the highways our eyes caught  the beauty of the leaves muted tones, and even those trees that had mostly shed the whole of their colorful coats were grand. A stop was made first thing, a call on a customer by my husband while I sat in the car snug as a bug in a rug and knitted. Soon enough we were on our way enjoying the quaintness of this little town's downtown, moseying through an antique shop and finally stopping to buy Made in the USA socks from a favorite factory outlet.

And to put a finishing touch on our fine November junket, we stopped for afternoon tea/late lunch in a stately, elegant turn of the century house. 

On the way home I read aloud a chapter from The Stillmeadow Road.