Contrasts and Thankfulness

 

     Wow! What a blast of siding ripping, shingle flaying wind we just experienced these last three days. It is finally calm today and it feels eerily quiet compared to that howling banshee we heard both day and night. I don't think anyone got any sleep. We lost some siding from the house and our neighbor had a huge piece of metal something fly off his chimney. The temperatures also dropped by twenty degrees. It certainly gave us a sampling of what is to come when winter arrives.
     I was just admiring our little rose bush with its cheery blooms the day before. It is a treat to see such pretty flowers in November. In seasonal contrast, the bittersweet vines that represent fall trail up the trees and fence posts right across the road. It's fun to see bits of summer bloom alongside pieces of fall like this here in Virginia.
     I heard reports of snow in New England on Monday from my sister and daughter. In keeping with my fickle self, I both shake my fist at the blustery wind and cold, yet feel homesick for the gray skies and barren landscape that are November in my mind's northern eye. How I wish I could have the best of both worlds, north and south. I suppose the roses and the bittersweet represent this inner struggle I experience to know where I belong.
     As our children have grown up and expanded our family, the folks around our holiday table now fluctuate from year to year. We never quite know who will be able to travel or who will decide they want to begin their own family's traditions at home. Steve and I are fine to go with the flow. Sometimes there might be four of us around the table and other times there could be twenty-four. This Christmas, for example, we will have no grandchildren here. Instead we will have four dogs (and their owners). Now that's a new one for us!
     Whatever loved ones may be around your table this holiday, whether they be two-footed or four, I wish you a blessed time together, filled with thanksgiving.

When the Bough Breaks...

     When the faraway residents of the family come to visit, it is always a cause for celebration. As soon as Chelsea announced the dates she would visit with Simon and Hugo this fall, we all began to make plans. My part of the planning centered around sleeping arrangements for ten guests and food for seven days. Steve's part was to oversee our annual bonfire that would culminate on the weekend. We were blessed with perfect weather for the entire duration of the week. Temperatures remained in the sixties every day and the nights became chilly enough to feel cozy. The grandchildren (and big children) played, others hiked, and some romped in the fields and bushwhacked trails. The menfolk sampled their fare share of beer, and we all ate a lot.
     Simon wielded the chainsaw for two days and finished cutting down the large tree that fell over the summer. The older portions of the tree, mainly the leafy branches that were already dry, had been piled earlier this summer to fuel the bonfire that we knew would eventually come. The newly cut trunk and larger branches will fuel our wood stove next winter. I've never seen anyone work so long and hard to cut up a tree, yet consider it play as did Simon.
     Claire and Daniel's children all have November birthdays so, we included birthday gifts as part of the weekend celebration. Each child is so unique and it's fun to see their personalities blossom as the years go by. During one quiet moment on Sunday afternoon, I looked out back and saw Steve pushing Jack on the swing. The swing hangs from a tree way out back, up on the hill. While Steve pushed Jack on the swing, Jack yelled out to the hills and fields in order to hear his echo. On and on he swung and on and on he yelled.
     I love being Nonni and I hope for all the grandchildren to have happy memories of coming to Nonni and Pop's as the years go by. We received news that a new grandchild will join the family next summer. Chelsea and Simon are expecting a baby brother or sister for Hugo. Oh boy! (or girl!)
     As our lives cycle with births and deaths, joys and sorrows, I bade another goodbye to my mom at the bonfire when I placed some of her personal belongings on the flames. There were certain items that remained after her passing that I felt too personal to dump in the landfill or to donate to charity. With a heavy heart I carried these to the fire and whispered to her how much I miss her. It's impossible for my heart not to break all over again each time I confront this loss. Surrounded by the children was the best possible way to surge through the sorrow.

Simon works on what remains of the fallen tree.

Hugo is nine months old!

Claire, Chelsea, Henri, and Jack

Tess and Ian

Jack waves from the treehouse.

   

Simon builds the small fire for roasting hot dogs.

Fashioning roasting sticks was part of the fun.

Jared and Audrey

All of our play took place under the beautiful Super Moon

Daniel and Matthew, Claire and Mari

 

Lighting the bonfire

Chelsea and her roasting stick

The guys worked very hard to keep the fire safe and contained

Steve keeping watch with rakes and shovels while Tess enjoys a snack. (potato soup or tirimisu?)   

Steve's brother Jim even happened to join us on his way home from North Carolina to New York!

Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

     Something Steve and I have wanted to do for years but could never seem to find or take the time to do was visit Williamsburg. We finally made it and it was well worth the wait. We barely scratched the surface of all there was to see and I could gush on and on about the architecture, the cobblestones, the bricks, mossy roofs, tidy privets, amazing gardens, the beautiful church, sheds galore, and the amazing history at every turn. We spent ten hours roaming at our leisure. We toured the interior of several buildings including the Capital, the Palace and several small establishments like the blacksmith and apothecary.We must go back again, but in the meantime here are a handful of the hundreds of photos we took.

I had no idea Colonial Williamsburg was so big.

A tiny portion of the main thoroughfare, Duke of Gloucester Street where Steve's favorite spot, the blacksmith's shop is located- on the left in the rear.

We enjoyed roaming the side streets and back alleys.

Every detail was beautiful and every spot used for something, like this little square patch of ivy.

I really liked the Apothecary shop. It smelled interesting.

A beautiful Live Oak on (or near) the Palace Green.

It's all about the details...

First we visited the simple person's garden, which was pretty amazing.

Then we walked to the Palace gardens. Oh my! The left and right sides are flanked by two allees of trees.

Here is the allee on the left.

I chose this perfect place, in the allee, to eat my truffle : )

The rear of the Palace.

Bittersweet espaliered on the wall! I've never seen this done with bittersweet.

We attended an organ concert by candlelight while children and families were trick-or-treating outside. It was fun to be in town after dark with all the Halloween festivities going on. It was also remarkable to sit here in the Bruton Parish Church knowing it was built over 300 years ago and pondering who else in history may have sat here.

The following day we drove along the Colonial Parkway along the Powhatan River and the site of the Jamestown settlement. Another reason we must go back, to see Jamestown.

Hooked Rug Bench Makeover

    

     I found this bench at an estate sale last summer. It's a nice little size for the bedroom and very solid and sturdy. The moment I saw it, I envisioned replacing the upholstered cover with a hooked rug. I really didn't mind the orangey-red color of the bench, but it was hard to work with, so I painted it with Annie Sloan's chalk paint called French Linen, (leftover from our bathroom vanity redo). This neutral color allowed a lot more leeway in whatever colors I decided to use in my rug. I finished hooking the rug a few weeks ago and I finally got around to having Steve help me staple it onto the board backing. I'm pleased with how it turned out. The rug pattern is called "Dianne's Basket" by Holly Hill Designs. I hooked it in #6 cut on linen backing using mainly textured wool plus a couple of hand-dyed pieces for the pinks. I had to extend the background on the sides of the rug to fit the bench seat, which was very simple to do. Just hook more of the black!
     One of the things that continually comes to mind when I hook or look at patterns is the way the background, especially a black background, makes the colorful patterns pop. It reminds me of the Psanky Easter eggs we make. Intricate and colorful designs are dyed onto the egg with the final color being black. Once the process is complete and the beeswax is wiped off the egg, the colorful designs pop out from the black background. Same thing! I love it.
    

Beautiful, Barefoot Sunday

Homemade Halloween

     Hang around the children long enough this month and the talk will always turn to their Halloween costumes. I love dressing up in costume and pretending to be someone else. Doesn't everyone? Three of the grandchildren were visiting this weekend and they are almost always wearing some sort of make believe costume, even if it's only a hat or cape. I love it.
     Steve ran across a song about homemade Halloween costumes on Youtube today. To our delight, a certain husband and two daughters popped up at the 1:05 minute mark. It's a nice, nostalgic song that conjures up memories of some of the costumes we wore as children. Enjoy!

One Drop of New England

     I often extol the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains and they deserve it. This area of Virginia is beautiful in all seasons. But, when it comes to autumn, a season I eagerly await, I can't help but be slightly let down when it comes to foliage color. I was raised in the northeast and for forty years New England's fall foliage was impressed into my brain. Some autumns were more colorful than others, but I distinctly recall a few that were so brilliant and colorful that I will never forget. The Adirondack Mountains, the Vermont towns, and our own New York interstate highways would often be awash in color so bright, it was blazing. Folks celebrated that color with festivals and wreaths! We pressed colorful leaves between wax paper and imitated the color with construction paper leaves on school bulletin boards. Children would construct leaf people and we would pick bouquets of leaves up off the ground, scampering to find one leaf more brilliant in color than the previous. And what young couples haven't walked hand in hand through the fallen leaves, kicking them up as they strolled through a park or neighborhood?
     After pleasing folks with a colorful landscape for two or three weeks, there would come a day in October when all the leaves would drop. Mountains of colorful leaves poured down onto the green grass. Depending on the weather, they sometimes floated gently down over days. Other times, they blew down furiously in the wind. Once in a while they just seemed to dump onto the ground overnight. No matter how they fell, they brought joy to any child, young or old, who chose to rake and pile them up for play. Sometimes we would make piles so high that we needed to stand on a picnic table to jump down into them. We came out smelling musty and earthy, just like the leaves. Pieces of leaves would often find their way into our clothing and fall out onto the bathroom floor when we undressed. In those years when we lived near the apple orchards, the sweet tang of apples would mingle in the cold air with that of the decaying leaves and scented the air with a most wonderful aroma.
     With respect to our Virginia, she has given us some very pretty autumns. She grows a different variety of trees than New England and I cant fault her for that. Her beautiful oaks turn brown, and the black walnut and hickories turn yellow. The eastern white pine and cedar will remain green and the hornbeam and chestnuts also remain rather dull, I think. There are many varieties I am not familiar with, but I do know the sugar maple and I think that is what is missing here for its brilliant colors of reds and oranges. What Fincastle will give us is the smell of fallen leaves on Halloween night, if we choose to walk around town that evening. The dogwoods are a beautiful, dark burgundy color and Ikenberrys smells wonderful with their bins of apples. But, my biggest joy each autumn comes from one of our four maple trees. No matter what type of autumn we have, bright or dull, this one little tree produces the most spectacular color for us. These photos were all taken today and show the countryside around our house. It's beautiful with or without colorful leaves, but as you can see, our maple tree stands out and reminds me, just a little bit, of what a New England autumn looks like.
      Take a peek at "For the Love of a House" to see what the color looks like in New Hampshire this week.

The wind was kicking up and it blew fiercely all night long after this photo was taken. Daylight will reveal how the leaves held on.