October Recap - Mosaic Monday

I decided to go through my October photo files and pull out some you've seen and some you've not yet seen to make a few mosaics for today. The photos that make up the collages are from October 2015. The individual photos are from Octobers past.  Most of the photos in the first collage were taken on Oktoberfest 2015 in our little village of Dallas.

 From October 2014

So I'm really trying to like tea. Since I seem to be a big fan of other things English, it seemed the thing to do. Unfortunately, my Scandinavian roots are showing and my body needs coffee when I awaken in the morning. Still, I found a cute little teapot with a really nice glaze (above, right) and decided to try Irish Breakfast. (Okay, that's not English, but then I do have Yorkshire Tea and English Breakfast also.) I'll have to say, I'm still working on it.

The basket is full of lavender from the garden and the third photo in the bottom row is of peppermint from the garden. Both are drying in the kitchen. This is now the second of November and I still have unfrozen lavender growing in a pot outdoors. This is amazing weather.

Orange Shelf Fungus

from October 2013

Looks like candy corn, doesn't it!

We had an outstanding October this year. It's hard to see it go. I will not listen to anyone who tries to tell me that we're going to have a harsh winter.

 Goats chasing my car

From October 2012

In this collage you can see the apple pie that my grandson and I made when he was here. He also arranged the leftover crust strips on a cookie sheet and baked those as well. Unfortunately, they kinda tasted burned, in my opinion. In HIS opinion, they were 'food for the heavenly host, Grandma.'  No kidding. That's what he said when he took his first bite. LOL. That kid!

Alfalfa Field
 From October 2011

And finishing out, a few rural scenes along with discovering the Giveaway winners and tucking in to a nice piece of that apple pie.  I hope he comes back to stay with us soon.  BTW, in case you missed it, the gluten-free pumpkin spice cookies recipe is HERE. They were delicious!

 Barn NW of Prairie Farm

From October 2011

***

Check out my natural, handcrafted vegan soap!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

CHRISTMAS SOAPS!

'Cranberry Tea'

Many more Christmas soaps available

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop 


***


This post is linked to 

Mosaic Monday

and

Treasure Box Tuesday 

and

Tweak it Tuesday

Have a great week, everyone!

 

Hodgepodging Simon and Garfunkel

Autumn Silence

October 21, 2015

Join Joyce and the Gang

for

She writes the questions;

we write the answers.

Plug them into your own blog

and join in!

1. Are you comfortable with silence? If you're home alone, do you like silence or do you need regular background noise? Do you seek out times and places to be silent? What's your favorite place to find silence/be silent?

Oh yes, I like silence. I'm much more comfortable with silence than I am with constant noise. I like complete silence when I'm reading, studying, praying, and pondering. If doing thankless tasks like cleaning or washing dishes, I like to have music or talk radio in the background.

Actually, right now I have Nuria Rial singing Handel on Spotify. Beautiful!

Where I read and study

One of my two favorite quiet places

The other is the porch.

2. October 28th is National Chocolate Day. Can't let that go by without a mention now, can we? Will you celebrate? How? Let's say you can have one of the following right this very minute... a cup of hot chocolate, a strawberry dipped in chocolate, a bowl of plain chocolate ice cream, or a slice of chocolate pie...what's your pleasure?

If y'all don't mind, I'm going to pass on all things chocolate right now. I sort of overdid it with frozen yogurt  after watching the movie 'Bridge of Spies.' (Great movie, by the way) Nothing chocolate appeals to me right now. Normally, it would be Ritter Sport dark chocolate with hazelnut bar or Endangered Species Jaguar bar, but none of the above-mentioned are ever on my chocolate list. And I definitely don't want to ruin perfectly good dark chocolate or luscious ripe strawberries by combining the two.

 Mr. C's ancient jeans jacket

3. How do you feel about blue jeans? Favorite thing in the world to wear or nope, don't own a single pair? How often do you wear blue jeans in a typical week? Do you own a blue jean jacket?

Blue jeans are wearable comfort food. Blue jeans and T-shirt. How often? About seven days a week. Even if I wear something nicer to church, I almost always change into 'real clothes' when I get home.

 Near Sunset

4. Are you superstitious? If so, in what way?

I don't think so. I'm not bothered by black cats or walking under a ladder (depending upon whether someone is holding a gallon of paint above me, however), and don't carry a rabbit's foot. I could, because I found only a rabbit's foot and thigh out by the garden. Evidently, Jazzie had decided that she couldn't wait for a snack.

 Jazzie, when she's not tracking a bunny

5. If you had to come up with a costume using only things you have on hand right now, what could you come up with?

A gray-haired woman wearing blue jeans, t-shirt, polar fleece, and black Danskos. And that's about it.

6. What scares you a little? What do you do when you feel scared?

What scares me a little is hearing Mr. C., in the middle of the night, suddenly whispering urgently, 'I hear voices.' What I usually do when I feel scared is to smack Mr. C's arm and say, 'Stop it!' because it scares me to death when he does that, and I always accuse him of trying to scare me. Last night, however, he really did hear voices. There was a radio station playing on my phone, which was charging on the headboard. Strange!

The silent majority

7. Perhaps today will be the day I ______________________________.

Perhaps today will be the day I turn over a new leaf and actually get something accomplished.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

It's almost November. The drearies are about to set in.

Enjoy what's left of October, friends.

Barn and fence on 1 1/2 Ave.

***

Check out my natural, handcrafted vegan soap.

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

'Olde Thyme Christmas'
(Thyme & Lavender)

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop 


***

This post is linked to

Theresa's Good Fences 

and Eileen's Saturday's Critters
 

Hodpodging Most Patiently

Pumpkins, Squash, and Mr. C.'s rats

Join Joyce and the Gang

for

She writes the questions;

we write the answers.

Plug them into your own blog

and join in.

1. What's something that has recently 'tried your patience'?

The long and difficult process of trying to get health care providers to communicate effectively with each other. I have given up on 'quickly.'

2. Do you think patience comes to us naturally or is it something you have to learn as you grow? On a scale of 1-10 generally how patient are you? (1=I blow up at the drop of a hat and 10=I've got all the time in the world).

No, I don't think patience comes naturally. See #1. You learn patience as you grow older (and realize that you're not in control of the universe). I'm not a 1 and I'm not a 10, so that would be somewhere in between. I think that personality and birth order do makes a difference here. I suspect that patience comes sooner to middle children than firstborns or babies of the family. Sometimes, though, it's hard to tell the difference between becoming more patient or simply falling into a state of resignation.

Lavender

3. Share about a time when you felt like you could fly. Or a time you wished you could fly. Or a time you felt like you were flying.

I've never felt like I could fly, and unlike Mr. C., have never wished I could fly. Can you imagine what it would be like to run into a flock of migrating birds?


As far as feeling like I was flying, when I was a kid I had a recurring dream. I was standing at the top of a very long flight of stairs and jumped off the top step...floating...all...the...way...to ...a...soft...landing... at the bottom. It was a great dream. I loved that dream and hated being awakened from it. My next favorite recurring dream was riding horse across a wide open field without being thrown off. In reality, I got thrown off more than my fair share.

My oft-recurring and not-so-fun dream was of my brother and me seeing Squanto, Tanto, and Samoset (and lots of Hollywood extras) with war paint on their faces, peering into our living room windows and somehow missing the fact that we were escaping out the back door and running to the woods as fast as we could. I know we watched way too many westerns. I never became desensitized to that dream. It scared me every single time.

 Tuppence, recalling last night's nightmare

4. Your favorite song with the word fly in the title or lyrics, or your favorite song that relates to flying in some way?


Fly Away Home - Mary Carpenter Chapin

OR

Let's Go Fly a Kite - Mr. Banks

5. What's in your fall picnic basket and where are we picnicking in your neck of the woods this time of year?

Why we don't have picnics in January

Curry chicken salad with craisins and walnuts, ripple potato chips, McIntosh or Honey Crisp apples, and an assortment of olives and cheese. Where? Anywhere on a maple tree hilltop with beautiful blue skies, crisp fall leaves, and no bugs. It would be nice if it were located above a clean and rocky river.

 McIntosh

6.  Carpentry, electrical, plumbing, landscaping...which skill would you most like to possess and how would you put that skill to use today?

Do you mean as a result of hard work and dedication, or do you mean as a result of a miracle? I would like to possess landscaping skills and the ambition to do something with them. Neither is likely to happen.

 Looks like another fence sampler.

The Andrews Sisters

Just before breaking into

'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy'

7. What's something you think is too expensive to justify buying lately?

Almost anything except books, but lately it would be low-lighting for my hair. My ancestors were long livers, so this could be a very expensive project if I were to keep it up, and it's not like I'm trying to pretend that I'm 20..or 30...or 40... ... ....you get the idea. Doing nothing is always easier and less expensive than doing something.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I wonder if I would be more ambitious if I weren't a middle child. 

I wonder if I'd have better answers if I weren't actually writing this at night.

***

Check out my natural, handcrafted vegan soap!

Buy any 5 or more, Get 1 FREE

 'Figgy Pudding'

'Cranberry Tea'

...and more! Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

HomemadeSoapNSuch

and at

Our ETSY Shop 


***

This post is linked to

Theresa's Good Fences

and

Eileen's Saturday's Critters