passionate thanks

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel. --Author Unknown

This quote arrived in a online newsletter. I couldn't have appreciated it more! For those of you in the USA, you know it is time for our Thanksgiving holiday. Outside the US, maybe you've heard of our holiday? At its best, it is a sweet all-American celebration of thanks for harvest, family, and friends.

At our house, we're celebrating with two friends ("orphans") who are in town for the holiday, both named John. In a true sign of both our friendship and feeling grateful for being included for the holiday, we're throwing off the bonds of turkey and cranberry sauce (neither of which I like, although I've tried) and making another kind of meal. I'll probably make brisket, which is warming, sweet with apricots, and rich, and I'll roast potatoes, sweet potatoes and jerusalem artichokes. There will probably be applesauce and salad, and in the sweets department? A pumpkin pie creation of some kind. A pecan pie will be contributed by our friend John from Mississippi. Our John from the Midwest will bring Krumkake. I'm really looking forward to it..adding our blessings and thanks as a strong sauce over it all!


Meanwhile, our house has been cluttered and busy. I'm choosing photos for the book with my editor, and that is so hard. As many of you saw in our travels, the professor took hundreds of photos at each festival for this book. They are all gems. Every choice for each chapter is a struggle.

My mind feels about as cluttered as this coffee table in my office, complicated by a lot of doctor's appointments lately...but I get off track. Back to thanks...




This week, I celebrated the purchase of a new mattress, and I hear tell that Harry the dog can take a flying leap from the hallway to assume his normal daytime sleeping position. (I've never seen the leap myself, just the sleeping.) The crazy height of new mattresses makes this bed way too tall now. (see where the footboard ends?) I have to climb into bed. I fall out. We've got a "low-profile" boxspring on order; hopefully that will solve part of the problem by lowering things another 5 inches. In any case, my back hurts less now and despite the height, I'm glad that we did this--every 11 years or so, a new mattress is not a bad idea!


One of my favorite parts of this exchange on my blog are the tips. I would never have known to wash a zipper before hand sewing it into my sweater, thank you for your hints, everyone! My latest hint is something I now do without thinking about it. I ply almost all my handspun from a center pull ball, but you can do this with bobbins, too, by wrapping the yarns around a knob to prevent twist from travelling. When the phone rings, or the dog needs to go out, you can take a break from plying. Most wheels have a knob somewhere--a tension knob, an ornament, etc. that you can plant your ball on while you take a short break. If the wheel doesn't have this sort of thing, your spinning chair might. When you return to your plying, you pull it off and continue onwards. The twist evens itself out, I promise. It makes plying a lot easier. (if you click on the photo, you'll see even my bobbins are untidy this week. Go figure.)


My last treat is from the professor, who went off to do research in the Florida Everglades this week. He saw an alligator and two crocodiles, and a shark swam by, as big as his research boat. Glad I didn't know about these details until he came home! Who knew that butterfly research was this risky? On the way south from the airport, he stopped by a tropical fruit stand and bought me two pounds of passion fruit! I am rationing them out, one a day. It's easy to be grateful for treats like this. Every one of them makes me passionate about giving thanks...for food, for friends, and for family. Thanks for being part of that, blog readers.

Happy Thanksgiving!