My husband said take a picture of your salad. It was served with a big roasted turkey, cornbread sausage stuffing, and gravy, and banana nut bread. Very simple.
Christmas day food update: Romaine lettuce, baby spinach, a little chopped mix of cabbages & carrots, Chopped cucumbers, orange & yellow peppers, a mix of small tomatoes, chopped marinated artichoke hearts, feta cheese, and toasted pine nuts. We have a small selection of dressings to please everyone. Individuals can top the salad with the dressing of their choice.
We want to start off the new year of 2025 with more healthy choices of food. The cornbread sausage stuffing has lots of celery & sweet onion cooked into it.
The salad was twice covered and briefly stored outside on the deck. The refrigerators are full. The outdoor temperature was perfect for it. (app.41 degrees F)
A downy woodpecker in a juniper tree. This image is AI generated, however, its creation was inspired by a real sighting outside my dining room window this past Sunday.
The downy woodpecker is especially close to my heart since we have an artistic carving of a downy pair which we purchased long ago at an indoor craft’s fair. We also have real live downy woodpeckers that come around our home during this time of year. I saw only the male with a full vivid red patch on the back top of its head. It was a perfect specimen of a real bird in action. It hung around longer than I expected, though I was still too busy doing other things to take its picture.
The tree outside our window is a Juniperus virginiana (aka red cedar). It is tall enough to hug our home and protect one corner of our covered deck which would otherwise be exposed to wind. Junipers are in the cypress tree family along with sequoias. We also have three of these trees along our back fence line. They stand closely together which has made them grow straighter and taller, and they are less spread out than the one surrounding the corner of our dining room and deck. We have one more of these trees which had been partially cut down at one time, and now has a tall daughter tree that grew up and out from its base. It protects another corner of our home along the backside.
Since my recent woodpecker sighting I have been reading up about all types of evergreens that are used as Christmas trees, and all the traditions surrounding its origin. During my research I ran across a Willa Cather quote that I found captures a sentiment that I have felt before.
“I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. I feel as if this tree knows everything I ever think of when I sit here.” ~ Willa Cather
Downy woodpecker pair is made out of carved wood and then painted. We purchased this long ago at an indoor craft exhibition.
Old brass bells found in box of books. Now they hang from the doorknob of a new door.
The holiday decorations in our house are getting sparser as I age, especially since it has always been only me that puts them up and takes them down. The bells help celebrate the “reason for the season”. I put the new keys to the new door on a guardian bell key fob. Keeping with the bell theme, I decided to hang the bells pictured above from the door lever. They make a strong and clear clanging that is musical to my ear.
This new door was one of the upgrades that was researched this summer. Planning ahead is always a good idea. This door is fully accessible and opens out to our deck, patio, and back garden. It replaced an old sliding glass door that was too narrow to be fully accessible.
As I went through the old Christmas decorations picking and choosing a few reminders of the season, I found a garland of tiny gold bells. Hanging them over the new door was my private celebration. The 3 brass bells were found this summer in old box of inherited books. They seem appropriate for Christmas, and I can imagine them being attached to a gift box of books. Giving books for Christmas was something my great aunt Bess liked to do. You cannot take the teacher out of an older retired teacher.
This Thanksgiving season I am grateful for many things. My father’s favorite poem, Desiderata, comes into my mind. He used to have it on a poster in his home office. My favorite lines from this poem are: “You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
My hope during this time of year is that love and faith continues to guide me. And to anyone that might read this post, I hope that you can find peace and joy during this season of Thanksgiving.
movingforwardslowly 