Joyful Hymn of Praise 2011

We enjoyed a performance by the Deo Cantamus Chorale and violinist Luther Warren last Saturday evening.  The music was truly beautiful.  Handel and hymns, arrangements new and old, a "Joyful Hymn of Praise" to our Lord it was indeed.   

Leah, Caleb and Will were part of the chorale.  What a joy it was to hear these beautiful songs they've been practicing, now full, all the voices lifted in harmony. 

  

 

Greta and Josiah knew the pieces from hearing Daddy and Uncle Bill practice them in the evenings.  Josiah sat quiet through the whole of Handel's "My Heart is Inditing" that he knows so well and conducted with his little hands.

A great evening. 

I look forward to Deo Cantamus' next performance in the spring!

Homish comforts

We're having some sickie days here.

Poor little Rosie has the worst of it, but she's been a great sport.

 

Cooking episodes are the comfort-viewing of choice. 

We also, thankfully(?), have enough extended family with the same bug to vary the company a bit!

 We have had our first coldish days.  I am so thankful for my new woodstove!  I've delighted in starting fires with marvelous control of the draft.  And it has a WiNdOw so I can WaTcH the crackle and the flames!  It's all very thrilling.

 {crackle, snap...warm}



The Ironing

  

"If she wasn't having a baby on Tuesday, my mother ironed.  She had three flatirons, which she heated on top of her kitchen range and which she lifted with a detachable handle.  She changed irons about every ten minutes as they cooled off.  When I awakened on Tuesday morning, I could hear my mother ironing.  The handle sqeaked as it was pushed against the flatiron moving across the ironing board."

(Nothing to Do but Stay: My Pioneer Mother, by Carrie Young, pp.42-43 [Iowa City, 1991])

September girl

October kitchen

We've had quite a nice Indian summer this year, but the winds of weather change are starting to blow now.  The leaves are turning and falling fast.  I'm inspired to clean out and brighten my corners before we shut the windows and haul in firewood for the months of cold.  This week when I've had time I've worked a bit on the corners of my kitchen.  I've brought in pieces of my favorite plants to keep me company when the garden sleeps.  I've used the idea (not mine, but much appreciated) of planting in my empty tea tins!  I switched out the curtain too; a lovely change and refreshing.

  

  

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Bright blue weather

drying quilts, crunching leaves

I can hear the corn dryer on the big grain bins down the street.  It smells like field corn.

Cladonia

Source: ravel.me via Rita - Red Pepper Quilts on Pinterest

Source: ravel.me via Rita - Red Pepper Quilts on Pinterest

Source: ravel.me via Rita - Red Pepper Quilts on Pinterest

I found this shawl about a month and a half ago and immediately fell in love with it, pattern and color.  I love blue and grey.  And blue and grey together, in stripes and lace--aahh!  What a happy providence when I went to my local supermarket and found those exact colors in the yarn isle.  The pattern is Cladonia, by Kirsten Kapur.  I started knitting away in some trepidation, my knitting experience being very minimal.  I've never done more than a scarf or a washcloth and never with a pattern.  I was thrilled to find the pattern easy to follow and marvelously fun to do.  Addictive actually.  I only had to learn a few new stitches.  Olivia made some lovely little beaded stitching markers for me to use.  There is a peculiar little jog in the line of increase stitches on the finished product, but it's my first time using markers--what can I expect.  I look forward to casting on again and trying another one--pink and cream this time maybe, for Greta.