it’s a quiet evening at our house; home from a long day of work (me) and classes (john), we’re relaxing. homemade granola in the oven, john on the phone with his mom, lamps casting a soft glow into the evening darkness. the granola, a modified version of this is warming our house, filling it with the sweet scent of warm oats, toasted almonds, vanilla, and cinnamon – such a wonderful smell!
the end of daylight savings time caught me off-guard this year, and the early onset of night makes me a bit despondent every late afternoon. too soon, it will be dark both when i leave for work, and when i come home. with winter coming, we’re both craving lots of starches and hearty foods (storing up for hibernation?); chili, cabbage soup, breads spread with apple or pumpkin butter, potatoes and other root vegetables. i’ve been stocking our freezer, too, and am so pleased at the rows of jars filled with preserves (i’m a little gun-shy on the whole canning thing, and not wanting to experiment alone, i opted to freeze the butters, rather than risk botulism. good idea? i certainly think so).
our hallowe’en party went quite well! nearly everyone came in costume: john was a wwii bomber pilot (and very handsome – what is it about a man in uniform, even if it’s just pretend?!), i was Miss Scarlet, from “Clue,” complete with a candlestick. our little living room was full to the bursting, with two civil war soldiers, a woman of ancient rome, a little fuzzy blue bear (6 months old), a gentleman from the ’50s, a pig-man, a blue woman, and a vampire. i watched my first zombie movie, and handled it quite well until it was time for me to walk down the dark hallway, into our pitch-black bedroom, and try not to imagine that john, already in bed, was a zombie. ugh! a quick dash and a leap later, i was safe – and fortunately didn’t land on the already-sleeping john.
how are you preparing for winter? and did you have a good hallowe’en?
