On Sunday, Mr. Michie and I took a walk into the woods. We were beginning to deck the halls in the cottage and still had a few pumpkins left over from the Autumnal season.
So, we loaded them up into a basket and carted them off with us. We photographed the beauty of the woods as we walked and I took one last picture of the pumpkins that were ours this season.
Then, Mr. Michie smashed my large pumpkin up and we tucked the chunks into different recesses near the pond, so that the muntjacs, bunnies, squirrels, birds and other woodland creatures would have something delicious to feast on as the weather has turned truly frosty.
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!
“Eglantine, Eglantine, Oh how you shine!” This little ditty was playing in my head as we carefully hung our Christmas pixie up last night. She was named after Angela Lansbury’s character in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Mr. Brown sings this song to her after they go back to the house he has moved into in London. It is one of my favorite movies and it somehow fits this little gal.
This year we decided to fill her elfin sized pockets and hands with candy. I am going first this year, so when Mr. Michie gets in tonight I am going to reach in her pocket and see what surprise awaits me!
I can’t believe it is December 1st! Where has this year gone? I want to enjoy and savor this month. The time spent together, the time spent with family, it all goes by too quickly and I want to capture it all in my memory.
I have to say, living in England I find it hard at times to not automatically jump straight into Christmas, once Halloween is over, since they of course do not celebrate Thanksgiving. You’ll be happy to know, I do restrain myself, but I still let a few Christmas albums slip in under the wire and I listen to them as I do things about the house. We ate Thanksgiving dinner while the Charlie Brown Christmas album softly played in the background.
A new album that I can’t seem to get enough of, is one Mr. Michie bought me. It is Mindy Gledhill’s Christmas album, entitled “Winter Moon”. It is just a delight to listen to. Her voice beautifully floating out some of my favorite Christmas carols, as well as a new song she wrote the same title as the album. That song, “Winter Moon”, has become a favorite! I find myself humming it a lot lately as I work in the cupboard. It is just so happy, so upbeat, who doesn’t want to have a stolen kiss in their living room, under the winter moon?
It is like getting to listen to wintry music without it being overly Christmassy. But, now that Thanksgiving is over, we will be in full Christmas mode, we will even put a Christmas CD into the alarm clock to wake up to, crazy, I know! But, I wake up so much happier with Dean Martin filling the morning silence with “It’s a Marshmallow World”.
The final song on the album is “Winter Moon” replayed, but sung this time with the help of some friends. She has just released the video for it and I thought I would share it with you. Enjoy!
The other night, Mr. Michie showed me some of the photographs that have been entered in this year’s National Geographic Photography Competition.
I was astounded by what I saw, and I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you.
I love the image of the Geisha. I find these women and the culture surrounding them to be truly mesmerizing. Even today their existence carries on a tradition that supersedes all the technology we have and the fast pace we seem to constantly be moving in; it still holds that they are just as highly respected and still a truly elite group of women who traverse around Kyoto in all their beauty.
What a week this has been! There were many late nights and a big Art Show that was put up in less than 24 hours and will be taken down in less than 24 hours as well.
I am ready for this week to close, I am ready to spend the weekend in Mr. Michie’s arms and get back to basics after such a hectic week. So, here is to date night and sleeping in and staying cozy and walking through the woods and eating dinner by candlelight. Here’s to the weekend, long may it last and let us eek out every drop it has to offer!
These would be our Halloween costumes this year. Mr. Michie has been sick for over a week, so I have been donning my nurse’s cap and staying busy making homemade chicken soup and jell-o as well as tending to my little patient!
There was just too much to post yesterday, picture wise. So, here is the rest of stroll. We did all of this before we were “attacked” by zombies outside of Liberty’s, apparently is was worldwide zombie day. Who knew? And then I managed to find some killer heels to wear to an upcoming wedding, I was very excited by them!
We had so much fun on Saturday, going up to an area of London we don’t usually go to. We wandered through Spitalfields Market on our way to the Truman Brewery and we stumbled upon a great lomography store.
So, now when I get this camera I have had my eye on for awhile, I have a place that I can easily get film from and have them develop it too! Mr. Michie’s big excitement of the day was finding a place called S&M. Now, I know what you are thinking but it was a restaurant that served “Sausage & Mash”, hence the name.
So we had a homey lunch of lovely sausage and mash after shopping at the Fair. We also spied some fantastic street art and some very pretty houses. It was lovely to just spend a whole Saturday with each other without a care in the world, we had no one to answer to but each other!
Today we have both been off kilter. We are fighitng off colds and back to school tiredness and so a meal of true comfort was in order. So, tonight I made our first pot pie of the Fall season. It was delicious and Mr. Michie said it was the best I had ever made! We made a turkey pot pie and I decided this time that I would roast the turkey and the celery and carrots instead of my usual sautéing the vegetables and boiling the meat.
I tell you, it had the most wonderful flavours and the turkey was so moist. When I pulled my roasting pan out of the oven, I went to work on making a gravy and when it was almost ready I dumped the cut up meat and vegetables into it, stirring in some beautiful red onions that I had leftover from breakfast the day before and some frozen peas.
The house smelled so delicious. As it baked we worked on making some mashed potatoes which were a wonderful and homey accompaniment to dinner. They were mashed with my favourite French butter, spring onion and cracked black pepper cream cheese, fresh parsley and goat’s milk. They were sinfully divine.
To top it all off, we did something we don’t normally do, we sat on the couch and watched TV while we ate. This has been a long week and so we vegged out and caught up on NCIS. I can’t think of anything better tonight then turkey pot pie and watching the adorable Mark Harmon on TV! Delicious!
