thankful

Today I'm thankful for dear friends, letters in the mail, the light through the leaves, the smoky taste of gunpowder green tea in a delicate tea cup, the first chapter of a good book . . .

. . . and the list could go on and on.

I'm currently reading a wonderful book that has my imagination skipping along. I read the first two pages and I knew that I was in love, so I guess I have my weekend pretty much planned out.

1. Brew a pot of tea.

2. Snuggle into my favorite place on the sofa that looks out into the turning leaves with book.

3. Refill teacup as needed.

4. Get up for a walk around the neighborhood, then return to favorite spot to read another chapter and perhaps knit a few rows.

5. Pop a leg of lamb in the oven for dinner, so the whole house smells delicious all afternoon.

The mittens I'm working on are an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern - her mitered mittens - from "The Knitter's Almanac." The yarns I'm using are a combination of store bought and home grown. You can find the dark brown yarn here.

early autumn

I went up to the farm this past weekend and took a long walk with the dog in the quiet woods. The leaves are starting to turn. Flashes of color kept making me stop for closer inspection and admiration.

There's a few new colorways of yarn coming out of my mom's dye pots. I like the one with the yellows and pale pinks. It reminds me of walking through the dappled light of an autumn birch grove.

Happy early autumn.

glow

A perfect September night - and it's a Saturday - I couldn't ask for more. Garrett has a weekend of training away from home, so I have the house to myself. I've tidied up (for the most part) and set the kettle to brew and pulled on my favorite wool socks. There's homemade soup in the fridge - chicken and wild rice. The chicken is from my parent's farm and I added fresh ginger and jalapeno to the broth. The old standby recipe to bring me back to center - health, hearth and home.

Hope you're caring for yourself this weekend, and kicking up some leaves if they've fallen at your door.

XOXO - Jill

turning to autumn

I meet my sister for lunch on Friday and had a lovely afternoon of window-shopping and walking around a part of White Bear Lake that has a collection of welcoming storefronts and public space that just makes you want to linger and drink coffee out on the sidewalk and people-watch. We ate lunch outside under a red umbrella and sat and talked over frothy hot drinks for over an hour.

The season is starting to shift here. All of the shops had their windows decorated for fall. Bats and pumpkins and cobwebs. Time to decorate for Halloween!

I caught the tail end of a farmers market that day and snapped a bunch of photos. I just love to see the produce set out in baskets and bowls. I got out my paints this weekend - just playing around.

Hope you're enjoying the shifting seasons. I'm looking forward to a colorful autumn.

hope

I don't want the sunflowers to go away. I planted several varieties in the garden and I can't decide which is my favorite, or if I like to see them squashed together in a vase so that I can let my eyes travel over them and compare and contrast. I like the giant ones with the dark centers and the golden fuzzy ones with petals all over their faces - not to mention the maroon and rosy ones that have tiny star-like blossoms around their centers.

They are the color of hope and they are all over my house this week.

The black krim tomatoes are starting to ripen in the garden, I thought they were supposed to come in first, but I guess I'll take them whenever I can get them. I season of soup is upon us and I couldn't resist cooking up a batch of my favorite squash and vegetables soup last night. Turmeric, cumin and cilantro make this an aromatic treat.

I'm also trying to wrap up a project that's been in the craft basket all summer.

sometimes a mess

 

 

My studio/office - it's nice to know that order can come out of chaos. We're enjoying the last of the summer-faded zinnias here and watching the sedums turn rosy. We're taking a drive tonight to visit my cousin Ashley and her husband. We'll eat some pizza and play some cards.

Have a nice weekend, everyone.

apples + shepherd's pies

I can't believe it's already September and that the sunflowers are blooming in the garden. The summer went by way too fast. We made a quick trip up to the farm this weekend and saw our nieces. I picked some apples and gorged myself on my mom's apple bars.

I've never made shepherd's pie before, but we had some left-over leg of lamb and potatoes from Friday night, so we gave it a whirl and loved it. I like the way the mashed potatoes that you spread over the top become crispy and golden brown.

I'm working on another cowl, but I got hung up on the first round of lace and now it's sitting in the corner waiting to be torn out and started again. Perhaps a glass of wine and a Jane Austen dvd could serve as proper motivation to accomplish that task?

Back to work tomorrow. I'm ready to return to the swing of things.