I Might Be a Grown Up

Today, I turn 52.  This is crazy for a million reasons, but especially because it means I am clearly a grown up.

I do not feel like a grown up.

Over the years, I’ve realized that no one really ever feels like a grown up.  Clearly I must be: I’ve raised a child, I have a full time job that quite likely is a career, I have a home that I care for and utility bills that I regularly pay.  I cut the grass and do other grown-up things.

All the evidence is in:  I am a grown up.

A grown up who loves being JT’s mama and T’s partner; whose days are made better by flowers, good books, mason jars, and twinkling lights; who likes to cook and feed the people she loves; who pours over garden and book catalogs and daydreams about both.  And let’s not even mention the time I spend planning out front porch decorations for each month.  I like to laugh and play card games.  I love coloring books and the occasional cat video.  I like a fresh pedicure and a soft blanket; candlelight and sunrises.  My list of joys great and small could go on and on. I realize what a blessing this is.

But mostly I am filled with enormous gratitude for the people I love and who see fit to love me back, warts and all.  Time is flying by at a speed I never could have imagined when I was 10 or 20.  I am grateful for all of it and so very glad of this life I love.

That’s happy!

November Front Porch

The front porch is always ready for the next season.  The Halloween decorations have been packed away and replaced by November’s thankful display.

Pumpkins, mums, and gourds remain the theme of the season, though I am well aware that soon enough the local wildlife will hop up here to treat the table’s bounty as their own personal buffet.

As a child, I thought of Thanksgiving as the boring prelude to the spell of joy that is December.  My father always preferred Thanksgiving and the older I get the more I appreciate a month that reminds us to be grateful for our blessings in this life.  This is the thankful season and being thankful means that I am glad to share with any hungry creatures.  I am always thankful for my home and there is no reason not to share our gratitude with others.

Happy November, y’all!

Mulch Mower for the Win

Between the tall sycamore and oak trees that line my street and the trees in my own backyard, the leaf harvest around here is something to behold.  We do our best to rake and bag them for the town to pick up at the curb but the chore can seem never-ending.  Enter me and my mulching mower.  

Ground up, the leaves are a great fertilizer for my lawn.  And mulching them row by row is satisfying, at least for the few days hours that the grass looks tidy.

Soon enough, leaves will once again cover the lawns and sidewalks.  

Raking and mulching will take several rounds before we can call the job complete.   But while there is still gas in my mower, my mulching ambitions can be fulfilled.

That’s happy!

November 1: Fairy Garden

Last weekend, the fairies packed up for the season.  They head south for the Winter, though in their case it’s the milder weather of the basement where they can rest safely during the cold season.   Leaves will fill this patch until they are raked up and the colder weather and snow eventually arrive.  Over the Winter, I’ll do some prep work in the fairy town and likely talk my way into some new fairy accessories, as is my way.

The bird feeder is filled to keep the birds happy in the coming cold weather.  Truth is that the squirrels will also have a try at scoring a treat but we’ve laid in plenty of bird seed, so there is enough for everyone.  Each season of the year has something to offer and this patch of the garden always reminds me of the wisdom of Mother Nature’s plan.

Halloween!

My town is a near perfect place to trick-or-treat, with even sidewalks and residents who get in to the holiday.  Jack-o-lanterns and decorations are everywhere and along with the crunchy leaves on the sidewalks, we are ready.  As the twilight lengthens, I can hear more kids coming out to join the fun.  We laid in a substantial candy supply at Sassafras House and I am sitting out on the porch in my witch costume so I can soak up the evening,

Between the twilight and the excited kids, the night feels magical.  That’s happy!

October Book Report: Thirteen Moons

Back in June, to start my Summer, I read Varina by Charles Frazier.  I enjoyed the book a great deal and, as I finished the last pages, I heard an interview with Frazier in which he talked about his second book, Thirteen Moons.  Since I’d now read two of Frazier’s books (he also wrote Cold Mountain), and liked them both a great deal, it seemed like picking up Thirteen Moons was a plenty good idea.

Indeed it was.

Set in the 1800s, the novel is the story of Will Cooper, a 12 year old orphan whose aunt and uncle sign a contract to bind him to a merchant.  The merchant owns stores in the mountains on the edge of Indian land and has “hired” Will to man a store.  At 12 years old and with no other choices, Will travels to the isolated outpost to manage the store.  Over time, he makes acquaintance and then friends with the native tribes and their leaders who live in the area.  Often alone for hours of each day, he reads and becomes a self-educated lawyer.  Will is intelligent and curious and as he grows past his loneliness and into adulthood, the tribes, and two of their leaders, adopt him as their own.  He becomes a wealthy and successful man, one who straddles two worlds and comes to prefer the natives to the American whites.

The novel begins as an elderly Will reflects on the long years of his life.  His story meanders through the past and the events Will has lived through.  He discusses the final years of Indian removal and the lives of the tribal members who stayed in the isolated mountains of Georgia and North Carolina.  He details the politics of the eras and discusses the expansion of railroad lines.  He ruefully reflects on his participation in the Civil War and considers its aftermath.

The book’s understanding of history is powerful.  It’s discussion of the events of the mid-1800s in the lives of Will and the native tribes whom he knows and loves is filled with the gluttony for land and intolerance that were at the heart of Indian  removal policy.  Frazier also takes care to tell the story from the Indian point of view.  It’s heartbreaking, of course.  Frazier takes care that the reader sees it all with open eyes.

In his acknowledgments, Frazier takes pains to tell the reader that this is story of the imaginary Will Cooper.  Though there are parallels to the real life of William Holland Thomas, this is not Thomas’s story.  In Frazier’s telling of Will’s story, we are offered the 18th century and all its warts from a variety of views.  The tale is sometimes bewildering but always generous to the human spirit despite its failings.  I enjoyed the novel very much and it’s a keeper; a book I will re-read over the years.

Last of the Season

Last weekend, I picked what I expect will be the last zinnias of the 2019 garden season.  There was a handful of pretty flowers.

I mixed them with some the fall mum bouquet I had on hand and made a pretty posey for one of my favorite antique mason jars.  It’s on the dining room table helping to make things cheerful.

I’m already daydreaming about the seeds I’ll plant next year.  That’s happy!

Sunrise View

In the Summer, the tall trees filled with green leaves makes for a seemingly secluded backyard.  I can see the sunrise from the back deck but it seems to rise from the trees, not the horizon.

Come mid-October, as the leaves begin to fall from the trees, the horizon comes into view.  My sunrise watching seems more expansive and on clear days I enjoy a cup of coffee on the back deck, wrapping a sweater around me as I watch the dawn light fill the sky as the sun creeps over the horizon.  As we near the time change, sunrise is rather late in the morning and the inky darkness doesn’t start to ease until just after 7 am.  The view to the East is opening up and I’m looking forward to the Winter sunrises in the coming months.

Dogwood in Fall

The dogwood tree in the backyard  is now completely red.  T and I did some yard work yesterday and I made these pictures so I’d be able to remember this beauty through the coming Winter.

For a few days, the sight of red-leafed limbs will greet me in the morning.  Then, a windy day will come along and the leaves will fall.  That day will leave behind bare limbs that are also beautiful to see.  

I find beauty in every season but I’ll miss these leaves and their shady presence in my backyard view.

Fall Bouquets

A few weeks ago, T gave me a bouquet of fall mums.  I put them in a Mason jar vase and admired the lovely colors.  Mums make great bouquet because they last and last.  On Sunday, I trimmed these flowers up and made three posey bouquets that we’ve enjoyed all week.

That’s happy!