Oh, the color show continues here, as brilliant red Japanese maple leaves become ornaments, festively decorating low growing conifers. As trees become bare, it's easy to see how many of them host large volumes of mosses and lichens, some branches so heavy as to look like they're cloaked in green sweaters. It's interesting to see all these mosses, on horizontal surfaces, on vertical surfaces, rocks, sidewalks. They look so happy with all the rain, such beautiful greens. One yard has several Japanese maple varieties and abundant moss on the vertical portions of the terracing. Ah, lovely, red and green. Many took advantage of the pleasant weekend weather, as is evidenced by all the outdoor lights and other decorations. Christmas trees glow through living room windows. Can I be a cranky old lady here for just a wee minute...... can't we please celebrate Thanksgiving first? Despite restrictions, we still have plenty to be thankful for, just look at the local homeless population if you need reminders.
Sue, I look forward to the barley and root veggies dish, when you get around to it. How long will you be in Spain? Oregon is spiking again, so the governor is closing things back down. This county has the highest number of new cases daily. We are very careful.
Erin, your "we have all white" reminds me of growing up outside of Detroit. One Christmas Eve when I was a kid it was snowing. Now, in the Great Lakes area you get lots of heavy, wet packing snow, especially if it's not cold. But that night must have been really cold, because the snow was dry. It was coming straight down, quite heavily, without wind. It was piling up in the back yard when I turned the outdoor light on. So shiny, so sparkly, like someone upstairs had up-ended a huge container of white glitter. To this day that's how I think of that kind of dry snow, glitter snow.
Lindsey, Thanksgiving plans. None really. It's just the two of us, and we stopped making fancy holiday meals a long time ago. Likely my husband will turn these small pie pumpkins that have been serving as autumnal decorations into black bean and pumpkin chili. Will your husband's dietary changes make things easier in your kitchen this year? The weather is forecast to be dry, so we should be able to do both morning and afternoon walks. I can't say evening walks, as sunset is coming so early this far north, different for us. I did see that Macy's is having some version of the parade, so I set it up to record. I'll probably end up fast forwarding through most of it, as I find the blathering increasingly annoying.
I do like the shows part of it though, as that's likely as close as we'll ever get to Broadway. I sure hope Mr. and Mrs. Claus are wearing masks, it would be a great example. Then on Friday it's okay for the elves to start trying to figure out how to decorate this new place, our first Christmas here.
Cooking this time of year can be so wonderful, as most every pot of soup, stew or chili makes enough for leftovers. Then you only have to cook half the days! Hubby presently has a pot of vegetable soup going in the Instant Pot. Earlier I made white and green soup, something I'm working on. White is potatoes and white beans, green is some veggies. Still a work in progress. We've never owned a cooking vessel that can go from stovetop to oven. The one he bought himself weighs 18 pounds. Gee, it's terrible, getting kicked out of the kitchen when your husband wants to experiment!