Darkest Depths/Long Nights Time 2025

The Wolf Moon 

 
The time of Long Nights is slipping away. Now we enter the time of cold. Remember the old adage, "As the days lengthen, the nights strengthen.".

We'll address the weather first since many of you have heard reports about New York and may be wondering. 

At our house, we've only had about 3" of snow. We have had many days of strong winds (sometimes gusting to 50 mph), and below zero windchills. Those subzero wind chills have interfered with our daily walks. Our route is far too exposed to be safe in this weather.

My hometown at the eastern edge of Lake Ontario has gotten hammered. Some of you are sitting amid the snowbanks right now. Try to stay warm and enjoy the forced confinement.

Holiday trees

We enjoyed a quiet and restful Solstice and Yuletide. Evening fires in the woodstove to counteract the cold winds, reading and a few special treats to eat.

Projects have kept us busy this month.

Footstool project begins

Bob bought an old footstool at a charity garage sale. The top fabric and cushioning needed to be replaced.

New padding goes on

He removed the old materials and cut out new padding from some old wool blankets.

New padding all on

After securing the padding, he cut a new top out of some heavy duck fabric.

New fabric all on

The recovered top was reattached to the base and now we have a footstool large enough for both of us to share. All of these materials were in my stash.

Finished product

Last year's beans have all been threshed out. There are fewer beans than usual, but I'm sure we'll get by with all of the leftovers from last year.

Total 2025 crop

Yesterday I ordered the seeds we need for this year's garden. We didn't need too many.

Choosing seeds

This year I'm going to try another pole habit drying bean. It's a black bean reportedly from the Narragansett tribe of Rhode Island. I'm excited to see how this one turns out.

Last year's trial bean, 5,000-Year-Old Cave Bean, turned out to be quite good. I'll plant that one again this year.

Bob's annual sweater was finished this morning!

Model strikes a pose

 

I often knit this pattern for him, varying the colors and patterns, because it fits his slim build very well.

In our season of rest, we've spent a good deal of time reading, each having finished several books already.

Generally, our evenings are spent reading aloud while sitting in front of the fire. We recently finished The Outermost House by Henry Beston.

A good read

Mr. Beston wrote of the year that he spent living on the Outer Beach of Cape Cod. He sought the seclusion of the beach in an effort to recover from the trauma of his World War I service. We found it to be very interesting.

Now we are reading The Slabsides Book . This book is about the woodland cabin of naturalist John Burroughs. We found this, as well as four volumes of Burroughs nature writings at the local library book sale. We plan to read all of them soon.

Who's at the feeder?

Our reading area looks out on our bird feeders, so we get great opportunities for watching the birds from the comfort of our living room.

Phase 1 complete

Work continues (slowly) on my hardanger piece. The project has three distinct phases: surface embroidery, cutting and lacework and counted cross stitch embellishments.

This week I finished phase 1. Now I begin with phase 2, which involves cutting into the piece and stitching in lacework. There's a ton of that to do.

A great find

 
On an unrelated note, we found this queen sized, handmade quilt in the thrift shop for $5.99. Yes, the decimal point is in the correct place! The craftsmanship, or perhaps craftspersons-ship, is very good. I brought it home to recognize and honor the creator's effort and spirit.

We hope that you have enjoyed any holiday which you may celebrate, and that you have eluded the flu and other illnesses. There's still time to relax and renew before the season of rebirth and growth. We hope you will take advantage of the time.

We'll be here; by the fire reading, or crafting, or playing games. Continuing to enjoy this golden period.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Warming the kitty-cicle

"Whose woods these are..."

Frost Time 2025

Last night's Cold Moon

 
Winter has found us here. We're a little colder than normal and there is snow on the ground.

A scene along our daily walk

We were able to harvest some "free lettuce" from the garden in mid-November. Now we'll depend on our frozen greens and the fresh sprouts which I grow.

Our final harvest

I've begun threshing out beans. I hope to be finished close to the end of December. Time will tell.

Threshing Aduki beans

Our Thanksgiving Day was low key. We both had colds and kept things simple. We did enjoy playing one of our favorite games: Anagrams. That evening we watched Miracle on 34th Street.

Thanksgiving game - I whooped him!

We did have a visitor (of sorts) on Thanksgiving; a Piliated Woodpecker dined on bugs in our nectarine tree.

 A hungry guest

We took another real vacation in November. We took a very special trip.

On our way - Syracuse airport

We flew to Oregon to visit family, some of which we met for the first time. It was a very enjoyable visit. Everyone was very welcoming and accommodating of our quirks. 

In addition to great family dinners and visiting, we made a special trip into California to see the coastal Redwoods.

First trail we walked

We walked with family members through a couple of different sections of the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

TALL trees!

The huge trees were almost unbelievable! Coastal Redwoods are even taller than Sequoias.

That's a downed trunk on my left

It was difficult to capture their immensity in a photo. You had to experience it, and I'm glad we did.

Second trail we walked

 

We also saw Bigleaf Maples. These leaves measured 10-12" across!

Bigleaf Maple leaf

It was sad to see entire mountain sides of dead trees, a result of the wildfires of a couple of years ago.

In other places, we saw Ponderosa Pines, Oregon White Oaks, and watched Acorn Woodpeckers going about their business of fitting acorns into holes they had excavated in tree trunks. A real treat for eastern birders!

Now that we're back home, we're in our winter pattern of living. Each of us do small, odd tasks during the day and relax in the evening.

I have raveled one of Bob's sweaters. To make the yarn reusable, you form it into skeins, which you soak and hang to dry.

Hanging to dry

Once dry, you wind it into balls for easier use.

Use a swift for winding

Bob's been doing some digital "housekeeping" tasks, little home repairs and tending to the social needs of our porch cat.

Essential work

Although he no longer works at Cornell, he's still an essential worker, in the cat's opinion.

Quiet evenings

Our evenings have primarily been spent reading. Sometimes I knit and Bob reads, either to himself or aloud so we both can enjoy a book. There's a fire if it's chilly. Usually a cup of tea, and perhaps a little treat. This will be our pattern for the next couple of months.

We hope you will all take some time to rest your bodies and your minds. In architecture, there is a quote, "Less is More". I believe this principle applies to more than architectural design.

Till next time, 

Kathleen and Bob

Royal command - warm me up!

    

Seed Fall 2025

 

Welcome Autumn

The moon is full tonight, I trust, somewhere up above the rain clouds and high winds that we're experiencing.

It's been a very busy month finishing the garden season.

All of the harvests are done.

Carrot harvesting

Beets and carrots are in the root cellar.

Beet greens

The beet greens were removed and we're still eating these.

Moving trellises

All of the dried beans have been harvested. We had to carry the last four trellises into the garage so they could finish maturing safe from the frost.

I have 12 bushels of beans in the cellar waiting to be threshed out.

Surprise harvest

We got a very late harvest of shiitakes. This was totally unexpected. They were small but made a great soup.

Rainbow chard, the last harvest

The last thing we pulled from the garden was Swiss Chard.

Applesauce for the freezer

We have had to purchase apples this year. I have put 12 pints of applesauce into the freezer.

Zinnias saved from the frost

I picked the last of the zinnias the evening before our hard frost.

Once the harvests were done, we began closing down the garden in earnest.

Bob tackling the weeds

We had a huge amount of weeding to do, making up for last summer when I was unable to work in the garden.

We spent several long days but finished the job (in spite of the "help" we received from our porch cat).

Demanding attention

Now the beds are cleaned and all mulched!

A job well done

We also did some other chores.

More firewood

Bob had to get the chainsaw out and cut up some large branches blown down from the trees next to the garden.

Planting garlic & shallots

I got the garlic and shallots planted for next year.

See that striped tail!

Bob got four winter cat shelters in place. You can see this one in use just about a half hour after being set up. This is his favorite shelter.

We were too busy to get away this month, except for the No Kings 2.0 rally.

Making Good Trouble

We travelled to Oswego to join family members (and 1000 others) for the event.

We also went to the huge Ithaca book sale two times. We scored 22 books and 3 CDs. Since the garden has been finished, we've been reading a lot.

We finished the garden on October 30th. This is right on schedule, for we try to be done by Samhain (Oct 31st).

For us Samhain marks the time when we shift our focus from providing for our physical needs, to providing for our inner needs. It's the start of our serious rest period. Now we're reading, thinking and re-creating ourselves. I'm knitting and Bob's catching up on little jobs.

We hope that you too, can begin to see late fall and winter as times to relax and rebuild. Our culture insists on seeing this season in a negative light. A burden and distasteful. Try to break free from that prejudice. It really can be such a nourishing season. Embrace it as such.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Lovely Autumn

Song Time/Falling Leaves Time 2025

Leaves are beginning to fall

The leaves are changing color, though not at peak yet, and beginning to fall. Summer birds have all departed and winter birds have yet to return. It's an in-between sort of time.

Thieving chipmunk

Bees, chipmunks and I have been busy socking away goodies for the coming winter. Bees are busy in the Nasturtiums, pollen bags full; chipmunks are busy stealing my Aduki beans; and I'm just about finished filling freezer, pantry and larder.

Many of the garden vegetables are done for the season: peppers and squash,

Dehydrating green beans

green beans and tomatoes.

So long tomato plants

I made salsa from some of the last tomatoes, both red and green.

Salsa for the freezer

We had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year, so we took extras to the local food pantry three weeks running. 

Shredding cabbage for kraut

We put up a crock of red cabbage for sauerkraut last week.

My cranberries have been picked and sent to the freezer.

Cranberries ready to pick

I harvested 1.5# this year. A new high yield.

A nice harvest

These are mainly used for making cranberry orange ginger muffins. Ooo, so good!

Harvesting dry beans

I'm still harvesting dry beans. Past the halfway mark now. My problem there is the new variety that I tried this year: 1500-Year-Old Cave Bean. It appears to need a much longer growing season. It has plenty of full pods, but they're not drying yet. This is in spite of the fact that we've had hot and dry weather. We're currently in a drought situation.

Tiny Bottle Gourds

Another experiment was the Bottle Gourd. It finally showed two small gourds formed on September 27th! They don't appear to have grown any larger since. I knew this was an "iffy" proposition in the first place. I may try again next year, starting them indoors earlier.

Gardening friends brought us some hot peppers. This was their bumper crop this year. Bob's experimenting with some of them.

He's trying to dry some by hanging them in sunny southern windows.

Drying peppers

Another variety he's put down in a salt and vinegar brine (like we use for horseradish). We will see if they will be pickled after a long soak.

Bob's pickled peppers

Now our attention turns toward garden clean-up.

The corn patch has now been cut and transformed into our annual sign of the final harvest: the corn shock.

The garden's final banner

We grew a little sorghum amongst the corn. We bundled that separately and have hung it in the bird garden for the birds and squirrels.

Sorghum-pretty, isn't it?

We went on two outings this month.

Early in the month, we spent the day at Filmore Glen State Park.

Lots of lovely fungi at Filmore Glen

It was a beautiful day for a hike and picnic.

At Filmore Glen State Park

Then, of course, we marked the Autumnal Equinox. Again, the weather was delightful. After a tasty lunch of Tempeh Cacciatore, we walked at Watkins Glen State Park.

Fun shot at Watkins Glen

Watkins Glen gorge

In the month ahead we hope to get the garden clean-up finished. I'll plant the garlic and shallots for next year, and we'll go to the semiannual book sale in Ithaca. Once these things are done, we'll begin to settle in for our annual rest time.

Autumn is a time to slacken the hectic pace of summer. Slow down. Breathe. Look around. Begin to re-center. Prepare for winter's luxury of resting in that center.

We wish you awareness in this most wonderful season.

Till next time,

Kathleen and Bob

Fall and Winter ease awaits