19 October Agnes Day Darkens

#inktober2016

No shoes and wet through at least the day can't get any worse, thought Agnes. The day, however, begged to differ.

#DonnaDavisArt #inktober

18 October Tea and Toadstools

Agnes thought Tea under the Toadstools a lovely way to while away an afternoon. 
"Well," thought she, "The best laid plans of Teacups and afternoons often go awry" #inktober #inktober2016 #DonnaDavisArt #ToadHallArt  

17 October Auntie Elsinore's Holiday

Auntie Elsinore loved having tea with friends. Sometimes, however, she needed a holiday from her old bones.

"What better way," thought she, "Then to be a gnarled tree in one's own garden."

Her friends couldn't agree more.

"However," thought Puss, "I shan't be able to reach the cream up here."#DonnaDavisArt #ToadHallArt #inktober #inktober2016

Imogen strikes again

Posting my daily #inktober2016 pieces here:

Mother always called Imgen her "little Dickens", but Imogen had her own version of that terminology. #DonnaDavisArt #ToadHallArt #inktober #inktober2016

Today's Drawing: a mishap with a spellbook

"I said MICROwave," Hellena shouted over the roar of the tidal wave currently crashing into her living room and freshly waxed floors.#DonnaDavisArt #ToadHallArt #inktober #inktober2016 

New Challenge. The month of October I am engaged in inktober

It has been rather a long time since I have posted here. This month I have taken the inktober challenge on Facebook, which has one doing an ink drawing a day. I started it for fun, but am finding myself enjoying the act of daily challenge. Therefore, I shall share them here as well. Since I already started some I will share today's now and make another post with the others up to now.

I hope, if any are still out there, that you won't miss my vintage inspired images. It is just such a part of who I am that it cannot but help appear in my drawings. I believe the hashtag, #DonnaDavisArt on FB would also bring them up.

Frozen Food and One Pot Ravioli

Since leaving the 1950's I have become rather lazy sometimes with my meals. I realized, however, that the cooking skills I gained there has given me the license to fairly good meals with ease. When I was disparaging how easily I threw something together the other day to a friend, thinking as I spoke,"Oh what a lazy cook am I", she responded. You make it sound so easy, but I just can't put any meals together. It's too hard.

I am sure even in the 1950's new wives often felt a bit overwhelmed. Although many were taught cooking and baking skills either at home or in school. Today, in my post 1950's life, I often opt for simple and easy meals. As good fresh veg as possible (either my own or from local farmers market or what's in season the rest of the time), simple cuts of meat, and fruit. Makes life easy.

Yet, I too am want to make things easier and I admit to buying some frozen things as well. When I lived in the '1950s' in our other dear little house I had a vintage fridge (it is still there now, I just don't use it but I wonder what my tenants think of it) whose freezer was exactly like this. It's size dictated the few things I could choose to have in there. It was never prepared TV dinners, though, I can tell you that.

Now, at Toad Hall, we inherited a large double door refrigerator with an entire half that is just freezer. It is a monstrosity I would never buy myself. The first few months here it sat rather empty save occasional ice cream and of course some bought ahead, cut up and marinated meats. As I have got used to it, it has become fuller. Yet I only really realized the other day that there is also storage on the door of the freezer. It still is sitting empty. I just don't buy that much or keep that much food in the house in the freezer.

However, I did buy some lovely cheese ravioli and had it in there. The other night I wanted a quick meal and so I thought of it. I am sure this is no revelation to any of you who already cook with frozen, but for me, who used to make the dough, roll it out and fill them (which I will still do and freeze them myself, but not as often) it is a breeze to just grab a ready made bag of food. I boiled them per directions and them added simple jar tomato sauce. To this, of course, I revelled in the lovely tomatoes I am still getting from our little green house and cut them in as well as placed a few on top. We both love cheese, so I cut Parmesan and Romano and mixed it in. And then I placed on top crumbled blue cheese. I had a few croutons in the bottom of a bag, I am loathe to toss things since my sojourn in the 1950's, and I crumbled those in as well. The whole thing took very little time, the longest being the 6 minutes to boil the frozen pasta. I baked it all at 350F for 30 minutes and it was delicious and traveled well in Hubby's lunch box the next day. It was delicious and I served it with fresh cut basil on top. It couldn't be easier but would have been almost cheating in my 1950's time.

The 1950's did have its share of frozen. And really post war American, with its over abundance of energy, electricity, and factories wanting to pump out something to replace all the weapons they had been making, certainly provided the 1950's housewife with a great selection of freezers and food to go in it. Any way you slice it, the ease of frozen and ready made foods can make dinner time pretty simple and you can 'add in' as much high end or local grown items as you choose. I still prefer homemade, as I am not a fan of GMO foods nor the unknown put into processed eating, sometimes a gal is just lazy. I hope, however, to never be so lazy as to need a frozen Thanksgiving TV dinner.

Enjoying the moment

I can recall days in my twenties when I lived with a dear friend. Though we lived by the sea, it was a walk to get there. Yet, we gave up a lot to be there. We lived in a small converted one room garage that was often visited by nightly cricket song. And not in an endearing way, but in that the crickets, seeing it was a garage, felt obliged to move right in and sing us to sleep.

Another quiet day. I seem to have many such quiet days strung together. For me, an introvert, it is simply how I choose to live. I realize, for some, it would be hard to go days of self reflection. Though other, I believe, would love a break into such a stream of days.

On my walk today, from which these pictures are from, I thought about happiness in the context of the moment. Some may say now I am in a position to enjoy such moments being on the sea, with leisure time, and days left to orchestrate as I see fit. However, I have always tried to cherish that moment and I certainly have not always lived thus.

 We enjoyed the moments though. We had hot tea and donuts on upturned cardboard boxes for tables, and rations of hand rolled drum cigarettes. There were evenings of reading or solitaire (by hand not computer). Was I any less or more happy then, than now? I don't know I don't think so. I felt a need to be where I was and to have the time to do what I wanted with my days.

Even when I worked I always made sure that my schedule was arranged for my free time. Certainly climbing ladders and careers were attained and achieved by friends and others. For me, however, the moments was always the thing. Perhaps, in many ways, this was the lazy person's way. It may indeed be, I certainly would not run from the moniker 'lazy'. It is best to know one's limits I suppose.

Yet, on this sunny Autumn day, after my long 2 hour walk followed by tea and books by the sea, I have to think, for me at least, I trod the path of the quiet and the moment. It is not for all, but for those of you whomever feel like you are not on the right path, why not give it a try. Take specific moments of your day to be in that moment. If you are at work, make a little ritual of your favorite tea and tea cup and make sure you take that break and savor that moment. If you feel the rat race of hectic family life, maybe make a game of 'the moment' at least once a week. Each family member take that time to really just be for a certain amount of time. If it is for you and you enjoy it, then you can begin stringing those moments together more and more each week. We often make time for exercise or bill paying or even tv, but maybe a time just to be alive and awake in the moment might be a boon to the hectic pace of modern life.

I know, of course, that so many women are mothers or full time business people, and such moments are rare or hard found. Or perhaps, having chosen your path, such moments would seem too quiet or even wasteful. To each their own, I say. I learned a long time ago the world is made up of different people who like different things. I can share what I like and why but I would never presume to prescribe it or dictate to another.

Sometimes, thought, there might be that odd introvert or quiet seeker who might need the little reminder to remember to live in the moment in a quiet way now and again. You can be as happy as the queen of England at High tea in a Palace with percolator coffee and a donut on an upturned box, I know, I have done. 

A quiet Sunday at Toad Hall

As a friend asked what we were doing today, I thought I'd might share my answer here as well. I am sitting with woolens on my lap on the lawn at Toad Hall. There is cinnamon black tea and the letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh to accompany me. The sky, though bright and shiny as a blue button this morning has come over grey and dramatic. And I just watched a fox ramble over our beach. Over all a rather fine Sunday, indeed.

Autumn Leaves

     
     

 Though it is not quite that time yet, here in my part of New England, soon enough leaves and their outcome will be upon us. Their beauty every Autumn also ushers in their maintenace shorty there after.

Today let's just view some lovely images of the past and Autumnal leaves. And of course a little hint on what one can do with the pesky things. Though, in all honesty, leaf mold is a wonderful garden resource available free in our own yards. Using Shredded leaves and the joy of Making Leaf Mold.