I wiped away the weeds & foam. / I fetched my sea-born treasures home... Ralph Waldo Emerson







Monday, November 3, 2014

November


 Hi everyone! It's November!Ah....November.




I LOVE November (despite the oh so annoying time change. Do we really want sunset at 3.30? Really?).
Am I the only one who loves this time of year?



(That said my marsh photos today are less than stellar. It was very windy so everything is out of focus. May be Santa will bring me a better camera this year?)



Anyway, back to the beauty of mid-autumn, blustery beautiful November. November is just about perfect here! Yes we have a few frigid nor'easters and the wind blows strong and chill. Kind of exciting? A definite change from hot sunny summer days.



Time to stay home and cook or sew. Stormy days are treasured here.



 But most days are warm-ish, with brilliant blue skies and amber sunsets; the nights are cold and perfect for sleeping deep and well. And the month includes that special-est of holidays, Thanksgiving---a day of family and friends together, with almost no commercial hype attached.



One of my best childhood memories is about November:
I was maybe seven. Every Saturday my mother would shop at a local market that had fresh produce and a traditional German butcher shop. I'd tag along---my parents weren't ones for spending the weekends shuffling us to soccer or horseback lessons, like some of my friends got to do. My brother and dad ''worked on cars'' and my mom and I did the weekly chores.


 In the butcher shop there was a rack of cheap toys: "impulse buys"--- and all fall I'd yearned for a tiny doll I found there. She was just a soft plastic or rubber doll, her face was painted on. But she had big blue eyes and  gorgeous long red chestnut ''saran'' hair, in a pony tail and she came with a tiny pearly blue brush and comb and miniature rubber bands. She was dressed in a yellow dotted swiss ''organdy'' dress and wore little white knickers; she had painted on black mary jane shoes. She hung there on that crummy rack with stupid finger puzzles and candy cigarettes, in a little plastic bag with a paper top. I even remember the paper being red and cream, once white I suppose.



Oh I loved her! I wanted her so bad. I just knew she was the perfect size---6"---for sewing tiny clothes.



Not only didn't my mom do soccer she was not one to give in to begging for special treats, even if they cost only pennies. [I bet back then that doll cost like 99 cents or less?]. We got lavish treats for Easter and Christmas and our birthdays. Period.
But that day---I don't know why---(had we gone to the dentist?) ---my mom gave in and bought me that doll. I LOVED her, and sewed for her for many years. She had a golden bangle bracelet, some sort of large washer I'd found. Yes I was a scavenger even back then !


I named her November. Because she came home with me on that brilliantly blue windy cold day, when the high clouds scudded over the prairie, followed by magical cloud shadows and masses of swirling red leaves.


I hope my mother felt vindicated, giving in just that once? Or maybe she neither knew nor cared. Maybe she was sad because I loved this penny doll even more than I loved my beautiful Madame Alexander "Cissie" and "Ginny" (though I loved them too). When you're seven you don't notice these things.


marsh mallow pods

A small thing. But special to me.



Did you have a favorite doll? Besides Barbie? Did you sew for her? Or maybe someone sewed the tiny clothes for you?

unpopped bittersweet


love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

 

Mo is cold, poor California puppy.
I had to turn the heat on for him!
Two months early, sigh.

11 comments:

  1. I've put a better camera on my Christmas list too. Summer is arriving here. It was 24C this morning after a warm night but there's a change on the way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cameras: so many choices. I want high resolution w/out lots of technical fussing needed.

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  2. I like fall, too - although we usually don't get much of one. Usually we go from hot summer to cold winter, but this year seems to be going differently. I'm enjoying sweater weather!

    I thought your pictures were pretty good! Love the marsh scenery, those bright red sumac? always have such great pops of color. One of the first falls we lived here there was a hayfield of tall golden grass ready to be cut - and a bright streak of sumac across the top of a low hill, bright red like a streak of lipstick!

    The only bad thing about Thanksgiving is it means getting ready for Christmas - and I always seem to be running late, LOL.

    I think Mo wants a heated pad/bed for Christmas...!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the red is some sort of scrubby tree---acacia? What my dad called stink tree. [in today's pix]. Red in the marsh is also often Virginai creeper or poison ivy, LOTs of poison ivy. We can never collect pretty red leaves just in case the leaves are PI. [no maples here either].

      Delete
    2. Stink tree is a REAL tree, who knew: ailanthus.

      But you re right I belive the red scrubby thing is SUMAC.

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  3. Beautiful photos, as always. It was 84 here. No fall season here. Pretty much just one, long summer day. This California born and raised woman doesn't do cold. I about died when I had to fly on business.

    Dearest Tigger really didn't do cold. We bought a heated bed for him that really helped keep him comfortable. They must have Mo size, too.

    http://cozywinters.com/shop/kh-3191-3193.html

    Let me know if the link doesn't work and I'll put a pic and link on my blog.

    Off to do some NaNoWriMo writing before the alarm goes off.

    Talk to you soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great ideas with the heated dog bed! Becuase I hate the idea of heating up the house just for Mo. I like it chilly! BUT then it said plug in--I thought, Oh well he ll eat the cord. But they also sell some sort of cord covering, even tho he mostly likes to eat plugs not cords. But maybe....Thx!

      Delete
  4. Comment; Tigger's heated bed had lamb's wool on the inside. Doesn't look like the one is the link does.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ooooooooh, the colors in your pics are spectacular. Just beautiful.

    Still very warm days here, but quite cool nights. Definitely good sleeping weather.

    What a charming childhood memory. It is the small things isn't it? I think my favorite doll was Velvet. I'm pretty sure I cut her hair fairly soon after getting her for Christmas one year. Duh, what was I thinking.

    Poor little Mo, the heated doggie bed is an excellent idea. I always try to get to Thanksgiving, at least, before I even light the pilot in our heater. It's a game I play with myself. I'm surprised you guys can hold out so long...your weather must be much more temperate than I realize.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Kel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi! I m glad you enjoyed the pix, fuzzy tho they are. Captures the colors anyway---on windy days the marsh is in constant subtle motion.

      I had to look Velvet up! So cool. Did her hair grow back somehow? Like extensions? There s all these cool ads for dolls, original TV ads, on YouTube.

      Mo is just a chilly boy! I try not to turn on the heat til January. Even if it s cold, my house has that wall of south facing windows and gets warm, plus December can be warm-ish here. I ve bought more Xmas trees wearing a sweater than a parka.[but oooh if it s cold, it can be very cold. ya never know]. (Our first hard frost is in December, that might give you an idea? The ocean stays warm til January as a rule. Your family home in MD must have a similar climate?)

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    2. The doll had this ponytail thing coming out of her head that you could pull on to make longer, or push a button somewhere on her that would make it retract. That's why I wonder why I felt the need to cut the hair if I could just push the button and make it shorter. Silly kid.

      I guess being close to the water is what keeps your weather from being too cold in November and December. The house I grew up in was about 200 miles from the ocean, but when my Dad retired my parents moved to the Eastern Shore. So yeah, now that you mention it, the winters they experienced at the shore weren't nearly as bad. Well, do what you can to keep his little self warm :)

      Kel

      Delete

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