rain, scrapbook, movies

I spent the weekend with my sister who lives on a lake. A perpetual retreat!
We started a scrapbook of our mother's life 10 years ago. So we were scrapping
and back in time and now can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 
Want to be done. 
You know that feeling.

Saw two movies together with Redbox that I saw when they came out:
Cinderella and Far From the Madding Crowd.
This is what happens when you have Rent ONE, get ONE FREE.
Plus we saw Downton Abbey's first episode of Season 6.

Seemed like a holiday. 
Sister time is like a holiday!

walls.....me too

I read this( below)  on Instagram last week and keep thinking about the Gospel and friendship and living a life well lived: 

 

Sometimes I think we forget the walls we put up. We stop noticing how much we have twisted and tangled ourselves to fit into what someone else says we should be. We get so good at curating the perfect image and spinning the perfect caption that we forget what it is to be really, really honest anymore. Because we convince ourselves that if we sat down across from someone and showed them who we really are….that it might not be enough for them. That it wouldn’t be pretty enough or young enough or pinnable enough or double-tap worthy enough. I think sometimes we forget what it is to allow ourselves to exhale. To come alongside someone with a bottle of wine and an over-sized sweatshirt, and lean in closer when they tell you everything that’s going wrong. To listen to really hear, not just to be the first to respond. To look them in the eye and not down at your phone. To nod your head and swirl your glass and let out a blues-y “mmmmm hmmmm.” And then when they’re done, to whisper the only two words in the English language that can really start to help heal people, the only two words that act like a cool salve to a stinging wound: “Me too.” Ohhh have I been there. Ohhh do I know how that feels. And you are NOT alone. So today, wherever you find yourself in the midst of the messy middle you’re currently walking through, I hope you read these words and hear me whispering, Me too, friend. Me too." Today on the blog, I am SO honored to be part of "The Real Me" series that my friend @lwakephoto started!

Mary Marantz ... from  instagram

fallish cooking

I have a stack of cookbooks from the library.

                                                 from her blog: Seven Spoons

                                                    from her blog: My New Roots 

                                                    from her blog : What Katie Ate

                                             
                                                  from her blog: The Sprouted Kitchen

 I made this delicious snack cae over the weekend and it is almost gone ... 
from Seven Spoons
This is not my photo BUT it did look like this. You whip the butter and
sugar for 8 minutes. That is the secret ingredient , so to speak:

TARA’S BLUEBERRY POPPY SEED SNACKING CAKE

A delicious buttery cake full of texture and juicy blueberries lifted with an abundance of citrus flavour.
 Seven Spoons by Tara O’Brady

Makes 1 Medium Round Cake

Ingredients

2 cups  unbleached  flour
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 tsp sea salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 1/4 c granulated sugar
4 organic eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons crème fraiche or sour cream
zest of 1 small orange or lemon
juice of half orange or lemon ( I used lemon)
1 cup of fresh or frozen  blueberries

Method

Preheat oven to 300 degrees . Butter and line an 8 inch  round with parchment paper.

Whisk flour, poppy seeds, salt and baking powder in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes with an electric beater until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla, eggs, crème fraiche or sour cream , orange or lemon  juice and zest. Beat until smooth.

Fold the flour mixture and blueberries in the wet batter gently until thoroughly combined. Bake in the pre-heated oven for approximately 80 minutes until golden, cooked through the middle when tested with a skewer and coming away from the edges.

Notes

Standard cake pans are shorter in height, so you might need to use two pans instead of the one I have used which is a taller, vintage pan.

Crème fraiche can be substituted with sour cream. Frozen blueberries can be swapped for fresh.

finished GO SET A WATCHMAN

I finished Harper Lee's prequel to TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD last week. Tears fell as I read about Jean Louise's battle with bigotry. I was deeply touched by the love , no matter how it is exhibited, of the closest men in her life. It was a tumultuous time in the South, yet  Atticus still looms heroic to  me as the man who righted the wrong in Lee's next book that we all know and love. 

This  is a very good book of the late 1950's in the South. I don't know of any other book in this time period. Do you?


Makoto Fujimura writes a good analysis of this book here. 

almost the weekend

the murmuring cottage

- really fun class today as my students started The Taming of the Shrew and we laughed so hard we could hardly speak or stand

- good lesson on Poplicola from Anne White's lessons ...everything there you need to do

- heading to the mountains early in the morning for a good book sale and going to see these ladies



- and then the weekend arrives...

free and not free

printables this month here



THIS is not free and  so pretty:

don't forget this lost art

Receiving a hand written letter in your mailbox is one of the many forgotten treasures. Write one to someone soon and spread a little cheer!

from here

and from my favorite tumblr

the murmuring cottage

e at themurmuringcottage.tumblr.com

more messing around on the internet

FROM here:

Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. -George Addair

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet. - 

At 23, JK Rowling was broke. Tina Fey was working at the Y.M.C.A. Oprah had just gotten fired from her first job as a TV reporter and Walt Disney had declared bankruptcy - 

So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You’d better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can’t rearrange the universe. - Issac Asimov

We tend to forget that baby steps still move you forward. - 

messing around on the internet

finding these pretties: here

to market , to market

"Life is certainly different here- got to Trader Joe's."

Daughter's text from the subway in NY and going to one of the busiest Trader Joe's in the nation but today is the friday of a long weekend so it was less crowded.
Sometimes the line to get in is wrapped around the building!

 I went too today -  here at home. 
Drove in , parked, shopped and left. No lines.  

the day

It has seemed like Friday all day on this Thursday. 
Empty nest is quiet. BUT I do text and talk and email
my college daughter. Here are a few things I have been 
doing:

- I bought each of these handmade mugs for 1.00.
Plus the fabric basket which is hiding in the dark behind
the peachers. It was 1.50. ( thrift store finds) Plus an art book on Durer who I am going to teach this year. The mug on it's side has a flower right at the bottom of the handle. So cute. 

- Getting ready for classes. All sorts of classes this year 
and it is keeping me on my toes for planning. Once it 
all gets on the road, I will be fine. 

- Reading Harper Lee's new book GO SET A WATCHMAN to my friend who runs this lending library: Living Books Library.
Or if you are interested in a great series of videos , watch 
here. 

- books on the stack:

today: September 2

September 2

WENDELL BERRY