Thanksgiving preparations

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm in the midst of baking pies and potatoes, and mom has set out the cornucopia o'er flowing with fruits and vegetables and nuts. Something I didn't know about the cornucopia, or horn of plenty: it is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th century BC! It came from Greek mythology. I looked it up because I knew it has become a symbol of our ancestor's thanksgiving for God's blessings, but I didn't know if that was the origin of it or not. Now I do! Very interesting. I love Thanksgiving. I'm rather glad that it hasn't really become a huge commercial holiday, even though it deserves to be one. I hate that it is sometimes called "Turkey day", but what can you do. Everything has to be PC nowadays. It's a shame, but at least we have the choice not to fall into the same rut. A friend said "Have a happy turkey day" to me, and I corrected them. What makes me laugh is that last week there where 5 houses with Christmas lights up on my street. The week before Thanksgiving! Talk about premature. I have been starting to look into Christmas carols, myself. But I have an excuse: I'm practicing for a friends and family performance. I've been singing Thanksgiving hymns too, though. We have two we always sing, and they are dear to me.

Come, ye thankful people, come

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied;
Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

All the world is God’s own field, fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown unto joy or sorrow grown.
First the blade and then the ear, then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.

For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take His harvest home;
From His field shall in that day all offenses purge away,
Giving angels charge at last in the fire the tares to cast;
But the fruitful ears to store in His garner evermore.

Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring Thy final harvest home;
Gather Thou Thy people in, free from sorrow, free from sin,
There, forever purified, in Thy garner to abide;
Come, with all Thine angels come, raise the glorious harvest home.


We gather together

We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;
He chastens and hastens His will to make known.
The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing.
Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own.

Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining,
Ordaining, maintaining His kingdom divine;
So from the beginning the fight we were winning;
Thou, Lord, were at our side, all glory be Thine!

We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,
And pray that Thou still our Defender will be.
Let Thy congregation escape tribulation;
Thy Name be ever praised! O Lord, make us free!

Dusk in the dell

Last night my mother asked me if I wanted to go out painting with her, as it would be good for me to get some fresh air. I expressed an inclination to do so, so she packed her paints and I my trusty book. We set off, stopping by the store for ammunition (cashews for her, pistachios for me, dark chocolate kisses for both of us), and drove 10 minutes to our destination: a magnificent cow pasture. There are rolling hills with blankets of trees and soft grasses draped over them, and a small river roiling its way over rocks and waterfalls and around little islands with hardy little sycamores wetting their feet in the foam. I was intending to stay in the car and read, but when I saw the beauty of the descending dusk, nothing could have made me stay in the car.

I grabbed a big coat and my mother's camera and fortified my pockets with chocolate for warmth. I ran down the hill into the meadow, disregarding both the cow pies and my aching lungs. I looked around rapturously at the landscape, and I greedily breathed the spicy cold air colored with a hint of frost. I wandered around taking pictures till darkness came, happily ignoring my freezing face and hands. The woods were dark except for the pale shining limbs of the sycamores and the glowing red of the last-turning oaks. Everything was tinged a slight reddish gold; the sun had just set. I couldn't portray that on film, and it took me about 10 takes to get a decent picture of anything on account of the fading light.

It was actually a lot lighter out than this picture portrays, but you know how fussy cameras are. The cows were grazing quietly on the hillside, slowly wending their way back home for the night.

A beautiful little trail... you can't see the depth and faery-like quality of it here.

Branch lace in the sky.

The trees were reaching their arms towards the last glimmers of sunlight.


A little old man-tree caught my hair in his gnarled fingers, and when I turned around in fright, he smiled benignly at me as if to say, "I mean you no harm, my dear!".
The leaves curled themselves up to protect themselves from the cold wind.

I wish you could see the warmth of the colors, but I just couldn't capture it.


The last nightshade berries glowed in the dull grass, and reminded me of the time I used to pick them and pretend they were little tomatoes (though I never ate them of course; they are quite poisonous).
I simply could not get the water into focus. I took about 30 pictures of the stream, but this is the clearest of the lot.



I'm including this for fun. The cows who live on these acres do not know how lucky they are to have such a wonderful place to roam.


My mother painting. She wears an old blue coverall for warmth; I can't remember her ever painting in the winter without it. At her feet is our beloved watch dog (I should say one of our beloved dogs, for we have two). She has a good intimidating bark, but nothing in the world will make her bite someone. She has never growled in her life.


Don't you wish you had gone with me?

A beautiful day continued

I am sure that someone lives in this wonderful stump... I wish I was small enough to live there too!
Both the poison ivy (above) and the English ivy (below) looked quite pretty in their fall colors.

Little Brother was thoroughly enjoying the day!


We stopped to take a look at what I thought was just an abandoned and dewy spiderweb. I didn't find out until I had actually seen the picture that it was, in fact, still occupied!

A beautiful day

It was such a beautiful day today! The sky was blue, the air was crisp, and the colors were dazzling, though unfortunately the ground was damp owing to all the rain we've had. I haven't really been outside since I've been sick; I feel better, though I still have a magnificent bass cough, and get tired and out of breath after physical exertion (like fetching the mail). But I ventured out, accompanied by mom's camera and Little Brother, to breathe the fresh air and to try and capture on film some of the beauty I had seen while looking out the windows.

There were still some leftover berries on the crab apple tree; I tried to capture how pretty they looked against the sky. I didn't really, but you can sort of see it.

Autumn

It is Autumn now, and I go into raptures every day as I see all the brilliant gold and red leaves on all the trees, and the mists on the fields in the mornings. Fall is my favorite season (besides Spring), and in honor of it I am going to share some of my favorite fall pictures. I have to get a new camera; my old one died, and I need one since I love taking pictures of all I see. But I'll have to be content with other people's pictures until I can post my own (they are much better than mine anyhow).




This last picture could have been taken in the woods here where I live. It looks very like where my mother paints a good deal: a place called Henderson Swamp.