Gone To The Beach: 2022/10

Sunday, October 30, 2022

Happy Halloween

I love a parade, mommy,

even if I am the only parader in the line up.

And treaties too .

Yum.

Mommy just wore her skelly earrings tho.

[and clothes!]

Happy Halloween

love, lizzy and Mo!

spooky fog!

*IG drawing is by @sosunammy

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Monday Miscellaneous - October

Hi! A grey Sunday afternoon while writing this hodge podge post. Just catching up and what a random post it is. Where to even start? Shopping, gardening, nature notes, we have it all. Let's head over the bridge.

I got my friend L on the road on Friday, off we went, of course to Home Goods. We found a bit of Halloween, NO Thanksgiving, and lots and lots of Christmas.

We liked this giant bottles for gathering seaglass, but I forgot to go back and put one in my cart. Center shelf, w traditional demijohns was best.

I bought this glass pumpkin, actually for a gift but on consideration I think that idea is a no, so I will keep it here.

We both dressed up a bit, feeling festive on a gorgeous day [silly as that sounds!]. Since Covid times I haven't been wearing jewelry much, just my summer bead bracelets. For years I always wore an assortment of thin bangles, most are memory items engraved with poems or words and special to me. For our outing I wore my favorite Fall necklace, bought in happier times at the Big Sunday Flea. I love it, though I think it is just brass, perhaps once copper plated?

The acorns and oak leaves are so fun and pretty, evocative of a bright October day.

Back home, in a nod to acorns instead of pumpkins, I put my cute thrifted acorn marmalade jar inside my stack of big-to-small yellowware bowls.

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the gathering bowl:

Nature pages:

The scribble journal:

This is the yellow rumped warbler in case you are not sure what that is. They truly look like sparrows unless you see that flash of almost neon or school bus yellow as they flit by. [Audubon photo online]

I decided to use a brown grocery bag instaed of my stripey notepad.

I love how the pigment white worked out.

It's a gel pen type I use to make dark fabric on quilts.

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A visit to my friends' house the other day, enjoyed seeing their lush garden.

The invasive wild grapes have such pretty berries I always think.

ALL his tomatoes are unplanned volunteers! Huge crop.

I was thrilled to take some home.

The black heirloom was especially interesting, pale pink inside, sweet yet zesty.

I made Kel's decadent pasta recipe which involves fresh sweet little tomatoes and diced Brie. Yum. (best w/ Trader Joe's delicious runny ripe Brie).

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More garden notes: In my deck pots I have found the tiniest marigolds ever! Maybe 1/4" in size. So cute.

And this is mystery. I brought this last of the zinnias bud in about 6 weeks ago.

It has never bloomed but it is flourishing, sending out may new leaves and roots.

What to do?--- leave it in the jar? Plant it as a houseplant?

*****

Almost time for Mo's walk as the days grow so short now.

Because it is chilly and grey today [how odd, not beach October at all], I made pork tenderloin with a white wine sauce; a harvest rice pilaf using beef consomme instead of chicken broth, garlic, lemon, cranberries, walnut pieces. Yum!

And roasted parmesan encrusted acorn squash.

Forgot to add the apples, darn. Maybe tomorrow?

....

As mentioned it is oddly cool here, some days feel like a real midwestern Fall. On my to do list, the dreaded seasonal clothes turn over, ick. But I fear shorts are finished and summer of 22 is over.

What's on your to do list? Fun or functional?

Love

lizzy

gone to the beach

october sunsets, so distinctive, and different from summer sunsets

east!

north!

PS How fun is this, such nostalgia. I see a Happy Meal headed my way.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Autumn Days

Hello hello, and Hello, Autumn. This year we are having a real autumn, quite a thrill---crisp and breezy and fun. Usually it is hot here through mid-November, due to the warm ocean at my doorstep.

I have been adding warm fall touches to the cottage. If you're a longtime visitor you'll see old favorites, though I do move things around a bit.

And sorry for the rumpled sofas, Mo was ''helping'' and he loves to snuggle on a high sofa perch to supervise.

"I'm napping, mom, take that camera somewhere else!''

So, looking around:

Two groups of treasures, not ''stylish'' or minimalist/2022, but mean so much to me. So what if they are tacky dustlovers, they make me happy! I hope everyone does this now and then.

Mrs Tiggywinkle, from my beloved childhood fave book, a thrifted find; Squirrel {Nutkin? also BP character] from my mom, from the Cape Cod thrift shop of the local church Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. She'd stop in there every week, on her way to "Luke's", the liquor shop next door; Ladybug from my grandma, who let little me handle her antique cherished pieces from her home in Alsace, where she travelled back to visit each summer. The ladybug has chips, no doubt from my childish handling, but I have kept her all these years, all these miles and moves.

The backstory is that when I was a very small child through middle school I collected [sparsely] what I called ''chinas''. My parents were quite frugal, but for very rare treats I'd be allowed to choose one for the shelf Daddy made me. Though only Ladybug is from those years, the feeling of collector's joy returns, happy memories.

And, this: a Victorian glass paperweight, with natural woodland scene of acorn cap nest and moss and berries. Gift from my mom, maybe from Illinois flea? She saw a tiny world captured under glass, we found it magical. [TQC mini quilt, a kit that I made and also gave to friends to make, one Christmas.]