It's a happy morning! I got a pomegranate at the grocery, and it snuggles well into my old bowl of cedarwood potpourri in the dining room.
November is the time to pull out the fuzzy socks.
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| See those sweet potatoes hiding back there? And the jars of spiced apple sauce? |
The hosta seed pods are dry and ready to drop into the soil.
Their leaves are yellow and green.
But this fern is still happy, late in the year.
We have many crepe myrtle trees here. They give some of our best autumn color foliage.
And silvery lichen on the pale pink bark ~
More pink ~ the sunrise recently over stripped farm fields.
And from our porch, now wreathed in winter plastic ~
This morning while Adam makes pumpkin scones in the kitchen for our church's Christmas shoebox-packing party tonight, I'm in my "creative corner." He enjoys encouraging my creativity ~ what a blessing that is! My candle is burning, sandalwood incense is wafting, John Rutter's happy Christmas music is lifting my spirits, my sweet niece Lorien's picture is peeking at me through the aloe plant, and I've enjoyed visiting Susan Branch this morning.
Susan's first November blog post is delightful, chock-full of comforting recipes and photos of fall delights. Click on over! Now I'll read her "Hygge for the Holidays" post, an old one.
Susan showed a photo of the recipe above, Scalloped Potatoes with Sausages. Wow! It looks so yummy. She said it's in her Vineyard Seasons cookbook. Guess what?! That's one of the books I own! I looked up the recipe (above), and made a bookmark just for this book. 'Tis the time of year for "hygge" -- comfort, friends, warmth, hot beverages, happiness, love, cool-weather activities.
And now, in smaller print and without photos, I wish to say that we bloggers, although we want to spread beauty and happiness around, do not have lives that are all as tidy and clean as a TV set kitchen :) We have troubles and heartaches like everyone, and our lives are slowly falling apart too, or as Susan Branch said today, we need beauty "to sooth our ravaged souls." Adam just told me that he put a tablespoon of salt into his flour for the scones, instead of baking powder, so he had to start over. We expect rain today, and we'll see if our patchy roof repair actually stops the leaks in our living room ceiling ... because the ceiling has black mold growing on it and Adam wants to repair and replace it, before company comes at Thanksgiving. One of our cars has windshield wipers that don't work, and the other one has an A/C leak that keeps the floor wet and moldy. I keep Lorien's sweet smile around me all day and remember her repeatedly because she died a tragic, sad, early death, and I want her brief life remembered and celebrated. We have lonely, needy people in our church and community. Adam volunteers for the Red Cross and for the Opioid Addiction Help Group because our world is full of tragedy and addiction.
All that to say ~ we bloggers try to keep our online parlors happy and beautiful not because our lives don't have messies too, but precisely because
they do. In the midst of the messies, we stand on our
soap boxes blog posts and proclaim: "Life is still wonderful, and you can choose to grasp hold of the beautiful too, if not today, then tomorrow!" Some of my friends are going through such hard times right now ~ take heart! One thing about life is certain: it will change. Hard times pass. God loves you dearly, through it all.
Blessings, friends! May you find beauty around you today, and may it lift your hearts.
