Christmas Shopping

We ended up going back to Ikea today. No, we weren't obsessed (although I had to admit it was a good workout; between Ikea and Borders I racked up 8400 steps on the pedometer). As I lay dozing in bed this morning, an idea formed. And when James woke up, I asked him, "Remember the [interesting object] we bought at Ikea yesterday? Do you think [person we buy a Christmas gift for] would like it?"

He thought a minute. "Yes!"

So between trips to Borders (30 percent off coupons ended today), we went back to Ikea and ended up buying several [interesting objects] for various people. James also bought me a stuffed dog that looks remarkably like Louie the yellow Lab in the comic strip "Overboard."

And now...gulp!...the big news! After fifteen years of marriage I seem to have worn James down. Not only did he buy a Christmas CD (Jethro Tull) last week, bringing his grand total of Christmas CDs up to five, but today he actually urged me to buy a pair of five-candle candoliers. They're actually quite nice: small and solid, with white "candles" and a red base.

He also wanted to look at some lights we had seen: white stars hung vertically in strands, six or eight strands to a unit. The new house will have a living room open to the foyer and they might be useful to keep Pigwidgeon the daredevil out of forbidden territory. Unfortunately all they had left in the strands were red lights. There were at least four other people looking for the same lights.

Between two trips to Borders and the trip to Ikea, we have pretty much finished our Christmas shopping. I even found something for myself, a copy of The Best of James Herriot on the remainder table. These are abridged (it's a Reader's Digest publication) selections from each of the five Herriot books (most of the selections from the pre-war stories). I have all the Herriot books, but the draw on this is that there are not only color inserts of photos of the real Herriot areas, but the stories are annotated explaining and showing bygone things like the medical instruments that vets in the 1930s used, and what the farm implements, housekeeping tools, and various farm animals looked like. I love annotated books; I love to learn new things.

A British Autumn

Autumn Time at the BBC. Includes recipes and games.

Remembrance

Today is All Souls Day

It was the custom many centuries ago for people, especially children, to go from house to house on All Saints Day or All Souls Day singing "souling songs" and receiving for their efforts "soul cakes."

Reading of these customs makes it sound as if it was an old version of "trick or treating," and indeed many historians trace the origins of trick or treat back to children going a'souling.

It was also once a holy day of obligation, like All Saints Day before it.

Showing Their Colors

The leaves here have been so slowly turning color that it's almost as if it wasn't happening. While the saplings and short young trees have been exploding in red, orange and yellow, the large trees haven't been in a hurry.

Today, driving home, however, I noticed that the larger trees seemed to be converting to fall color rapidly. Part of this may have been from the temps in the 30s we had a few nights ago, but I think it was more because it was overcast, the sky a high, light grey. I have noticed this even in New England with the trees at their "glowingest" of scarlet, melon, and gold—I remember the Columbus Day weekend we went to Lake George, and it rained and rained, but nevertheless the trees seemed to be alight from within. One maple tree at a rest area had the most breathtaking crimson leaves I had ever seen. They never seem so bright on sunny days.

Perhaps it's because the trees have to compete with the too-brilliant sunlight and the bright blue of a fall sky, for certainly the trees didn't appear yesterday as colorful as they did today with a monochrome backdrop. Each maple in the neighborhood had at least one side that was bright with red or yellow shading into orange.

November

There is an elusive quality about November sunlight. The Connecticut hills are beautiful with a special beauty. At night, little faraway houses, never seen in summer, suddenly pierce the dark with their lamps. Fields of winter wheat appear, visible now the leaves are down. All the browns, a thousand browns, come out. Rust-brown, sand-brown, topaz-brown, and the faded gold of harvest fields. The contour of the land is evident, folds and hills and valleys. The sky over all is soft and hazy, and there is a feeling in the air that winter is coming. The shadows look different, sloping across the pale grass. This is a peaceful, serene land, and never quite so peaceful as now, with the crops in, wood piled high, houses snugged down, brooks running slow with leaves. The days grow shorter. Dusk comes before we are finished with the day.

                                            . . . . . . . . . . . Gladys Taber, The Book of Stillmeadow

If you love the country, or dream about living in the country, there is no better person to read than Gladys Taber and it's worth your while to hunt up her Stillmeadow nonfiction, even those books not in print and obtained from independent dealers. Her writing is lyrical. (And, no mistake, this is not rose-colored country living: there are broken pipes, insect infestations, uneven floors, misbehaving furnaces and crises aplenty, but beauty shines through at unexpected bends.)

Stories for the Day

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

Visit the real Sleepy Hollow.

"Rip Van Winkle"

"The Monkey's Paw"

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

"The Interlopers"

"A Spectral Collie" (not a great, but everyone knows I'm a Lassie fan...)

This is really suspense, not spooky, but it's my favorite short story along with "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty": "The Most Dangerous Game"

Incidentally, the site all these stories are on, Classic Reader.com, has a super selection of older short stories and books, including more stories by H.H. Munro ("Saki"), whom I love.

Padding in On Little Cat Feet

It was a perfect fall morning: actually some daylight out there now that Daylight Freakin' Savings Time is over. There was a light mist in low areas and as you approached the river, a great bank of mist overlaid its length with a ragged edge at the top as it interfaced with the air. As you approach it, it is white, but as you get closer and then go through, it turns a wispy grey and the air is definitely more chilled.

Wore my cat mask and white gloves into the building hoping to get a laugh out of the usual security guard, but she wasn't there. Last year half of everyone was in costume and now I'm the lone holdout here (and I don't usually get into this stuff). The folks in Facilities and Construction were more fun.

Oh, well, if I get sick of it, I can take the cat mask off and still be in costume: Famous Movie Title with the "N" Missing.

You know: Me in Black. :-)

Fun special on HGTV last night called Extreme Halloween about how people decorate their homes. One couple has a big old house with a permanent horror museum set up and then on Halloween they dress up and decorate the rooms differently and have a haunted house. Another lady does a display aimed at children from two through five: spooky but not scary. My favorite was the couple who carve a giant pumpkin into a Halloween display. It was pretty cool.

"An’ the Gobble-uns’ll Git You..."

Little Orphant Annie by James Whitcomb Riley.

Who was Little Orphant Annie? From Indiana University's James Whitcomb Riley site:

The poem we familiarly call "Little Orphant Annie" was first printed in the Indianapolis Journal on November 15, 1885 as "The Elf Child." It appeared under that title in Character Sketches The Boss Girl, a Christmas Story and other Sketches published by the Bowen-Merrill Company in 1886. Orphaned during the American Civil War, Annie, whose name was actually Mary Alice "Allie" Smith, came to stay with the Riley family in Greenfield during the winter of 1862. She performed household chores in exchange for her room and board. Allie enchanted the Riley children with tales, warning of the goblins below the stairs. When next published Riley altered the title to "Little Orphant Allie," but a typesetting error turned Allie into Annie. Riley contacted his publisher about a correction, but upon being informed that the edition was selling extremely well, he decided to leave the error intact. Allie grew up, married a fellow named Grey, and moved to the Indiana town of Philadelphia. When she was 74 she visited the Greenfield home. It was not until she was in her 70's that she knew that she was the heroine of Riley's poem.

The Turnip King?

When you're watching your jack o'lantern glow on the porch or table this year, you might remember that the original "jack" was actually a turnip! The legend of the jack o'lantern comes from an old Irish story in which a man named Jack thrice tricked the Devil who had come to claim his soul. When Jack finally died the Devil got his due and sentenced Jack to wander the earth forever with a lantern made from a turnip. This is supposedly why you would often see eerie green light on a moon-dark night flickering in a swamp (it was actually caused by fungi which glow in the dark).

When the Irish came to America, the light in the jack o'lantern was transferred to the pumpkin. But in Great Britain turnips are still used and the classic scarecrow, like Worzel Gummidge of book and television fame, still has a head made from a large turnip.

Christmas Music Year Round!

Ever just need some Christmas music? ("We need a little Christmas, right this very minute...")

Live365 Internet Radio - Thousands of Free Online Radio Stations

Plays on Real Player and, I suspect, Windows Media Player.

Just some of the stations:

Christmas Broadband

Christmas Notes

Christmas Radio.com

A Shiny New Christmas

Christmas at Planet Mike

Old-Time Radio Christmas (with Fibber McGee and Molly, My Favorite Husband, The Jack Benny Show, etc.)

Beautiful Christmas (Remember "beautiful music" stations with "the 36 Hours of Christmas?—this is supposed to duplicate it)

WinterScapes (emphasizes Celtic and New Age)

And since you might want music a little closer to the season we're in now <g>

Halloween Radio

Stories, Music and More

This is a site I just found, SantaSearch. There's a big collection of Christmas stories under "Santa's Library."

We Saw Our First Christmas Lights Tonight!

No, I'm not kidding, although I think it might be a case of they never took their Christmas lights down. But we did pass a house that had white lights and blinking colored lights on their bushes outside—and they weren't Hallowe'en lights, either.

We tried to go to M.C. Twinklins, a Christmas store, but the silly place closed at six. It didn't look very big, anyway, and I think we found, totally by accident, a new Christmas tree last night. It was at B.J.'s and made just the same way as "Sara," our present tree, except it's seven feet tall.

A Christmas newsgroup I'm on talks about a place called Bronners, but it's in Michigan. Now there's a Christmas store!

Friday Five

Don't Fall For It

1. What do you like or dislike about autumn?

I love autumn. It's my favorite season. It's when the weather gets cool, but not cold, and I love the colors of the turning leaves. I love the scent of burning leaves as long as they're not too close. I love the beautiful blue skies and the wispy white cirrus clouds. I love the fall foods: gingerbread and hot chocolate and pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread. I love the fall holidays, even Hallowe'en, which has never been my favorite, but it's a fun dress-up day. I love honoring the brave men and women who have given of their lives to serve their country on Veterans Day. I love the reunion and cameraderie (and the turkey and butternut squash!) of Thanksgiving, I love reading about the customs of St. Nicholas Day and St. Lucy's Day even if we here don't observe them.

2. Have you raked leaves into a pile just to jump in them?

No. We never had enough leaves at our house to do that and I wouldn't jump in a pile of leaves from our yard; it probably has cat poop and mosquitoes in it.

3. Have you ever carved a pumpkin and how did it turn out?

No. My mom didn't make pumpkin pie and wouldn't have wanted to waste the innards of the pie. Besides, if you put a pumpkin out in our neighborhood, the stupid jerk kids would have it spattered all over the sidewalk in a couple of days.

4. Have you ever eaten anything made from pumpkins other than pie?

Yes, pumpkin bread and pumpkin muffins. The pumpkin bread at Bob Evans restaurant (they sell it in loaves, too) is superb!

5. Where is a good spot to see the leaves change color where you live?

Not around here, maybe, except in the park nearby. It's lovely up in Chattanooga and up at Helen in the North Georgia mountains, too; I hear it's nice at Brasstown Bald and in Blairsville, too.

That Plastic World We [Have to] Live In

While searching for places that sell artificial Christmas trees in the area, I found a link to this story, "Real" Christmas Trees a Falling Trend , about Christmas tree growers' scorn for artificial ones and their purchasers.

I love real trees. I used to even love the wonderfully lopsided trees we got in the later 50's and early 60's, before they started to routinely "shave" firs and spruces to get them into that perfect cone shape. It was always a challenge to fit the worst bare spot up against the wall or in front of the window where it would be noticed less and artfully drape lesser bare spots with extra ornaments and a large quantity of silver icicles (forever known, as in many other homes, as "tinsel").

My folks quit getting a real tree when I was about eight or nine, citing the exorbitant prices of fresh ones at that time. What they didn't tell me was that it was also because of my allergy.

I realized this the one year we had a real tree, provided by some friends after we had a run of bad luck. It was a beautiful frasier fir and when James walked into the house he took a deep breath and sighed, "Now that smells like Christmas."

Three hours after the tree entered our apartment, my nose swelled up and remained that way for the next two and a half weeks. Eventually I started coughing and ended up with bronchitis.

So when the tree growers complain that artificial trees are "sucking the spirit out of Christmas" and dismiss all buyers of such with distaste, they ought to remember that it's better to have a fake tree than sit wheezing in the doctor's office waiting to be prescribed $$$ worth of medicine.

Small Wishes

It's still been pretty warm; in fact they think we might break the record today and it could be 87°F. At least it's been pretty cool at night, although it was only in the high fifties last night as opposed to in the forties Sunday and Monday night. They're saying the real chill will come for the weekend.

I hope it gets cold again for Halloween. I really would like to wear my cat costume, but it has long sleeves and is too hot for a warm day.

Well, That's Stating It a Bit Depressingly

You Are Changing Leaves

Pretty, but soon dead.

What Part of Fall Are You?

How about "You dress the tree with a blaze of color before it sleeps to awaken refreshed the next spring?"

Ho Ho Whole?

More interesting-looking Christmas books:

This one you apparently either love or you hate, as the author traces pagan practices that added to the legend of Santa Claus:

Santa Claus: Last of the Wild Men

Don't know the contents of this volume, but everyone seems to love it:

The Story of Santa Claus

And

Saint Nicholas

The Real St. Nicholas

Plus Jeff Guinn has done a sequel to his charming Autobiography of Santa Claus, starring Layla (Mrs. Claus) in Mrs. Claus Saves Christmas.

And I still heartily recommend Britney Ryan's wonderful modern-yet-old-fashioned The Legend of Holly Claus, which reads like an old Frank Stockton or L. Frank Baum story and is accompanied by the most beautiful pen-and-ink illustrations.

A Long Time Coming

Looks like summer is holding on with her clenched teeth everywhere: I was skimming the fall foliage boards yesterday and it turns out the leaves haven’t yet peaked up in mid-Vermont and New Hampshire and the temps are still too warm. (At the moment they’re being drenched.) Most new Englanders and eastern New Yorkers take advantage of the Columbus Day long weekend to go up there for some “leaf peeping,” since this is when the color ordinarily peaks in that area. One person talked about going up Mount Washington—where the winter winds blow with blizzard force almost constantly and it’s been known to get to -60°F—looking forward to some really cool temperatures and it was 62°F . He was pretty hacked!

The weather report this morning talked about how unseasonable our weather here has been; that the temperature has barely dipped under 60°F and then only twice where the average for this time of year is 53°F. We still have our air conditioning on, which is unheard of and annoying, since the bill will drop to a quarter of what it is now when we finally shut down for the season.

Of course there’ll be no respite once the heat has to go on: they’re talking about a 50 percent rise in natural gas prices this year. Thank God it isn’t electric heat!

It was, at least, chilly this morning. I’m dying for some nice crisp fall air, the kind that makes you feel alive and puts the heart back into you.

Upcoming Christmas Books That Sound Great

Given that I love history, One Christmas in Washington sounds excellent. I've never read any of Bercuson's other work, however. Maybe this will be at Sam's.

Now, Christmas on Television sounds right up my alley. I wonder if she will just cover modern shows or all of them, like Lassie and specials like Amahl and the Night Visitors? Diane Werts did some great articles about Remember WENN during the series' run. But, yow, look at the price!

And there's American Christmases as well.

Fall Lanterns

I have been in love with Chinese lanterns since I was a small girl and could only refer to them as "those cute orange flowers that look like baby pumpkins." This is why I was so delighted when we went into the Michael's store in Warwick, RI, and found not only cattails but the beautiful orangy lanterns as well. I had never seen them in either Michael's or JoAnn in Georgia. We packed some other fall flowers that we bought, but carefully brought the cattails and Chinese lanterns home on the shelf at the back of the car. I finally found a lovely terra cotta vase for them a few weeks back, but the grouping still looked a bit empty.

While I was looking around JoAnn today, I came upon a floral stem that someone had left in the scrapbooking supplies: Chinese lanterns! Sure enough, this year they had a few scant stems. Theirs were colored a bit like a candle flame, reddish at the bottom shading to yellow at the tip, but still acceptable.

By the way, I never knew until a few years ago that cattails were Biblical. Those "bulrushes" that Moses was left in were cattails.

Here's more about Chinese lanterns—I didn't know they were perennials.