our community Michaelmas celebration

We celebrated Michaelmas today with our little festival community and had a perfectly lovely afternoon. (You can see last year's celebration here.) We were afraid that the rain might ruin our celebration, but fortunately, the skies cleared just as we began so while the kids were wet and muddy, they were not drenched. Our celebration consisted of games promoting courage and strength, making dragon bread, painting and decorating wooden shields, making paper crowns, dancing and games to beautiful music, and of course joining together for a meal, including blackberry thumbprint cookies. (Blackberries are traditionally last served for the season during Michaelmas because according to legend when St. Michael cast Satan out of heaven, he landed in a blackberry bramble.) Looking back at the photos, I think the children enjoyed their Michaelmas festival very much.

With much strength to forge the coming fall and winter, happy Michaelmas!

{this moment} - companionable silence

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

The Apple Cake

Even though we're still a day away from the actual advent of autumn, the cooler, damp weather feels like autumn made her appearance a few days early so I decided that I would follow suit and bring our autumn books out of dormancy and back into the seasonal book basket.

Finn was so thrilled, "ooh, I remember this book. Mama, can we read this one!" I'd love to tell you that the first book he latched onto was The Apple Cake, that would make for a better story, but in actuality we had to read Albuquerque Turkey three times before we could move on to anything else. He did eventually ask to read other books, including The Apple Cake, and we decided that the cool rainy weather might make good apple cake weather.

Elizabeth did pause from her painting long enough to read with us but went back to her own task rather than helping us bake. Finn enthusiastically set about following the instructions to chop the apples into small pieces.

He was also the chief olfactory inspector along the way. "Mmmm...smells like apple cake, doesn't it, mama?"

The entire house smelled like a wonderful autumnal afternoon with the apples and cinnamon wafting through the air.

Just when our stomachs could not take the teasing any longer, the apple cake appeared, dusted with a layer of snow, as Finn burbles.

Welcome autumn, you are clearly as eager to arrive to us as we are to have you!

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny for Yarn Along this week, I am reading (or just finished reading) Ralph S. Mouse to a certain little boy who loves all things vehicle. Ralph's motorcycle loss had Finn on the edge of his seat and proclaiming this "a very sad book". Fortunately, he was pleased with the ending. I've spent more time that I care to admit flipping through Lace and Eyelets trying to find the perfect pattern for this Shivaya Naturals sport weight wool in the color "winter". After knitting 20 rows of 3 different patterns, I think I finally settled on the Diamond Rib pattern. I'll keep you posted on how it's going!

I actually finished the sock from last week, and although I was distracted by other shiny yarn that rolled by, I intend to get the second sock on the needles soon so I don't forget what I did. (the hazards of not following a pattern)

The shiny yarn that rolled by was this beauty from Merciful Hearts Farm in SC which I purchased from the Greenville downtown farmer's market. It's been a while since I've had yarn this original and inspiring. After sitting on it for a few weeks, I managed to find the perfect pattern for showcasing the various hues and softness of the yarn.

Yes, I'm aware that I shared my new autumn hat with you the other day, but I could resist a second showing here during Yarn Along. If I can keep Elizabeth from permanently swiping it, I might just wear it all winter too!


I wanted an equally fun project to use the extra scraps of the yarn so when I found this pattern for felted coasters, I thought they might be a wonderful project for this yarn. I think they're a perfect match. The fact that each coaster will be slightly different from each of the others makes them even more delightful.

A thick little rug for a someone's mug...for a 30 minute knit, these can't be beat!

on the bridge

Here we stand

on the bridge

between summer and autumn.

When the children soak

up the fading rays of the summer

and bask in the delicious breeze

of autumn arriving through the trees.

The spicy scent of warm cider

fills the kitchen

while pink-cheeked children

warm their chilly fingers.

The fire

beginning to light the maples

distracts our attention

from the decay in the garden.

The summer blooms

are fading

except chrysanthemum,

who lingers on the bridge

to view the red and gold

of the impending autumn.

early hint of autumn

Autumn gave us an early glimpse this year in the form of a cloudy, upper-50s weekend which is rather odd for this part of NC during the middle of September. You won't hear any complaints from me though! I'm sure we'll have another warm snap or two before the weather cools down for winter, but this peek of autumn's coming did not pass without us taking full advantage of this opportunity to curl up inside with a warm mug and some knitting.

In the mug at the beginning of the weekend, this pumpkin spice latte with real pumpkin (and no fake orange-y color). Delicious! And the perfect way to start the weekend. I'm sure I'll make this recipe many more times this fall as it is the perfect combination of simple to make and heavenly to drink.

On the autumnal eating front, I had some cream cheese pastry left over from the apple galette of a few days ago, so I thought it might make delicious apple turnovers. I rolled the dough a bit thinner than the apple galette and the half-recipe of dough that usually makes one galette made 4 turnovers. The filling is 3 medium apples sauteed in 2 tbsp of butter for about 10 min then mixed with 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and a sprinkle of nutmeg. I let the filling cool for a few minutes before adding it to the dough, folding the dough and crimping it with a fork. The turnovers were baked at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes until lightly brown.

The knitting was with this beautiful autumnal yarn acquired at the Greenville Farmer's Market the other weekend.

Outside, the trees were clearly getting the message of the cooler weekend weather. I spied a few leaves beginning their autumnal parade of color.

The berries on the back fence continued ripening.

My favorite fall leaf mug made an appearance with some deliciously spicy local chai.

And by the end of the weekend, my 2011 autumn hat was complete. After looking for a slouchy hat pattern to make a cozy autumn hat and showcase this lovely hand-dyed, nubby yarn, I found one that fit the bill.

Ok, Autumn, I'm ready for your full descent! I have my hat, and I'm eager to wear it incessantly!

{this moment} - confusion and delay

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single double photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

apples a-plenty

So we went apple picking a few days ago, harvesting these juicy treats that became a perfect photo op just sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor.

And then I realized that I might need to actually do something other than take photos of the 3+ bushels of apples that followed us home from our apple picking excursion.

So instead of reading or knitting, or any of the other relaxing things I like to fill my time with, and even instead of as much schooling as Finn and I usually accomplish, I spent a few days hanging out with my apple peeler-corer-slicer. (But hey, who says that watching mama work the peeler-corer-slicer, and occasionally stealing a string of peel, is not an education!)

We did manage some breaks to slice an apple in half and make some apple prints.

(It's bittersweet to watch his little hands becoming bigger and more capable. He frequently just needs my direction and not my oversight now.)

The apples that have not been painted have been frozen by the quart (18 and counting!) and made into 2 huge pots of applesauce.

Yesterday, I finally gave up waiting for the weather to cool and fired up the oven anyway to make an apple galette. A favorite recipe that we discovered last autumn, and we'll surely make many more times before the apple stock is depleted. I even promised Elizabeth the last slice for breakfast since this is really a relatively low-sugar dessert. Not that she knows that; she certainly feels like she's getting away with something.

A sign that autumn is waiting in the wings.

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny again this week for Yarn Along, I've not really had much time this week for either knitting or reading, what with 3 bushels of apples to contend with. I have been working on this Christmas present, for someone who shall not be named, in Stroll Sport yarn from Knit Picks. The color is Jack Rabbit Heather which is a lovely textured grey-brown that should be called "weathered deck table" since it truly is the exact color of our outdoor table that I like to take pictures on.

Although I haven't been reading much, I have still been flipping through Soulemama's Rhythm of Family and even trying out her Soule-sa recipe after finding myself with several pounds of heirloom tomatoes that were begging to be made into salsa. If you need a good salsa recipe, look no further. Minus the habanero, this one was delicious (if the fact that the entire vat of salsa disappeared in less than 2 days is any indication), and I will certainly be making it again.