Tis the Season for....

~CAMELLIAS~

We have the most amazing camellias surrounding our home! We went around one year & collected 1 bloom from each & found out we have 13 different varieties of camellias! The woman who built this house in 1917 was a great gardener. People tell us about her all the time even though she passed away, I believe in the 60's. She was very beloved around here. A true southern lady. We also have beautiful azaleas, dogwood trees & various bulbs that pop up at different times of the year. These pictures are the first of the camellias to start blooming. It was a nice surprise to find while Georgia & I took our walk. I think it's so wonderful that we have flowers blooming in our yard with every season of the year. Even in Winter!

Fall Clean Up.....

It was a beautiful weekend! Georgia & I worked outside this weekend, starting to rake leaves & sweep the patio. Most of the leaves have finally fallen so I guess it's time. We always wait until ALL the leaves have fallen to start raking! But I really was half heartedly raking mainly looking for pecans to gather. I plan on making spiced pecans for some Christmas presents from the pecans in our yard. I've gathered quite a lot of pecans now the hard part is going to be the shelling! I have a good recipe for spiced nuts but I also want to try the crispy nuts in ~Nourishing Traditions~ by Sally Fallon.

*maybe I shouldn't have posted those pics~What a mess! It doesn't look much better today~haha~

Mama's Night Out...

I did want to talk about the wonderful evening I had this past Monday. I have a playgroup Georgia & I meet with every once in a while. I wish we could go more often but living in this town makes us a little isolated. Which is hard but hopefully in the next year or so we will be moving to our new home on our land. Then I will be close to all these wonderful women! The core group for me are the 3 other women that I went through my pregnancy with. We did what was called ~Centering~ at our midwives office & met in a group. We were all within a month or so of the same due date. It was a great experience. Well from there they started going to the La Leche League meetings which unfortunately I did not attend. About a year ago they started a playgroup separate from LLL. The group has grown & I have met some other wonderful mamas.

Anyways starting this past Monday we are going to start doing the occasional Ladies night. I can not tell you how much I need this! I was so happy I was able to go. It was worth the long drive & late night! I didn't get home til 1:30am!! (then up at 5am~Ugh!) I wish I had a picture from that night to post. But try to picture in your mind a group of 7 women sitting around a table in a cosy dining room. Each having either cups of tea or coffee or a nice glass of wine. Half of the women keeping their hands busy knitting special projects while chatting. Then our hostess suggested going around the table & each of us sharing our life story. In any other setting this would have been something I would really have disliked but it was really wonderful hearing everyone's story, sharing our joys & hardships. It was this safe place of love & support & you felt you could reveal more of your soul. It was a really special night....Can't wait for the next one! I am so incredibly Thankful for this group of women. They are so good for my soul. It's just nice to know there are women out there that I can relate to & have something in common with. Because in this town I have not been able to find that yet...

This week...

Whew! All right! I wanted to at least get Thanksgiving posted since today is the last day of November! How is that possible? Starting tomorrow everyone is going to be in full Christmas mode. It kinda bothered me seeing people decorating for Christmas this week. It's not even December yet!! I know that a lot people usually start decorating the weekend after Thanksgiving & it did come early this year. So there you have it... But I am just feeling kinda "bah humbug" about Christmas this year. Not sure exactly why. I usually love Christmas. I'm excited about getting our tree. Georgia is very excited! But I think we'll wait another week or so. Other than the tree I'm really not looking forward to it. I need to work on that! I will admit that being on a tight budget is getting me down. Even though I know Christmas is not about presents! Don't want it to be about presents!! But still there are things I would like to do but they just aren't in the budget. But my budget isn't the only thing getting me down...So I have been searching for inspiration this week & not finding it! There have been very inspiring posts out in blogland but in my dulldrums I haven't gotten excited. Very frustrating! Ok I need to SNAP OUT OF IT!!

Thanksgiving~cont'd

Here is the PECAN PIE I usually make for Thanksgiving. The pecans are from trees around my house (yes I gathered & shelled them) & a homemade crust. I had fun this year with using maple leaf cut outs for the edge. I hate crimping the crust, I can never get it to look pretty. But I think this turned out very pretty! It was definitely YUMMY!! I made a special crustless pumpkin pie without eggs & used coconut milk instead. It turned out pretty good & she really enjoyed it. She was so very excited to have her own pie! You can kinda see her digging into it in the 2nd pic. How I wish she will grow out of some of these allergies...

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year. We usually do but this year was more relaxed. Smaller group of people at my in-laws so it wasn't all crazy. It's fun with a bigger crowd but I think I liked it this way better.

Well I'm not doing such a good job blogging. I have some pics etc I want to post but haven't really had a chance. Hoping to get this blog personalized & have it be my special place soon.