window frames

I snapped photos of what I saw through window panes this week.

We try to hike every week.

And in this frigid weather we went to the highest spot in GW Forest and when we summited, the sky was big, the wind was wild and the moon was rising.

 The gate was, um, open and we climbed up the fire tower...

...and the view back into the valley where we live was long and gorgeous.

And a frame of the western view towards WV.

Some game hunters had built a fire in the path and we gratefully warmed on our shivering hike down. The whole day was in the 20's.

Uncovering my cold frames from fallen snow, I verified that all my plants still at least have a pulse.

And I uncovered exquisite ice art on the underside of the panes in the windows keeping them warm (okay, not so warm).

The marvels of creation leave me stammering.
Welcome Winter! 

Grape Harvest

The grape harvest in the eastern coast came three weeks early this year.

 M&I became seasonal workers in a vineyard just over the hill, owned and operated by his kin. For three crazy weeks, we plucked fruit by the bushel (for market) and ton (for the wineries).

 I gained much respect for the hard work of harvesting by hand and bringing in undamaged goods.

 During the harvest, we celebrated the anniversary of one year since we'd started dating.

 We mostly picked Concord's but here are some Niagra's.

 Sometimes we started at sunrise, trying to beat the blazing heat. After a break, we worked until dark.

It was fun to be a farm hand, eat with the workers at lunch, bringing in your boxes and baskets to be weighed.

 These grapes are widely known as some of the best in the area. 

Reaching under the leafery, there was a delightful thud as a clump of grapes, bursting with intoxicating summer, fell into my waiting hand. M might add to this idyllic picture the swarm of tipsy bees that relocate to your personal space with a vengeful souvenir.

 A view of one section of the vineyards.

Grapes were sold in by the farm house. Workers of course were allowed to eat as much as we liked as we picked, as long as our work was still fruitful.

Picking grapes is only one part of the process and we had chances to help in different areas.
Most memorable was seeing what really goes into wine. Yes, sweet juicy grapes, but also yellow jackets, stems, grape leaves, grass...and more!

All in all, an estimated 110 ton came off those vines in three weeks time and I was glad for the chance to be part of it and do something I'd never done before.

Magic

Now you see it

Now you don't

I am gleefully (I confess) enjoying the quiet and spacious kitchen without a fridge. Since the nights have become consistently cold, we've shifted to storing stuff in a cooler on the porch at night and using a deep freezer, home-canned and dry goods (milk) as our food storage. And otherwise we eat what we've made. My months in Cameroon taught me a lot about a kitchen without a fridge and last winter I did the same. Summertime might be a different story.

So far it hasn't stifled our palette or our menu. In fact it is probably is satisfying a special element of my creativity that likes restraints and challenges. Last night, we had a version of Mexi tapas and I only set off the fire alarm once. Today, since we're going away for 4 days, I made lunch out of everything left.

Here's what it became:
a round stack of rice
then crispied cornmeal crumble
then a 5 pronged star of previously baked squash
with pie wedges of left over potatoe/parsnip mash in between the prongs
sprinkled with chopped parsley from last night
Over it all I added some salmon, pre-cooked and from the freezer.

We're both happy to have the big thing off our electric bill too. We've been sleuthing to find out why our bill was ridiculously high last time.

Signs of growth

Fingers in the dirt and planting seeds have been therapeutic ways of home-coming for me. Since mid-September we have been munching freshness and green from the garden by the fingers-full and arm-fulls. 

I thought I'd post some foliage and exciting signs of growth from our neck of the woods, indoors and out.

 See the little bud? My Swiss Ivy is coming back to leaf and life!

I love this new leaf reaching up to cup the sunlight.

Meet my new cold frame. I built it around one row of swiss chard plants and then transplanted the rest of them in. 

Another peek. 

Here's a view underneath another rig-up over my broccoli and cabbages that I hope to baby into the cold weather.

Turnips and greens, crimson chard, beet tops, radishes, cress, romaine leaves, and collards! 

Dill, parsley, & sour grass for salad (I simply harvested these, didn't plant them)

Arm-fulls of turnip tops!

Here is a beautiful bunch that I had the pleasure of plucking from someone else's garden

...but I shall leave that for another post.

musiments

Speaking of playing, M&I have been delighting in the gift of musical instruments.

This is our wedding-gift piano, with a lovely tone and touch. It is like the comfort of an old friend to me.

Here is another wedding gift that plays on our back porch with any breeze. This tickles me to no end!

Music is a language that I think that all humans speak and understand it at some level. So it has been fun to have our guests feel free to pick up one of our instruments to try:  

My father-in-law sat down at the piano bench and played a one-finger tune he hadn't in 56 years; 

my friend stopped by and pulled out a popular ditty she'd memorized by ear as a kid; 

and our living-room carpet is practically flush with blue grass for all the strumming our cousin banjo player has done in this place. 

The guitar, harmonica, recorder, kazoo, seed pods, and jars with beans complete our current fleet of musical instruments, which we hope will only grow over the years.

Food Play

We have fun with meals. Kids are often told not to play with their food, but being married to M, it's hard not to...

Actually I made this breakfast. Lots of orbs to be had in the summer.

This little niece knows good chicken when she smells it, waiting long past when she was hungry and declining other food so she could haul in on these 'huesos' that uncle M grilled on our Kenyan jiko (like a hibachi)

Brunch smoothies with sibs- hey!

Radishes grew crazy big and juicy this fall, beating the early turnips in girth per days of growth.

A mighty-tall stack of pancakes. Good thing this niece and nephew had already been outside playing the morning away.

Just lunch, by M.

Here is how this engineer makes applesauce- by smooshing cooked fruit that no one else wanted through a screen over a tub.

Stirring made fun.

M's dream 16-foot sandwich, on our wedding-eve. It filled about 40 people.

Our riches may not be in silver or gold right now, but we certainly eat well!

Bouquet

I am married to a man who comes back from walks with this.  Fall is a season that both M&I love and we've been long looking forward to spending our first one together. Last year this time we were 'together' but continents apart. So it has been fun to make the most of it.

  

Gathered in hand, the beauty around us is stunning- sassafras leaves, cedar, dried berries, roadside weeds, chicory in morning sun, maples, heavy dew on grass, and on and on.

This Fall, a new concept of the blazing glory of the season occurred to me. It is: that in the course of all the leaves turning, every wavelength of the visible color spectrum is passed in front of our very eyes, as if in slow motion (and yet in a wild blink!). You might say, but what about blue. Ah- but remember, at a certain distance, mountains are suddenly every shade of blue and purple. 

It's been delightful to mull that thought through my mind this season.

Shredder

Here is our shredder...

and a box of old and personal papers to go into it. 

I love having a wood-stove. I love having something to cook on, make tea, thaw things and warm by. Last weekend with night-time temps in the 20's, we were glad for it's capacity. But for normal days, it's oversized for this small house. We can have the livingroom up to 80 degrees in short order- much too hot for me!

We have two friends, both named Dave to thank for helping us with the installation and pipe fitting.

Shindig

M&I have been reliving the fun from the weekend and our 

"We-got-married-party"

We don't have many pictures, but the memory is sweet.

On Saturday, little did this peaceful scene, from our back deck, know what it was in for...

 The first round of friends arrived by noon and got the party started with campfire popcorn. The game was to catch it coming out.

Throughout the afternoon, the house filled with music, pictures, and mint tea, friends and kinfolk, young and old.

And then, the craziness got started... 

 There was homemade jousting in the orchard. All you need is a bike tire, a cardboard tube, some helmets and some goofy people.

M's Mom gave a beautiful cake printed with our picture in edible ink on rice paper.
Here the bride and groom are properly cutting the cake (instead of the cheese, like at the wedding).

Our humble kitchen/living-room was filled to overflowing several times.

And we were thoroughly pounded! Guests brought us pounds of 

popcorn, borax, nuts, beans, flours, fruit, soap, napkins, and even music, stories, and candles!

The night before our wedding, we said we were millionaires.

Now 3.5 months into marriage, we know we're even richer.

Setting

Here is the current view, up into the orchard, from our front deck. We enjoy migrating birdsong and protection from the sound of traffic beyond that patch of woods in view.

This is the view of our dwelling as you approach from the lane. Welcome! The orchard and woods is off to the left. Farmers fields are down below, beyond the Right scope of the picture. 

Since I was 18, I have been a towndweller. Then in my time abroad, excepting London, I landed in many a rural spot. So now we've set up house again in a rural county...and to my amazement, this picture below is almost exactly the scene from our back deck, except...

...it was taken from just over the hedge on our compound in Kenya this spring! That brought home the appreciation I'd gained in my experience in so many homes in the last 2 years: that while many aspects of our lives are un-translate-able, they are also very, very much the same.