Tag: autumn (page 13 of 14)

November 23, 2009 / 0 Comments

Time for Pumpkin Pie

Its time for pumpkin pie! This is my favorite part of Thanksgiving, as much as I love turkey and dressing and sweet potato souffle oozing with marshmallows on one 1/2 and pecans on the other, I live for Thanksgiving dessert!

Especially, pumpkin pie! I am a Libby’s canned pumpkin kinda gal and fortunately for me, I am able to get this at my local grocery store. I make my pumpkin pies the day before Thanksgiving. I love rolling the dough out and picking one of my mini pie cutters to cut out shapes that will decorate the edge of the crust. I usually use the maple leaf or the star shape to encircle the pie in a wreath of autumnal beauty.

I love the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves being folded into the creamy batter and then gently ladling it into my pie shell and finally placing it into the oven. The smell of it slowly baking permeates the house with the first smells of Thanksgiving. I make my whipped cream while it is baking, beating in sugar and vanilla, to taste; in preparation for the Big Day; as the timer goes off and I pull the pie out of the oven to slowly cool, I can only hope it survives the night and greedy hands and taste buds that can’t wait don’t get the better of it before Turkey Day arrives!

(Images from The Retro Press)

Pumpkin Pie Update (11/27/2009):
It was delicious! I had a slice with whipped cream for breakfast this morning!

November 19, 2009 / 0 Comments

Home for the Holidays

Unfortunately, we do not get to go “home” for Thanksgiving, but we celebrate with each other in our house. It doesn’t seem quite the same at times; no shuffling around in your pajamas, no breakfast casserole, no Macy’s Day Parade on TV and no parents in the kitchen laughing and talking while they make stuffing and get ready to roast the bird.

We make our own holiday memories here in England. I still prepare a Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings and pumpkin pie for dessert of course! Some years we have had friends round to join in with the festivities, but, this year, it will be just the two of us, a romantic Thanksgiving.

It wouldn’t be the season if I didn’t get to watch Home for the Holidays. What a movie! My family and I love this movie! There are moments you can relate to, even if you, like me, are close with your family, you can relate it to other family members.

There is a great scene after the parents pick their daughter up from the airport and as they are driving home, with the mom chatting away in the back they pass another car with a fellow “kid”; his mom is leaning over the seat going on and on, and the two “kids” just stare at each other through the car windows, in this perfect moment of understanding. So much is said with that look.

I know this look. My husband and I have been with some people where that look between us gets used a lot. This movie sums up all the craziness of this one day. Days, that some people use not to be thankful for, or to see the blessings in, but as a forum for themselves to just act as nutty as a fruitcake.

So to everyone, who loves going home (I do!) and for those who are ready for Thanksgiving to be over with already and back in their own homes away from their families, this movie is for you!

October 20, 2009 / 0 Comments

Hats & Mittens Weather

It is definitely hats & mittens weather. Yesterday, as I went traipsing through the woods on a morning walk, I could see my breath in front of me. The sky is silvery again, gone is the very blue sky of Autumn and it is bone chillingly cold here. I am going to have to get out my bag of hats and scarves and mittens.

It is one of my favorite rituals, going through all the wonderful colored scarves and mittens I have, some bought, some handmade, all bright and happy to mix and match with any outfit.

This little image from Belle & Boo reminded me of the crispy days of Autumn. When you don’t quite need your winter coat but definitely a hat and possibly a scarf, to keep you warm on a long walk through the woods with your sweetie pie.

If you have not come across Belle & Boo, it is a real gem. The drawings, for me, harken back to a 60’s-ish style of children’s art work. The simplicity, sweetness and whimsical nature of Mandy Sutcliffe’s creations are pieces that work for any age group. Not only are there prints of herartwork, but among other things she also has a stationery line. One of these adorable gift tags tied to your little parcel and it would take on a whole new life. They are just too cute!

Click on the Image below to visit the website:

(Images used copyright Belle & Boo)

October 19, 2009 / 0 Comments

Pumpkin Patch Love

I love the festive look of these Pumpkin Patch cupcakes from Martha Stewart. We went pumpkin hunting this weekend and I came back with another pumpkin to add to my collection. He is small with a cute curl of a stem, and has lots of personality!

I haven’t seen any teeny pumpkins yet this year, I love the little munchkin pumpkins! I thought these cupcakes would be perfect with a glass of cold apple cider to wash away those hungry pumpkin hunting appetites. They also would taste just as yummy if you cheated and used a gingerbread cake recipe instead of a pumpkin one, you decide.

Happy Hunting!

Get the Recipe

(Image used copyright Martha Stewart Living)

October 15, 2009 / 0 Comments

Pumpkin Carving

I have been so involved the last few days with all of my Christmas Fair projects I have almost forgotten it was pumpkin weather. Walking out into a crisp autumn day early this morning, to post a letter, I did remember!

It was the kind of English Autumn day where the sky was silver and the brilliant color palette of the leaves stood sharply against the silvery mist. As fallen leaves squeaked under my feet I started thinking about what I would carve on my pumpkin this year.

I love the “lantern” pumpkins that Country Living has in their latest issue. That would be a great idea for any occasion. I can just imagine having a barn party with “lantern” pumpkins guiding you down the hay bale path to a fun affair, like the Halloween party held in the barn at the end of Summer Magic, I love that movie!

They also showed how to turn mini pumpkins into votive holders. I have done that many times with pumpkins and apples, it is very effective and sets such a sweet tone to your table with leaves and ivy mixed in amongst them. It can also be a less expensive alternative to flowers if you are doing a dinner party on a budget. The votives work as both candle holder and decoration, with some foliage and twigs cut from your backyard or the woods and woven along the table you have an interesting display for not a lot of money.

I did a lot of printmaking in College, so, I loved their “Cinderella” Pumpkin Flower too. The carvings with the wood tools are so beautifully folksy. Or, maybe it is just that this orange pumpkin is contrasted against a pink background and I love PINK!

What are you carving on your pumpkins? Click here to go to the Country Living website for templates to create the pumpkin “lanterns”.

(All images used copyright Country Living)

October 9, 2009 / 0 Comments

Happiness Is….

After a week of dealing with boiler problems, gas leaks, and workman, happiness is: a gingerbread latte, curling up on the couch with the new Martha Stewart Magazine October issue, that my adorable husband surprised me with last night for having to put up with a crazy house all week and listening to the Fleet Foxes. I tell you, it doesn’t take much to make me happy, just the simple things.

If the whimsical cover doesn’t make you want to smile with all the “mushroom” gourds, I don’t know what will! I love her Halloween candy bag idea with the Chinese “jack-‘o-” lanterns, too cute!

(All Images copyright Martha Stewart Living)

October 5, 2009 / 0 Comments

Playing in the Garden

Yesterday was breezy and sunny and the perfect day for me to change out some of the flowers in my garden. Our “yard” is only a small space in front of the cottage, so I do all my gardening in pots. I like to experiment a lot and mix things together, everything is very higgledy-piggledy. I buy what I like and plant it, that simple.

Because my ivy has taken over in some of my pots my solution was to plant the plastic containers that flowers come in, into my flower pots. Thus, making switching over plants easier and providing me with a little more insulation than normal. Last year I had a geranium that lived through the winter in my garden and I am convinced it was because of his cozy double insulation. It was an idea that came to me while visiting Versailles a few years ago at Christmas. In Marie Antoinette’s garden they had planted clay pots into the soil, leaving the rim just visible and had a mixture of primroses and ivy and other plants blooming away in the freezing weather.

To my delight I discovered the first olive on our potted tree. We have had him for 3 years now and every year we hope… but in planting pansies yesterday I peered through the branches and saw a little green olive no bigger than a pea beginning to form. Happiness.

The little grocery store in town always has a sweet collection of flowers in the store and yesterday I stocked up on pansies and miniature capsicum ( a fancy way for saying peppers) plants. The purple against the red looks very rich. They are the perfect plants and colors to move us from Fall into Winter. I find gardening therapeutic, making everything pretty, cleaning up the old to freshen up with the new. Gandhi said, “To forget how to dig in the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.”

Little, as it may be, I gain so much from my “garden”, I would dearly miss not being able to play in the dirt on Saturday mornings and the smile that coming home brings to my face when I see such cheery colors canvased against our cottage.

(Image above by Mary Engelbreit)

October 3, 2009 / 0 Comments

Chilly Willy!

Brrrr! Today the weather has changed. It is blustery, cloudy and very cold. We were out running errands and upon coming back in the cottage, we knew it was chilly, because the radiators had come on by themselves and were humming away making the house toasty!

Today it feels like we might be skipping Autumn and going right into Winter! It is definitely pumpkin weather now. The perfect weather to get a hot chocolate on-the-go and take a nice crispy walk through the woods. I will have to get out my wellies soon. I will finally have a chance to use my gorgeous Cath Kidston polka dot green wellies I got for my Birthday. I can’t wait for my first puddle of the season to go stomping through!

This is lit candles, wrapping up in cozy quilts and drinking hot chocolate weather.

(Image from Good Housekeeping, Jessie Wilcox Smith)

September 30, 2009 / 0 Comments

September Days

September days are coming to a close and fall will definitely be more “officially” on its way. Pumpkin season is upon us and soon it will be Halloween!

I had the windows opened yesterday and when I went to close them in the evening I could smell the first outdoor scent of a fire. It hung in the crisp air and held all the promise of Autumn. I love that smell.

When I was little, I can remember going to visit my grandparents (I was very blessed as I lived near both sets and got to see them often), on the way, there is a dip in the road and you are in a miniature valley. On the hill above stood an old farmhouse, the air would be chilly but still warm in the sun and on Sundays, when you drove past, the smell of burning leaves intertwined with the scent of a ham baking for their dinner, hung in the afternoon air. I love that smell. The air in your nostrils was just permeated with the sweet aroma of ham against the rough almost throat burning taste of leaves in the air and it was intoxicating.

It made me think of a John Updike poem I like:

“The breezes taste
Of apple peel.
The air is full
Of smells to feel-
Ripe fruit, old footballs,
Burning brush,
New books, erasers,
Chalk, and such.
The bee, his hive,
Well-honeyed hum,
And Mother cuts
Chrysanthemums.
Like plates washed clean
With suds, the days
Are polished with
A morning haze.”

John Updike – September

Goodbye September.

(Fall Wreath Image from Martha Stewart)

September 25, 2009 / 0 Comments

Arise & Shine

I woke up this morning to sunlight beaming through the space between the window frame and the shade. I drew the curtain to the side and peeked out to see the sun lighting up the trees across the street, like they were on fire. The leaves are just turning that pumpkiny orange, but green is still peeking through.

The dew on the grass just glistened like diamonds in this morning’s sun. You can tell that the sun has changed, it is moving into “Winter Sun” mode. The quality of the color of light is becoming more white, more lemony.

I heard geese for the first time this season yesterday evening. Their honking announced their arrival long before I could see them. They flew over the cottage in their “V” formation heading to the pond on the common. The ducks will have to make room for them now.