Fall Basics

We have been having so much fun at our house lately....although the garage does still loom, full to the brim with our excess. We are going on leaf-kicking day trips on the weekends, starting to schedule those dinners with friends and field trips with local mamas that we mean to do. We have been eating baked potatoes, carmelized onions, sausages, roast chickens and mushrooms of every kind. This afternoon I put an apple cake in the oven impulsively after we got back from our afternoon walk.

We spent more money than I like to admit on the Goodwill run for procuring supplies but we are well into the process of Halloween costumes...a mixture of purchased and hacked together. We are talking to our family regularly, spending time reading long chapter books, eating outdoors, and taking all the weekly hikes we said we would when we moved to this amazing state.

I feel like our life has finally calmed down a little and we're hitting a more normal rhythm again. Getting back to the basics has helped. I've cut objects from the house, I've cut things from our schedule, I've cut complications out of the instructions for the kids routine, I've cut dinner one night a week in favor of a cheat meal, etc. etc.  Its easy for me to get all in a dither about "things" all the many, many things that seem like they need doing and celebrating and making.

 Fall is a time to slow down....a time to curl in a little and to think more carefully about what's needed for the upcoming winter. Its basics time. I made myself a little list today of what I think is basic to fall for me....the other things that I think are important really take second chair and end up being extra credit. Here's how it looks from here, in Autumn.

Little Autumn Basics

• Harvesting something might be my number one essential. I always say I am part squirrel. Head outdoors for mushroom hunting, apple picking, nut gathering or pumpkin harvesting and kick a few leaves for extra credit. Breath deep, smell the fall air. 
• Roasting things in the oven. It can be so many things or just one delicious meal. So many good options: parsnips tossed with thyme and oil, pumpkins whole in their shells, apples stuffed with nuts and cinnamon, a big juicy beef roast, a chicken from the farmer's market or a tray of oysters topped with butter and tarragon.
• Wearing plaid. I'm a Scot and a girl from the woods and a Northern soul....flannels are my favorite. My boys all have them and I have them and my patient husband finds he keeps getting them for gifts. They keep you warm, they can dress down and add a cozy charm to outings, work days and evening snuggles by the fire. Extra credit for plaid lined jackets and wool blankets in tartan shades. 
• Seeing some colors. Go catch a brilliant maple show on a favorite local road, hike the mountains to see the aspens flare or just stay up in the cool of the evening to catch a spectacular autumn sunset. Wherever you are, even if maples and cool evenings aren't part of your world, there is "autumn color" in some form. I have to have pretty leaves...do your bit however you can.
• Thanksgiving. The origins are murky and the politics are sticky but beauty that is unquestionable remains. Family gathering is powerful and rhythmic and right, celebrating harvest and abundance and the gathering in of nature is a beautiful thing, offering gratitude to The Creator who sustains all things is peace-giving and honorable.  Bring on the turkey!
• Boiling potpourri on the stove always ends up happening. I throw in whatever I have that smells cozy....bits of pine branch, cinnamon sticks, cloves, orange peel, etc. Its fast and simple and makes me feel like housekeeper of the year and most festive girl in the neighborhood.
• Having cozy drinks is always in order in the autumn. I love fresh, raw cider, hard cider, mulled wine, hot cocoa (extra credit for cinnamon!) and chai tea myself. 
• Extra sleeping always seems to be inevitable if-not perfectly appropriate. Snug naps after chilly-aired hikes, sleeping in with the one I love on cozy weekends, hitting the hay early when the dark and the fog push us indoors and make us snoozy...so many ways to get extra zzz's and wind down the way that nature pushes us this time of year.  
• Taking long walks is rythmically autumnal to me. I grew up walking through the woods deer hunting with my papa in the fall, but it was also a time to go out for mushroom walks and follow-the-truck-down-a-two-track treks to find wild apples by the bushel. Everything in me wants to pack a napsack in fall and go stretch my legs...maybe all day! My husband grew up with trail hiking, following plotted state-park walks and looking for blazes and map following through the woods. We both like to get out and if  you call it a walk I'm un-intimidated and if you call it a hike he's eager. 

Library Day: What Are We Reading?

Today is Library Day...and there are ever so many things to research as always.

Top Topics To Hunt For This Week:

• Arizona Travel Tips (We're going for a weekend in March!)
• Watercolor Projects (I'm teaching a class for Middle and High School students.)
• Lego Ideas (Everyone's obsessed)
• Crystals (Today is Science Day...we had a gorgeous snowfall....and crystal study came to us)
• Gardening (The seed catalogs have started to arrive!!!! YAY!)
• Jewelry Making (We moved on from ice crystals to rock crystals and suddenly we were looking over our rock collections and pondering pendants.)

Epsom salts crystals....so pretty!

Crystals from our collection.

The winter time is the ideal time to library our little heads off. So much wonderful cozy, indoor enthusiasm and so much dark and snug time to read. Reading is one thing I'm really going to throw myself into again this year.

I had a less prolific reading year in 2014 and I miss it a lot. I have so many books on my list and a stack of them that are waiting in the wings on my bedside table but I need to knock a few of my in-process tomes out of the way first.

I'm currently reading:

The Rosie Project
Parent Effectiveness Training
The Bible's Cutting Room Floor
Sex at Dawn
The Gifts of Imperfection
Eating on the Wild Side

No duds in the batch...although some of are the type I need a break from periodically because they require some processing.

My Autumn Food List

A few years ago I brainstormed the idea of a seasonal food list for the side of the fridge. The idea is to "keep in mind" visually all the cozy, traditional foods that we keep dreaming of when we long for Autumn. I also really love the fact that it does a tiny bit of keeping me on track with local/seasonal eating. No better way to check off "apple dumplings"  than to turn it into a trip to the Farmer's Market or the local orchard! Compiling the list is also a fun exercise in self-examination. What speaks Autumn to me personally? What traditional Fall foods are not compelling for me but seem culturally obligatory? Ha! Mental purging! Sometimes I have a particular food that I crave and love but I don't know what time of year it "fits" in so researching its seasonality (mussels in white wine sauce was one for me) ends up being a bite-sized education. I now know that mussels are in season in Autumn. 

The first year I drew up my lists it took up a little bit of my time....but now I just have all the lists saved on my computer and I just review the appropriate list, add or remove whatever seems right and hit PRINT. The list lives on the side of the fridge and I use it when planning menus for the week or dreaming up special dishes for company. Then I keep a pen handy for scratching things off as they show up on our table. So fun! Here's my Autumnal version....

Autumnal Food

Pear Tart

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Stuffed Figs

Cinnamon Pork Chops

Cheese with Apples

Mussels and Crusty French Bread

Oyster Mushrooms Fried with Bacon

Sausages w/ Caramelized Onions

Slow Roasted Ribs

Roast Quail

Apple Dumplings

Fresh Plums

Plum Tart

Apple Turnovers

Raspberry Jam

Mulled Cider

Roast Beets

Venison Tenderloin

Braised Rabbit

Black Bean Soup

Roasted Garlic

Cranberry Bar Cookies

Buckwheat Pancakes

Scrambled Eggs W/Mushrooms

Apple Galette

Fresh Apple Cider @ The Mill

Spicy Muffins

Carrot Cake

Swedish Meatballs

Chili w/Cornbread

Pumpkin Bread

Honeybaked Ham

Chai Tea

Apple Cider Donuts

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Pot Roast

Butternut Squash Soup

Braised Pork Belly

Pumpkin Waffles

Apple Crisp

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Acorn Squash w/ Cinnamon and Maple Syrup

 Bouf Bourguignon

Cranberry Coffee Cake

Concord Grapes

Goat Cheese Cheesecake

Pumpkin Fudge

What would make your list?

 

A Garden Plot

Photo credit to: http://www.thegardenlady.org/

This morning started out so chill and bland and then as the day tumbled on it got brighter and clearer until there was warm golden sunlight pouring in on the potted fig, leaving cozy puddles of light on the floor. If only we had a cat. But we don't, instead we have me. So, I sat in the sun pools and read books to the boys and vacuumed the rug and then flipped through another sheaf of garden catalogs that came up the steps in the arm of the postman.

Nib, big book lover

Ru, my biggest book hound. Consuming Mr. Popper's Penguins as fast as I will read.

Here are five garden problems I have at the moment

1.  I need to figure out proper up-keep for a gravel drive. Our gets all weedy every two minutes, and short of weeding it by hand meticulously (which I did do once or twice last year), how do folks really pull it off?
2. I need a reminder to put in fall veggie crops. I always, always forget. Maybe one of those, send-yourself-an-email-in-the-future things would solve this. Hmmmm.....
3. I need more chives. They are great for eating, they're completely fuss-free and they're a beautiful landscaping plant and rabbits don't eat them. That said, I can't bear to buy them. Everyone has chives, right? I'll have to get some divisions from someone.
4. I am looking for some big shallow circular planters to nab. Preferably free! Am keeping an eye out on curbs. I want to stack them up in graduated sizes inside the giant cement planter on the lawn to make a towering kind of fountain effect. Then...I'm going to fill the whole thing with a cascade of strawberry plants.
5. I have to figure out what can live under yew plants. Last year they looked like they had been plopped down into the sea of wood chips overnight. Very barren. Maybe I just need a few impatiens?

And here are five plants I'm most excited to be planting this year:

1. A bridalwreath bush. This is a beautiful shrub that has everything but fragrance. It looks like a big frothy white fountain in May or so and is so covered with little white blossoms that you can scarcely see the plant itself at all. When I was a little girl I sighed over this bush and promised myself I'd buy one when I saw it blooming, every spring in forgotten doorways of abandoned homesteads in Northern Michigan. It is one of those steadfast shrubs that outlives occupants with ease. And you have to admit the name is high romance.
2. Strawberry plants! Hooray! Am so excited to start putting in the small fruits.
3. A climbing rose. I'm thinking to buy a deeply ruffled, scented yellow variety...the kind that blooms from June till frost. Still not sure if it should live in the back and climb up over the basement door in the stone foundation or in the front to camouflage the electrical wires and box on the the face of the house.
4. A double mock-orange. This is another old fashioned charmer. A big frothy shrub that blooms all multi-petaled white during the garden's peak. Just trying to figure out where to put this one too. Too many options. I kind of fancy the idea of putting it by the back door where I'll smell it every time we walk in and out. It has a wonderful, sweet smell. I plan to be quite bowled over by it. 
5. High bush blueberries. I just dug holes and put all five of them in the ground. I know it seems early but the shrubs I ordered came in the mail and they were still dormant so I gave it a go. The ground isn't frozen and so I am hoping for success. Some are going to fill holes in our hedge and some will mix into the perennial border along the front of the house.

And the top five changes I'm making since last season:

1. I will put something in the giant cement planter in the backyard. It won't be a naked, slightly weedy odd spot in the yard. My plan is: strawberries!
2. I will mulch thoroughly and often with grass clippings to keep plants from getting weedy or wilty. Have to locate a safe source for bags of discarded, non-treated bits though. Can't just go picking them curbside if you wanna be clean and green. Hmm....still thinking on that.
3. I will get my garden in early! I was too lax last year and didn't realize that the hawks nesting above our house keep the rabbit population at bay until after midsummer when they're young fledge and suddenly whatever is in the ground and thriving is all there will be. Plants not established or tall will be munched. Not to mention I'm having a baby in June. I have no fall-back plan. I must plant early.
4. I will keep the decorative planters full of pretty things. I did this once or twice last year but there were some real odd, patchy arrangements at certain times. No reason to let little contained, manageable bits get lost. I can do it!
5. I'm carving a path through the lawn from the front door to the driveway. Everyone walks that way anyhow so you might as well go with the flow. I'm excited about putting in little stepping stones and dividing my thyme to go in between. Can't have too many pretty winding paths around!

What is on your green little hearts today? Have any solutions to my five conundrums or some exciting planting plans or changes of your own? I'd love to hear the deep, dark dish on all of it. My thumb needs a little fodder this time of year, we can't simply go mad while we wait you know!

24 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

A list is a kind of a cure. I keep a small pad on my bedside table for self-curing end of day (or early morning) stress bouts. I keep oodles of lists on our computer, I scribble them on our new kitchen chalkboard and I have a gazillion all over my iPhone to boot.  Lists galore! That's the way to sooth what ails you.

 I do eat trash to calm myself but I am trying to break the habit and one of the recent ways I've been reading about is replacing the habit with a different soothing mechanism...a good way to figure out what works for you is to observe yourself and see what else you do to set things right again. And the first answer that came to me in the midst of my ill-tempered fit this morning was LISTS!

It's February and my id is sulking and sobbing by turns. Time to solve it. Here's a list of what I love about February today, greyest of months, center of winter's numb heart.

25 Reasons Why February Is Sublime

1. Its the month when we celebrate love with its very own holiday.
2. It has a Leap Day!
3. The snowdrops bloom in February.
4. It's great baking weather.
5. Chilly days mean snug fires in the fireplace with a big stack of library books teetering next to us.
6. President's Day is a special surprise I always forget about that brings us a little long weekend together.
7. Maple syrup season starts!
8. There are always stray clementines lingering in my coat pockets.
9. We use the snuggly throws on the couches.
10. Sunny days feel potent and rich, even if they are infrequent.
11. Greenhouses. 
12. In February I sew and knit and paint and all other manner of industrious indoor things.
13. Dee was born in February.
14. February is short.
15. It's a great time to read design blogs.
16. Sleeping comes naturally in February...a healthy habit after all.
17. February is a great time to test out new teas and coffee spices.
18. Watching costume dramas (which my boys consider a fun treat!) is a wonderful chilly February occupation.
19. The people in my life who love me feel warmer and brighter and more potent to me in February.
20. Scarves and boots come out to play!
21. I get to try out chapstick and lotion flavors with impunity. 
22.  The weeds in the garden stay in check perfectly.
23. I think of having company.
24. The Academy Awards happen!
25. Coffee houses.

See? Not so bad now! February...my new pal. Just don't wear out your welcome, eh F? I have hyacinths out there budding and we're not gonna wait forever for 'em.

Kind Time Management

Am struggling with Time Management. Urgh. This is a concept I struggle with. I am afraid of being a controlled and obsessive, scheduled and freakishly non-human person. I also have a big problem with prioritization because I have trouble cutting things out of my life. I have a huge issue with limiting myself to only x number of things that I "have time to do" because that means I cut other things and it also means I may never realize my potential because, see, I'm limiting myself to imagined potential preemptively. Yes, I'm a little over idealistic but, I like that about myself. I wanna be that way, you know? I want to have a lot in my life and I want to push my limits a little and see what crazy amounts of stuff I can get done that I never imagined would work into "the plan."

Yes, and that's great usually but, we've made some major changes in our daily schedule lately and that has been a killer for me. Suddenly, the kids and I are chronically overtired, I have no discretionary time, and there's a million things I'm panicky about that aren't getting done or aren't happening fast enough. Meh. Am not a fan of this bit. I hate the emotional tone my life has at the moment. Too much stress, raw edged, white knuckled, drive the kids like they're a herd of donkeys mania. Am not a fan.

Am working on a little prioritization and outsourcing and list item cutting and am also working my way through listening to this really great talk by the somewhat famous, brilliant and now sadly deceased, Randy Pauch. Enjoy! Am totally inspired.

Green Thoughts

Was outside again today, rushing to get things in the ground before the rain we're supposed to have for several days began. Ended up getting all the stuff planted that I wanted which felt really good but, I do have to admit that by the end of it all the boys and I were mud from head to toe and being thoroughly misted on which meant that we were also pretty soaked. No real harm done, just the first warm spring rain in our hair. What's good for the crocus is good for the boy.

We peeled off the muddy socks and shucked our shoes and padded in for story-time snuggling under a couch throw before lunch and nap. Now we're all frizzy hair and coziness and I can't get the garden wheels to stop turning. Of course, it doesn't help when such tantalizing packages are arriving on my doorstep.

So, yes, I placed an order for a few more perennials, and started making lists of things to change in my garden this year:

"Do not allow nicotiana to flop all over the sweet william. Support rings or else!" and "This fall be sure to order regale lilies and magic lilies." and also "Make sure to work sunflowers in somewhere." along with such helpful bits as "Underplant the black-eyed susans with heliotrope!" I am making lists of all the things I need to do, ("Move strawberry babies, pull garlic from last year, divide lemon verbena, trim sweetheart rose, add mulch to box bed, and tie fence more securely to stakes")

I am honestly a terribly disorganized gardener. I keep no notes about what I bought from whom which year or what its Latin name is and I never label anything. I buy things willy nilly without mapping out the colors, heights or flow of my garden patch and just plan on moving what doesn't work when it starts to bother me. I don't see myself getting a whole lot more organized, there are too many other things I want to do in life and frankly, I get along alright in spite of my jumbly ways. But, this year for the first time I thought, "You know, I could actually see keeping some sort of a garden journal." Not a terribly particular one mind you but, maybe the sort of place where I could put these lists and then later in June jot down what is putting on a splendid show and what plants I still am hoping to grow before I die (moonflowers, parma violets, sweet alyssum) and what new successes I've had this year (scented sweet peas, angel's trumpet, heliotrope, carrots and pineapple sage). That I could see being quite useful. A very free-form, sort of dirt-smudged place to keep my garden mucking notes, somewhere where the bits would all be bound together with a solid spine and recognizably backed and fronted with a nice botanical cover design of some sort. Wonder where I should start looking? Do any of you keep garden writing year to year?