Jennifer Michie

Month: November 2011 (page 1 of 2)

November 30, 2011 / 0 Comments

Thankful

Foxy Whipped CreamWell, we are thankful for many things this month. Most notably, getting to share a Thanksgiving feast with the Michie’s. We stuffed ourselves with turkey and cornbread dressing and mashed potatoes and green beans with roasted peppers.

Our contribution to dinner was dessert. Pies are a specialty of mine and I got to work rolling out my dough. I cut stars to go around the edge and GiGi helped me make the pumpkin filling. The house was filled with the scents of cinnamon and pumpkin baking into a lovely custardy pie. The smell filled every nook and cranny of the cottage, it definitely felt like Fall.

GG Whipped Cream

As it was in the oven, we went to work making the whipped cream to serve alongside it. GiGi added in the sugar and vanilla and I did all the whipping. After it began to get fluffy, I dived in for a taste test, my paws and whiskers were covered with luscious cream! It was delicious.

Unfortunately, there are no pictures of my finished pie, topped with lashings of billowy whipped cream, for by the time we ate dessert, we were all to stuffed, to happy and enjoying each other’s company too much to take a picture. Alas, it is a memory only for us to relish. I hope all of you have had a lovely November, Christmas is soon on its way.

November 28, 2011 / 1 Comment

Winter Moon

I have to say, living in England I find it hard at times to not automatically jump straight into Christmas, once Halloween is over, since they of course do not celebrate Thanksgiving. You’ll be happy to know, I do restrain myself, but I still let a few Christmas albums slip in under the wire and I listen to them as I do things about the house. We ate Thanksgiving dinner while the Charlie Brown Christmas album softly played in the background.

A new album that I can’t seem to get enough of, is one Mr. Michie bought me. It is Mindy Gledhill’s Christmas album, entitled “Winter Moon”. It is just a delight to listen to. Her voice beautifully floating out some of my favorite Christmas carols, as well as a new song she wrote the same title as the album. That song, “Winter Moon”, has become a favorite! I find myself humming it a lot lately as I work in the cupboard. It is just so happy, so upbeat, who doesn’t want to have a stolen kiss in their living room, under the winter moon?

It is like getting to listen to wintry music without it being overly Christmassy. But, now that Thanksgiving is over, we will be in full Christmas mode, we will even put a Christmas CD into the alarm clock to wake up to, crazy, I know! But, I wake up so much happier with Dean Martin filling the morning silence with “It’s a Marshmallow World”.

The final song on the album is “Winter Moon” replayed, but sung this time with the help of some friends. She has just released the video for it and I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy!

November 21, 2011 / 0 Comments

Falling Apart

This evening after we came home and ate dinner and did the dishes and a few things around the house, I finally had a minute to crash on the couch and get caught up with my Google Reader.

I was going along, reading everything I had missed today and the few things I missed from yesterday. I started from the top today, so I was reading the latest posts first as opposed to starting at the bottom, which makes Mr. Michie laugh, I normally work backwards if I have a lot to catch up on. When I reached the bottom, the last post left to read was from the very beautiful Alicia Paulson of Posie gets Cozy.

I have been reading Alicia’s blog for as long as I can remember. I recall when she and Andy announced they were planning on adopting a baby and I thought back to the post I read not all that long ago that their dreams were to finally be realized. Yet unborn, they found a baby girl that seemed destined for them.

My heart beat faster as I read that post. My thoughts and prayers have travelled with them on their journey to parenthood. I eagerly devoured her photographs taken from their train ride, the onesies she knitted in the softest colors for this little being. The room they were getting ready, the plans and dreams they had shared with us for her, for them, for their family.

As I read her latest blog entry my heart sunk. For their dreams were not meant to be at this time. I cannot imagine the loss that they must be feeling, the pieces of their heart that must be scattered to the winds. This sweet little girl was only theirs for a short while before they were forced to give her back.

As we move into the week of Thanksgiving, I ask you to send your prayers and good thoughts their way, because this wonderful couple has truly had the rug pulled out from under them and yet she continues to handle and write about this situation with such grace. I pray that they find peace with what has happened and that another opportunity is just out there waiting for them, a bud ready to blossom.

November 19, 2011 / 0 Comments

National Geographic 2011

The other night, Mr. Michie showed me some of the photographs that have been entered in this year’s National Geographic Photography Competition.

I was astounded by what I saw, and I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you.

I love the image of the Geisha. I find these women and the culture surrounding them to be truly mesmerizing. Even today their existence carries on a tradition that supersedes all the technology we have and the fast pace we seem to constantly be moving in; it still holds that they are just as highly respected and still a truly elite group of women who traverse around Kyoto in all their beauty.

To see more of the photos go HERE.

November 18, 2011 / 0 Comments

Gobble! Gobble!

Its almost Turkey Day and these little felt turkeys by Jennifer Murphy are truly sweet.

As always, her designs are whimsical and look like they have walked through a magic vintage door.

(Image by Jennifer Murphy/embellished by J. Michie)

November 12, 2011 / 2 Comments

Silence

This evening, we watched a little bit of the Remembrance Celebration from Albert Hall. It brought my mind back to yesterday morning at school. It was announced to the students that at 11am we would be taking part in a National Minute of Silence.

At exactly 11am the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the minute of reflection. I was in the hallway taking down a display, to put up a new one and I could hear the bellows of a church bell, echoing down the hall and the pull of a canon reverberating around the room of a class I was next to as the teacher showed her students the BBC coverage of the event.

As I stood quietly, I looked into a classroom across from me and watched students sitting motionless, most with their heads bowed. Here it was, this one moment frozen in time, no one moved, the clanging of bells, the shot of a canon, and as suddenly as it began, the stillness ended with the ringing of the school bell. The halls filled with the noise of children, of chairs being moved across the floor, the sound of footsteps filling the once quiet hall. Life came thundering back  to the building, as it should have done.

That is what men have fought for, isn’t it? For life, for freedom. That is what we should all fight for in our own small way everyday, for life and for the freedom to live it. Thank you to all the men and women, past and present,  who make that possible for us, everyday.

(Image found here)

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