Last night’s sunset. Note how green our grass is! The one plus of all the rain this year is that there were no brown spots and here we are, almost at the end of November, and it’s still green. That being said, it’s turned very cold now, with nighttime temps in the twenties. Though not official yet on the calendar, winter is here.
We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner, though Don miscalculated timing and we ended up eating very late. We had our usual Gardein “turkey” roast with stuffing – it really is fabulous. What else? – some steamed green beans, sweet potatoes, canned cranberry slices (we love them) and cloud biscuits. We were stuffed, so we held off on the apple pie until yesterday.
Last night we had the leftovers, with mashed potatoes and steamed organic carrots. Yum!
I had a nice long talk with my sister yesterday – Z was with his father this week and she was alone on Thanksgiving. This is, of course, the hassle of divorce – having a parental agreement that can be painful, especially at holidays. Christmas will be better and Christmas is much more important to Mere.
I started reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett last night. And I’m still rereading the third book in the Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies. And the Barbra Streisand autobiography, but that’s a bit hit and miss at the moment. I haven’t read enough of it to get really into it, but I will.
I’m looking forward to sparkling Christmas lights and a tree, though we’re going to wait until about December 8th or so to buy one. Last year’s was purchased too early and it was dried out by Christmas. We had to take it down much earlier than we’d prefer. (We like to have it up through New Year’s Day and depending on the tree, even longer.) Personally, these next months will be difficult for me – I have SAD; increasingly so as I get older. This year, I’m going to find a way to have some indoor Christmas lights up into January and February. We already do that with the porch lights, but I think we need to do that indoors as well.
I hope you had a joyous Thanksgiving if you live in the States – quiet or boisterous, whatever your preference.
Stay safe.
Happy Saturday.
Stuffed was the word of the day on Thursday. Us too. We had a lovely Thanksgiving with family. They wouldn’t let me lift a finger. I enjoyed the day off, although, I did miss the leftovers…lol.
Lighting is so important during these next couple of months. I bought two sets of ‘light branches’ at Costco….that give off a tremendous amount of light. They automatically come on at a time I set, or I can manually turn them on whenever I want. They run on batteries. I highly recommend….also available elsewhere. They really light up the area!
I spent yesterday putting out more candles, greenery, and my collection of old world Santa’s. And we finished with the outdoor lights yesterday. The tree will wait til next weekend or so.
It’s cold here too..,and starting tonight, we are supposed to get 1-3 inches of the white stuff. Ugh….too early for me.
Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! ;)
Yes, if you don’t cook, you don’t have leftovers! Darn it!
I’ll look for something like you bought, Donna.
Stay safe.
glad you had a nice meal and a good day. and apple pie later. :)
getting so many menu items to be ready at the same time isn’t as easy as some people make it look! nor is keeping all the hot things hot but not dried out. i do not enjoy cooking day-to-day for myself, but gladly do so for my family and we made it work … about a half-hour later than usual. still, am grateful for leftovers and generally eating simpler meals about 360 days of the year. :)
pretty view you have, especially having green grass and no snow in late november!
my sister made several blank books for me, with covers she created. intended for writing on the go, i am using one as a common-place book to keep random things (like names of wall/furniture paint colors that i like … i may paint that older ethen allen media-cupboard-turned-bookcase in the future) that don’t require a paper file. another bound book is holding the names of books i want to read. for the past few days i’ve been going through screenshots looking for those paint colors and book titles, etc., listing them in their new homes and deleting screenshots as possible. need to … my phone is acting up for being full … i only have about 20,000 photos and 14,000 screenshots on it! :o
trying to knit one more scarf before next wednesday for that sale at my church (to raise money for mission projects). hopefully they will sell and make someone happy, too.
hope you all had a beautiful, easy holiday and the same is ahead for you this weekend. stay safe and well!
kathy
agree about extra lights. pretty any time, necessary in winter. hope they help you.
i don’t have any for my little place, but will do some other Christmas decorating this weekend. :)
kathy
xo
Enjoy your weekend with family, Kathy.
Stay safe!
My Thanksgiving was lovely this year. While we missed my Mom, everyone was thankful that we could be together and enjoy a wonderful meal. My daughter Sara hosted again. I’m doing well but have had my moments and I know they will continue. Big Hugs to you and Don.
Yes, they will continue, but with family nearby to support you, you will get through the worst, Linda.
Stay safe.
That sounds like a lovely Thanksgiving. And that picture of your neighborhood is stunning. You are you fortunate to live there, and I know you know that. Would you be willing to share your garden turkey recipe? No problem if it’s too much of a hassle.
Jenny a Gardein Frozen Plant Based Turk’y Roast . From the picture it looks like a stuffed rolled roast except everything is vegan.
Thank you, Olivia!
It’s not a recipe, Jenny. Gardein is the company that manufacturers it. We use a lot of their food as it is vegan and delicious. You can most likely get it in the freezer section for ‘health food’ or ‘Vegan’ or something like that. It’s really delicious.
Stay safe.
Thank you, Claudia! Even easier!!
I don’t have SAD, but I do have old person’s bad vision. I buy 100 watt equivalent daylight bulbs that I use in most rooms ,but not in all lights. When I turn on those lamps or overhead lights I can actually see much better. My husband likes them a lot. He is older than I am. They might help you in an occasional lamp. To use as many as we do for vision might mess up the coziness of your house. The Christmas lights are a good idea and won’t hurt the coziness.
Don sort of likes the lights dim, so that probably won’t happen!\
Thanks so much, Beverly.
Stay safe.
Maybe you should think about getting some LED strip lights. There are various types. Some have multiple color options. They’re not real bright and they help bring a nice atmosphere or coziness to the home, depending on the color choice. They’re very inexpensive and easy to apply and use very little electricity. Just thought I would mention it. I just watched a You Tuber install these in her daughters bedroom and for the price, they’re quite impressive.
I’m not a fan of LEDs – for my taste, they’re too bright. I like a softer light. But they are improving them, I hear, so maybe in the future. Thanks so much, Ranee.
Stay safe.
Yep, am not a fan of early Christmas decorating, but I did it anyway because the house gets so dark indoors by afternoon these days, so I love the multi-colored mini lights (not LEDs; these are soft!) on the (artificial) tree in the living room around 4pm; very cheery; and my husband already ‘went to town’ on the exterior of the house so we are brightly lit with colorful lights and decorations outside, too. (I don’t know if I have SAD, I think I do, but I generally don’t have the ‘greatest’ period from Halloween to Valentine’s Day when it comes to holidays these days.
So, agreed; whatever works, whatever helps the mood, get to it!)
My brother-in-law’s wife died four days before Thanksgiving; long road (leukemia) for her. So, not even buried yet, and various family members were ready to throw away holiday plans to try to get to him for support (we’re all spread out among many farflung states in the U.S.), but he’s somewhat out in the middle-of-nowhere West and the puddle jumper from Denver isn’t even terrific in GOOD weather; so, he spent Thanksgiving alone for the first time in fifty years, snowed-in. But he got thru it. Life is hard.
(On the other hand, I enjoyed seeing photos from her phone, of my second cousin’s Thanksgiving Day with many family members at her mother-in-law’s, a total of 18 people at the large, festive, dining-room table, all ages from 90 to 9 months; great-grandma and babies and every age in between; a blend of race and cultures and traditions. [Very Kodak moment-y; very Norman Rockwell-ish; happy for them, to all be together on a special day!])
I wanted to find your recipe again for Cloud Biscuits (I tend to misplace these things), so I found (on your blog search line [which is always helpful!]) that you’d posted it a couple of times here on the blog, and the post I went to, Claudia, WAS FROM 2014! (Wow, lots of memories here at MHC for us longtime readers of you. Hurt my heart a little with the photos of Scout, cozy on your sofa with a blankie.) Anyway, you were somewhat introducing us to Hummingbird Cottage and Caroline (I think named indeed for your grandmother of biscuit fame?). Gave me a second little pang; oh, how I’ve enjoyed your photos of this doll house over the many years! (Soon to be ‘end of an era’, but we’ll always have your pictures of Caroline’s beautiful home!!)
Oh who knows? Selling the dollhouse might be an impossibility. We’ll see. I haven’t taken any action yet. It’s still extremely hard for me to see photos of Scout. Any of the dogs, but especially Scout. It’s a physical hurt that never goes away.
Yes, Caroline for my grandmother. It’s also my middle name.
I’m so sorry about the loss of your brother-in-law’s wife and that he had to spend the holiday alone. That makes me tear up.
Stay safe, Vicki.
sorry for the loss of your brother-in-law’s wife. very sad that he was alone on thanksgiving. will be praying for him, you and the rest of your family.
glad you have some colorful decorations and lights to help brighten things up.
kathy
Pleased you had a good thanksgiving, Claudia. Being stuffed is just one of the perks! We had a small gathering of 7, but lots of food. My daughter made almost everything, 5 dishes and a cranberry curd tart with Italian meringue topping. She loves to bake and enjoys creating desserts this time of year.
Sounds like a lovely day, Wendy!
Stay safe.
I am happy you had a nice Thanksgiving. Things change as we get older. I went to a friends house and I really missed cooking Thanksgiving dinner. No leftovers for soup.
I don’t mind the cold but I sure hate the dark and cloudy days in the north. Even in Florida the Christmas lights do brighten things up. I don’t have lights inside any more but I do put lights on the porch where I can see them in the evening.
The days will be getting longer soon.
We still have to get to the shortest day, though.
I don’t like the dark days, either, but today was sunny and beautiful. When we lived in California, Christmas never really seemed like Christmas. After spending most of my life in real wintry weather, Christmas in Southern California remained strange and not quite right for the entire 8 years I lived there.
Stay safe, Kay.
Sounds like a perfect Thanksgiving. Ours was quiet two, just the two boys home with their pets so there were 2 cats and a dog with the cats uniting in their kitty disdain of poor Charlie.
Today I put away the fall things I had around the house but I can’t get into Christmas decorating yet. Thanksgiving was a bit early this year so I’ll wait a week. The way I deal with the long winter nights is with strings of fairy lights around the house. On the mantle, the book shelves, and sometimes I wind them around branches I have arranged in a pail of pinecones. I like to burn candles but also have battery candles in all the rooms. Everything has timers to come on around 5 and go off at 10.
Take care,
Kay
Sounds like a lovely quiet Thanksgiving for you and Don.
I had 15 for dinner and did most of the cooking.
My daughter and daughter-in-law do help with some of it.
The bonus is the leftovers!
I also have SAD and while better lighting can help the real trick for me is to get outside and get some real daylight every day. Exercise helps too. I know it’s hard to spend much time outside in winter but even a drive in the car can help. I go to our local school athletic complex where us senior citizens can use the indoor track to walk. It really makes a difference in my mood to make that short drive, and be able to walk safely.
Take care
Yes, I agree about getting outside, Marilyn.
Stay safe.
I’m with you on the lights — I leave them up, too. They cheer those dark days and darker, earlier evenings. I’m glad your Thanksgiving was a good one. Apart from the meat we had much the same dinner.
Rick’s mom left today and I’m slowly starting to find a little Christmas spirit. Slowly. For whatever reason, a bit of a hard go this year but that will evolve!
Don’t rush it! It will come, Jeanie.
Stay safe.
Sounds like you and Don had a lovely Thanksgiving, Clauda. Lovely you had a nice phone visit with your sister. Won’t be long before your home will be all decorated for Christmas and your girls will be writing letters to Santa. Snow will make the landscape brighter. Hugs, Elaine
No snow so far. A lot of rain last night, but that’s it.
Thanks, Elaine.
Stay safe.