Sunday

Ed is juggling two ideas -- he's still considering a sailing gig toward the end of the month (wont it be cold then? Yes, especially as the boat starts out in the northeast...), and, too, he is determined to find a new hike for us for today. The second is the bigger challenge. If there is a trail within an hour's drive of us, we've done it, of that I am sure. Still, he studies maps as I half hope that he comes up empty. I feel like I can't get enough of just staying close to home. Yesterday's drive to the bakery was about as far as I want to go.

What's with the home love in me right now? Is it the weather?

Can't be. I think it's pretty warm for November. 50-ishF (which is 10-ish C).

(morning walk to barn)

I think it's the farmhouse. I may like spring and summer garden work and porch breakfasts on warm days, but I also truly love the warmth and comfort of our small space, knowing that the winds are howling and the leaves are quickly disappearing outside and yet -- here we are. Snug and happy. I'm not sorry that the farmhouse doesn't have a fireplace -- too many safety issues and environmental question marks in burning wood -- but honestly, I can imagine this place as being like a cabin in the woods. It has the feel of the great outdoors touching it at the doorstep, while all is sweetly warm within, with baking smells and candles glowing and my cinnamon plum tea steeping -- it's just hard to get up and out with that kind of a mindset.

I'm reading an article about biking in the snow in Finland, and about how they lay on the cinnamon into their baked goods in Sweden during the winter, and I wonder -- how do people in warmer climates manage without snow and ice and frosty imprints on their cars in the morning, with icicles forming on sunny winter days? Life is so much richer with the full array of seasonal variations! 

Eventually we eat breakfast, trying out (store bought) persimmons -- Ed's newest growing idea...

Liking it enough to continue with the cultivation plan, though honestly, it feels like a mismatch here. Aren't we the state of apples and pears and cherries? Still, our growing zone permits it, so we'll give it a try. Along with our quince and peaches. We're diversifying!

And then Ed finds a park we have not hiked. Donald County Park. A mere half hour drive. I guess I can handle that...

It's good for me to pull myself up and out. And the park is lovely: lots of inclines, with gentle views onto farmlands and forests, sandstone cliffs and pastures.

I have never once gone on a hike with Ed and regretted it. Every single walk with him is exhilarating: fantastic landscapes to explore, to smell, to master. This one is special in that it is the rare new one for us. 

I loved every bit of it.

And in the evening, guess what resumed after a month's pause: Sunday family dinners!

(Plenty of room on the new couch!)

The young family comes now when it's already dark, which you could say is dismal, but I feel it's just the opposite: they enter a warm house that glows from the inside with light and percolates with the fragrance of their favorite foods. 

I'm changing my mind about November. It may have to relinquish its status as "my least favorite month." But what could possibly replace it? They're all good.

with love...