Yes. It’s fall. As I was soaking up the cooler mornings this weekend, enjoying all the changing leaves and watching the birds fight over our black sunflower seeds we put out, I sent a feeling of gratitude out into the universe. It has been…a challenging year. I can use other words to describe 2020, some not so positive. But I am really trying to make an effort to live my life with more mindfulness, and I truly believe in the law of attraction. If you put out negative and lack, you will get it back ten-fold. So I will land on “challenging”, and leave it there.
The year has been challenging, and I think in some ways it forced us all to grow in unexpected and uncomfortable ways. But there were hidden blessings in this year. As I’ve been soaking up the fall season in our little country cottage, I realize this was the first year I was truly able to experience the changing seasons in the country. Our little fixer-upper sits two hours from our city home and is our retirement plan. All our savings went into it, and it still needs so much work-work that will have to wait until we retire. We escape to it every chance we get, and it will become our forever home when we are ready. So we get a weekend here, a weekend there, at our little happy place. We fill up our souls and creative energy, then zoom back to the city to start our work week anew on Monday. But COVID changed things. We ran away from our Chicago neighborhood with skyrocketing COVID numbers to our isolated cottage in early April. There we safely stayed until early June.
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ramps
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"spring beauty" blooms
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mid April blizzard
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late spring sunsets
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serviceberry bush blooming
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hubby and I walk among wildflowers
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kid and cat snuggle
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twilight in a garden bed
We saw the woods wake up, we saw a rare (or maybe not so rare considering global warming) blizzard in mid-April covering all the spring flowers. We saw violent spring storms call in summer days. My husband and I walked the woods together for hours, like when we were first dating, hand in hand, foraging for morels and ramps. (Ramps were abundant, morels were tricker.) Our college-bound senior and family cat nested with us, and there we all were huddled in our little cottage. I realized this was the most time we would all spend together in close quarters, and we wouldn’t experience this in our lifetimes ever again. Once college kids leave the nest, they are gone. And sad as it is, its the way it should be. What a blessing it was to have that precious, slow, quiet time together, experiencing the seasons and each other. I think humanity needed a collective break, and boy did we get it. I wish it didn’t have to come with so much despair, fear, chaos, sickness, money woes…and death. It is too high a price to pay. Much too high.
And now, I see the same trees and woods, getting ready to sleep again. It’s all come full circle. Look to the leaves. Look to the beauty to raise your spirits. Fall calls for us to consider life cycles and changes. It also forces us to enjoy the moment. Even a fall day will look one way in the morning, and completely different the next. The beauty you see outside your window will be different hours, days after. So be present for it. Soak it up. Take a walk. Take deep, bracing breaths. Go apple picking. Apples, like fall leaves, are everywhere. Bake some apple yummies and infuse happy aromas throughout your home. I have collected a few of my favorite recipes below. Most of all, take a moment to really soak up the humans “stuck in the house” with you right now. We may not get a chance like this again.
My Best Apple Recipes:
Apple Pies:
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Brown Butter Sage Apple Pie with Mascarpone Crust
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Ginger Maple Apple Pie
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"You got your Apples in my Pecan Pie!" Pie
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Caramel Chocolate Apple Pie
Apple Treats:
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Caramel Apple Rosettes in Puff Pastry
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Apple Cookies with Brown Butter Frosting and Caramel Drizzle
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Pumpkin Apple Butterscotch Cookies
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Light and Fit Apple Crisp
Apple Cakes:
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Salted Caramel Apple Crumble Cake
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Apple Rumchata Vanilla Cake
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Apple Cinnamon Roll Cake
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Apple Spice Cake
- Sugar-Free, Low-Carb, Olive Oil Chocolate Hazelnut Tart - February 18, 2023
- Easy Slow Cooker French Onion Soup - November 28, 2022
- Recipe: Chicken Vindaloo with Whole Foods Vindaloo Curry Powder - January 22, 2022
