I just went out to the yard and thought: what a mess. So much garden clean-up needs done and there are leaves to be raked, but really? I kinda like it. I thought it was pretty. This are the scenes that caught my eye around the yard and out the doors…
The late afternoon was slipping into early evening, the foliage letting loose of its blazing, glorious hold.
The Scented Geranium is blushing.Hello, St. Francis. Happy All Saints Day. Burning bush. Burning away.
“Some one” took “my” potted mums, **ahem. Tara. ;)
Leaves. Who wants to come and rake?
This is just in one tiny, suburban yard. Just think what the rest of the world holds out there! Go. Find. ENJOY! :) Have a great weekend!
Houzz had the BEST article today (by Alison Hodgson, my FAV writer there). It’s about “How to Build Your Housekeeping Muscle,” but honestly – it is just a great perspective on how to develop your abilities at anything you might find perplexing.
She shares an example of a man who has loaned lots of money to friends and relatives over the years and how he isn’t bothered by it because he just sees himself as some one who is really good at saving money, as in “skilled at it.” His viewpoint took something we usually judge others about and turns not being very good at handling money from being some irreparable character flaw (the writer’s profound revelation about this totally hit me) in them as people ~ to something we can, with a little effort, actually become skilled in ~ whether that includes housekeeping, or managing a budget well, or making new friends, or good communication, getting fit or whatever it is that perhaps has been pointed out to us as being a weakness or imperfection calling our very value into question.
While we are often quick to judge other people harshly for what we see as a major character impairment, a proof of a lack of development in who they should be as a person (#don’taskmehowIknow), maybe they are just good people who have not yet developed skills in certain areas – just. like. us.
I won’t tell on myself, but…
My mom was the most “distracted” housekeeper on the planet, which drove my perfectionist dad up the proverbial wall and caused him to rule the roost by making endless, demanding lists of to-do for every member of the family. Even after I was married, and moved hundreds of miles away, when we came for a visit, I was given a list! OH-Yes, he did!:) It’s an honor for me now, to get to be helpful to my parents, but in my early 20s I was probably pretty incredulous. Haha.
Now, my dad is known to be highly competent and get-things-done-well NOW! and I like that. He is a high-capacity leader, a pastor trusted for high-impact ministry and church growth. But my mom is also known ~ as the woman who makes him bearable. She is without guile in any way, so loving and non-judgemental. She can make a lifelong-wholly-devoted friend from the most snarky and committed enemy.
There were church ladies and relatives who judged my mom’s housekeeping as inferior, but her character: above reproach. There is not a person in the world who doesn’t want to be around her because of how she cheers them on and showers them with love. Over time, she learned to follow my dad’s “guidance” and keeps a lovely home. But she wasn’t born that way and she is in NO WAY deficient in her character!
It is interesting, I think, how we like to compare some one else’s weakness in skill against our own strength as though it automatically makes them flawed. Or we do it to ourselves, thinking, “I wish I weren’t so awful at ______,” feeling doomed forever by some label (“I’m the messy one,” or “I’m the one who can’t do _____,” or “I’m the clumsy one,” etc).
So, the article:: This was just so thought-provoking to me, I wanted to thank Alison Hodgson and share it here. Hope it gets you thinking, too, and giving yourself and others GRACE and great hope for the future. Just simple tips to follow to get the skill you need to strengthen the area you feel condemned about, housekeeping or whatever else.
The sun is bright, the sky is blue, the blue I am addicted to seeing (thank-you for these skies, Father-in-Heaven). There is the slightest breeze which comes and goes – barely perceptible on this cool morning. Oh, but the tree is ready, waits for the slightest encouragement – ready to abandon its’ hold…And the leaves, in all their glorious color, are falling in silent, slow motion~ drifting gracefully, gently to the ground. Today is the day of falling. Falling slowly.
This image looks really early 1900s. I google-searched for poets named “Mamie” and there are actually quite a few.
I like October because it reminds me of innocent childhood, shuffling through piles of leaves on the way to school, before the days when people felt the incessant need to banish the sight of them immediately at all costs. Have you noticed, in these newer neighborhoods, it’s almost impossible to get a decent pile for jumping in?
Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon. (Neil Young, lyrics – Harvest Moon)
I like October for the crimson and pumpkin, for the eggplant and rust, and all the colors of the deepening, mature, lusty, whole and passionate part of the year when the autumn moon hangs heavy in the sky like the warm embraces of a tattered, weighty quilt sewn years ago for the need of heat and not some contest of a county fair. Have you ever been covered in one of those?
I like October because the coffee is richer, the evening cricket is less frantic, more rhythmic. The sun slants and schedules fall into an easy ritual, the day in and day out are much more organized. Tans fade, memories are made, soup is stirred, cakes are baked, sweaters come out and life is rich.
Well, it’s a marvelous night for a moondance
With the stars up above in your eyes
A fantabulous night to make romance
‘Neath the cover of October skies (Moondance, Van Morrison)
I like October because my neighbor’s Maple tree explodes into multichromatic, vibrance and dances merrily in a dazzling production for me through my big window each time I walk through the room. From dark, living green to lime to yellow to orange to scarlet to blood-red and back. Then, just as all the colors begin to subside, like the finale of a summer fireworks display, a wind scatters the leaves far and wide and they glide and twirl and settle on the lawns with a promise to do it all again – same time next year.
The tree of which I speak…from the window (this was 2 years ago)
I do like October. Love it, even.
And yes, in all of it, like the poet said, “the opulent Giver I see.”
I pulled the proverbial plug. I gathered up, from their toasty little covering (Dave was heat-lamping them) the remaining 84 or so Beefsteak, Heirloom and Early Girl tomatoes (not to mention the couple hundred cherries) and threw the plants into the barrel to be hauled away today. I carried in bunches of tomatillas (probably threw away 3 times more), a pot full of green beans, 5 or 6 zucchinis, and a few dozen assorted peppers – not including the Serranos – another couple dozen of those, which I will directly give to my son-in-law, Ryan – do not pass go, do not collect $200. Those things are wicked hot! Out with them!
What? It isn’t still summer?
The size of a cereal bowl!
Poor, poor little garden. The beefsteaks were shocked it wasn’t the very middle of summer, I can tell from their behemoth size. They had no idea how protected they’d been.
My counter was already heavy-laden with ripening tomatoes at every stage. Now, if I wanted, I could do Fried Green Tomatoes and even found this very interesting recipe on Pinterest this morning, as if some fellow pinner knew I might need it:
How perfectly appropriate!
I like them red, and juicy and tangy and tart and real so I tend not to go in to the fried-green thing and opt for sneaking a couple of apples into their midst to get some quick ripening. But I am rather inspired to try {this recipe}based on that image alone!
The kale and onions and garlic chives and Chinese Cabbage are still puttering along, with chamomile and some potted annuals, but for the most part, I pulled the incredible-fruitful plants out of the earth and ended a very nice summer garden in anticipation of a cold-turn, possible rain turning to {SNOW} flurries…tonight. Ugh.
Thank-you, garden, for a lovely, long and sweet summer. Thank-you for still trying into the fall. And God bless you for the lovely bounty I shall still enjoy for the next few days, maybe weeks. So perfectly delicious.
“It’s the laughter we will remember, whenever we remember the way we were…”
I will always remember you, Garden 2013. I really will.
Everybody is so busy. I actually do KNOW every one of these {extremely cool} people, I do. But wowzers – getting together these fast-paced fall days is missing from my life. :(
Tredessa is 31+ weeks in her pregnancy.
I just got to attend Birth Classes with Ryan and Dessa over the weekend. Babying is so much fun. I wish I weren’t too old to have another one (yes, shhhhh, I did say it, but don’t tell anyone). Haha. Baby shower preparations are underway as we all get ready for the arrival of Evangeline Lilly, “Eva.”
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Tristan recently released 2 drumming videos. He is so talented. I love the drumming AND the video editing. He did these in Stormie’s basement, also cool.
This one will put this song in your head. Fair warning!
Steph {www.maydae.com} has been featured on the Etsy home page and in some Etsy treasuries recently.
Steph has an eye for vintage and unique with an expertise in thrifting. Everybody wants her secrets, which she shares at her blog. Oh, and she just went over 400 sales in her Etsy shop!
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Emilee {my very great-niece} was on Channel 9 News from Estes Park. She shows up at about 1:07 in the video. I could not quit thinking of the old Mary Tyler Moore theme from her 70s TV show, “Who can turn the world on with her smile? Who can take a nothing day and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile? Well it’s you girl and you should know it…” That so fits Em!
PLAY HERE (I just realized she is on their still shot, too!)
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Rocky and Jovan are just getting back into their home, even though the repairs continue and the basement is now an empty shell. There will be a benefit/worship night for them in early November. Every single person I know should be there! SAVE THE DATE: November 8!
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CallBack Theater is doing another Christmas production. Dave has been putting the finishing touches on the script and I know I’ll be hearing carols soon, as he begins gathering props and making plans.
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The Powers fam left for Ireland today. Ireland!
I cannot wait to hear Hunter’s Irish accent when he returns, as he always enjoys trying on dialects. Won’t my little O’Hunter and O’Malakai be the cutest kids there? They are there for {THIS}.
Stephanie took this picture in Kai’s bedroom recently. It captures reality! Beautiful reality! Life on the floor with toys and two boys!
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I get to meet Baby Blake when Stormie and I fly to Chicago to meet up with Elise-the-Niece in a few weeks, then go to see the parentals.
Is he not just the handsomest little guy ever?
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And? It is flipping cold here – what is up with that???
Did I make myself a BLT on toasted Italian with real mayo, salt and pepper, a little lettuce, some extra-crispy bacon and thick slabs of heirloom tomatoes from my own garden this morning for breakfast? Why, yes. Yes, I did.
If bacon is going to kill me, I intend to eat enough to die very happy.
The nights are way too cold for the fall gardening I had hoped to do. You just never know. I think I will “close-up-shop” this week on all but the kale and spinach, the lettuces and Chinese cabbage. My amazingly loving and energetic husband has been covering the tender green beans, peppers and tomatoes nightly because I just had such a great garden year, he didn’t want it to come to the abrupt end the weather seems to have sent. He even heat-lamps them at night. How sweet is that?
The result? I have piles of tomatoes all over the place. Because-they are not stupid, you know. If the end is near, they become extremely prolific, fruiting and leaving their legacy and seed behind.
The fall tomato is still sweet
The autumn tomato in this zone? Grows much slower, ripens at a snail’s pace. The vigor of the August tomato has subsided to a more predictable, steady output. I am tickled pink when I see new flowers on the plants – they refuse to go quietly and intend, though damaged by cold nights and shortened days and brittled by age, to stay fruitful until the last.
I love them for that. I shall pattern my own life after the tomato. Even if I get brittle and hobble and go gray and lose all my teeth – I intend to keep flowering and being fruitful. :)
And that sandwich was so…what are the words? You could not buy a tomato that tasty in an 8-state radius, I am certain of it. It was really ambrosial, scrumptious, and just as delicious as the first fruits – maybe even sweeter. Just like life…
“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
~ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
I am solar-powered. Grateful for these October mornings where the sun shines at an elongated angle, slightly more golden and slower than just a few weeks ago. At precisely 9:15 am, the entire east-side of my house glitters like yellow diamonds as the morning dances through the wide-open windows and doors and every possible object twinkles with importance to the hum of the Maytag dishwasher.
It takes the humble potato, totally remaining humble, then by its reverent humility manages to unseat almost any other potato in. the. world.
Found it on Pinterest, people. And here is how they said it:
Boil whole, red potatoes. About 20 minutes. Remove from boiling water.
Place in a baking sheet with sides which has been lightly coated with olive-oil.
Smash those semi-soft potatoes with the bottom of a glass.
Now drizzle with a little more olive oil (or melted butter) and sprinkle with salt, pepper and maybe onion powder.
Bake 20-25 minutes more.
EAT – scrumptious!!!
You could, I suppose, sprinkle with cheese or a dollop of sour cream, but they are fine just like they are! The potato “meat” is fluffy and moist and so delish, while, the longer you leave them in the oven (at 425-degrees), the skins and any spreading potato get a little crispy and a sort of astonishingly impossible to resist, yet a humble potato.
It revelates this: the simplest things from the pantry are actually often the most satisfying.
I do believe, and I have believed this for quite sometime now, if a person were on a deserted island with but one choice of food {only ONE} to sustain them until the end of time, while you know my unbridled zeal for the tomato, I would have to go with a potato. It can be fixed so many ways and over the long haul, given one choice, a potato would probably be the way to go. I must admit it.
BONUS Tips for these boil-smash-season-bake Potatoes:
I add garlic powder, onion powder (or fresh onions and/or garlic cloves and Kosher salt to the boiling water because the skins will absorb it beautifully just giving another layer of taste. I also tried sprinkling dill and paprika on this last batch, with of course, Kosher salt and black pepper. You could add Mrs. Dash or parsley – whatever! Soooooo good. Yum!
There you have it. Now run, do not walk, to your nearest grocer and get those potatoes boiling, then smash them, then bake them, then EAT! :)
I snapped this shot of a leaf that fell from my front tree a couple of years ago in late October. It somehow managed to swish and swoosh its’ way up onto my porch near the front door. It was so big and colorful it made me happy, even though I always hate the passing of summer. I am so glad I took the picture.
Which brings this: Isn’t it really amazing, I mean, I know we have been doing this for over a hundred years, but still – aren’t we oh-so-blessed to see something that we like and be able to take a picture of it for later? Just SNAP! Got it! That is just the coolest thing ever!
I have been looking through images from 2011 because the digital age, for all the ease it has brought in making good photo-taking available to the masses has also saddled us with a whole new place to organize and purge from time to time. Bleh. But anyway – there was this shot and really, what the heck am I going to do with it, anyway. But the fall season always brings out a deep, romantic mood in me and I feel the need to read poetry and re-visit my favorite seasonal quotes and sing songs about autumn and just sort of feel the fall in whatever way my senses and emotions can grasp it.
The Marilyn Monroe quote.
First, I feel about internet quotes like this:
Hahahahahaha! Isn’t that hilarious and just truly the thing?
But, several websites say Marilyn said this, so it has to be true, right?
“Designers want me to dress like Spring, in billowing things. I don’t feel like Spring. I feel like a warm, red Autumn.”
What did she mean? Well, I can’t ask her, but I assume she meant:I feel things more deeply at this ripe and fruitful time of my life. I feel like a full-grown woman, as opposed to some foolish girl, a woman who knows her mind and risks her thunderous-beating heart to more vulnerability and tenderness than I’d have allowed when younger. And my experience in life and love and heartbreak and second chances have made me more deeply passionate and compassionate and warm. I’m old enough now to understand the rich treasure my nurturing provides for those who are lucky enough to be planted in my heart and the wildly increased ability I now have to love.
Yep. That is what I think she was trying to say.
I feel the same, Norma Jean. I feel like a warm, red Autumn.
The Scented Geranium is blushing.
Hello, St. Francis. Happy All Saints Day.
Burning bush. Burning away.
PLAY HERE (I just realized she is on their still shot, too!)
