Gratefully Tuesday

Gratefully Tuesday

Hello, November!

It seems like just yesterday that you were here, but then I look back at the year and I realize it has been a very full year. A year full of so many good things but with temps slated to be in the 70’s here again today – it hardly seems like it can even be November!

This has certainly been a lovely autumn.

I have much to be grateful about today beginning with the Halloween festivities of last night. It was not a banner year for visitors – we had less than 30 Trick or Treater’s. However, seeing their excited faces was an incredibly pleasant break in the usual evening activities. And, really – I prefer visiting children to the news of late! So, perhaps for the next week we can just replay last night. Sort of the “I am so sick of politics” version of the movie Groundhog Day.

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Several of you kindly commented on the soup from my weekend. I roughly based it on a recipe I found here. Changes I made: I used left over roasted chicken from earlier in the week. I shredded the chicken and added it with the onions as they cooked. I used Trader Joe’s Cuban Black Beans and Cannellini beans (instead of kidney beans). I did not have diced tomatoes or a can of diced chiles. Instead I used a large can of whole tomatoes and crushed them with my hand before I added them and I added a can of Rotel™ tomatoes. Instead of corn, I diced up the last few Anaheim and Cubanelle peppers from our garden. So, I changed it quite a bit! Haha! It was good and will be made again!

Sigla’s sleeve number two is almost done – I just have the ribbing to finish and it will be done! Just in time too, because cooler weather is in the forecast!

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Lastly, I am grateful for all of you who read my blog each day! Thanks to Random.org I have a winner – and that is commenter #8 – who is Carole of Carole Knits! This is especially wonderful because it is thanks to Carole’s invitation last year to join her in NoBloPoMo that reinvigorated my blogging and brought so many new friends to my life! Congratulations Carole – MDK’s Stripes will be on its way to your house!

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The Last Gasp of Summer

The Last Gasp of Summer

It was a fantastic weekend and it was a bit longer than usual since Steve took Friday off.

The weather could not have been more incredible. It was in the 70’s all weekend until late yesterday afternoon when the rain blew in and brought with it much colder temps.

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There were cocktails, good food, long walks, fantastic football, and even a movie! Note – the later items were perfect for knitting and knit I did! One sleeve to go and Sigla will be finished!

All that weekend gave me just what I need to take charge of Monday, rather than feeling like it is taking charge of me!

And, today kicks off Gratitude Week with Michelle GD! Look for gratitude to be woven through all my posts this week.

How was your weekend?

Hello, Friday!

Hello, Friday!

The week is ending on a very good note (especially since it began on Thursday night!)

While I have not seen any butterflies at all in the last week or so (like the beauty above from last year’s visit to Ohio Pyle) I have seen some curious (and brave!) bees in the flower beds in the past couple of days! It seems they sleep on flowers! There is your fun fact for the day!

Mr. or Ms. Bee was still there in the morning when I had Sherman out. I was happy to see they made it safely through the night! I guess I won’t be tearing out these flowers anytime soon – I did not know I was running a Bee Hostel! LOL
Insects aside, my list is looking very good with only the Tomatillo Salsa left to finish, which will be done shortly!

Hopefully today I will find some time to get the body done on my Sigla! I only have about three inches to go and I can begin the sleeves!

Now how about a few (sadly very few this week) Friday Links:

Kelbourne Woolens is doing a very interesting series on swatching.

That is all I have for today. Have a fantastic weekend and see you back here on Monday!

P.S. Are any of you thinking of participating in NaBloPoMo? It is curious that I have heard (nor read) nothing about it at all. But, I am in… are you?

Haunted Questions

Haunted Questions

I can pass an abandoned building anywhere and Haunted Houses by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow plays in my mind.

Is it haunted?

All houses wherein men have lived and died

Are haunted houses. Through the open doors

The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,

With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

Who had lived here? What did they do? Where did they go? Did anyone care about them? Miss them? Think about them?

We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,

Along the passages they come and go,

Impalpable impressions on the air,

A sense of something moving to and fro.

Was it their presence I felt on the breeze that caused gooseflesh to raise on my arms? Did they see me peering in the windows?

There are more guests at table than the hosts

Invited; the illuminated hall

Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,

As silent as the pictures on the wall.

Are there silent celebrations happening that I can neither see or hear?

The stranger at my fireside cannot see

The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;

He but perceives what is; while unto me

All that has been is visible and clear.

What would it have been like when people lived here? Did they feel the presence of those who owned it before them?

We have no title-deeds to house or lands;

Owners and occupants of earlier dates

From graves forgotten stretch their dusty hands,

And hold in mortmain still their old estates.

Why does this house stand empty? Does no one see the potential?

The spirit-world around this world of sense

Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere

Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense

A vital breath of more ethereal air.

Or does the presence of something hang on the air?

Our little lives are kept in equipoise

By opposite attractions and desires;

The struggle of the instinct that enjoys,

And the more noble instinct that aspires.

Are the forces inside out of balance? Omnipresent? Wanting to be elsewhere? Disturbed by my interruptions?

These perturbations, this perpetual jar

Of earthly wants and aspirations high,

Come from the influence of an unseen star

An undiscovered planet in our sky.

Does my presence make them uneasy? Can they sense my increased heartbeat?

And as the moon from some dark gate of cloud

Throws o’er the sea a floating bridge of light,

Across whose trembling planks our fancies crowd

Into the realm of mystery and night,—

Do they long for moonlit skies, filled with twinkling stars? Do they delight in the shadows they create?

So from the world of spirits there descends

A bridge of light, connecting it with this,

O’er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,

Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.

I don’t recall how old I was the first time I read this poem, but I think I might have been in 7th or 8th grade. This poem caused me to think about things that went bump in the night. Walking to the bus stop in the morning in the dark and hearing a strange whistling in the wind was suddenly more than a little scary and being alone in a house after dark made me hyper alert to all the house sounds that suddenly were no longer normal.

Curious how a poem, a vivid imagination, and the mystery of an abandoned building can make Halloween come to life!

As always, Carole and I would love to have you join us on our Thursday writing journey! You can sign up here – and we promise it won’t be scary!

**Featured image courtesy of RWTurenne

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