The last weekend in November included:

• A visit with Karen that included brunch, a walk, a picture book, and lots of talking.
• Time with Gramma at the nursing home, including a few new details in the story of how my grandparents met.
• Fresh-baked scones and CBS Sunday Morning with my folks.
• Getting two trees into stands and into the house and one mostly decorated.
• A reasonably pain-free commute (or as painless as a 400+ mile drive can be) home that got us in a mere 5 minutes after Rudi’s requested latest hour, even with a half-hour dinner break along the way.
• Making it to the penultimate chapter of the fourth Harry Potter audiobook.
• Three kitties very happy to have us home.
• Hitting my 30th day in a row of posting here.

How about you? What was your weekend like?

Weekending along with Pumpkin Sunrise.

Karen and I were out for a walk today and noticed a shrub we both liked, but that neither of us could identify.

Turns out it was Winter Heath (Erica carnea):

Isn’t it pretty?

Today’s Ten on Tuesday topic was 10 Things I’m Thankful For:

1. Health: Between Rudi’s ski injury and Gramma’s fall and all the little and big things that have cropped up to affect those I love in the last year, I am particularly grateful that we all seem to muddle through them.
2. Family: There’s nothing like hearing a doctor suggest that your loved one could have died to make all those niggling things they do seem exactly what they are: insignificant. Rudi and I are both lucky enough to still have our parents around, and my brother Josh totally has my back. Gramma has slowed down, but she’s nearly 94, and how many 40-year olds are lucky enough to still be able to converse with a grandparent? My extended family is a member smaller than it was at this time last year, which makes me appreciate those who remain.
3. Friends: How lucky I am to have friends all over the country who care about me, including a bunch I’ve now known for more than half my life. They IM with me and text me pictures they think I’d like and leave comments here and visit and send packages and call and email and sing and bake for me and play games and help me decorate my Christmas tree and hang out on Friday nights in the summer.
4. Cats: Posey and Jeremiah have now been in our lives for a dozen years and Corey nearly a handful. While they refuse to mop the kitchen floor in exchange for room and board, they do curl up around our heads at night and entertain us with their playing and nuzzle us when we’re trying to type and guard the bathroom from intruders when we’re in the shower. They purr and are soft and love us, even when we buy them food that’s good for them, rather than delicious.
5. Work: I grumble sometimes about my job (not here, but in real life), but mostly I enjoy the people I work with and feel what we do is worthwhile. And even if neither of those things were true, it is not mind-numbing, back-breaking, or demeaning and it pays me generously when compared to the average earner.
6. The Burrow: D.C. has a large homeless population, including a lot of families. While our apartment might be below ground and lack a bedroom door, it has heat and windows that open and space enough for us and a landlord who is happy to fix things that break. It’s conveniently located to transportation and shops and is in a safe neighborhood with trees and a park.
7. Books: I am thankful that I like to read and am able to do so easily. I appreciate the nearby bookstores who sell me books and the library, who loans so many to me for free.
8. Food: When so many go hungry, I am lucky to have plenty. My cupboards are never bare and I never go to bed on an empty stomach. I’m lucky to have so farmers markets available to me, farms within a short drive, and a garden in which to grow my own plants.
9. Transportation: My 21-year-old car is still puttering along, next hopefully up to Connecticut for Thanksgiving. I have a bike that Rudi keeps in good shape for me, as well as access to a regional bike-sharing system. I can take a subway to work and a bus to the library. If I wanted to go to Baltimore or Richmond, trains would take me there and if I want to go further afield, there are three airports that will help make that happen.
10. Music: How poorer the world would be without songs, and how grateful I am that I have such access to recorded music and live performances.

How about you? What are you thankful for this year?

I’d hoped to have a Coffeeneuring post for you tonight, but instead you’ll have a weekending post today and the other tomorrow.

This weekend included:

• Dinners with friends;
• Sleeping in;
• Reading;
• Cleaning;
• Laundry;
• A bike ride;
• Lunch outside in the sun;
• Shoe shopping;
• A trip to the garden to pick peppers (shriveled from the cold), potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, leeks, and lemon balm;
• The weekly farmers market excursion;
• Cocoa at a cafe with Rudi;

and

• Quince preparation.

How was your weekend?

Clotilde’s Vanilla Poached Quince

You start out with quince:

The yellow one is ripe; the green one less so. Quince are naturally fuzzy, so you need to scrub that off before you do anything.

You peel and core them and cut them up and chuck them in a pot with water and sugar (and to make Clotilde’s recipe, a vanilla bean).

After several hours at low heat, they turn pink and delicious and make your house smell delectable.

That’s half of the quince I’ve bought this fall. The other half (mostly under-ripe ones) will wait until after Thanksgiving.

Weekending along with Pumpkin Sunrise.

Here are some of the things I hope to accomplish this weekend:

• Paint my nails. (I took off the old polish last week, to pave the way.)
• Cook the quince. (I bought more on Thursday to accommodate trying a couple more recipes.)
• Finish my book. (I just have a few chapters to go.)
• Spend several hours outside in the sunshine on Saturday (and again on Sunday if there is any).
• Dig up the potatoes from the garden and pick any ripe peppers.
• Write a coffeeneuring blog post.
• Finish some work. (I left a little early to get to dinner at some friends’ tonight.)
• Mop the bathroom and kitchen floors and return the bathroom cart to its rightful location.
• Assess my Christmas card situation. (I can’t remember what I have left over from last year and therefore if I need to buy more than I have.)
• Buy parsnips at the market for Rudi’s Thanskgiving dish.

What’s on your agenda this weekend?

Things I’m hoping to get around to this weekend:

• Check out an alpaca festival.
• Go for a bike ride or two.
• Shop at the farmers market.
• Start a new book (or, rather, re-start it).
• Finish a knitting project.
• Cook quince.
• Do laundry.
• String a new strand of lights around the living room.
• Visit the garden.
• Watch a movie.
• Mop the kitchen and bathroom floors.
• Paint my nails.