Of things October

This morning was on the dark and grey side, as so many of these days in October have been recently. I was settled on the couch, nursing and cuddling my adorable baby (see exhibit A). I helped myself to some chai and cornbread muffins smeared with homemade apple butter. The day seemed predictable, rain, cold and indoor chores.

Exhibit A

Then.

This happened:

Which drew us out of doors post-haste.

Like being pregnant again, but this time, with a second head

We enjoyed beautiful sights and colours and breathed deeply the crisp air with scents of spices and woodfires on the breeze.

 Constance soon fell asleep, the lull of being walked up and down the street and the warmth of being wrapped close to her mama was an undeniable sleep inducer.

The beautiful day reminded me of just such beautiful, clear, cold days from the year past. And as in years past, at this time, when the world is cooling down and people are bundling up....

 This time when apples and pumpkins are ubiquitous and holidays celebrating such things draw near and people get friendly...and throw parties...

Well, this time of year is also the time of year where certain people.... the insane and masochistic type, like to write...and not just write, but I mean write.  As in writing 50,000 words in one month, kind of write.

Yes.

 It is that time of year again. And it got me thinking....

Exhibit B

I should do it. Again. If you do not know what I am talking about, I will tell you:

Exhibit C

November = National Novel Writing Month. Nanowrimo for short. (See Nanowrimo.com). Which means October is crunch month. "Crunch month" = run around like a madman figuring out what story you want to write and wondering what you'll do with your life for the next couple weeks while you wait for 12:00am 11/1/2012. Well, maybe some people do. But I'm going to wing it this year....

See, I had originally thought I'd skip this year, because I have this great excuse. (See exhibit B and C) but that walk today, and the cool weather and the inspirational smells and sights...well I just can't! I can't bear to let November go by without joining the ranks of insane and attempting to write a novel in a month. It's just too much fun! Even when it's stressful and crazy, because it's awesome too. And so, I'm dedicated. I'm going to go sign into Nanowrimo RIGHT NOW... Done. Check me out if you want, my Nano ID is EkkThe5ifth.

So besides that, there's a lot of other exciting things. Things like beautiful babies and pumpkins....

...and apples...

And apples.

And apples.

And apples....

oh, did I mention apples? John has been picking up all the dropped apples he's been finding on his rounds at work. He drives around a lot and this IS apple season. So, since we've had quite the abundance I got busy and made:

 Apple butter! NOMS.
 Which brings us back to the beginning where I was lounging around snuggling with my little button. And considering indoor chores. Of which I have many still to do.

Sporting mama-made autumnal headgear

the end

Novelling update or, how much I love Nanowrimo. (Also, autumn!)

Allow me to ramble about my novel for a bit, will ya?

One of the things about Nanowrimo is that it gets your story out whether or not it's really ready. Sometimes that's good and sometimes its bad. For me, I think this is good. I tend to get caught up in time lines and how much of past should I put in and how can I incorporate flashbacks, and blah blah. And then I never seem to actually write the derned story. Nanowrimo encourages simply hacking out what you have, what you know and allowing room for improvisation as you go. And so far, I feel it's been working out really well for me.

I have parts of my story that are completely backwards. I changed my mind about a semi-huge aspect about 4 chapters ago and decided to simply go along with the story as though this is the way it's been all along. I simply added a note up near the beginning where the guy asks the girl to marry him that, no he actually doesn't do this at this time and we'll fix that later. (Funny enough, it was one of the huge exciting moments in my story way back then when I needed lots of motivation to keep it going. I liked it so much I used it as the excerpt to show off my novel.) So now, as I write and I decide "You know what, this guy actually has done this, or that and not this. And this portion isn't so great...." but one of the main rules of Nanowrimo is to NEVER delete anything. I am very impulsive at times about my writing. I revise as I go, editing and frequently deleting and simply rewriting. So the parts I have are oh so perfect and the rest is never done because I realize I needed to actually not have that proposal scene there but oh-my-gosh it's so well written how could i ever delete that amazingness???!!!!

Thank goodness for Nanowrimo and the deadline and the enormous goal that prevents me from having the time to go back and do these horrible things to myself. That proposal scene is pretty good, but it's not perfect. And since it's not deleted, or revised in anyway yet, I'll have the time later when I'm not hurriedly tapping out 50,000 words to really mull over it and figure it out and what I should do with it. Can it be recycled? Easily changed to fit the new and improved story version? We'll see!

In the meantime, I've decided to not be afraid to really change it up if I have to. I can always go back later and put together all these puzzle pieces I've written for myself, right? Right! I simply put notes beside the places I know will eventually need to be changed and guess what's also awesome? Those notes are adding to my word count! Is that like cheating or what?

LOVE IT.
But here's what you really wanted to know...
Word count update as of 11/11/11: 19,337.

I hope to get to 20,000 later on today. You know, to really celebrate that whole 111111 thing. 
Anyone doing anything fun for this special date?

Okay, now that I'm done with that love letter to Nanowrimo for helping me get out what I think might be one of my best stories ever, I'll update you on other things that I love.

Autumn! Heart, heart, heart. This is shaping up to be a glorious autumn. The colours have been madly different. I never knew so many shades of brown could look so glorious together! And these crazy lime-greeny yellows! I apologize that my writing has kept me from really taking many pictures but I have a few here for you to gaze at in gazemazement. (a little Strongbad reference fer ya, there.)

Aren't my woods beautiful?

A little snow for your October?

Thursday was a cold rainy day. Our coldest day of the season with no doubt. I felt sad for my husband who had to be out in it working. (He has a driving around and being outside sort of job) When he got home I made him some spicy hot cocoa to warm him up. Our fall has been on the milder side of weather so far. There have been very few days where I actually felt a need to wear a scarf. It made me happy to feel it cooling off. But  as the sun set and it started getting even more cold, something weird happened.

The rain started getting slushy. And then it started getting floaty and on the drier side...

Wait a second! This is SNOW. It's only October! What about autumn! The leaves haven't fallen yet! Some of our leaves are still green!   We want brisk days not frozen days. Heh.
It was magical, though. The first snow always is....

 Actually every time it snows it's magical. Do you ever just stand in it and listen to it hit the ground? And watch it turn the world white and clean?
You should.

The next morning we had a thin layer. Not a lot. I hear some areas got a few inches. We had enough to make scraping the windshield necessary and to turn the grass white. Bits of icy snow clumps clung to leaves causing them to sparkle in the morning sunshine. And then they started melting and falling and caused a bit of ruckus. You didn't want to be standing underneath a tree! And when the sun really got high it sounded like the first thaw, that musical drip-drip-dripping of snow really melting. Lovely.

I hear we're supposed to get a few more inches tonight.

Anyone dreaming of a white Halloween?

Beautiful Autumn

The other day, I heard some women chatting about how they hadn't yet seen "gasp in wonder and awe" colour in the foliage. They spoke of years with trees and landscapes so vivid and fiery that they stopped their cars just to gaze. I was boggled. And a little indignant.

I had seen such things. Have they not been looking? The trees have been positively GLOWING. I've been seeing colours that set my heart bursting with song! Then it occurred to me: Of course they've seen more impressive years than this. They've lived here and seen leaves change for dozens of years, maybe their whole lives. Heck, even I'll admit that last year was better than this year has been so far. But this year has been absolutely gorgeous too!

And then I was glad that it's still new to me and that even when its a "poor" year for the foliage it's still breathtakingly beautiful to my newbie eyes.

But that makes me wonder: will I too, one day, compare "drab" falls to past "impressive" ones and be disappointed? Can't one always look at things new? Can't one appreciate the beauty you see every single day even when it's always the same? And the wonderful thing about seasons is that even the same 'ol-same 'ol scenes continue to change day in and day out. Spring flowers, summer greens, autumn fire and winter whites. They're all amazing in their own way and you know what the best part of it all is?

Even those are different every year.

The flowers don't conform to the same pattern as the previous years. Every snowfall has it's own characteristics and every summer brings a unique variety of breezes and warmth. Autumn too, bursts into it's new version of glorious colour.

  So, maybe it hasn't been our most colourful fall, nor the coolest and crispest; the air isn't quite as brisk and filled with wonderful smells as it has been in past years and it has been a little on the wet side but shouldn't we appreciate these differences just as much?

Pear Walnut Brownies

Hello, neglected blog.

Autumn is here and that means apples, pears, pumpkins and all the wonderful spices along with.
Today was a blustery, crisp sort of day and our apartment was on the cool side. I decided I ought bake in order to heat things up a bit and these wonderful brownies were the result! They're a bit of a cry from my usual brownies-on-budget self what with them using 3 eggs, but they are oh-so-delicious! I hope you enjoy.

Pear Walnut Brownies
2/3 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 dashes allspice
1/3 + 1 tbs cocoa powder
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 pear, chopped small
1/3 c. walnuts, broken into pieces

Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Add oil, sugar and eggs and stir well. Mix in pear and walnuts. Pour into a 9x9 baking dish and place into a 350 preheated oven for 20-30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean and the top of brownies still looks slightly shiny.

I also did a post at Refashion Co-op. Go see!

Three seasons later...

I ought to have named this The Spring Blog. Since I totally missed writing about summer, fall and winter. Now here we are, March 7th, and spring is right around the corner. I must say I am very excited, though we had an amazing winter which I enjoyed entirely. I'll give a brief review of times past and next post will be the start of a new cycle.

We'll start with Summer. I had an AMAZING summer. I found wild raspberries, red and black varieties. I baked some really scrumptious Raspberry Cornmeal muffins with some of my find too. As per tradition, I went to the annual Old Songs Festival with my husband and his family. We volunteered in the kitchen, slept in a tent, went to music workshops and listened to all sorts of wonderful folk, traditional, ethnic and domestic music of the oldish persuasion for a full weekend.
Then, my good friend from Miami came to visit me and we had such lovely times together. I showed her my raspberry patches and we spent hours picking berries and chatting while fending off mosquitoes and maneuvering around thorns. We hiked a mountain (eating loads of raspberries on the way) and strode along lovely New England beaches (finding all sorts of cool shells) and canoed our way around a small lake behind my in-laws property. We explored the beautiful town I live in, got caught in a summer storm and sought shelter at our local library. Quite a magical time all things considered.

Shortly after she went back home, two of my sisters came to visit. They stayed for a good three weeks and we squeezed all kinds of excellent summer activities in. We camped the White Mountains, hiked and swam a bit in them too. (Natural waterslides for the win!) Lots of tea parties, more town exploring and enjoying the warm days and balmy nights. One day we cooled off and did some art at my friend's a/c'd paint-your-own pottery studio. Which reminds me of something that boggled my socks off when I found out about it....LOTS of people who live in the North East do not have central air conditioner. Wow. Really? EVERYONE had it in Florida. But that's because it's down-right needed down there. Up here, there really only were about two weeks where I was really hot. And it was primarily humidity. A fan and a dehumidifier would do wonders to solve that problem. And nights in general are quite cool. I can imagine how wonderful the breeze is if you live on a lake or near the ocean. (similar to a winter breeze in Key West, no doubt).

Fall too, was lovely. The leaves took their time in changing, it seemed. But when they did, how glorious! I took a drive one morning and listened to Handel's Messiah while viewing some extraordinary fall foliage. FIRE! I tell you. Burnished bronze, copper, gold, crimson and scarlet. All the colours of a warm toned rainbow. I wish I had taken more photos of when the leaves really turned. I used up all my camera's batteries on early fall and didn't get around to buying more until long after the leaves had browned and fallen. Autumn was filled primarily with both my husband and I working. Though, we managed to slip up to our mountain trail and pick about a peck of blackberries. And plums on Plum Island (where my in-laws have a house) were an adventure to find and pick. (We may have broken some laws doing that, shhhh). I wish we had had more time to make our bountiful finds into wine. We had LOADS of pears that would have been better put to being wine, instead, all the ones we didn't manage to eat got rather rotten. Thankfully we gave away a lot and did indeed eat a lot before they did. Pumpkins were a wonderful to see, buy, roast and cook and bake with. I made some amazing pumpkin scones, my traditional pumpkin cookies and some pumpkin gnocchi with sage and balsamic vinegar marinated mushrooms. .....so.....delicious....I'm telling you. John also made his first beer this past fall. And his second beer. Both, a regular ale and a ginger ale, turned out quite good.
His chocolate lager, however, that he brewed this past winter was incredible. I loved it. Still am loving it, as it only just got to the point in it's aging where it's drink-worthy. I believe it will still be getting better as time goes by. Another lovely winter memory is the opening up of a bottle of our last spring's Dandelion Wine. It really shined. Dandelions are a wonderful blossom and I truly look forward to their bloom this spring. I'll cover more on this past winter in the next post as time is short for me now, and winter isn't quite over so I can blog about it in present tense with a clear conscience. :)
Cheers!