Today, I watched the sun rise over Lake Superior through tiny seams in the layered clouds. It was so peaceful, so serene. I felt so...
blessed. I was alone in the waiting room. The first one there for the day. And I watched and looked out at nothing...and everything. There was nothing on the big lake but tiny ripples. And nothing in the cloudy, ribbon-y pink sky but a couple sets of birds, trying to connect in some haphazard fashion to form their Fall v-pattern. The sun was mostly hidden behind clouds so I could just gaze at it without my eyes burning. I tried to quiet my racing mind. I attempted to pray. But my mind was easily distracted by fleeting thoughts.
I thought about writing a book. Have you ever thought about writing a book? Throughout different points in my life, I've had book ideas. But how to really get started? I have a title. And even a prologue, I think? A few chapters outlined in my brain. But then what? That's where my mind wandered off to this particular morning...I think, but I couldn't really pin it down.
Something I could pin down though was a new little dish I threw together the other night. I had an abundance of potatoes and chicken. It's nothing out of the ordinary really. No new dazzling flavor combinations here...just potatoes and chicken, garlic and carrots. Highlighted by roasting them together in olive oil, lemon juice, and some sparse seasonings. Food this simple and straightforward doesn't need very much in the way of enhancing the flavor...since they already so happily work well together. The chicken turns out so juicy...the carrots, sweet and almost caramelized...and the potatoes soak up hints of garlic and rosemary.... So I thought I'd share a new favorite, quickly thrown-together, weeknight Autumn meal of ours...all made with basic things you probably already have right in your very own kitchen.
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You'll need:
-4-5 potatoes, sliced 1/4" thick
-8-10 whole garlic cloves
-4-5 carrots, roughly chopped
-3-4 chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
-olive oil
-sea salt
-freshly ground pepper
-dried thyme
-dried rosemary
-dried parsley
-half of a lemon
Coat a large baking dish with cooking spray. Spread potatoes, garlic, and carrots in dish and toss with olive oil to coat. Season mostly with salt, pepper, thyme and a dash of parsley and rosemary. (I haven't measured anything exactly...sorry, that's the way I cook!) Cover with tinfoil and bake at 375 for about 15 min.
Meanwhile, I prepare the chicken breasts while the veggies are roasting. After the 15 minutes, tuck in the chicken breast pieces between the veggies. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil and liberally squeeze the lemon juice all over the whole dish. Season with a bit more salt and pepper. Put back in the oven, uncovered, and bake for approximately 25 minutes.
Raise oven to 400 degrees and add little pats of butter on top of each piece of chicken and bake for about 5-8 minutes longer.
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I like to serve this with good, crusty bread (like whole-grain ciabatta rolls) and some fresh fruit. The roasted garlic cloves are really good smashed up with your fork and spread on the rolls! Mmm... And yes, your kitchen will smell heavenly too! Enjoy!
Yesterday, we bundled up and headed out into the gray, snowy afternoon to snowshoe for our first time of the season...since we finally have some measurable snow! 
And I remembered why I love snowshoeing. The land is so different in wintertime. So peaceful. Snowflakes cling to dried up, fuzzy wildflowers.
New nests are discovered, more easily spotted after it snows.
This was a big nest (maybe a robin's?) full of straw, twine, and fur.
A stand of trees discovered just beyond our woods that we'd never really seen before. 
The occassional shock of collapsing into deeper snow and the smile that alights on the other's face when this happens. (Do you see hub?)
Realizing that I almost like dried up wild flowers better in the wintertime with their star-like, spikey shapes. Or perhaps you just have to look harder for beauty in the white, twiggy landscape...so you settle for some dried up old flowers. Just maybe.
My camera has quickly been filling up with pictures of the festive frivolities going on around here...mostly baking and crafting. But they've had a harder time making the transition onto the blog...until today, I'll share a few!
I recently acquired my Grandma's fabulous Mirro cookie press! What a fun tool! It's a treasure trove of bits and pieces that I can see getting lots of use in my future. I feel as though I've inherited a bit of a family heirloom, seeing my Grandma's pretty cursive within the original old box. She made note of cookies she made, dates she made them on, and other little baking notes to remember. While I was scrubbing and cleaning up the old press in preparation of cookie-making, even Hub eagerly offered his cookie-press assistance...you know, guys and tools. 
We made our family's Chocolate Christmas Tree recipe...an annual Christmas cookie standby. Mum usually decorates her cookies with melted white chocolate (died green) and strung across the tree, garland-like. 
Last Friday, hub walked in the door after a long work week with a pretty bouquet of flowers for me. And they are still going strong today, a week later (minus the pink gerbera daisy below)!
Then on Sunday morning, the sun was coming in so fiercely, so intense...perhaps the frost on the trees and snow covering the ground intensified its brilliance. It seemed almost...magical. 
A pretty, soft snow has been falling here all day. And now that its snowing, it finally feels a little bit more Christmas-y and Wintery. Although I'm not really crazy about the chill in the air, I'm staying bundled and earlier this week did some more trimming all the while singing along with 
Also, I was thinking about all the little craft projects I shared the 
So life lately seems to have fallen into about 4 categories for me: eating, walking, crafting, and trimming (the house, the tree, whatever I can trim!). So I'll cover a few highlights from each... First, eating... I know this is a bit belated, but I just had to share a photo of Mum's tasty turkey cookies. She makes these every year for Thanksgiving and it just wouldn't be quite the same without her pretty sugar cookies. 
Our Thanksgiving was really pleasant, spending time with our sweet family and eating lots of good things...and then walking some of it off with our annual Thanksgiving walk...not quite as many participants as 
After spending the holiday away, we had a quiet weekend back home. I, doing heaps of crafting, packaging, and seeking out good light for picture-taking (not an easy task these days)...and Hub, climbing the roof and stringing Christmas lights. 
On Sunday, we went to pick out a tree from Pappy...the kind man down the road that we buy our tree from each year. If you recall what happened 
Last Saturday we took a walk in the bright afternoon sun, along our favority country road. You have to catch the sun while its out here and make the most of it because before you know it, its 3 pm and you feel like its in that part of the sky where its starting to set...and once it starts to set, it goes down very quickly. And even though we've had milder temps for November, once the sun is gone, it gets very cold! Real cold. Saturday just so happened to be the last day we saw the sun. Its been a very gloomy, foggy, moist week here. And on these days when the sun doesn't appear at all, it sort of feels like the sun is in that setting stage...all...day...long... So we've been getting accustomed to walking in the dark now with a flashlight. Its sort of peaceful though. Yet we'd never walk down this country road in the dark. Too desolate and creepy, I think!
...with 
A few weeks ago, I put together a little shadowbox using some of the feathers I'd recently found over the summer months. Remember 
This little one is so sweet & tiny...only about 2 inches tall.
Hibernating in my brain for the past few weeks has been this idea of a three-dimensional snowflake votive...with hand cut snowflakes floating up and around a votive...white on white. And it wasn't until yesterday that I had the time to finally set this idea free. I gave you a peak yesterday with my cut-outs. And today, here's a nighttime photo of the finished votive. I can imagine a cluster of these votives in various shapes and sizes, gathered on an old silver tray perhaps, casting their light and emaninating warmth throughout the winter season...so I think I'll embark further on this 3D votive idea and see what becomes of it...perhaps some for 
Today has been a chilly, gray day...thankfully its not snowing outside. Although a bit of pretty, papery snow has been accumulating on my desk.
I've been busy in my little office, cutting and glueing away.
Unintentionally, whites and grays and purples abound. Sort of like the weather and critters outside. I noticed the gray squirrel surveying our yard this afternoon, running the perimeter and pausing briefly. I imagine he's wondering when we'll fill up the bird feeders again so he can get back to his seed-thievery. We haven't filled the feeders since we got back from our SC trip...poor birds. I can't reach them and its always dark when Hub gets home from work now.
And since our trip, Hub and I are attempting to turn over a new November leaf...to be healthier. I think traveling makes me feel this way. Eating strange things, getting out of a regular workout routine, etc... So last night we made Greek salads for dinner. And luckily I had some Spring Mix lettuce left to make myself one for lunch. I made a little vinaigrette right in the bottom of my bowl...sea salt mashed with a tiny garlic clove, pepper, oregano, white wine vinegar (because that's the kind we have but you could use another), and olive oil. 
It's very tempting not to start this post with a "How y'all doin?"
I'm not sure what I expected Charleston to be like but I found it to be a pretty, charming old city for the most part...reminding me a bit of Paris (minus the palm trees) with all the historic buildings crammed together, pretty courtyards and tiny cemetaries tucked in between. 
There was also an abundance of restaurants and cafes every which way you looked. And we pretty much ate and walked our way all over downtown Charleston! One evening we ate at 
We came upon the bakery "Baked" on the day we arrived which I'd first read about 
It was a hazy, gray afternoon and we enjoyed a peaceful, windblown time walking along the beach, digging our toes in the sand and feeling the warm, salty sea air on our skin. 
On our last full day there, we drove over that huge bridge to spend some time on Sullivan's Island and Isle of Palms. 