❤️ of the Home - December

❤️ Of the Home - October

Simple Abundance - December

"Simple Abundance"

Simple Abundance - November

Simple Abundance

November is the pause between Autumnal color and Winter white in many parts of the country.  It can look bleak and dreary oftentimes.  Perhaps that's why November was chosen to celebrate Thanksgiving--to give us something to look forward to that encourages us to be grateful for what we already have.  It is also a time to gather family near and far and celebrate the bond of kinship.  I've hosted Thanksgiving for so long that the few times we've been invited to another's home it just did not feel like Thanksgiving to me.  Tradition carries with it heart memories.

My menu is always the same except I like to try different vegetables every year.  Sometimes I add soup.  I also like to vary the way I make the sweet potatoes.  I've not changed the Sausage Sage Dressing or Shaker Corn Pudding I've made for many years now.  I've always made Heavenly Hash (also known as Ambrosia) and pumpkin pie--two things my mother always made.  And of course the Turkey!  But we did try Splatch-cock Turkey one year.  Since this is the only time of year we have a whole turkey, it is special.  I love making the table look festive and always use the tablecloth I made many years ago.  Last year I added name tags with my own illustration. . . .

As a young child we always went to Mamaw's and Papaw's farm in Mississippi for Thanksgiving.  I remember going along to pick out the turkey at a farm down the road.  There were always lots of cousins to play with.  By the time I was a teenager we'd moved north and we'd usually go to my other set of grandparents.  One Thanksgiving, however, my mother hosted her parents and four siblings and their families.  There were cousins galore that Thanksgiving.

This month Sarah Ban Breathnach suggests these Joyful Simplicities from "Simple Abundance". . . . 

🦃   Write your own personal grace and offer it for the first time on Thanksgiving.

🦃   Fill a basket of food and take it to a shelter the day before Thanksgiving.  If you have children, let them help you shop, load the basket, and deliver it with you.

🦃   Don't rush out the day after Thanksgiving to do holiday shopping with the rest of the world.  Instead, make a pot of homemade turkey vegetable soup, write out a shopping list for the Christmas pudding ingredients, create an Advent wreath, and start listening to holiday music.

The Thanksgiving before my mother died I had everyone write what they were thankful for on the back of an artificial leaf.  I put them in an arrangement that I bring out each year.  Her leaf is always there to remind me of that Thanksgiving.

We often still have family the day after, but once they leave I will start thinking about Christmas.  I'll put away my autumn decor and bring out the winter things.  Then I'll start making lists of what needs to be done when for Christmas.

If you need a Turkey Soup recipe here is one I posted last year from Mary Mason Campbell's book, "The New England Butt'ry Shelf".  Drag it to your computer desktop to print. . . .

What about you?  Do you have Thanksgiving traditions?  Would you rather host the dinner or let someone else host it?  Do you have any special memories from your childhood Thanksgivings?

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Take Joy!

Simple Abundance - October

Simple Abundance

If I could pick only one favorite month of the year I'd have to choose October.  I'm sure it has to do with the vivid colors this time of year.  Spring's colors are certainly lovely, but the colors are more pastel except for an occasional bright red tulip🌷or deep yellow daffodil.   I can see myself in Anne Mary Lawler's description of October "dressing in flame and gold like a woman afraid of growing old."  I've always loved color and tend to buy colorful clothing, but as I grow older I find that colors speak to me even more.

This month Sarah Ban Breathnach's Joyful Simplicities from "Simple Abundance" include these possibilities. . . .

🍁     Plan an outing to a pumpkin patch of farmers' market.  Select the perfect jack-o-lantern, but get an assortment of smaller pumpkins on which to carve different designs🎃, like checkerboards, hearts, or the moon and stars.  Pie pumpkins are the perfect size for creating luminaries for steps or driveways, and midget pumpkins make charming votive candle holders for dinner tables.

🍁     Create a seasonal table.  Set aside one small space on which to arrange an autumnal still life:  wheat sheaves, pumpkins, gourds, Indian corn, or bittersweet, with bouquets of dried flowers and preserved autumn leaves.

🍁     If you live in a four-season climate, take a Sunday drive in the country to revel in Mother Nature's flamboyant fancy dress.  Pack a picnic.  Linger as long as you can.

🍁     Mull cider and/or wine on the weekends for an autumn cup of cheer, especially delightful after raking leaves!

For years I planned an autumn get-away for my family during the long Columbus Day weekend.  The boys loved hiking in the woods and following the trails to hidden water falls.  Now that it's just the two of us our choices of when and where to go and where to stay have opened up considerably.  The world-wide web has certainly helped facilitate finding wonderful places.  Here are some we've been to. . . .

Eagles Mere, PA

Glenlaurel Inn, Ohio

New Castle, DE

Skyline Drive, VA

Western Maryland

World's End State Park, PA

Little Grand Canyon, PA

I also love decorating my house for Autumn.  I even change my dining room curtains from blue to red and summer paintings to autumn scenes. . . .

It is also a time to change my menu.  Now I'll make Sausage-Bean Chowder with pumpernickel bread, Meatloaf with acorn squash and baked potato, Beef Brisket with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts, Chili with crackers and butter, Sauerkraut and Pork with potato pancakes and peas, Beef Stew with corn bread, to name a few--all dishes I haven't had in months!

What about you?  What delights you about Autumn?  Do you change your decor?  Go "leaf peeping" (as it's called in my part of the country)?

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Take Joy!

July Celebrations

Illustrated by Tasha tudor

Mary Mason Campbell writes in her book, "The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac" illustrated by Tasha Tudor, "On the Fourth of July, we tug at the bell rope in the barn and put up the flag to wave in the hot breeze, remembering that after John Adams signed the Declaration of Indepen- dence on the first American Fourth of July, he wrote his wife Abigail that he hoped Americans would always make this day one of rejoicing and merry- making.  We follow his wishes willingly."

Ms. Campbell tells us that the Fourth of July signals the start of the clambake season in Rhode Island.  Here is her recipe for Clam Fritters. . . .

Drag to computer desktop to copy

Tasha Tudor shows us how her family celebrated in her book "A Time To Keep" with the traditional firing off of fireworks as well as watching them being set off at the fairgrounds in the village from the vantage point of their high pasture.   A picnic on a little island in the Black River reached by canoe was also part of their celebration. . . .  

In Tasha Tudor's "Around the Year" she celebrates the 4th of July. . . .

When I was a child we'd always go to my grandparents' farm to celebrate the 4th.  The cousins would be there and we'd have sparklers and firecrackers.  The cats would hide under the porch and us girls would cover our ears.  Watermelon and homemade ice cream could be counted on being a part of our celebration. . . .

How did your family celebrate the 4th of July when you were growing up?

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Take Joy!

June Celebrations

The Rose is June's flower according to Mary Mason Campbell's "The New England Buttr'ry Shelf Almanac", illustrated by Tasha Tudor.  She tells us that according to Mrs. Burke's book, "The Coloured Language of Flowers", compiled in a much earlier era, that a white rose and red rose together signified unity and that a yellow rose meant jealousy.

Here is her simple recipe for Rosewater. . . .

"Collect a pound of scented rose petals and put them in a heatproof glass, enamel, or pottery pan on the fire.  Cover petals with water and bring to a boil, then simmer gently for 10 minutes.  Strain off the water.  May be used for bathing the face and arms on a warm day--very refreshing.  It is best bottled and kept ice cold in the refrigerator."

My roses are coming into bloom.  I bought this climbing rose in 2014.  This is the first year for it to bloom.  It turns out to have a pinkish hue, which I love. . . .

White Ramber (Felicite et Perpetue)

Eden Climber (Meiviolin)

Rainbow Knockout (Radcor)

Carpet Rose

This is my Mystery Rose that showed up in the middle of my Azalea

One of the many wild roses--this one growing up into the Dogwood to continue the white flowers after the Dogwood is out of bloom

Tasha was very fond of roses.  When she died in 2008 half of her ashes were scattered, as she requested, under her favorite rose bush.  The other half were scattered where one of her Corgi's had been buried.

For Tasha Tudor June was the beginning of summer fun starting with Midsummer's Eve as told in "A Time to Keep". . . .

In "Around the Year" Tasha shares her delicate borders of flowers surrounding summer scenes. . . .

Tasha wrote about celebrating Midsummer's Eve in "The Private World of Tasha Tudor". . . .

"Just for fun, my family invented a religion like the Shakers we called Stillwater.  I'm eldress, and we have a big celebration on Midsummer's Eve.  It's really a state of mind.  Stillwater connotes something very peaceful, you see, life without stress.  Nowadays, people are so jeezled up.  If they took some chamomile tea and spent more time rocking on the porch in the evening listening to the liquid song of the hermit thrush, they might enjoy life more......Life is to be enjoyed, not saddled with.  Do you know that lovely quotation from Fra Giovanni?  He was an old monk from away back who wrote to his patron, 'The gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy.  Take joy.'  That's the first commandment of the Stillwater religion.  Joy is there for the taking."

I feel drawn to Tasha's porch. . . .

Photo credit:  Richard Brown

Do you have a porch on which to sit and listen to the birds sing?  A place where you can collect your thoughts and enJOY all your blessings?

How do you celebrate Midsummer's Eve?


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Take Joy!

May Celebrations

Mary Mason Campbell writes in "The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac," illustrated by Tasha Tudor:  "May Day has been celebrated merrily for many ages, from fertility festivals of the ancient Egyptians, and feasts of the Romans in honor of their goddess Flora, to the Middle Ages when the people of the British Isles danced about Maypoles.  The English decked their villages with flowers and danced in the streets with gay abandon, greatly encouraged by enthusiastic drinking and feasting.  In New England the first settlers, the Pilgrims, did not believe in such pagan festivities, and there was no thought of celebrating May Day until one boisterous Thomas Morton set foot on the shores of Boston Bay.  He and his crew set up a Maypole on May Day 1627, celebrating their arrival with dancing and other raucous revelry.  The Maypole is said to have been a pine tree eighty feet tall wreathed with wild flowers, vines, and ribbons and adorned with poems especially composed for the occasion.  The merriment shocked Governor Bradford and his Puritan followers.  Further celebrations of May Day in New England were abandoned until the nineteenth century when children played at dancing around the Maypole and renewed the old, old custom of filling May Baskets with flowers and candies for their friends."

Tasha Tudor recalls in "A Time to Keep" her family's dancing around the maypole and delivering May Baskets to neighbors. . . .

May was also a time to plant her garden. . . .

A time to finally be out of doors enjoying elevenish parties under the trees. . . .

In Tasha's "Around the Year" she shows us more idyllic scenes from her life and imagination. . . .

I love this time of year because my garden is beginning to blossom.  This year my Lilac bush, which has grown into a tree these past eight years finally has several blooms.  The Dogwood is in full bloom, too. . . .

As are the Azaleas. . . .

May is when my first child was born after waiting ten very long years for him. . . .

Gabriel shares his birthday in May. . . .

In the U.S. we celebrate Mother's Day in May as well.  My mother will have been gone now for 22 Mother's Days this year. . . 

What special occasions do you celebrate in May?

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Take Joy!