September's Letter

It feels like coming home

Down the gravel road is an old crab apple tree. I’ve been watching it since it’s flouncy blooms emerged last spring. Now it’s baubbled in crimson red. It’s late summer’s way. By month’s end, there’ll be pink Limelight hydrangeas in the flower garden. The bushes that I thought would never bloom, finally, finally have. You can imagine my anticipation of watching the creamy blooms turn to blush (Loi’s gardens are always an inspiration) over the stretch of these September days that begin in summer and end in fall.

Ah, September. It feels hopeful, doesn’t it? Feels like coming home. Settling in, taking care of the outside and the inside, preparing, and putting by. For turning a page and writing down. On my list are things like, order candles and buy bulbs. Of course, there’s also, prepare flowerbeds for winter, and fence vegetable garden - (that task intended for last spring, which time and a riotous crop of self-sown cosmos simply didn’t allow for). And, by September’s last cast of days with their cooler days and nights, I expect I’ll be feeding Willa, and baking sourdough bread once again.

Also this month, I’ll be rolling out new things for you, my subscribers, both paid and free. Ways we can engage and connect and make this experience even more meaningful. I’ll tell you more about this soon!

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Moments Lately

Finding old things

Reading by the creek

Putting food by

Waiting for the blush

Watching the crab apples turn

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Reading Lately

Horse - After starting and discarding many books last month, I finally landed on this, one I fell into completely. The author’s keen use of words painted such a vivid picture of the horse and the characters surrounding him that I felt I was there. She expertly wove the many threads from time periods and people together to create a compelling fictional narrative around one of the greatest thoroughbred race horses of all time.

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Eating Lately

When the high temps of summer begin to ease, I just want to bake something. Recently, it was a batch of these cookies, my mother’s recipe. After they’d cooled, I had the thought of storing them in a clamp-lid jar in the refrigerator to keep them fresh a little longer. Later, when our home-for-a-minute son took a bite of a fridge-cold cookie, his eyebrows flew up and all he could say was, Mmm.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons milk

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups rolled oats, uncooked

12 oz milk chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Heat the oven to 375°F. In a large bowl, with an electric beater or in a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars together until creamy. Add the eggs, milk, and vanilla. Mix well. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add it to the creamed mixture and stir well. Stir in the rolled oats, chocolate chips, and walnuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 9-10 minutes for chewy; 11-12 minutes for crisp. Remove from oven and cool on a cookie rack before storing in an airtight container.

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Favorites Lately

(Things that are in my house, on my wishlist, or are currently inspiring me)

For keeping

For drying

For writing

For dreaming

For stitching

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