november days...

 i don't have much to show for november, despite its demands and chaos.  there was a lot that happened, but not a lot of photos of such things.

lots of time spent in migrainelandia, thanks to road construction and my infusion being on the waning end.  (i get my next infusion in a few days.)

there was a big meal cooked for the not a holiday/holiday but i forgot to take any photos.

this is what i do have...

the first lemon off my tree.  yum...

chocolate pound cake...

my s-i-l and i have expanded our baking game a bit.  in october we made a pound cake recipe that her nanny (grandmother) used to make for her mums' birthday.  this month she came to me with another of her nanny's recipes wanting to try it. so, we did.  the cakes aren't quite what i'm used to as a pound cake.  i'd always associated pound cake as a loaf, not in a tube pan.  but they've turned out pretty well.

and my last photo for today, is...

this month's cheesecake: caramel apple cheesecake 

this, by far, is my favorite cheesecake of the ones we've made so far.  it has a salted caramel sauce in it and brushed on top with a delicious apple filling between the crust and cheesecake layer.  it is soooo delicious!

well, i couldn't let the month end without a quick pop in to say hello, and to see off november.  hopefully i will find my way back here more in december and also to visit everyone blogs.

hope you are all doing as best as you can during these times.

love & kisses & magickal wishes...

~*~

never to 95 percent...

good morning from the wildly humid south, my lovelies. 

i hope you had a good weekend.  i'm just popping in for a quick minute to share a photo or two.  i'm also thinking i might start dropping in with a link to the other blog (messages from the ancestors) each day.  but right now, i'm just thinking about it.  maybe i'll just link that day's post when i do post here.  what do you think?  

anywho, my weekend was weird.  i was hyperalert due to {jazz hands} all that out there in the world which was exacerbated by what was happening here in the States.  i pretty much stayed in the house with the doors closed and locked.  i did a lot of reading, sorting and miscellaneous stuff around the house.

for the past week or so we've had so much rain i have barely had to step outside to even look at the garden. so, guess how surprised i was when i went out yesterday morning to water and found i had 6 juliet (large grape style) tomatoes ready to pick!  of course, i forgot to take a picture but they sure were pretty!

i'm on a lot of meds right now as my neuro is trying to find a good combination of things to help lessen my time and intensity in migrainelandia.  at least 3 of them completely take away my appetite so i'm eating very little.  i am NEVER hungry (honestly, even the thought of food makes me want to barf 95% of the time) and by the time i think about needing to eat something (trying to manage my blood sugar) it's usually 8 or 9 pm. so over the weekend, i decided to try to get myself a regular meal schedule going.  last night i decided to have a little salad so i could eat the tomato so picked a tiny bit of lettuce, a radish and cut up a tomato for it, to go with my fried potato and hot dog.

i ended up giving 3 of my beautiful tomatoes to my next-door neighbor.  that's why i only have 3 left in the first picture.  the very light-colored one fell off the vine while i was picking the others so i brought it in to let it ripen before i eat it.  :-)

anyhoo...what have you been up to lately?  did you go to a protest this past weekend?  i'd love to hear about your experience if you did.  

i hope to be back soon.  i have my nephew coming to stay with me next week and that should give me good fodder for the blog not to mention be a lot of fun.

thanks for being here...

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

little sparkles of happy...

good evening, my lovelies.

i'm just popping in for a little show and tell today.  i'd planned to spend a couple of hours in the garden, but the migraine gods had other plans for me.  i just went out long enough to water and pick these:

after watering i took a few pictures of other things in the garden.

my radishes are coming up but i see the seeds i planted somehow migrated during the rain or watering or something.  so i'll add a few more to fill out the pot tomorrow.  

my neighbor gave me a couple of her orchids that need some help.  i've been watching tons of videos about how to take care or revive lackluster orchids. so, i have these to work on and see if i can get them happy again.  if i do, she's gonna have to give me one since i did all the work. :-)

that's pretty much what i did today other than finish up making my first batch of homemade spaghetti sauce.  oh my word...it's delicious!

this is a recipe that came with my mum's electric skillet a long time ago.  she didn't make it often because she thought it took too long.  i've always loved it though it uses canned mushrooms and tomatoes.  now that i've got it and learned i can cook it in a stock pot/dutch oven, i may try my next batch with fresh tomatoes and mushrooms, just to see how it changes it.  hopefully it will be even better.

well...that's all for now.

thanks for being here, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

in my kitchen...

it's seems like all my time lately is spent in the kitchen.  i've made a promise to myself to not waste food and to find uses for everything i can.

i've made cherry bread (it fell when i took it out of the oven too soon) using my grandmothers recipe that i shared here. this was actually my second loaf as i forgot to add sugar to the first attempt but didn't realize until after baking. ick!

what was left of the julia child white loaf was turned into croutons.

a small attempt at homemade salsa. i haven't tasted it yet, so we'll see.

my version of nachos for dinner the other night. i use this taco seasoning recipe from Heather of NorthRidge Farm. i make a big batch and use it quite liberally.  i really like it and prefer it to store packets.

and today i froze the rest of the cherries for future use and roasted the most recent harvest of jalapenos and cherry tomatoes to use in chilli making in the winter.

if i'm not making something, i'm cleaning up from making something.

the other day i tried cooking a london broil and used this recipe for it.  i'd never made london broil before and i think i must have used the wrong type pan as it took a lot longer to broil and was still pretty rare (which i didn't really mind). the flavor was amazing though so i'm pretty sure i'll give this another try at some point.

anyhoo...this is what i've been up to lately. and it has been fun.  i've also been doing a lot of walking and piddling around in the garden.  oh! and last night i picked up my knitting for the first time in a year (or more?). i kept feeling like i needed something to keep my hands busy while i watch tv or am just sitting quietly listening to an asmr video on the utubes.  i've found that the rainy/thunderstormy/ocean waves crashing sounds really soothe my frazzled nerves.  so when i'm feeling anxious i'll pull up one on my roku for background noise while i'm working around the house. 

well...this is enough rambling for now.  time to go find some dinner and pull out the knitting.

what have you been up to lately?

hope you have a wonderful weekend. 

love & magicks

~*~ 

 

realigning...

The original title of this post was 'faffing' but I looked it up to be sure I had the meaning and discovered I was completely off.  I've seen it used on Instagram (a British word I think) and thought I understood the context as being to mess around with things to get them just so.  I guess what I was thinking about was what Americans call 'fussing' with something.  Faffing apparently is messing around with things that don't mean anything instead of doing what needs done.

Anywho...I guess we will call what I've been doing...fussing.  Even though I don't like that word.  I'll have to search for a word that I like.  Basically what I've been up to these last few days is cleaning little spots and moving things around to my best liking.  Not exactly re-arranging.  

Not honing, or decorating, or furbishing... maybe realigning is the best word for it.  Finding little things and adjusting them so they bring me joy.  There...that sounds right.

The top photo is of a corner in my kitchen.  The empty jar is usually filled with tootsie pops (I'm so addicted!) but I'm thinking of putting some of my shell collection in there or some colored glass.  I love that little corner.

Yesterday, I worked in my bedroom, washing the linens and adding my new (to me) old sheets I acquired from an account on IG (search shopbedrose).  I love the colors.  And of course, flowers always.  Now to find a new comforter or some old quilts.

So that's what I've been doing since Lughnasadh...realigning.  

I've been opening the blinds.

I've been doing night pages (the same as morning pages). 

I've been soaking in the tub with warm water, a little milk and a few sprinklings of amazing bath salts from Wild in the Woods.  (Her IG feed is MAGIC!)

I've been drinking lots of water.

And I've been taking leisurely strolls through the neighbourhood at dusk.

It's helping...every piece seems to help to realign my inside as well as my outside.

Well, I'm off to stretch my back and see what I can realign today.

Are you 'realigning' anything in your world? And what word would you use to describe it?

I hope you are all doing well.

thanks for stopping in for a read...

love & blessings

~*~

ps...I seem to be unable to answer/respond to comments. I used to receive them in an email to which I could reply.  Now it comes in as no reply emails.  I'm trying to find a way to respond.  (Any suggestions are appreciated).  Meanwhile, please know that your comments mean the world to me and I enjoy hearing from each of you...  ~*~  

Friday in the Garden... (on Saturday)

I meant to post yesterday and became distracted.  These have all been taken over the last several days.  I was so happy to see those black-eyed Susans bloom.  Last year the deer ate them before they started to form blossoms.  I am sad that it seems we don't have many deer around this year.  

The faerie guards the potted mum and apparently has been letting her friends hang out in the plant. Does anyone know what type of mushrooms those are?  I tried searching the interwebs but couldn't figure out.

The raspberry cream zinnias are so pretty and I'm so glad I added them to the garden.  I was inspired to do so by Vanessa and all her talk/photos of her zinnias.  
The salvia is still blooming for the hummingbirds and is very pretty.

That last photo is of a spider web I found in the camellia.  

In other news, those refrigerator pickles I mentioned in my last post?  YUM!!  So good!

Well, that's about all I've got today.  Hope you are having a good day.

What's growing in your garden or being created in your kitchen?

thanks for stopping in to read...
love & blessings
~*~