Saturday, July 23, 2011

Notes for a Sunny Saturday Morning. . .

I did rise with the sun this morning, and it was truly lovely—lovelier for the fact that we haven’t seen nearly as much sun this summer as we should have by now. And the gentle waking that comes with growing morning light is always nice.

I walked into the kitchen this sunny early morning, happy that I’d stayed up until 11:00 last night to get the room spic and span. How nice to walk in, brew a French press pot of coffee, and sit down in a perfectly tidy room (which is what I always try to do, but yesterday was an untidy day for a lot of reasons).

 
I had a rare cup of coffee late yesterday afternoon (and it didn’t even keep me awake last night!). Because when someone sends a special gift in the mail, you just have to have some right then. And it tastes all the more delicious for the thoughtfulness that is behind it.


I have a list of projects and tasks I want to complete this summer, and I’m trying to do one of them every day. The small project I tackled this morning was unstapling all of the girls’ (Melissa and Michelle) “SAM” newsletters (“the newsletter with Stickers And More”!) and placing them in page protectors in a notebook. Now the notebook sits out on the coffee table where anyone who visits can look through it. (I will be writing about this great little newsletter project of the girls' soon.)


It’s Saturday. Which means it’s the day to go to the farmers’ market, so I will soon grab that basket and be off to fill it with fresh-picked fruits and vegetables. I wonder what I’ll find today.


I may or may not—I’m  not sure yet—like having books on that hutch, but two things converged to prompt me to do it. The fact that I didn’t think what I had going on with the hutch before was either useful or beautiful. And the fact that cookbooks do migrate to the kitchen, sometimes en masse. So, if I haven’t yet been able to come up with an arrangement on the hutch that strikes me as visually pleasing, I will at least make it useful. (And, anyway, a cookbook is always visually pleasing if you ask me!)

Which cookbooks have migrated to my kitchen (an ever-revolving collection) recently? These:

 If you click, you can see some of the titles, but--oops--not all of them!
Semi-blurry!


What mesmerizes me most when evening light sifts through the trees and spills shadows onto my bedroom floor is something you can’t see in the photo: The leaves dancing in the breeze.

I'm off to seize this gorgeous day! I hope your Saturday will be lovely, too.

10 comments:

  1. 'hair bender' coffee. hm. and your findings .. excellent blend? :o) intriguing name.

    love the dappled dance the light offers.
    mornings find me standing with my own coffee
    in hand, on the outskirts of our living room,
    drinking in the light. against yellow walls
    it's happily amazing.

    jAne

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  2. I think the books look *very pretty* on the hutch. (o:

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  3. Your home looks more welcoming and delightful with every picture you post Susan. I think the books look nice there on the hutch. It is a nice mixture of beautiful and useful.
    Enjoy this lovely day.

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  4. Only two books overlap with mine, Tender and Provence, but what I really liked was the fact that your books, like mine, have little telltale markers for the last thing you cooked there. I wonder what it was?

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  5. Love, love the books on the hutch! And the bedroom picture is simply beautiful. SO happy to find your new and always delightful blog again!

    Have a wonderful summer,
    Sherry

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  6. the books look good on your dresser/hutch. I went through a phase of putting books on mine too but the style of my dresser didnt look too good with books on it, so now just sticking to having china on it.

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  7. I see you are a Tessa Kiros fan as well! Love her cook books, trying to resist the newest. The hutch looks beautiful, AND useful- William Morris would be proud!

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  8. yes - I think moving the cookbooks to right by the table was a wise move.
    I've got a french press question for ya ~ do you pour just a bit of the H2O in, then 40 seconds later add the rest? (like he does in that video you linked to) and what would be the reason for that?? thanks!

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  9. Jane, yes, it's my favorite brand and blend. Very good. Very good. :-) I totally understand why you stand and look at that morning light in your house! :-)

    Michele, thank you! :-)

    You, too, Megan. I did have a lovely, relaxing weekend. :-)

    Linda, you truly have a gift of encouragement. Thank you for your steady example of loving God and encouraging others.

    Lucille, of course you would notice the markers in the books, and I love that you did! And after you commented, I went and looked to see what they marked!

    Thank you, Sherry! I'm so happy you found this blog, too. And thank you for your nice comment!

    Winterwood, I'm quite sure what is on my hutch will change a thousand times over! :-)

    Thank you, Mrs. Fordyce! Yes, I love Tessa! I looked at her last book, and it was beautiful, but I wasn't sure I would cook from it. :-)

    The Momma, Those cookbooks are sure handy now! :-) About the coffee press. The reason the guy waits to pour in all of the water is because he is using super-fresh beans. This means the brew will "bloom" considerably. He waits for it to settle a bit before adding the rest of the water. You don't *have* to do that. I don't. And my beans are super-fresh! ;-)

    Susan

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  10. cookbooks on the hutch? so *you*: so yes you should keep them there :) Lovin' catching up with your bits of beauty after the week away at the funeral...thank you for your support and prayer, Susan....much love...

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