Winter is taking it’s own sweet time, which is just fine with us. In addition to lovely weather, we are grateful for farm-fresh produce, our health, compelling projects, generous neighbors and the birth of our first grand baby.
SUNDAY AFTERNOON’S WORK
Camille works the veggie drawers once or twice a week. From chaos to order in four easy hours while listening to Roy Dotrice narrate Game of Thrones.
FINISHED GOODS
What’s left in the drawer is a couple of pears, some lemons, a turnip, an apple, butternut squash, eggplant, broccoli and pecans. The finished goods include cole slaw, chopped peppers, pan-fried peppers, brussel sprouts ready for the steamer, ginger tea, frozen tablespoon-sized discs of chopped ginger, washed lettuce and a quart bag of seeded jalapenos.
STILL AND AGAIN
Due to an extra long autumn, the roses are still blooming and the azaleas have launched an extraneous second bloom.
GOODBYE AND HELLO
The volunteer sunflower under the bird feeder nods goodbye to summer as the money tree beside the fish pond embraces autumn with red foliage.
HOME IS WHERE THE PAMPAS GRASS GROWS
Pampas grass juxtaposes the exotic with the mundane, in the same way our little manufactured home harbors a wall of African masks.
R&R
Camille recuperates from vascular surgery in the hammock on a bright 70-degree day. One cannot ask for more cooperation from nature.
EXPECTING
Emily inches towards parenthood with soon-to-be Aunt Molly’s enthusiasm and support.
PRECIOUS
Little Nolan Trout Johnson shortly after his birth just minutes into the day of November 19th, and three days later.
BABY BLANKET
When we found out Emily was expecting, Camille started work on a crocheted cotton afghan in a color called “voila” which is a cross between lavender and periwinkle. 34,900 stitches and 50 hours later, the blanket was complete.
ANOTHER DAM WALK
Camille and neighbor Amy have taken to walking over at the Jordan Lake Dam. These days the park is splendid in autumn colors.
THANK GOODNESS
Amazingly, this giant plate of food went into one stomach on Thanksgiving. This year’s faux meat was Quorn Turk’y, which was absolutely delicious with a perfect texture. We complimented the turk’y with home made (tofurky Italian) sausage stuffing, golden gravy and roasted vegetables. The addition of frozen peas and canned jellied cranberry sauce rounded out our menu and our bellies.
A PRODUCTIVE SATURDAY
Faced with a four-day weekend and perfect weather, we decorated the house for Christmas and planted ourselves a rose garden.
WELCOME!
How inviting our red front door looks with the addition of a wreath and Christmas-colored tinsel garlands. We picked up the wreath and garlands at the recycle center Swap Shop for free, and Reda next door shared three beaded snowflakes that she made herself.
FINALLY
We plugged along on this bear of a jigsaw puzzle from next-door neighbor Fred (he tried to tell us it would be difficult) and finished it before the end of the month.
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THIS MONTH’S QUOTES:
“The myth of the Bad War and the Good War has become very dangerous, insofar as it has conditioned our attitude to war as a whole.” – Geoffrey Wheatcroft, in The Guardian
“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.” – Jimmy Carter, The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” Frederick Douglass
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