LITTLE BITTY (POST)

As I am super busy completing Halloween costumes, this will be brief, that is until the costumes are done.

In the mean time these itty-bitty cuties were found in our hay mow.  There are four of them, eyes not opened yet, two completely white and the other two orange.  I saw a calico roaming around the barnyard last week, and now know she was looking for a place to give birth.  I am so excited about this, as are Iris and Elsa...as for Freddie, well, not so much!

GLORY…GLORY...ALLELUIA

Colors peak exponentially,

excite and stir

in ways

the green lush

of spring,

the white stark

of winter
cannot do.

Fall…
the season my eyes
feel
the alleluia,

and my blood

joins the chorus,
full-throated.

Autumn holds

a promise…
a secret…
buried deep,

in decomposing leaves.

Joanne Adragna Shird

This area in which I live is abundant with blessings year round.  And despite winter being my favorite season of the year, when I stepped out my back door and hiked the fields and woods on our property just the other day, I could not help but feel Autumn's  vibrant beauty, and be grateful it precedes winter.

...just up the hill outside my back door...

...invasive, but lovely....

....this speaks of the glory....

...a truly fungal year....

....over the hill and above our adjacent rental property...this is a field we rent to neighbors where they have planted soybeans ...the rusty color is deep and beautiful...

...this shot overlooks our home from above.  You can see the vineyard, the barn, and peeking at the right, our house...and can you see.....the sky!

...overlooking our rental house from above the soybean field....

Sometimes all of this beauty overwhelms and rights all that is momentarily amiss.

 (I just couldn't resist adding this photo from a hike a couple of weeks ago...our Woodland Nymph.)

PASTA SUPPER

Friday evening, Oct. 3rd was the 9th annual Pasta Supper for the Kickapoo Valley Reserve's Dam Challenge, which was held the following day.

I eagerly made the pasta sauce for this event

two very large pots simmering, filled with meatballs, pork roasts, beef roasts and Italian sausage...

which eventually were 17 ice cream buckets (85 #'s of meat sauce and 16#'s of meatless).

I babied my zinnias for a couple of weeks, covering them in the evenings against the possibility of frost, and they made it...

stunning colors

set upon the waiting tables.

Salad prep room, tomatoes and basil also babied, tomatoes from my garden and from my friend Sharon, too.

Serving up the meat sauce over mostacioli.

 

The first wave of diners relaxing and eating.

And as always the annual photo of the girls and myself at the pasta supper, thanks to my friend Janet! 

This is truly a fun event, and I love being the one to prepare the food for this crowd.  Just wish my father, who also loved to cook for a crowd, was able to be here, too.