Woke to 43 degrees...bright blue skies and wood-smoke scented air! Autumn has arrived!
Fall, to me, also has a flavour. Fall is the flavour of Bentley's Orange Spice Tea
served in a heavy white gold-rimmed teacup in the massive wood floored dining room of Turkey Run Inn. A waitress offering a velvet lined wooden tea chest filled with an array of the finest. It was Fall and I was...oh...8...10...16...25...32...40...52...take your pick. I've spent most of the Fall(s) of my lifetime in that Inn.
I have the wooden tea chest now thanks to eBay. I also have one of the original heavy gold-rimmed cups, thanks to a long-since retired hostess. This morning I sat at daybreak admiring the amazing sunrise and enjoying the first sip of Fall in my purloined china.
Fall...filled with hot-tea mornings and snuggley sweaters and maybe a smoke sitting in the cool Fall air...wood-smoke breezes and apples. Apples sliced in a bowl and topped with soft warm caramel and pecans. Apples wrapped in pastry and stuffed with cinnamon, sugar and raisins. Apples simmered into cinnamony apple-butter to go with fried biscuits. Apples wiped on the front of your blue jeans and eaten-as is.
And everyone has a new Pumpkin recipe to share. I'll get to mine shortly.
Busy cutting, stripping and drying my herbs now. Sage, basil, oregano, savory, and mints hanging...or shredded and drying. The dried packed in little baled jars for winter's use. Already planning a larger assortment for next year. Adding a Bay laurel for soups.Chamomile...Valerian...Lemon Verbena and Cat Mint to make blended relaxing teas. Already looking at bulbs to plot the resurrection in Spring :)
Still need more Mums.
Can you ever have enough Mums or Pumpkins this time of the year?
Autumn...my FAVOURITE season :)
Busy week, this. Going to take care of October's accounts tomorrow and have a mid-afternoon Chinese brunch with Loretta. We are plotting a Fall Bloomington Adventure soon. Donna (Dane's Mom) will be over on Thursday and I am hosting an Italian Brunch. Sicilian Sausages and Peppers and Onions, Thick chunks of bread drizzled with olive oil and chopped garlic. Fresh basil and oregano. Salad with artichoke hearts. (...somewhere in there will be Tiramisu Gelato, of course...) and she is going to teach me to make her version of a hand-tied quilt...and Friday, Chris and I are off to Avon for the afternoon! But the very best news of all is that Greencastle now has 24/7 Cab Service available...greatly expanding my travel ability! I can literally get anywhere now :)
Still working on "Where the Sky Meets the Sea" my latest acrylic-in-progress.
Requiring some imagination at this point. The vantage point is (or will be) off the bow of a heavily listing wooden sailing vessel. Working on sketches now of wooden bows before I commit one to the canvas...but when it appears it will be just the bow and the bowsprit (the long wooden pole jutting from the bow) and various lines and trappings. It will be a first-person perspective and will appear from the bottom edge of the canvas. Do you see it yet?
Well, that is the plan, anyway.
Using this to grasp the details of an old wooden sailing vessel...and have sketched the afternoon away.
Getting the perspective and especially the "list" (lean) is the hard part.
The week's read:
Set in London 1922...post WWI. Economically strapped, a young woman and her mother take in lodgers which they refer to as The Paying Guests. When the guests have an on-going marital rift the daughter becomes intimately involved with unforeseen and tragic consequences. Engaging. Surprising at times. Well researched and as always (with Water's Novels) a trip into the depths of London during the time period.
Highly Recommended.
Would translate to cinema well!
And speaking of cinema...
If you have the urge and want to see an amazing movie...check out Jeff Bridges performance in The Giver.
Perfection!
And...that Fall Pumpkin Recipe I promised. Easy to make and oh-so-yummy!
Pumpkin French Toast
8 slices of bread...I like to use day old thick cut French bread.
3 whole eggs.
1 cup cooked pumpkin puree.
1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spices.
1/2 cup milk or heavy whipping cream.
Beat ingredients together as you would for regular French Toast (Eggy Bread)
and dip bread slices in pumpkin/spice/egg mixture until coated but not soggy.
Fry in buttered skillet a couple of slices at a time over medium heat...turning once until golden brown.
Top with a dollop of whipped cream or cream cheese icing.....a dusting of cinnamon and spiced pecans.
Enjoy!
