Jennifer Michie

Year: 2017 (page 2 of 12)

December 8, 2017 / 0 Comments

It’s Beginning to…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our little cottage. The candles are lit, the decorations are hung, Christmas music is playing and my little lady’s risengrød is almost ready for the Nisse.

Risengrød is Danish for “rice pudding”. Eating rice pudding as part of your Christmas meal and making a bowl as a gift for your Nisse is a Danish tradition. My friend R.’s sister lives in Denmark and around this time of year we would always talk about leaving out our little bowls of risengrød for the Nisse.  I think R. might have been a pixie himself, there was always a twinkle in his eyes.

You want to keep your Nisse happy you see, especially at this time of year, or they’ll play all kinds of little jokes on you. Nisse love to tease! Our Nisse is usually very well behaved, but I know he’s been up to some kind of magic in the cottage lately. I heard laughing the other morning and came down to find that he had been feasting on a bowl of Christmas candy I had set out. A pile of foil wrappers littered the floor and a little trail of chocolate crumbs was leading away from it.

I’ve been very lucky this year because my little lady is making us a big patch of risengrød to put up in the attic for him. I prefer keeping him happy as I don’t want him to get up to too much mischief! ♥

December 6, 2017 / 0 Comments

Happy St. Nicholas Day

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

I know I’ve written about it in this space before, but this was always one of my favourite days at school. We’d slip off one shoe and place it in the hallway and then scramble back to our desks. Our classroom door would close and try as hard as we might to concentrate, we were all straining our ears for the sound of jingle bells.

Eventually you could hear the far off tinkle, twinkle of them and they got closer and closer and closer and then silence. We could hear rustling and a jolly laugh and then the bells would start tinkling, twinkling again and the merry sound would slowly disappear.

Once we got the all clear, we jumped out from behind our desks and into the hallway where all our shoes were lined up. Tucked inside was a fat little orange, a piece of chocolate or a candy cane and a little domed plastic snow globe with either the nativity or a winter scene inside.

It was a day that held magic. I hope today holds magic for you!

{Image of a Ukrainian Christmas Stamp FOUND}

December 1, 2017 / 0 Comments

The First

Not only did we usher in the first day of December today, with a few morning snow flurries, I might add, but the beginning of Advent has also arrived.

I was so excited to see what was behind our little paper window this morning! Mr. Michie carefully pulled it back and our miniature scene today was of a boy pulling a sled over a frozen pond.

I adore paper Advent calendars. They bring me back to my childhood and all the little glitter covered paper calendars my Nana would give us to celebrate the season with. Happiness is…

November 30, 2017 / 0 Comments

Goodbye, Autumn

After the dipping temperatures this week in England, I think we might have truly kissed autumn goodbye. Tomorrow, the beginning of December definitely feels like it is ushering in winter with its very presence.

I came across an article today, while blog reading that seemed to capture the fleeting nature of autumn. The initial fleeting beauty that slowly ebbs away toward the bleakness and bareness of winter. It was produced by filmmaker Jan van IJken who captured a murmuration on film between 2014 and 2015 in the Netherlands.

I’m completely fascinated by murmurations and I hope that I am lucky enough to one day see one in person. I shared another video about them way, way back in 2011. The noise in Jan van IJken’s film is almost deafening in places. It is like the almighty roar of waves crashing onto a beach. Incredible!

{Found via This is Colossal}

November 29, 2017 / 0 Comments

A Woodland Offering

December is almost here. I’m elated to decorate our little cottage for the holidays, but at the same time, I feel that it is all happening so fast. I just want to slow down and enjoy the season we are coming in to. A large majority of stores have had their Christmas decorations out since the first of November. And although this is one of my favourite times of year, I want to savour it and not have it go by in a swirling rainbow blur.

I worked on taking all of our fall decorations down yesterday in preparation for Christmas decorating. I always bring our leftover pumpkins and gourds to the woods. This morning I headed into the woods on my run, which was really more of a swift walk at that point, because my pockets and hands were laden down with mini pumpkins.

I slowly moved off the path, after picking a good spot and nestled a few of them on a moss covered tree stump. I’ll keep my eye on them as I cut through the woods in the morning on my next couple of runs to see who has been feasting on them. Usually they are gobbled up by the muntjacs, squirrels and birds.

After leaving my little offering to the woods, I made my way back on to the main path, but not before a muntjac crossed in front of me a little ways further up. Maybe she was watching me? I hope she headed that way after I cleared out, she would have had quite a feast this morning if she did.

November 21, 2017 / 0 Comments

Countdown

After a busy weekend out and about, I was very happy to have a day to myself yesterday to just be and get odd jobs done. Today, however, I’m all geared up. I’m on countdown! In “T” minus 2 days Thanksgiving will have arrived! We’ve set the menu, I’ve drawn up a plan of action, the groceries have been bought and little by little things are getting checked off of the list.

I can’t wait! I’m even more excited for Friday night when we have leftover turkey sandwiches piled with stuffing and cranberry sauce for dinner. Happiness is…

{Image FOUND // Pinned HERE}

November 17, 2017 / 0 Comments

Magic in the Air

This morning, there was magic in the air. I could feel it. The world was iced in a hoar frost. The sun was rising and it was warm when it fell on my face. The sky was crystal clear and a robin egg blue hue. I saw a bit of a rainbow, a muntjac nibbling acorns in the woods and one of my favourite four-legged buddies was waiting at their gate for me, for my good morning “hello” and kisses.

I couldn’t ask for a better way to start my day then surrounded by the beauty of the world at my feet. And I’m thankful and blessed that I’ve been given the eyes to see it. There is beauty everywhere, sometimes we might have to look a little harder for it, but it is there nonetheless.

November 10, 2017 / 2 Comments

Leaf Snow

It was overcast when I headed out for my run this morning. The clouds were low and the way they wove into one another made me think of snow clouds. As I made my way onto the woodland trails, I started to see glimmers here and there of the sun trying to peek out.

When I came out onto the main path, the sun suddenly burst through the clouds. The wind picked up and forced the tree branches to sway and so many leaves that had been holding on with all their might, started to fall. Some came down quickly, some spun around and around in a dizzying circle and some slowly drifted. It was like leaf snow the way they all floated down and came to rest on the ground around me and it made me smile.

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