True

Nothing beats the company of true friends. Lately I've never been more aware of the
importance of true friendship in my life. Of the blessing of simple food, lovingly prepared and shared with friends in a cozy kitchen at a sweetly crowded table.
So very good.

Everything's Better with Bacon

Happy Thanksgiving! This is my favorite holiday. We always spend it at home together and with family and friends. This year the girls are with their mom in Florida so it'll just be Ken and I along with four other dear friends. Today's tasks included making the cranberry sauce and the wild rice stuffing. As always it's total improvisation in my kitchen and after a day of cooking and tasting and cooking and tasting some more I find I'm not the least bit hungry...hmmmm, wonder why.

Cranberry Sauce
1 bag of fresh cranberries
2 oranges peeled and sectioned
1 good handful of candied ginger chopped
Pinch of cloves
Pinch of allspice
Dash of vanilla
1 1/2 cups of sugar
Splash of water

Cook and stir until the berries pop and the liquid becomes thick.

Wild rice stuffing
1 package of wild rice cooked in chicken stock
1 cup chopped toasted pecans
1 1/2 cups cooked pork sausage (sage flavored)
1/2 cup or so of dried cranberries
4 or 5 ribs of celery diced
4 or 5 green onions chopped (white and green parts)
4 big fresh sage leaves chopped
1/2 cups or so of chopped flat leaf parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter

Saute celery and green onions in a few tablespoons of butter while the cranberries are soaking in a little hot tap water. Combine all ingredients and try your level best not to sit there with a big spoon and eat it all. I mean who'll know really if you just eat it now and destroy the evidence before Ken gets home. Really...

Tomorrow I'll be making brussel sprouts with bacon and onions, and corn pudding with smoked cheddar and bacon. Good times. I'll diet later.

Coincidence?

You be the judge...

Ken and I had an appointment this evening to meet some sweet foster kittens who were ready for adoption. We'd been talking and planning for this since our sweet Franklin died in June. We were looking for a boy kitty with either buff or an orange fur, or so we thought...

As I was washing up the breakfast dishes this morning a little something caught my eye on the front porch. Gee for a minute there I thought I saw a little gray fuzzy thing on one of the rocking chairs.

Hmmmmm. I went to another window to get a better look and snap a quick photo and thought to myself, yep that's a kitten all right and it seems to be right at home.

I went outside to get a better look assuming it would run for the hills as soon as it saw me. Well it did run but not away from me, instead it came running straight at me and climbed right up my leg. I swear I heard it meow "Ma-ma"! I gave it a few crunchies, looked to see if it was a boy or a girl (it's a girl) and then left for my morning appointments. I was sure it would be gone when I returned. Think again. I found her all curled up right where I'd left her. When I returned from my afternoon appointments there she was, this time eager for pets, snuggles and crunchies. I think I heard her meow "About time you came home mom".

This afternoon I canceled our appointment to meet the foster kitties.
We've been adopted.

I put her in the big cat kennel and brought her inside
(it's going down to the 20's tonight). Ken and I had a rousing game of stick with her after dinner. She's a champion player!Tomorrow our vet comes to check her out. So far Peter and Lillie don't seem to have a clue she's here. Hope they like her as much as we do. We're already smitten.

Sofa Spud

After years of living with the most uncomfortable furniture on the planet we finally succumbed to the big box furniture store deals and bought ourselves a new couch and recliner. Ahhhhhhhh....feet up.

Now I'm not a big fan of furniture that's wide, soft and lumpy, but if you've been furniture shopping lately you know that's about all you can get for your family room these days. Some how the look of those enormous seat cushions and big fat wide arms make me think that if I sit in furniture like that long enough I'll soon resemble it. No - definitely not for me. Ken and I shopped for about an hour all the while commenting on all the couch potato sofas we saw. You know these. They're the ones with the big center section that folds down to reveal a little table with cup holders and who knows what else. Some were so big and elaborate I was sure there was a little mini frig and a microwave in there too. How convenient - you never have to leave the couch for food and drink any more. We sat, we rocked, we reclined and finally we happened on a set that looked a little less wide and soft but was still really comfy. Why the couch even had a recliner in it too, on one side. Perfect!

Our furniture arrived yesterday safe and sound. The kitties have inspected it and given their approval. Our necks, backs and butts are much happier too. There is this one thing though...as the couch was being loaded off the truck I noticed they had the middle of it tied up for some reason...hmmm, that's odd I thought. I also noticed that BOTH sides of the couch reclined. Okay, this could be good. We don't BOTH have to recline but if we want to, now we can. The moving crew brought it in, set it up and removed the tie and it wasn't until the couch was sitting in our family room that I discovered we'd inadvertently bought ourselves our very own couch potato couch complete with fold down table and built in cup holders. Time to embrace the inner geezer in me. Cue up the latest movies on pay per view. Get me my book. I might be here for a while.

Why You Look on Me???

You're not the boss of me.Guess my sense of humor needs a little tweaking...

I can't get enough of the long early morning and late afternoon shadows. I so wish I knew how to paint.

All the leaves have fallen around here except for the oak.
They're always the last to go and by the looks of this leaf they
aren't going down without a fight. Not by a long shot.(I swear I didn't stage this!)

As I strolled around our property this afternoon it seemed I was always startling some poor little chipmunk out of its afternoon siesta. In addition their fearful little shrieks and cries I was surprised to hear faint bird song off in the distance. It was a bit too far away to identify by sound but it sounded awfully tired, like it too was ready for a long nap.

The sage and Italian parsley look amazing right now! I gave them a pep talk and strong encouragement to stay green until

Thanksgiving (when I intend to use them all up in one fell swoop).

There is one lone rose bud left on the tea rose we planted in honor of my dad.

It has the sweetest scent ever. It also has the weirdest hips I've ever seen. Wonder what the tea tastes like from this variety...

Soon I'll be photographing the burning bush berries
wearing their tiny little snow hats.
The boy scout of the garden has been ready for spring since about July. Never fear. Spring could come anytime. That's its motto.

Musing

We're two for two in the Best-Weather-Ever category. Sunny skies, temps in the 50's. Light breeze.
It should be illegal to be cooped up on such a day. In between errands and appointments I stop
in at Stewart Park to pay my favorite lake a visit. The water is almost as vivid as the sky today. The sun is warm and the air is cool. Perfect weather for a stroll, although I'm really glad I'm wearing a jacket. I've got the most snuggly corduroy jacket ever.
It is like wearing a hug.

It is a good day for musing and lately my feelings run deep.
Perhaps too deep for my own good.

I'm home now and all cozied up in my office looking out the window. I notice that our neighbor across the street from us is raking her leaves onto a big blue tarp. After filling it up she drags it across the street and dumps the fluffy contents into the ditch that borders our front yard. Hmmm...I guess this explains the pile of leaves that keeps mysteriously blowing into our yard from that direction. It makes me wonder why nice folks (including those who claim to be friends) - why they act in ways that aren't quite kosher or kind. Just sayin'.

Clouds

Once the grayness sets in here it settles in like a bad house guest. It eats up all your energy and weighs heavy on the shoulders. So when the sun peaks through unexpectedly it's like a miracle.

I've been humming all afternoon.

Suddenly I realize it's this.

Bows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and Snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Thanks Joni.

Summer Home

Time to change the photo in the header already!
The leaves are all gone, the wind has picked up and there is

frost on the windshield nearly every morning.
There is the sound of shotguns nearby.

Attention all turkey and deer - RUN.FOR.YOUR.LIFE. Now.For.Real.

Onto to more happy things. Time to think about the Thanksgiving menu (speaking of turkeys). Will it be sausage or mushroom stuffing? Corn pudding with bacon or smoked cheese (I vote for both). Madeira in the gravy or white wine. Hmmmm...decisions, decisions. This will keep my mind occupied for a good long while and it's a good thing. Now that the daylight couldn't be saved, the darkness descends early (4:45pm precisely). I'm more than a little sad over this. Hope the seed catalogs start arriving soon...

With the leaves gone it's possible to see those secret summer homes. I have not yet discovered where the hummingbirds made their nest but I've found a few other summer dwellings, now abandoned.

In the scrub pines along the ditch,

up high in the burning bush,

and in the hummingbird vine growing against the garage wall.

All are empty now.

There are some green patches still lurking about,

and there are signs of life to come.I have hope now.