Covid Journal, Day 315: Another Snowy Day

26 this morning, with new snow on the ground. Only 2" but so pretty. Cold with flurries all day, never got above 28.

After spending yesterday working on our booth in Marietta, and picking up some estate sale items from a friend, we were both feeling tired and slow today. The overnight snow was a pleasant surprise, and we were glad we had nowhere we had to go today.

I spent the day sorting the estate sale things, listing on eBay and roasting two more turkeys and pulling the meat from the bones for canning tomorrow. I cut the breast meat off in large pieces and vacuum-sealed them for the freezer. They make a quick, easy dinner, just thaw, slice, warm up in gravy and serve over potatoes or noodles. Add a salad and there's dinner. 

Tomorrow is more booth work. I was delighted to hear that the formica-topped table and red chairs went on layaway today, and now I will have to get busy getting another table-and-chairs set ready. 

I finished my book, Chestnut Street, By Maeve Binchy. What a delightful read--one of those books you don't want to put down, and then are sad when it's finished because you really want more. I highly recommend it. The book is a series of short stories, all about the people who live on Chestnut Street, with the tales often weaving together the various characters in the different stories. I will have to read more of Maeve Binchy's books; I remember reading some of them years ago, and now I want to see if I like her other work as much as I did this book.

A short post tonight, as I am tired and want some fireside time before bed, so I'll say good night all, and see you tomorrow. 

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Covid Journal, Day 274: Homemade

More snow overnight, 28 degrees this morning. No real accumulation, maybe a half inch, but pretty.

This morning:

Cold and icy out, but supposed to warm up to the 40's so most of the snow will melt away. Leaving, I hate to say, mud. 

I love this corner of the deck. The cabinet with the door is meant to be taken to a booth, but Larry's pulled a muscle in his back so it will have to wait. I took this photo yesterday, before the new snow.

We got the greenery up over the weekend. Not as nice a job as I like to do, but done. It was cold and my hands were freezing, but I'm glad we got it done before this week's colder weather.

Yesterday was a "nesting" kind of day. I continued cleaning, working on our bedroom, and finally gettng around to cutting up a very ragged quilt into useable pieces. I believe this one is made of feedsacks, and has such pretty colors I hated to toss it out. I am hoping someone will find a use for the pieces I was able to salvage. I believe this is the "bowtie" pattern. I'd like to see this old thing continue to find use as a thing of beauty for a while longer. If any of you can use it, please let me know, and I'll mail it you free of charge. There are several pieces, some small, one quite large, probably 36"x45".

Larry made us breakfast, and the table was so pretty I had to take a photo. 

Last week I picked up a few Christmas dishes at the quarter store--where almost everything is a quarter. I don't usually have seasonal dishes, but for that price, they're cheaper than paper plates and I can donate them back instead of storing them if I want to. And they look so pretty on the table, a nice change. Right now, small changes like this make the fact that we can't go out, see friends, and shop in stores like we used to more bearable. 

I am on the loookout for a teacup for January right now, and I'm thinking a cup featuring the oak tree in some way would be perfect. Because on Solstice, the Oak King triumphs over the Holly King, as the year turns slowly back to longer days and green. It seems a long way off right now, but slowly and surely the light will return, the roots and buds will begin to stir. In the old calendar, Spring began at the beginning of February, and I believe that's more accurate than our current March date, because in February you can see bulbs coming up and some stirrings of plants beginning to send out new growth. So, an oak teacup--I'm on the hunt. My December teacup, featuring the holly for the Holly King, finally arrived yesterday, after being on the way for 3 weeks. The poor mail carriers are really overwhelmed.

I got my cranberry sauce made and jarred up yesterday. 

It's so simple--cranberries, sugar, water. Cook until the berries pop and the sauce thickens a bit, jar up and process.

I don't know why I've never done it before. Just cook the berries as you would for a meal, then jar them up and process for 15 minutes or so, depending on your altitude. If you like the jelled type, there are recipes online to do that, but I prefer whole berry sauce. I had plenty of berries left from the two big bags I bought to vacuum-pack three bags for the freezer, to use in some recipes that require fresh or frozen berries. I followed the instructions here--I try to find .edu sites for canning and preserving recipes.

And I did get those firestarters made. I posted about how to make them 5 years ago, but I'd forgotten about them. I bought a few big but rough candles at the quarter store to melt down for this. It's a great way to recycle candle ends or old candles and to use dryer lint! You can also use sawdust. 

Off to our booth today, although we probably won't do a lot of work. I can't bring in totes since Larry can't carry them and neither can I. But the booths are full, so no worries there. Sales have been amazing, and I expect things will slow down now. Have a great day, everyone.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Covid Journal, Day 257: This and That

30 this morning, cloudy and feels colder than the temperature indicates. Maybe because the humidity is high? The sun came out in the afternoon, and tonight we expect temps in the low 20's. 

I got into a little project yesterday. You know how you save recipes, expecting sometime you might use them? I had a folder full of loose pages torn from magazines or printed from online sources, and a notebook full too--all disorganized. So yesterday I pulled them all out, found another notebook and some file folders, and began sorting.

Four hours later, I was done. I have one notebook for baking, the other for meals. Now, let's see how many of them I use. Some I know I will because they're old favorites. Others? Well...come this time next year, I'll re-visit those notebooks and do some weeding of recipes that weren't used. The only problem i ran into is that the one bigger notebook doesn't fit in my cookbook cabinet. So now I have another problem to solve.

This was a sad moment. A Facebook group I'm on has a Secret Santa thing, and one person offered a not-so-secret giveaway of some beautiful glass. I was thrilled to be getting a gorgeous cobalt pitcher, about 100 years old. But this is how it arrived.

Wrapped only in a cut-open bubble mailer, and wrapped around with a feed sack, then placed loosely in a box to shake around all the way from Arizona. Really heart-breaking.

The snow is still with us, although it has melted a bit today. I stepped out last night to snap a photo of the Christmas lights under the snow. So pretty. 

Today we took the camera for a ride across the ridge, just to look at the snow.

This one is going up the driveway--somehow I have them out of order. You can see how much the snow has melted.

This area always drifts in when we have more than a couple inches. The neighbors have had fun busting through it.

I've been slowly getting the Christmas decorations out. I'm close to finishing up. It seems harder this year for some reason and I don't feel the usual excitement I always have this time of year. I am hoping the spirit will grab me when I get the tree up, but before I can do that, I have to finish painting a buffet that is right in the way. So, back to work I go.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Snowy Saturday

23 and clear at dawn, but a little snowfall overnight turned everything white again. A beautiful morning! The woodpeckers must be courting as there is much noise from them in the mornings--or maybe they're just establishing territory? Here's one of our loud visitors.

Elinor Wylie's wintry poem speaks well of how we humans also line our nests in winter:

Winter Sleep  by Elinor Wylie

Just as the spiniest chestnut-burr
Is lined within with the finest fur,
So the stoney-walled, snow-roofed house
Of every squirrel and mole and mouse
Is lined with thistledown, sea-gull’s feather,
Velvet mullein-leaf, heaped together
With balsam and juniper, dry and curled,
Sweeter than anything else in the world.

This morning, a slight tinge of pink in the east...

And sun creeping across the hills in the west.

In the house, the view from the bedroom window is comfy--nice and warm inside, whiteness outside.

I found this little oil painting a few months ago. It's perfect for this time of year. It's signed J. Heuk or Helk, but I cannot find anything about this artist online. Maybe one of you knows who he/she is?

Today is more tax work--I cannot make myself stick with it more than an hour at a time--then pricing things for our booths, and maybe I will finally finish the little table I started the other week. I thought I would finish it yesterday but found some loose veneer that needed to be glued back in place. So now I think it's ready.

I am looking for a good biography/autobiography to read, preferably a diary. Any suggestions?I find that I really enjoy reading the real-life stories in journals and diaries. Maybe it's the storyteller in me, or is it a fairly common interest?


Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

26 and snowy blowing this morning. So pretty. And another good day for Larry to lay low and recover from his cold.

It is nice to see snow. And even to hear the wind howling, because this is still winter and this is how it should be, to me. I am afraid the plants may not agree with me as so many things are springing up and even budding because of this mild winter.

It's a good morning for reading, too. Here's one website I follow. Icy Sedgwick posts some of the most interesting folklore, like today's post on sin-eaters. Have you ever heard of this practice? I have read about its occurrence here in Appalachia, but I wonder if it was a common practice in other places.

Another interesting person to follow is Old Weird Britain. She posts on Twitter, some fascinating folklore. Then there's Folklore Thursday that shares a wealth of folklore through Twitter every week. I sometimes join in the fun there with a post. You can find it on Twitter here.

Back to enjoying the snow I go. I should call these two photos Man, Interrupted. You can see the ladder to the left of the first photo--he was planning to clean windows there,

And here he has the grain cradle down while he was working on the porch, and hasn't put it back yet. The scaffolding is still up from when he was working on the roof. Eventually all these tasks will be completed, but not until he feels better.

Have a lovely day, my friends!



Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Snow Drive

Photos of our recent (and only really measurable) snow this year. Yesterday the sun was out for the better part of the day, and temperatures went up to the mid-40's so most of our snow melted. Overnight rain pretty much washed out the rest of it. Today we started the day at 44, and the rain showers continue, so it feels and smells like early spring.

I thought I'd share photos of our trip off the ridge and down part of Joe's Run, a distance of about 3 miles. Starting here, on the driveway,

A stop at the top to put ebay packages into our big red box for the mail carrier to pick up..

Looking back down the hill we just came up.

Can you see our house, hidden by the trees? In summer, it's invisible.

Where our drive enters the ridge road.

Then across the ridge, past my two favorite old trees,

Up over one of the high knobs on the ridge, 

More favorite trees,

Looking West.

A small cedar droops with snow behind its stalwart oak companion.

A neighbor's drive, to his hidden home.

Around the "end-of-the-world" turn, and looking south,

and around that turn to face west again.

Here is where we turn down to the left and down a steep hill we call Ken Parrish hill. The school bus makes this turn every day, and it must be a challenge sometimes.

Down the hill.

And the end of the hill, where, just past that last pine on the left, we meet the tar-and-chip road.

This leaning sugar maple is a stunning sight in the fall.

A long-abandoned house that has been used as a barn since I've lived here.

The little left fork of Joe's Run runs alongside the road.

And finally the road runs straight until this fork meets the other, and continues another mile out to the two-lane.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republicatio n or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.