Tailgate Party in an Orchard

We had plans to tailgate at a polo match Sunday afternoon. Days of work and gathering of supplies and most of Saturday cooking, and we were ready. We finished loading the car Sunday morning, intending to leave straight from church to tailgate and watch the match. Colette checked the field's information en route to church, only to discover that, due to the rain the previous day, the match was cancelled. Everything ready to go...and no place to go. Oh dear.

After a flurry of flying text messages between Colette and her friends, and a little regrouping and research after church, Plan B became tailgating in an apple orchard. And an excellent plan it proved to be! Colette had the vision and did all the styling, and I did most of the cooking, and friends provided companionship and fun!

I set up the cocktail table, while Colette readied everything else.

Then our friends showed up and the fun began!

Time for serious faces.

And happy faces!

Dinner time!

- Menu -

Adirondack Margaritas (recipe here)

Roast Turkey Breast

Thyme Roasted Apples and Onions (recipe here)

Potato-Leek Gratin (recipe here)

Sage Pumpkin Seed Bread (from a local bakery)

Assorted Cheeses: Brie, Gruyere, Beecher's Marco Polo cheese,

 and Vermont Farmstead Pumpkinhead Ale Cheddar)

Assorted Autumn Fruits

Apple-Cranberry Upside Down Cake (recipe here)

Lindt Chocolates

Hot Apple Cider

Since I'm endlessly fascinated with historical picnics, I've done quite a bit of research on the topic. In the past, a picnic was nothing more than a meal eaten outdoors. So, while our set-up might seem elaborate, it's really not much different than picnicking a century or more ago...in the day and age before paper plates, Solo cups, and plastic forks.

If you'd like to recreate our tailgating party, here's a useful list of supplies:

- folding table

- wooden folding chairs

- vintage wool blankets and comfy pillows

- picnic baskets and hampers

- silver trays, breadboards, and serving dishes

- glassware, china, flatware

- tablecloth and napkins

- portable bar stand

- something to make the table look pretty (pumpkins, wheat, flowers)

And, yes, it was a lot of work. But we created some precious memories with dear friends and our family, and that's worth it all!

Welcome October!

“Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”

- Humbert Wolfe

Here's Hoping...

Here's hoping the weekend weather is reasonably fair, because our plans include all of this (and so much more)...the outdoors...and horses!

Soup Season - Butternut Squash Soup

It's soup season! Yesterday, I made one of my favorites, Butternut Squash Soup. You can find the recipe link here. All the delicious ingredients just pop in the crockpot at the beginning of the day. 

And at the end of the day, you puree it all, and voila...soup!

I served it with grilled cheese sandwiches with chipotle cheddar cheese. And all the leftover soup is going into the freezer in individual portions.

One of those portions, plus a small salad, and a little wedge of sharp cheddar cheese is my very favorite winter lunch. I can hardly wait!

Exploring Walpole, New Hampshire

A couple of weeks ago, Colette and I went to lunch at our favorite French bistro tucked away in a charming town of New Hampshire's called Walpole. After feasting on salads and soup and pomme frites, we walked and drove about the town. And this is what we saw...

Beautiful Greek revival architecture.

And porches! Porches everywhere. Such an unusual number of porches, that I suspect the town went through some sort of remodeling frenzy in the 1830's-1850's perhaps where everyone just had to add a porch like the neighbors across the street.

And wrap around porches, from which you could view the comings and goings in town.

Pretty little details.

Outbuildings and old barns.

Then we roamed the countryside, following dirt roads to their end, past cornfields in the midst of harvest time, and up and down hills. Two of my favorite sights were garden follies...no surprise. Ahhh...I'd love to sit in this one with a cup of hot tea and a good book on an autumn day!

This brick one is tucked into the orchard and difficult to see, but isn't there everything to love in this scene? A folly. An orchard. A pair of Adirondack chairs. And, I do believe, that might be a root cellar in the foreground. Be still my heart!

The charms of Walpole seem quite endless...and that makes me happy.

Cozying

With the change of seasons, it is time to gather in the supplies to keep us warm and cozy and keep everything pretty around our home. Here's my list of fall necessities to purchase:

For the garden:
- bulbs to plant now for spring blooms

For decorating outside:
- cornstalks, various pumpkins, and mums
- Bitter Apple (This is a spray used to deter puppies from chewing on important household items...like chairs. I have found that spraying the outdoor pumpkins with a liberal dosing of it every couple of days keeps the squirrels from eating the pumpkins.)

For personal beauty:
- toenail polish in an autumn color
- shoe polish and rain protector
- body wash and lotion in a heavier scent

For the pantry and kitchen:
- dried cranberries
- canned pumpkin
- smoked cheeses
- crackers
- whole nuts for cracking
- teas
- Starbucks hot cocoa mix
- autumn cocktail ingredients
- bundles of sage to dry from the garden
- whole grain mustard
- apple butter

For prettying inside:
- small pumpkins
- gourds
- Indian corn
- sprays of bittersweet gathered in from the countryside
- pheasant feathers

For cozying:
- beeswax for making tealights to last through the winter
- pillar candle
- scented candle for the kitchen
- flannel sheets (or at least to make sure everyone still has an adequate set)
- throw blankets (or make sure they are all freshly laundered)

Like all the squirrels that are so busy snipping acorns from our oak trees and carrying them back to stuff into their nests, I am busy gathering in supplies too. To each their task!

Goodbye to Summer - Hello to Fall

Today is the last day of summer! In our family, we were quick to embrace it at it's unofficial end, the day after Labor Day. And today, Colette and I stopped in at Hutchins Farm in Concord, Massachusetts to purchase a few squash. It was fully stocked with wonderful pumpkins, apples, numerous variety of squash, and root vegetables, creating a lovely autumn scene.

Fall Clothing Color Inspiration for the Blonde

This is not my usual type of posting, but it's that time of year...a changing of the seasons...when my mind turns to my wardrobe. I've pretty much stopped wearing sandals, and I've put away my white skirts and basket purse. I'm about ready to switch my closet around so the summer clothes are in a less accessible place, and I try my best to stick to autumn colors, even on warm days like today.

Photo credit: here.

But dressing for the rich-hued autumn season can be challenging for us fair skinned blondes. It takes a little thinking outside the box...a searching for the colors of autumn that are not quite so obvious. But I love color! And I see inspiration for it everywhere! So, I thought I'd share a little color combo inspiration for the blonde this autumn from my Pinterest board. 

Blondes look great in blue! And even blue can look autumnal when paired with a scarf in a yellow-gold. Note that it's a warmer shade of blue. Look how lovely that looks! Just keep the blue next to your face.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

And cobalt blue look great with orange!

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

One of my favorite colors for autumn is robin's egg blue, because it pairs well with coral-orange, orange, copper, brown, and even plum. It looks great with coral jewelry too!

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: unknown.

Photo credit: here.

Autumn is grape harvesting season...so pairing any shade of purple with brown is a great autumnal look for the blonde. I'm trying this color combo out for the first time this season.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Gray is a great autumn color that makes other colors pop...like rosy-orange leaves...just like a rainy day can make the autumn colors seem more intense.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Chocolate brown was a color I never wore...not once in my life(!)...when I lived in California. But here in New England, I embrace it as my main base color for fall. Pants, skirts, sweaters, vests, scarves...all in chocolate brown. I love the pairing of brown on brown...toffee brown with coffee brown, different hues of the same brown, caramel brown with chocolate brown...so striking! Interestingly, every time I see a color pairing of brown-brown, it's a vintage ensemble. Let's bring this look back!

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Another new combo I'm looking forward to trying this fall is purple with bright celery green.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Even though it's a bit bold for fair skin, I do like color combos that pair with deep teal...like plum, or copper.

Photo credit: unknown.

Photo credit: here.

And when you want to go with riotous autumn color, pair it all with plenty of pinks and rose!

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

Photo credit: here.

I hope you've gained some autumn color inspiration! Just remember to keep those true autumn colors (oranges, golds, yellows, etc.) away from your face, and use them as accent pieces (scarves, cardigans, purses). Coral jewelry and copper jewelry look fabulous on blondes! Enjoy a colorful autumn!

Update

Thank you so much for your prayers on our granddaughter's behalf. After going to the hospital and waiting, the doctor was involved in a serious, emergency procedure on a newborn that was expected to take the rest of the day, and necessitated cancelling our little one's procedure for today. So, our family and many others, have changed course and have been praying for this little baby. Please join us! 

Our granddaughter's procedure will be rescheduled.