Mr. Michie bought me my first munchkin of the season this weekend. It looks so cheery tucked in around my Halloween and Fall decor.
It was a very wet weekend, so we stayed in and bundled up, drank copious amounts of tea and had all our little candles flickering away. I caught up on our mountain of laundry and worked on an art project for school. So my afternoon was spent listening to the Capital Cities album and cutting and pasting and sketching and doodling. And now, I can’t get this song out of my head:
Mr. Michie took me out to dinner on Saturday night, it was a great date! We braved the rain on Sunday to run to the grocery store, my green polka dot wellies kept my feet nice and dry! All in all, it was relaxing and everything a quiet weekend pottering around should be!
Last night we got caught up on the shows we missed during the week. We sat down on the couch, and watched the new Sleepy Hollow show. Two episodes in, we are really loving it!
It was a cold rainy evening, which created the right Sleepy Hollow atmosphere, candles were lit and we feasted on popcorn and hot apple cider. What could be better for a cozy date night in?
The weather forecast originally said that it would be a partly sunny and a little bit of a warmer weekend. That is not the case, Summer might be fighting to throw in a couple more days before Fall takes over for good, but for today, she has not succeeded, the sky is a powder steel grey, the air has a bite to it, the tree branches are swaying to the rhythm of the wind.
Mr. Michie has a lot of work to do this weekend, so he is staying tucked away, busily editing his thesis, I am staying cozy in sweatpants, sweaters, slippers and drinking copious amounts of tea. It is a day for soulful, bluesy, jazz and my music of choice at present is the Home for the Holidays soundtrack.
I love the organ keyboard shelling out those sweet notes. It always makes me think of this great little restaurant in my hometown, it started out in a much smaller venue when it first opened before moving to a bigger place across the street. I liked the new place, but there was something about that older joint, it had character.
On Friday nights they would have a guy come in to play music, he was a bit eccentric for sure. He was normally half lit, he would sit at his keyboard, cigarette in his mouth, eyes half closed and his upper body was bathed in a smoky haze from his cigarette, forming plumes of billowy white vapor around him. You could ask this guy to play just about anything, and he would know the notes.
I could see him playing parts of this soundtrack, bobbing his head and shoulders to the music as his fingers tickled the keys of his keyboard. It’s music for a staying in kinda day, for baking pies, for contemplating, for reading, for stirring the turkey potpie filling, I have simmering away on the stove, a day just for being. So, that is what my Saturday will be, a day just to be.
Mums say “Fall” to me. I got my first mum of the season last weekend and it has just started to bloom.
It has been rainy the past two days here and coming home tonight and seeing that golden orange sunset burst of color from the mum’s blossoms on our front stoop, made me smile.
As it seems is always the way, we have come to the end of our week off and I am now finally starting to wind down and fully relax and tomorrow we go back to work, you just have to have a sense of humor about these things.
It was snowing when I woke up yesterday morning and after getting showered and dressed we walked the long way round to the grocery store. We bundled up and just took our time. It was beautiful and quiet as the snow fell around us. We even got to see a train rumble along below us as we stood on the bridge. I love trains.
We made homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch yesterday and just stayed cozy with blankets, copious amounts of tea and candles lit here and there. We each read and did a little work. I decided on the first tiny stuffed animal I am going to make for a special little person and so I washed my fabric in preparation for that.
It was just a nice mellow day. We ate leftover homemade pizza from dinner on Friday night. I made that wonderful crust again from Annie’s Eats and Mr. Michie made his wonderful pesto again (the one he made for me on Valentine’s) and he smeared that on our crust, with diced tomatoes and cheese, it was delicious. We also watched Star Wars, so Mr. Michie was very happy!
I thought I would share with you a little taste of Christmas in the cottage. Shot with an 8mm app on Mr. Michie’s phone. I was trying to keep the camera slightly jumpy and a little off skew, to mimic old home movie reels from the 50’s and 60’s.
The weekend has come to a close and I am up working on a project for school. The Holiday is on TV and Mr. Michie is softly snoring away upstairs. My Christmas lights are still twinkling at me, casting a warm glow around the cottage and I am surrounded by quiet. I am happy.
I love this time of night, this time when the world seems just yours to hold. My own magic hour, when I seem to think best. I always understood Jo March, from Little Women, when she felt that her head had such clarity at this time of night to write her novels, I have quite often had some of my best stories pour out of me at this time, or my best work flow through me.
This is my calm before the storm of this school week, a chance to get prepared for what this week will bring. So Good Night to you all as I savor my last little bit of my magic hour before I turn off the lights and tiptoe upstairs to bed, for the beginning of the day will come all to soon.
A lot like Christmas at the Michie house! It’s Official! We are slowly turning into a Christmas house. Mr. Michie and I went to the tiny grocery store near our house last night, where we go every year to pick out our wreath.
We chose this one last night and I sat on the couch listening to Christmas music and making the gingham bow to go on it. The ribbon was a great find, I have had squirreled away for the past month.
So, this morning we cleaned down the door, and Mr. Michie hung my wreath up for me! It makes the cottage feel more Christmassy just knowing it is on the door!
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:
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)
