Tag: autumn (page 12 of 14)
We are just a little over a week away from Thanksgiving. Not a holiday here in England, but we still celebrate it in our little cottage. There is something to this time of year, as we approach Christmas, there is just so much more hustle and bustle and everything takes on a more frantic pace. There also seems to be something in the air lately, everyone seems to just be fed up!
Maybe, it is because evening crawls in sooner and with less hours of daylight we feel pressured to complete more tasks than usual. Maybe, it is simply the pressure the media puts on us, there is not one store I have entered lately that is not stock piling their Christmas displays or has already decorated to the nines. It seems that as we approach Thanksgiving there is more pressure than ever.
Thanksgiving, can be a stressful time for many, you are possibly dealing with family that you would prefer not to see, you are anxious that your turkey will turn it out just so; the new bride cooking for everyone for the very first time. All this pressure, seen and unseen, seems to mount for everyone and comes to a head.
I think, of all the Christmas gifts, I have to buy and what seems like no time to do it in. I think of all the things I have to do at home and only the weekend to complete everything. I feel the pressure, that Thanksgiving seems to be the “hurdle” we have to get through on our way to Christmas, and once Christmas comes we can all sit back and take a breath.
I refuse to look at holidays like that. I want to enjoy them for all that they are, I want to soak up every drop of time I spend with my family. I want to simply take a breath and be open to just being, not be pressured by society to have everything just so and by a certain date, I am willing to just take it as it comes and drink in the moments as they present themselves. Because, I believe that I am where I’m supposed to be right now and I will come to it with not only an open heart but a grateful one!
(Image by Craftily-Ever-After)
Orange you glad that as it gets darker sooner outside, it gets cozier sooner inside? I am! My candles are lit as soon as I get home from work and my cozy lamps make the rooms feel cheerier in this Fall season. We are not long away from twinkle lights and late nights up talking over a cup of hot chocolate for me and a cup of hot tea for Mr. Michie.
When the seasons turn to evening coming quicker and the air gets frosty, I love to have breakfast for dinner. We do it so many ways; we will have Southern breakfast with biscuits and grits, or maybe French style, a Croque-Monsieur with a fried egg on top and a dressed salad, or a fluffy cheesy omelet with toast or simply a nice stack of pancakes, dripping with syrup.
After receiving my last “Willard” from the lovely Susan Branch, I went to check out her new homepage and in reading, discovered the following recipe, I think it will be going into our “breakfast for dinner” stash of ideas. I can’t wait to try it!
(Image copyright Susan Branch click on the image to go to a larger version)
Doesn’t this picture just make you want to have a pumpkin party? It certainly makes me want to have one! I can see the picnic table now, covered with newspapers and pumpkins all sat at the ready to have bewitching or bemusing faces carved into their rich orange ribbed flesh.
As your guest carved away you could serve popcorn balls, apple slices with oozey goozey caramel to dip or maybe fresh baked doughnuts rolled in cinnamon and sugar and hot apple cider.
Candles lit as night falls in, good music playing while everyone carves away and just enjoys each other’s company and a lovely crispy fall evening for it to take place in… I’m ready for a pumpkin party, how about you?
(Image Country Living)
The weather has turned and it feels deliciously like Autumn outside now! We have woken up to a grey morning, but the pinkest of pink skies is beginning to form over the rooftops and I think we might get a little sparkle of sun today.
I don’t mind what weather we have today, because I spotted my first pumpkins in town last week and I am planning on going pumpkin hunting! I can’t wait to see what I can find, which little pumpkin or two will jump into my hands and come home with me, along with a couple of flats of pansies.
My tiny grocery store in town had the most beautiful blackest of black velvety pansies and I want to grab some and mix them with orange pansies to make up a little Halloween planter outside. I am also crossing my fingers that they still have the yellow and white pansies as well, that mixed with orange will be candy corn colors bringing happiness to my garden!
Pumpkins are just such beautiful things to me. They seem to hold the essence of Autumn, in their bright orange blush that meld into hues of yellows, sometimes a touch of red. So today I am putting on my green polka dot wellies, grabbing one of my wicker shopping baskets and going pumpkin hunting, to bring a taste of Autumn inside…
(Image Marththa Stewart)
Today, as September comes to a close the last little taste of Summer is clinging to it. Even though the sun shone bright this morning, through the mist on the common, it was still so cold. Our breath hung in little icy moisture droplets above us as we waited for our cherry red bus to come.
I love Summer and all it holds, but I love this time, when seasons change from one into the other and as the curtains draw on the final little bit of Summer and we kiss it goodbye, I welcome, with arms open-wide, all the best that Fall has to offer us. And one such thing is a bounty of gorgeous apples. I grew up on a farm and one of our staple crops were apples. There was nothing better than when my Dad, came home with the first of the year’s apple cider in frosty jugs for us to gobble down.
Apples in season, meant ever-ready bushels of sweetness awaiting us. Thin sliced apples with crackers and hoop cheese, fresh frosty cider, my Dad’s applesauce for breakfast and my Mom’s apple butter spread over hot biscuits. Fall holds a sweetness to it all of its own, a beauty of color and taste.
As we truly kiss the last of Summer goodbye and welcome in Fall, I found a recipe that I thought I would share with you, I have had cookies similar to this growing up and this was just something to delicious not to share!
Iced Apple Cookies
- 2 cup(s) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon(s) baking soda
- 1 teaspoon(s) cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon(s) salt
- 1/4 teaspoon(s) cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon(s) nutmeg
- 1 1/3 cup(s) (packed) light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup(s) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup(s) pecans, chopped
- 1 cup(s) raisins
- 1 cup(s) chopped Red Delicious apple
- 1/2 cup(s) apple cider
- 2 tablespoon(s) apple cider
- 3 cup(s) confectioners’ sugar
Directions
- Make the batter: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Cream the sugar and 3/4 cup butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Stir in the pecans, raisins, apples, and 1/4 cup apple cider.
- Bake the cookies: Drop by heaping tablespoon, 2 inches apart, onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Flatten each mound slightly and bake 18 to 22 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
- In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, remaining cider, and butter until smooth. Drizzle about 1 tablespoon of icing over each cookie. Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
(Recipe & Image copyright Country Living)
We take the bus into school most mornings and pretty much every evening, unless we miss it and then we walk home breathing in all the goodness of fall (tonight I smelt my first fire of the season, the air was crispy and the woody mossy smell of logs crackling, was dancing through the air as we waited at our stop).
As we stand at our stop in the morning, our breath clinging in puffs before us, it is quiet, tranquil. Everyone around us still seems to be asleep just running on auto-pilot. The bus driver turns up, and as we are stepping on board he has our tickets printed already a few cheery “Good Mornings” and we take our seats.
You see the same people, a little nod and smile to some, others don’t care to be bothered. The bus is quiet, there is no talking, everyone appears to be mentally preparing themselves for the day ahead.
This, however, is not the case on the afternoon bus. Our bus driver is not a happy camper by any means, I greet her with a friendly “Hello!” and get either grunts or no acknowledgement in reply. She usually has a terse word with someone over nothing and she drives like a maniac.
It is like being on a rollercoaster ride, today my stomach was doing flips by the time we got home, from all the twisting and turning and short stopping and almost hitting people, animals, cars. I just hold my breath.
We have been back at school for two weeks now and she has not changed, her attitude seems to be stuck to her like glue, but I refuse to bend! I will continue to be as cheery as always and continue to tell her “Hello!” whether she likes it or not!
As Anne of Green Gables said, “I refuse to be poisoned by your bitterness!” and I think that can also go for being jaded. I refuse to be jaded by someone because they have a sour disposition about the world. I have my own thoughts, beliefs, dreams and I refuse to let them be destroyed by someone who has no imagination. Because to have no imagination must be the most unhappiest of existences I could dream of!
Whew! Ok, hold on…I am stepping down now and putting my soapbox away…
Last night we walked home from work and even though I ended up with a blister the size of Texas, I loved our walk.
The sun was just beginning to set, the air was so crisp and clean and as we passed the park, a gorgeous crab-apple tree stood before us.
Its boughs laden with little yellow and red apples. Some had already fallen from their branch and they stood out so cheerily from the dark green of the dewed grass, others had been munched on by woodland creatures. They were little orbs of swirled autumnal colors laying at our feet.
And they made me smile.
The weather is changing now, as if Mother Nature knows everyone has gone back to school. Summer is slowly but surely dipping into Fall. We went on a walk over the weekend and the crunch, crunch, crunch of leaves under our feet made a happy sound before it melted into the sludge of wet ones buried underneath on the wooded path.
The evenings are getting darker sooner, the mornings are taking longer to light and there is a cozyness in that, we are moving into hot chocolate weather! I miss not being home this time of year. I grew up near the prettiest mountains on the face of the earth and I got to watch them evolve with the seasons.
This is the time for hay bales and pumpkins, Indian corn hung on your door in fat bunches, apples dipped in warm ooey gooey melty caramel and harvest moons. The leaves are beginning to crunch under our feet, I feel that it will soon be Fall.
(Image by Norman Rockwell, saying from “simple country pleasures”, Country Living)