A warm spot

Ahhh,

The pleasure of a warm spot on a wet, chilly night.

:)

October at home

MRS. MINIVER COMES HOME

IT was lovely, thought Mrs. Miniver, nodding good-bye to the flower-woman and carrying her big sheaf of chrysanthemums down the street with a kind of ceremonious joy, as though it were a cornucopia; it was lovely, this settling down again, this tidying away of the summer into its box...

There was the house, as neat and friendly as ever, facing her as she turned
the corner of the square; ....

Upstairs in the drawing-room there was a small bright fire of logs, yet the sunshine that flooded in through the open windows had real warmth in it. It was perfect: she felt suspended between summer and winter, savouring the best of them both. She unwrapped the chrysanthemums and arranged them in a square glass jar, between herself and the light, so that the sun shone through them. They were the big mop-headed kind, burgundy-coloured, with curled petals; their beauty was noble, architectural; and as for their scent, she thought as she buried her nose in the nearest of them, it was a pure distillation of her mood, a quintessence of all that she found gay and intoxicating and astringent about the weather, the circumstances, her own age and the season of the year. Oh, yes, October certainly suited her best. ...

She rearranged the fire a little, mostly for the pleasure of handling the fluted steel poker, and then sat down by it. Tea was already laid: there were honey sandwiches, brandy-snaps, and small ratafia biscuits; and there would, she knew, be crumpets. Three new library books lay virginally on the fender-stool, their bright paper wrappers unsullied by subscriber's hand. The clock on the mantelpiece chimed, very softly and precisely, five times. A tug hooted from the river. A sudden breeze brought the sharp tang of a bonfire in at the window. ...

And Mrs. Miniver, with a little sigh of contentment, rang for tea.

Excerpt from "Mrs. Miniver Comes Home" (chapter 1) from Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther

E-book found at Project Gutenberg Australia

A fall Saturday lunch

Mmmm...

Homemade "alphabet" soup in a sourdough bread bowl!

(The beef and the bread bowl were both on clearance. :))

O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

Psalm 34:8

Welcoming fall

Summer lingers long in our area of the country. There've been a few chilly spells so far, but generally, it's felt a lot like mild summer weather. Parts of the summer garden are still producing... we've got cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants coming along. But now we're wrapping up the loose ends of summer. I've just recently finished up my summer reading (the last on my list was The Eliot Chronicles trilogy by Elizabeth Goudge) and bedraggled bits of the garden have been pulled up, ploughed under, and replanted with fall seeds.

We have been seeing signs of fall... there are wool blankets at the foot of the beds for the chilly nights we've already had, the turnips are sprouting nicely (through fallen leaves), the evenings darken early, the leaves have been raining down outside, and we've put cozy things in the oven to make the house smell delicious. I splurged $3 :) on a special home scent from Bath & Body Works ("Leaves"), and we've been lighting a jar candle on the stove. My mother bought me some baby pumpkins to decorate with. We've started simmering cinnamon sticks and cloves and leftover orange peels in the little potpourri pot. We've tried some recipes for hot drinks, and I've got a stack of library books on the mantel for fall reading.

And, now, tonight, the temperatures are supposed to drop, and I can feel a quiet chill beginning to settle in. It's my favorite season... and I'm glad that it's here again!

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22