Year: 2020 (page 2 of 5)

HELLO, November

Hello, November! We’re ready for crisper days; crunchy apples and pumpkin filled pies, cakes and breads. We’re ready for sizzling sausages with caramelised onions and toffee cake, with oodles of whipped cream on Bonfire Night. We’re ready for candlelight filled evenings as the night draws in.

We’re ready for quiet Saturday afternoons, spent reading while a stew simmers on the stove. We’re ready for Vince Guaraldi spinning on the record player while we play scrabble with hot apple cider in hand.

We’re ready for Thanksgiving and gobbling down turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole and cranberry sauce. We’re ready for the happiness that Thanksgiving leftovers bring us while feasting on turkey sandwiches and watching old movies.

We’re ready for all that you bring.

{Image ModCloth // Pinned HERE}

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I hope your evening is filled with more treats than tricks! Ours will be filled with steaming bowls of butternut squash and beef chili (one of our favourites!), topped with sour cream, homemade pickled veggies and cheese. And for dessert, a wickedly delicious chocolate and orange cake with luscious amounts of frosting. It goes without saying that we’ll be watching Hocus Pocus, which will be preceded by It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Is it even Halloween if the marvellous arrangements by Vince Guaraldi aren’t heard while the Peanuts gang go trick-or-treating?

Watch out for witches flying over this most hallowed of full moons! A full moon actually falling on Halloween only happens once every 18 to 19 years. This full moon also happens to be a rare blue moon. It will be the first time that a Halloween full moon will be visible across the entire world since 1944! That feels auspicious!

So here’s to goblins and witches and magic and candy and pumpkins and revelry under the light of the full Hunter’s moon.

I hope that this Halloween finds you all safe and well. šŸŽƒ

{“The Halloween Party” (1974), by Lonzo Anderson, illustration by Adrienne Adams found HERE // Pinned HERE}

HELLO, October

Hello, October! We’re ready for leaves crunching underfoot and crisp mornings where we take our cup of coffee down to the beach and watch the waves roll in.

We’re ready for more hikes, down to the waterfall and along the stream and then up to our favourite point, where a bench sits nestled next to the pasture and overlooks the water, where we will feast on apples and cheese and baguettes in the cool of an autumn day.

We’re ready for bowls of Halloween candy dotted around the house and crispy sausages with mashed potatoes for dinner on rainy evenings. And curling up and watching a favourite Halloween movie.

We’re ready for quiet moments to do nothing but be and listen to an album from start to finish; really listen to it. We’re ready to spend afternoons reading with bowls of popcorn and warm apple cider by our sides, taking breaks to wander over to the kitchen table and put a puzzle piece or two in.

We’re ready for all that you have to offer in this bewitching month.

{Julie London, Halloween pin-up theme. From her gatefold album ā€œCalendar Girlā€, 1956 HERE // Pinned HERE}

The Spell Is Broken

As if the world has been holding its breath, the clocks began again, the spell is broken and another school year comes rushing at us. Iā€™m never ready, but this year in particular, Iā€™m finding it harder.

The house has had a nice rhythm. All the work has gotten done, all the meetings have been had, scrabble has been endlessly played in the backgrounds and afternoon breaks with bowls of yoghurt topped with heaps of fresh summer berries and homemade peanut butter granola have been feasted on with the windows open wide and the breeze blowing the curtains. 

Weā€™ve celebrated holidays, anniversaries and birthdays over this time period. We’ve lingered over our cups of coffee and our daily crossword puzzle in the morning, while music transported us somewhere else. There has been a steadiness in the haze that has been happening all around us. Weā€™ve known for a long time what we wanted and the Covid lockdown has only clarified that even further.Ā 

We enter this new school year with an even deeper dedication of making more of our dreams written on paper come to life. 

{Cinderella by Nadezhda Illarionova // Pinned HERE}

HELLO, September

Hello, September. We’re not quite done with summer yet, but here you are, our feet tumbling toward you. As we move into these late summer days we’re going to savour what is left of this golden time. The light is changing, school is starting and the leaves are beginning to float down to the sidewalk.

Even though we aren’t quite done with summer, we are ready for crispy morning strolls that melt into warm days and then slip back into cool nights. We’re ready for fall picnics in the meadows, feasting on crunchy apples, and weekend walks along the coastal path.

We’re being open to what you bring us this month as we return to school and a new routine. It is going to look very different this year. But we will adapt, as we always do. And we’re going to hold on a little longer to what is left of the laid back pace of summer as we move into the rushing rhythm of autumn and back to school life.

{Late Summer Garden, Lore Pemberton // Pinned HERE}

Changing

It’s laundry day today. The house has been cleaned, the floors mopped. Bread is rising on the counter and the dishes are done. The air was a little cooler this morning. The sun is out, but you can feel the humming of change in the air. The shadows are changing, the length of day is slowly changing and the quality of the light itself is changing. It’s gradually moving away from the golden hue it cast onto every thing in the haze of summer to a more whiteish dazzling light that welcomes in autumn and then winter.

School is just around the corner. The blackberries are beginning to ripen. One season is beginning to slip into the next. Things are changing whether we are ready or not.

{Image: Germany: Black Forest by Ronald Searle, 1964 for Holiday Magazine // Pinned HERE}

HELLO, August!

Hello, August! We’re ready for more early morning swims in the ocean when the world is quiet and belongs just to us. We’re ready for more hiking and picnics in the meadows and music and dancing.

We’re ready for bowls of ripe cherries and feasting on fresh strawberries and blackberries, still warm from the sun. We’re ready for ice cream sandwiches for lunch and eating popcorn and watching old movies on the couch. We’re ready for sunset walks and cheeseburgers with heirloom tomatoes and corn on the cob for dinner.

We’re ready to stay up late playing games of Scrabble and working on jigsaw puzzles. We’re ready to continue to celebrate summer and all that it holds.

{Lilly Pulitzer, on her boat, 1964, by Howell Conant HERE // Pinned HERE}

Goodbye, July!

We were up before 5am this morning and slowly got ready. Mr. Michie made a pot of coffee and heated up two pain au chocolat to go, while I worked on packing our bag with towels. We were on the beach before 7am and found a quiet spot to make camp. We ate our breakfast and watched the waves roll in. We toasted the end of the month and the beginning of the weekend.

After breakfast we went for a swim. The water was delicious! It was a perfect morning.

Life is GOOD!