WELCOME to our monthly collection where we offer links and ideas for you to explore with us. I hope you have a cup of tea and a quiet moment to savor the good things in life while you read.
High Wind
The clouds before him rushed, as they
Were racing home to end the day;
The flying hair of the beeches flew
Out of the East as he went through.
Only the hills unshaken stood.
The lake was tossed into a flood;
She flung her curling wavelets hoar
In wrath on the distracted shore.
Which of the elements hath sinned?
What hath angered thee, O wind?
Thou in all the earth dost see
Naught but it enrageth thee!
Mary Coleridge (1861-1907)
Today's poem selection in A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year.
Want to wean yourself off the microwave? I use mine less since learning I can heat leftovers in the Instant Pot. Add 1 cup water and the trivet to the pot. Put the leftovers in a glass container that fits into the instant pot, close and seal the lid. Select ‘Steam’ or ‘Pressure Cook’ for 0 minutes. The IP will come to pressure and then hold your food hot until you are ready to eat. In a few minutes or less, the food is perfectly reheated without making extra dishes- or drying in the oven or damaging it in the microwave. This trick is from A Healthier Home by Shawna Holman.
A new word: Eustress is positive anxiety or stress; it acts as a motivator and fills us with a sense of hope, positivity and vigor. It’s that push to make good changes or choices or to up your game in some way. According to this article, people often feel eustress in October.
On October 8, a friend and I left home for a women’s retreat. We headed north, without any real plan of what we were going to do, driving along Flathead Lake. Conversation and beautiful fall foliage flowed along naturally. On impulse, we turned off at Wayfarer’s State Park, a small camping spot beside the lake. We walked out on a big rock overlooking the view and ate chia pudding with raspberries. We sat there “resting in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas.”* We moved to the sunny dock to eat our packed lunch. My friend had brought a special drink to share. After lunch, we walked briskly to warm up. It was a crisp fall day. Next we sat on the lake shore and painted with water paints. Sometimes we were quiet, sometimes we talked. The whole day was so lazily luxurious we wondered if it was legal. Then, refreshed and refilled, we headed back to home in time to pick up school children and make supper for our families. Definitely recommend!
4 cups cubed raw apples,
2 eggs stirred into apples.
1 cup sugar,
2 tsp. vanilla,
pinch of salt,
1/2 cup oil added to apples and eggs.
Sift together 2 cups flour,
2 tsp. baking soda,
2 tsp. cinnamon. Add to apples.
Bake in an ungreased 9x13 45 minutes at 350*.
Make sauce:
1/2 cup butter, melted in saucepan.
1 cup sugar,
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup canned milk.
Cook and stir till thickened.
Stir in 1/2 cup shredded coconut,
1/2 cup sliced almonds. Toasted, if you want to go to the trouble.
Pour over cake and allow to finish cooling.
This is a favorite Jantz family treat.
A book review from Eva ⬇️
I have been reading Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent for our October Book Club. I definitely recommend it. I am thoroughly enjoying the story of her life! Here is what Amazon says about the book:
“Each time she knelt to “catch” another wriggling baby—nearly three thousand times during her remarkable career—California midwife Peggy Vincent paid homage to the moment when pain bows to joy and the world makes way for one more. With every birth, she encounters another woman-turned-goddess: Catherine rides out her labor in a car careening down a mountain road. Sofia spends hers trying to keep her hyper doctor-father from burning down the house. Susannah gives birth so quietly that neither husband nor midwife notice until there’s a baby in the room.
More than a collection of birth stories, however, Baby Catcher is a provocative account of the difficulties that midwives face in the United States. With vivid portraits of courage, perseverance, and love, this is an impassioned call to rethink technological hospital births in favor of more individualized and profound experiences in which mothers and fathers take center stage in the timeless drama of birth.”
Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets after you’ve read it several times? As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells… and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower… both strange and familiar. — Cornelia Funk, in Inkspell.
What has caught your attention lately? Tell us about it in the comments below.
–Liz
* A line from This is My Father’s World.
More seasonal readings:
So She Reads 