Small Touches

Yesterday our children put the nativity set in the hutch. With four of them working, it was done in just moments. Only one figure was dropped; a shepherd boy who survived his fall without a scratch.

This afternoon, with the little ones in school, I hung the stockings up along the staircase. When Haiku got home from school she helped me make a Countdown to Christmas garland for each of the boys, from tiny chocolate candies knotted up in colored plastic wrap. Little ribbon bows separate the candies. The boys can untie and eat one each day through Christmas, beginning tomorrow. By counting the remaining candies they can answer that one question asked so often in December by the young and young at heart: How many days until Christmas?I pulled a big pile of Christmas picture books out of a closet to read to my sons this month. These books have accumulated over the past 19 years since our oldest child was a tiny tot. I do remember her eyes all aglow over the tiny details, as she saw from her earliest days that there is love sewn into every stitch of our homespun Christmas.

photos by Haiku, November 30, 2009

Sunday Stroll - Sanctuary

I followed the sound of a lone bird's call, down past the cornfield,

and into the woods.

Sun light pouring through green cedar bows surrounded me,

as I walked to the braided tree at the heart of this forest sanctuary.

I followed the trail to the lake, so quiet in late November.

The sky was reflected in the mirror of the water,

as swans drifted... seeming to swim through clouds... through trees... through tangled brambles.

I walked along the northshore through white birches,

and in and around dangling jewel-red berries,

stepping carefully over fallen branches beribboned in yellow mold, trying to leave no trace of my footsteps.

I turned toward home and looked through the long rows of pale corn to the dim and cloudy sky.

Those muted colors of sky and field

-- pale gray, soft gold, and merest suggestion of blue --

were echoed by the stones at the edge at the road.

Where ever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy in quiet moments.

all photos by Aisling, November 29, 2009

To see more strolls, by other strollers, please scroll down to the post below.

Sunday Stroll Invitation

"Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new... but who can understand and measure its sharp breath, its mystery and its design?"

~ Paracelsus

November has certainly flown by, as if upon a brisk wind. That wind has torn the leaves from the trees and left a different landscape. The skeletal trees and deflated fields, with their tall grasses laying prostrate upon the earth or cut to a rough stubble, are a part of the "mystery and design" of this quiet season.

If you have time this week for a Sunday Stroll, time to walk slowly while time rushes briskly by, please about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or sidebar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so that other strollers may walk through your garden too. I'll check back as often as my day allows and try to keep the list updated. Enjoy the day!


Look who is strolling today:
Heather at Heather's Homemaking
Margaret at Periodic Pearls
Me at the Quiet Country House

Traditions

I wrote yesterday about my annual tradition of cleaning the hutch to make way for the nativity set. I've decided to post links to some other posts regarding our family holiday season traditions, just in case some of my newer blogging friends are interested in getting to know how we celebrate the holidays.

Here is a post about studying a new country each year during the holidays; lots of links to earlier posts are included. Here is one about the way we decorate our tree. Here is a description of a typical Christmas eve in the Quiet Country House. Here is a recommendation for some pretty Christmas music. At at the end of all that linking around, if you aren't tired of my holidays in these northern hills, here is a stroll through our little village, all dressed up for the season, from last December.

photo by Aisling in November of 2008

A Little Quote and A Little Note

"There must be more to life than having everything!" ~ Maurice Sendak

It is slightly ironic to me that we give thanks for what we have one day, then run out to buy more the next. I did have to purchase a few groceries today, but made my purchases in our local sleepy village amid familiar faces. I avoided the rush of "Black Friday" in the city, and steered clear of malls and big box stores. If you were in the crowd of shoppers (as my 16 year old daughter and her friend were), I hope the crowds were friendly and the bargains good.

For me, the day after Thanksgiving is my annual day to give my china hutch a good cleaning. I take everything out, dust the wood, clean the glass and wash all of the china. We used some of it on Thanksgiving, so those items were already washed and sparkling, but the rest need a good rinsing to clear away a year's worth of dust.

Over the year, other things collect in the hutch. There are little pottery items our children made in school art classes, a seashell a lovely young friend brought to me from her trip to Florida, programs from concerts the girls sang in, and little photos sent in cards and letters through the last 12 months. All of these items find new homes at this time of year. The keepsakes are tucked into individual "memory boxes" and the photos are tucked in amid those in a big disorganized drawer (a project for another season in life.)

In a few days, we will put up the nativity set that my mother-in-law made for Limerick and I as a gift for our first married Christmas, 22 years ago. It is a full set, with camels and camel master, a beggar, and shepherd boy besides all of the important central figures. It is the first bit of Christmas to go up in our house every year, and the last to come down. Cleaning the hutch allows me to clear the center shelf for the nativity. At night, through the holiday season, we turn on the light in the hutch and the nativity scene looks very beautiful, with its lovingly painted color and detail.

This annual cleaning rite, a seemingly mundane chore, connects me with special people in my life... to the friends and family who made and gave all of the little touchstones that have gathered there through the year. When the holidays end, and the nativity set is carefully wrapped in newspaper and put away, the collecting will begin again. New mementos and keepsakes, new photographs and poems written in a child's wobbly script will be displayed in the hutch between the simple pieces of my Grandmother's china.

Poetry Thursday - Enough

IT IS ENOUGH

It is enough to have this morning's day
The sky swept clean by stars' adventurous light
That garnished earth and gave the animals
Freelancing songs and stillnesses of night.

We share the entire wealth of calendars
That hold the love of earth and happy heaven
Marking our own spot in centuries
Writing our own labors in our own love given.

It's quite a legacy to have charge of Time
To tick the meaning of the endless ages
Custodians of streets and roads and houses
Spelling our own names on our own pages.
Speaking our deeds and hopes on holy earth
Entrusted to us at our lucky birth.

by Sister Mary Faith Schuster, OSB

For another beautiful poem by this poet, which I shared in the summer of 2007, click here.

photo by Aisling, November 22, 2009

Thanksgiving

Today I am thankful for the abundance of my life. I had to scrape pennies together - almost literally - to purchase the little odds and ends that I needed to complete my holiday meal. I felt overwhelmed with the bounty of my life even as I did so. I bypassed the sugary sodas and hoped that my family would not feel like our holiday meal was served without "special beverages" but I couldn't justify the expense of a non-nutritive food item. We'll have coffee and tea and hot chocolate as options, a pitcher of lemonade, and an endless supply of fresh water from the well. In all this world, how many people have so many options for refreshment?

I couldn't afford fancy gourmet items for the table. We'll make do with simple fare, much of it inspired by my southern-roots. Cornbread, green beans with sage and onion, Black eyed peas with greens... along with the usual mashed potatoes, acorn squash, and wild rice, and barley pilaf stuffed portabella mushrooms. We'll have pumpkin pie and apple cake and a cranberry relish loaded with other fruits; pineapple, apple, orange and ginger. This feast, while not as spectacular as some folks will have, is a wealth of sustenance. Sometimes we are too worried over financial troubles, the economic downturn, or work and school related stresses, to notice the riches that abound in our average American lives.

When I compare my home to some of the "cottages on the lake" that are built around here... I might notice that our house is smaller, shabbier, less showy... but instead I've noticed that ours is warm, and dry, and comfortable, and overflowing with the treasures that can't be bought.

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you the joy of being thankful for the blessings in your life.

Sunday Stroll - Morning Light

I walked early this morning, while the sun lit the hills and the fields, through rising mist. When I drove my daughter to work in the village, I walked down to the harbor. The marina was very quiet in the early morning, and the water as still and smooth as glass.

To the east, the sun was touching the river with soft color.

I took the long way home, and stopped by the township park. The soccer fields were nearly hidden in mist.

I made another stop to watch the sun crest a hill, its soft light falling amid bare trees. Two ring-neck pheasants hurried across the highway in front of me as I left the orchard.

At the base of the hill that leads home, the sun was spilling generously over mist and low-lying corn fields... welcoming me home.

Where ever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you beautiful light.


Scroll down to see my Sunday Stroll Invitation, and more strolls!

all photos by Aisling, November 22, 2009

Sunday Stroll Invitation

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. ~Aaron Rose

If you have time this week for a Sunday Stroll, time to go looking for the extraordinary, please about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or sidebar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so that other strollers may walk through your garden too. I'll check back as often as my day allows and try to keep the list updated. Enjoy the day!

Look who's strolling today:

Cloudhands at Uncarved Block

Me, here at the Quiet Country House

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Sunday Stroll - Color Story

I didn't really take a leisurely stroll today... I ran out the front door into the cool breeze, and then across the road and down the hill through a stubbled field to take these photographs of bull thistle.

Looking back toward the east, I could just see the roofline of our little house against the cloudy blue sky.

I jogged back up the hill to wander, a little more slowly, through the gardens looking for color. Most of the Bells of Ireland in the corner of the herb garden are white and papery, but I found one still fresh and green.

Though the vegetables have been pulled from the garden rows, the wild mustard is still blooming and scattering seeds for next year's cheery yellow garden invaders.

In the butterfly garden the asclepius (aka Butterfly Weed) is releasing its seeds to the wind, just like its wild milkweed cousins.

In the front garden, peeking out through the bronze fennel, a tiny yellow mum flower opened this week.

Nearby, a sweet white pansy has rebloomed, giving her last "hurrah!" before a long winter's nap.

Sleepy bees are still visiting the mums.

As the flowers bow out of the color story, very gradually with this mild autumn that we have had so far, the skies are picking up the slack. In every direction, soft color lit our evening skies. Where ever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you color and joy!

all photos by Aisling, November 15, 2009

Sunday Stroll Invitation

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change." ~ Buddha

That my flowers are now folding in upon themselves does not make them any less of a miracle. This week was filled with warmer days than November usually brings to these hills, and I saw several new flowers open, though others around them were rendered colorless and limp by heavy early morning frost. Any bloom in November is a miracle to me, from the late-blooming blossoms in the gardens to the Christmas cactuses now appearing at the supermarket. I wonder what miracles I will find when I walk under these gray skies later in the day? I wonder what miracles you will find where you live?

If you have time this week for a Sunday Stroll, please about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or sidebar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so that other strollers may walk through your garden too. I'll check back as often as my day allows and try to keep the list updated. Enjoy the day!

Look who's strolling:
Margaret at Periodic Pearls
Abbie at Farmer's Daughter
Cloudhands at Uncarved Block
Jessica at Four Square School House
Me, here at the Quiet Country House

Sunday Stroll - Hanging in There

All the leaves have fallen from the pear trees, except the russet beauty in the photo above. Though it is November, the milkweed pods are just now opening to release their seeds to the wild northern wind.

Though the "time of yellow and purple flowers" that I wrote about weeks ago has passed, a few tenacious goldenrods and starthistle are still blooming.

Some wild berries still cling to bare branches, and color still graces the skies of a month we often perceive as the grey month of the year.

Best of all, our 14 and a half year old Maude is still hanging in there. She pranced in the sunshine today and it was very good to share another golden afternoon.

Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I wish you joy.

all photos by Aisling, November 8, 2009