Newly November

"The meaning of life is to give life meaning."


I've been making an effort to think of the beginning of each month as a new start much like I do at the beginning of each New Year.  I like to take a little time to get motivated to be better and accomplish things, as well as to pause and look back.

Maybe I'm a bit weird in that marking time is so important to me.

Essentially, though, that's what I do as a newspaper editor.  I look ahead, plan ahead, and I look back. I also look around.  I observe.  I snap photos.  I take notes.

My whole life revolves around recording things.

So here I go again, only on a more personal note.

These long dark evenings are a good time to think and reflect and plan and dream.

They are a good time to find meaning and create meaning in a world gone drab for a season.

But only for a season, because spring will be here before you know it!

The gathering season...or not?

For the past five years or so, the weather has been a little on the cool side on  family reunion weekend.

A time or two it's been downright cold.

A time or two, we moved it to an indoor location.

But it's just not the same. People like coming to the old  homeplace.

I like having them here. I just don't have room inside to set up all that food and provide a place for everyone to sit.

It's chilly right now, just hours before everyone is to arrive, but all four local weather channels are promising the rain is ending and it will be 70 degrees.

I sure hope they are right.

Because it has been so cool the past few years, the husband and I have been talking  about  changing the date - to mid June.

Is it ever cold in June? It rains sometimes, but it's always warm, isn't it?

June typically isn't very humid either. Everything is green and lush, and the purple martins are nesting...great free entertainment to boot.

But there is something about this, the gathering  season, that feels like the right time of year to have a family  reunion.

We'll be hunkering down for the winter soon.

We'll need warm memories of bright days and old ham to sustain  us, won't  we?

And besides. There's the last of the garden pickins to be gathered and shared with the family.

I prepped a bucket of banana peppers I  picked this morning to fill with cream cheese and wrap in bacon.

I always do that.

Dad picked late green beans and fresh  greens from his garden, and I'm sure  he and Mom have been busy getting those ready.

I dunno if I'm willing to part with the smells and tastes of fall that seem such a natural part of the gathering  season.

Besides, would our reunion be our reunion without bouquets of goldenrod and iron weed on the tables?

Would bouquets of daisies work?

Probably.

We shall see, I  s'pose.

Old ham, an old tradition

I  don't know where my parents got the recipe for sugar cured country ham, but I remember it, scribbled on a piece of brown paper.

The ingredients are simple: brown sugar, coarse salt, red pepper and back pepper.

I can still smell the pungent peppery-ness of the mixture.

Most mountaineers simply rubbed salt and black pepper into the hams and shoulders they'd carved from hogs they raised themselves.

But our family liked sugar cure. There's not a huge difference in flavor. I think what makes our old ham so good is my mom's cooking method.

She first pressure cooks the ham in a canner, then she finishes it in the oven with a  pineapple juice, mustard and brown sugar glaze. I won't mention the secret ingredient that really jazzes up the sauce. Some things should be left a secret!

Golden rod is so pretty this time of year on the farm.

Reunion=Country Ham

The annual family reunion here at the old homeplace draws nigh.

Not only do folks look forward to visiting, but everyone, I think, looks forward to the country ham that my parents always  prepare.

It's slow food at its best...local pork, rubbed with a salt/sugar seasoning back in the winter, then set aside to absorb the flavors for months, even years.

Mom's special glaze and baked til it's tender.

You can't buy this treat in a restaurant. That's why we look forward to it all year long!

Above, the cows on the farm encourage us to "Eat more pork!"  

Sweet summer evening

"I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world." George Washington 

It was over too soon.  

A day at home, with nowhere else I had to be. 

I weeded a flower bed, planted flowers, mowed, trimmed, picked vegetables-then prepared them. Lots of good honest work. That's how I relax best.   

I even had time to sit down for an hour or so with a favorite magazine and my journal.  To top it all off, a long walk through the cow pasture where I found views like this.  The photo absolutely doesn't do the actual view justice, of course.  

Not only did my camera not catch the color in the sky, but it cannot capture the smell of summer blooms, the chorus of heat bugs, and the buzz of mosquitoes flying around my ears.  

Ah, the simple pleasures of a sweet summer evening. 

Aren't these gorgeous?  After wading through the mud and muck for the past few days, these hot colors do a soul good.

Snow fog?

Note the fog rising from the coves. That's not unusual on a drizzly day, but the fog rising from the snow-covered ground is something I don't remember ever seeing before.