Fall has many flavours and one of them is the warming taste of butternut squash soup. We made it this weekend and as I was slicing up some warm crusty bread, Mr. Michie ladled the soup in our bowls.
With this one, he somehow by magic ended up with a heart on the top that had a polka dot in the middle! That made it taste all the sweeter.
This weekend has been very cool. The leaves are starting to change, the sunlight is moving, evening is drawing in sooner and all of these little things add up to signs that we are welcoming Fall in.
So today we got up early and placed two beautiful fat little butternut squash into a roasting pan and placed them in the oven. As they began to roast to house filled with the smell of squash, its fleshy inside getting softer as its skin began to brown and caramalize in the pan.
As it roasted, we worked together outside. Pruning back a few plants and I had the chance to plant the golden mum Mr. Michie bought me as a surprise as well as the orange ornamental pepper plant by the front door, I just need a pumpkin now, but it is too soon for them to be ready!
Once the squash was finished, we scooped out its orange pulp and began to create a warming soup that is now simmering away on the stove, filling the house with the smells of autumn.
Today we have had a quiet lazy Sunday in and around the house. I have caught up on laundry, read a little and listened to music. While, Mr. Michie has done a little reading himself, worked on writing a paper and a new blog post. What could be better than a quiet day to just be?
We made tomato salad for lunch on grilled bread:
We played in the garden and made sure everything was happy:
We made ice-cream sundaes and watched the afternoon thunderstorm from our couch:
Happy Sunday!
The “Unseen Jobs”, that is what my grandmother called all the little jobs we do as women, that no one else sees, such as cleaning out the kitchen drawers, washing all the utensils, wiping out the drawers and re-organizing everything when you are done.
No one will ever know you did this but you! But, that is what I am doing today, all the little unseen jobs to get our little cottage in order and ready for Summer. I wish I could wiggle my nose like Samantha from “Bewitched” and it would be done in a jiffy, but that isn’t going to happen. I am cleaning, scrubbing, sorting through my closets, the washing machine is whirring away and the air is heady with the scent of lemons.
So back to work for me, soaking up the therapy that cleaning seems to give me along with the sunshine pouring in through the windows and looking forward to finishing, so I can enjoy a slice of the chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing that I made yesterday and start on my little crochet project, because I haven’t managed to do that yet!
Hope you are having a wonderful first day of June wherever you are.
The Princess & The Pea is one of my favourite fairytales. I really have no idea why. I think mostly it was for the fact that I loved seeing the illustrations of all the beautiful assortment of mattresses piled one on top of the other, so high that you needed a ladder to climb to the top. The mattress were always covered in polka dots and roses and stripes and stars and I was always amused by that, as my mattress looked nothing like that. I also thought the idea that she could feel the pea under all those mattress was funny as well, however, as of late, I am beginning to think that feeling one little pea wouldn’t be such a bad thing!
I haven’t been sleeping very well for awhile now. We have a very old mattress and it is causing me to fall apart like an old lady. I can feel more than a “pea”! I can feel springs and boards and lumps and bumps when I sleep. I stripped the bed the other week and in looking at it, it reminded me of a 3D geographical map with a lot of mountains and valleys. Not what you want your little oasis of happiness to look like. I love my bed, so I want to be comfortable in it!
Since Mr. Michie isn’t sleeping so well either, we realized that is was definitely time to make a change and to stop thinking about making one. So, we decided to go mattress shopping. I did my research and we knew what we wanted, we went to the store and were helped by the nicest man named Henry.
He was from Africa and had the most exotic accent, I loved listening to him speak. We told him of our old aches and pains and that we wanted a medium to firm mattress. Well, he took wonderful care of us, we walked out with a new mattress being delivered this Saturday and two new pillows as well! We even got a hug from him when we left! The company ranks their mattresses on a scale of 1 to 5; 5 being the “softest” and 1 being “orthopaedic”. We must really be getting old because the bed that felt the best to us was a number ONE! We just had to laugh!
I will truly feel like a princess on this mattress as I will not notice Mr. Michie roll about, since he is quite a fidget, I can just lay still in perfect blissful sleep! So be gone, peas and springs and feathers and lumpy mattresses, I am ready for sweet dreams!
(Image by Tim Walker)
Our little cottage is getting very cramped at the moment, we seem to be running out of space! We worked so hard cleaning and organizing while we were on 1/2 term, last week and the house looked so clean and cozy. You have to stay on top of things in this little house, or it will attack you!
But, this first week back at school has left it in a sorry state. There are piles of papers to grade, more things I have fished out to bring to the Art Cupboard, just waiting to be taken, projects I am working on…
It looks like my weekend is planned. Saturday morning, I am tying my hair up and getting to work, this little cottage needs to be put back in order!
(Image: Vintage Alice in Wonderland Illustration by A.A. Nash, found on Flickr)
Well, I now know why the men who were doing some work in the cottage before Christmas, decided to take our vacuum bag out of the vacuum cleaner with them when they went: they had BROKEN it!
We came home from work the day they finished and began to start putting the house back in order, only to realize the vacuum wouldn’t work; we then discovered, that they had removed the bag and taken it with them. We have tried to find replacement bags, with no luck and we borrowed a vacuum off and on from a neighbour to get us by. But, my friends, I am embarrassed to tell you this, my house hasn’t seen a vacuum go over its floors in over a month.
I keep a clean house, so this has been driving me nuts! This past weekend we went shopping and after hitting one of the local markets, I finally found my vacuum bags. I woke up yesterday morning, put on my best June Cleaver apron and pearls and decided to get to work! Mr. Michie put the bag in for me and plugged me in, so I could go, go, go.
As soon as we turned it on, there was a poof, a lot of smoke, a lot of dust and a high pitched squealing noise; we couldn’t even see each other through the haze in the kitchen. So, we turned it off and ran to open the front door to get some fresh air in, looked at each other and then just had to laugh, because it was either that or cry! So, that is why they took the bag with them when they finished, they realized that they had broken it and there was no way for us to know until we were able to find replacement bags.
So, I shook out my apron, dusted off my pearls and turned to the internet. Thank goodness for Amazon! A new BAGLESS vacuum cleaner is now on its way to my little cottage and I will have a sparkling home once more!
Tonight as the rain softly falls and the wind whips around the house, I crave to just be still, to sit in silence and just be in a secret nook where I can hide away and get lost in a deliciously good book. There is nothing better than getting lost in a book, what a guilty pleasure that is! Especially if it is enjoyed with a hot cup of cocoa with lots and lots of marshmallows.
Alas, I still have a lot of work to get done this evening and a Christmas gift that I am beginning to work on early for someone special. I want to take some time to read the directions for it and then work on blowing up the pattern, I can’t say any more at the moment because it is a secret, shhhh!
But, as I work away I will dream of hiding out in a secret nook like the one above surrounded by walls and walls of gorgeous books.
(Image from “The Holiday” found on Hooked on Houses)
We live in a very tiny cottage behind a racing green door and as I have an important visitor coming this weekend, I am dreaming of more storage space to put everything up in as I tidy. Who is this important visitor? He is my Dad! I have not seen my parents since Christmas and for me that is a long time.
These are the moments where I truly feel like a pioneer woman, leaving all she knew behind to journey for months on end to reach her destination and her dreams.
But, through that journey she either never had the opportunity to see her family again or the visits were so few and far between, it could have been years before they laid eyes on each other. Thank goodness this pioneer woman has Skype. I can see their beautiful faces everyday and that is better than nothing, I am lucky.
My Dad has been in Europe on business this last week and is stopping on his way home to stay with us, as this is the first time he shall see our Lilliputian cottage, I want everything in tip-top shape! If only I could wiggle my nose as Bewitched’s Samantha and everything I don’t need at the moment could magically disappear!
Alas, that is not to be, so as I lay my head down on my pillow tonight, I shall continue to dream of miles and miles of storage space to contain my treasures…
(Image:Anne Taintor)
“Hoot-Hoot!”, said Mr. Owl, who would like to be hoot-hooting on my kitchen counter filled with oatmeal cookies in his tummy!
I love this 1970’s-ish orange owl cookie jar from Anthropologie. He has a lot of personality. I keep searching for the right cookie jar to put in our kitchen.
Something vintage, something cute or cool or retro looking that brings with it a bit of charm and character and hopefully a story or two to tell about all the hands, big and little, that reached inside for a cookie or three.
(Wise Ol’ Cookie Jar image copyright Anthropologie, embellished by – J. Michie)