Posts Tagged ‘autumn’

Is That All You Got?

Posted on November 10th, 2011 by Tonia 5 Comments

We got our first snow today………kind of. Big wet flakes have been flying through the air all morning, but the ground is still so warm that the snow dissolves almost instantly after touching down. We’re left with a slick grease on everything, wetting down the dogs’ hair during our walk, coating our hats and gloves, making the world sparkly and colors more brilliant.

Inside the house, we cover up the smell of wet dog with the smell of Comice pear hand-pies baking in the oven. And sweet coffee, piping hot.

It’s so thoughtful of snow to ease us into its inevitable takeover of the world. A prologue to the coming months. “Hi, get ready, I’ll be everywhere shortly.”

…Not everyone is happy about it.

Cider Again

Posted on October 27th, 2011 by Tonia 4 Comments


We couldn’t help ourselves…we made cider again. The tree in our yard with beautiful yellow translucent apples finally reached prime ripeness, and obviously we needed to taste what kind of cider they made.

My family came to join in the fun.

This batch will probably end up as hard cider, fermenting in our basement this winter. So it wasn’t completely off-base for me to choose the Punch Brothers’ song “Rye Whiskey” as the tune for this little video:

Hiking the Porkies

Posted on October 25th, 2011 by Tonia 8 Comments

Our impromptu backpacking excursion in the Porcupine Mountains was glorious. We covered 20 miles. The first 10 miles closely hugged the shore of Lake Superior and the last 10 wound through in the hills, finishing at a beautiful summit overlooking lakes, rivers and hills.

The wild is best shared with good people {our friends Jen and Trevor} and good dogs {their Shepherd mix named Coal and our Charlie boy}. The six of us easily fell into a comfortable walking rhythm, taking turns as leader, chatting sometimes but enjoying silence and the sound of our own thoughts most of the time.

The dogs were happy as can be, scrambling ahead of us on the trail, occasionally getting distracted by a chipmunk, looking back every so often to make sure we were still behind them. We were so proud of our long and low little doggy. Whoever said Dachshunds can’t hike?

At night, we built fires, cooked food, sipped whiskey and told stories. The stars were stunning and the air was crisp but not too cold. We didn’t see another human the whole time- it was as if we had the entire State Park to ourselves!

In the mornings, we made tea and oatmeal and geared up for more hiking.

We found some treasures along the trail…

Wild rose hips, fun to suck on while walking and packed full of vitamin C. And a sweet little Monarch, the last we’ll see for the season I’m sure.

The last 10 miles went up, up, up the whole way. But the view was worth it.

Too bad most of the leaves had already blown off the trees by the time we reached this spot, but it was still pretty breathtaking regardless.

What a great grand-finale to autumn! I hope you had a chance to get out and enjoy this splendid season as well. Tell me what you have been up to in the comments!

autumn scene

Posted on September 29th, 2011 by Tonia 6 Comments

The leaves are changing slowly this year thanks to a good amount of rainfall over the summer and a gentle progression of cool-cold-colder days, easing us into the middle of autumn.

Usually when the leaves change slowly like this, it means they’ll last a few weeks before turning brown and dropping off. Something as simple as a drive to the grocery store is suddenly a captivating show of fiery colors zipping by on both sides of the road; A grand-finale of life and color before the long winter sleep under stark white blankets.