Sea Glass Hunting

The summer is over but Anouk and I have still made a point to hit the beach at least once a week in September and October. I love the beach in autumn; beaches change with the seasons, too, and fall is especially pretty with the pines dropping needles and the goldenrod in the dunegrass coming into bloom. When we come home we're chilly and cozy and reinvigorated -- and we usually have a handful of sea glass to show off for our efforts.

Autumn is a great time of year for sea-glass hunting -- the weather is cooling down, the beaches are beginning to empty, and storms are churning up the coast, stirring everything up. Prime sea glass hunting weather. Some people chart the tides and the phases of the moon to find the best times for collecting sea glass, others bring special equipment to pan for glass in the shallows. Anne and I just walk and see what we see, which is usually a good enough tactic.

There is an art to looking for sea glass and A. has it. She can spot even the tiniest shards of color in the tide line. Of course, because sea glass is really just glass, it can be sharp, so she knows not to touch it until I've examined it and pronounced it OK. She just calls out the color and I come over to check out what she's found. If it's smooth enough and frosted enough, the glass goes into our bucket. If it's still sharp and only a little cloudy, we toss it back into the water. The waves will smooth it a little more and it will wash up for somebody else, sometime later. That's the Tao of sea glass hunting -- if it's not for you, it's not for you. Move on.



The beaches around Hampton Roads are great for sea glass, because of their proximity to shipping lanes, factories, and colonial-era settlements. So there is always another lovely frosted glass shard or smooth piece of pottery to find and bring home and display. There's a hierarchy of sea glass -- oranges, reds, yellows, and purples are rare. Black is almost impossible to find. The common blues and greens and browns are a dime a dozen -- a lot of "professional" sea glass collectors wouldn't even bother picking it up, but we like it.



I don't know exactly why I love sea glass so much but I think it has something to do with the idea of something ugly -- something that's basically just trash, junk -- that's transformed and smoothed into something beautiful. I read once that diamonds are made by nature and refined by man; sea glass is made by man and refined by nature. I think that's a really humbling thought.

Do you collect for sea glass? For those of you readers who live in landlocked places, don't forget about beach glass (found along rivers and lakes). For an interesting NYT article about the current state of sea glass collecting in the US, click here.

Have a great weekend!

More Fun at Bergey's Breadbasket

We made our annual fall pilgrimage to Bergey's Breadbasket a few weeks ago to pick a peck of perfect pumpkins. Click over to My Active Child to read more!

Mini-Pumpkin Monsters

I feel a little guilty about Halloween this year -- it's the first year that Anouk really understands what's going on, but with the big move in progress, I haven't decorated a bit. All of our Halloween decorations are boxed up and are waiting to be unpacked in the new house.

A. has been looking at all of the decorations in our neighbors' yards, and the pumpkins sitting on their stoops, and asking, "Where's our Halloween stuff, mama?" So on a trip to the grocery store the other day, I picked up a few mini-pumpkins and brought them home to scatter around the house.

But that wasn't enough for Miss A. She rummaged in the craft box for supplies and declared, "We have to paint them." She also pulled out some unopened packages of googly eyes and that was our inspiration for our mini-pumpkin monsters. We used whatever caught our attention to monsterfy our pumpkins -- paints, pom-poms, pushpins for antennae.



I love the way they turned out. These monsters are definitely of the cute rather than scary variety. And now our mantle has some Halloween spirit. Everybody's happy!

Have you decorated for Halloween yet? What's your favorite Halloween swag? (I'm definitely a fan of those fake gravestones with the funny names on them. Al B. Bach, indeed!)

Sweet Potato and Apple Hash

This recipe is one of our fall go-tos -- it's hearty and colorful and spicy and cozy, a real crowd pleaser. It's easy enough so that Anouk can help me assemble and "cook" it, and there's something about eating apples in a savory dish that I find really intriguing. Best of all, this dish is sort of a chameleon dish -- it's good with everything, from sausages to pork to roast chicken or turkey to breakfast-as-dinner, and, if you replace the sage with cinnamon and add a dollop of whipped cream, it even makes a super dessert.

Ingredients:

3 medium sweet potatoes

1 large apple

1 small onion

1 tablespoon coconut oil (or butter)

pinch sage

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Pierce the sweet potatoes with a fork and pre-cook in the microwave, for about five minutes, or until soft but not mushy. Remove, let cool, and remove skins. Dice sweet potatoes, apple, and onion and add apple and onion to a pan with the coconut oil. Cook on medium high heat until the apple is tender and the onion translucent. Add diced sweet potato, salt, pepper, and sage, and cook until the onion starts to caramelize.

Happy Monday!

Apple-Printed Wrapping Paper

As I mentioned before, we had a lot of birthdays in September. And as you know, we like to get creative with our wrapping paper for gifts. So when Anouk and I pulled out some supplies to do a quick apple-printing craft a few weeks ago, I got an idea. Why not use our apples to print some cute and seasonal DIY wrapping paper?

We had a lot of fun with this simple craft, so much so that after we'd done a few sheets of wrapping, Anouk and I kept going and made a whole slew of apple prints to hang around the house. The wrapping paper project was more about being precise, so it was fun to have the opportunity to let loose and see where our imaginations took us.

So fun! And the birthday boy really liked his book, so it was a success all around.

Have you tried apple printing? Do you decorate with your prints?

Fall-themed bracelets out of painter's tape rolls

Time for a quick fall craft (the only kind we do these days it seems, with everything else going on). We're thick in the middle of painting over at the new house, which means we've used about a million rolls of painter's tape and have empty cardboard thingies hanging around everywhere. Anouk was walking around with them stacked on her arm like bracelets and a craft idea was born.

We broke out the poster paint and got to decorating. We tried to use fall colors only -- lots of reds, browns, yellows, oranges, and deep purples. I went for more of a Halloween theme while Anouk's look was a little more abstract.



They aren't perfect but I still love them. Sometimes these are my favorite crafts, the ones that you do on the fly, from materials you find lying around.

We still have approximately four dozen empty tape rolls lying around. What should we do with them? Ideas?

Fall Fun List

Since summer is officially over, I thought it would be a good time to share some of our favorite fall places, crafts, and treats from last year. If you have any suggestions you'd like to share, from your own blog or around the web, please link in the comments! Also, if you do any of these, please write and let us know how you enjoyed it. :)

I'm cuddled up under a wool blanket as I type this and I love love it. Welcome, fall!

GO:

-Bergey's Breadbasket: Quite possibly the best petting zoo in the area, with a PYO pumpkin patch and a delectable bakery attached. Bergey's inspired our apple dumpling recipe (below).

-Hunt Club Farm: The photos at the bottom of this post is from our visit last October (look how small my Nou was!). Their fall harvest fair runs through Nov. 1 this year and you can bet we'll be there again.

-Apple Picking at Martin Vineyard & Orchard: A recent trip that's going to become a family tradition. Apple season ends in November, but I would call ahead to make sure they're still open (their website doesn't seem to be updated frequently).

-New Earth Farm: A beautiful farmer's market in Virginia Beach, with probably the most interesting and delicious organic and seasonal produce in the area.

-First Landing State Park: So gorgeous this time of year. Try the Bald Cypress Trail, an easy hike for little legs.

-Big Woods State Forest: Some "real wilderness" hiking just about an hour away in Sussex County.

-Bennett's Creek Farm Market: Bennett's Creek is a treat in any season but fall makes us hungry and when the weather turns cool, we crave their she-crab soup.


MAKE: 

-Pumpkin pie playdough: Adding pumpkin-pie spice makes everything feel more festive.

-Gravestone rubbing: A spooky craft to get older kids interested in family history.

-Pinecone prints: This is a great time of year for nature painting.


COOK:

-Maple cinnamon marshmallows: Dresses up hot cocoa; a lot easier than you'd think.

-Apple dumplings: A quick and easy version of the famous ones at Bergey's Breadbasket.

-Pumpkin quinoa: The perfect breakfast for fall mornings.

-Sugar cookies: Not our recipe, but one we use constantly. These cookies are tasty and don't spread!

Pumpkin Quinoa Porridge

• I like the idea of oatmeal but in all honesty, I'm not much of an oatmeal person. There's just something about the texture that I find kind of gloppy and unappealing. But curling up with a warm bowl on a cool morning is, and so I'm always on the lookout for breakfast cereal substitutions that will give that cozy effect. In the past, we've really enjoyed a hot cereal made from almond meal, but lately, our go-to is a kind of quinoa porridge that we adapted from this recipe. The texture is amazing, it doesn't get soggy or mushy, and it's packed with protein which is a nice start to your day. 

• Quinoa is also very adaptable to all different kinds of flavors, so we've been experimenting with peanut butter porridge and a version with apples, but with fall in the air, it's all about pumpkin so that's what we've been using most frequently. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 Tbsp butter

1.5 cups water

1/2 cup pumpkin (or up to 2/3 cup, if you want a little more oomph)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsp brown sugar
1/4 to 1/2 cups milk (we used soy)

• Directions: 

Soak the quinoa in a bowl of water for 5-10 minutes, rinse, and drain. Transfer the quinoa to a saucepan with 1.5 cups cold water. Bring to a boil for one minute, cover, reduce heat and simmer until the quinoa is done (about 10 minutes, or when a little "tail" appears on the quinoa). 

Remove from heat, add the butter, pumpkin, spices, vanilla, and sugar. Stir in milk until you reach your desired level of creaminess. Serve warm, with caramelized apples and more cinnamon on the top or a drizzle of maple syrup. Yum. 

When people have dinner at our house, they always wonder why there's no salt or pepper in our shakers. This is why. 

Happy Monday!

Apple Picking at Martin Vineyards

The weekend after Labor Day, just as the first tinges of fall were beginning to show themselves in the trees and on the air, James and Anne and I drove down to Knotts Island, North Carolina, to do some apple picking. Martin Vineyards & Orchard has been open for apple-picking since July, but we really wanted to wait until it was almost autumn to go -- it just isn't the same, picking apples without that little crispness in the air.

Knotts Island in late summer is beautiful, with the green and gold fields and the tall brown marsh reeds against all that blue sea and blue sky. We stopped for lunch at Pearl's Bay Villa, the town's one restaurant, and then we drove on to the little vineyard and orchard on the shores of the bay, just across the water from the far northern North Carolina Outer Banks. As we bumped down the grassy road we could already see tons of ripe apples dotting the trees. We paid for our bushel bag, and then we got to picking.

The Granny Smiths were in season, so that was mostly what we got, but there were a few Pink Ladys and Galas dotting the very top branches, where most of the pickers couldn't reach. Luckily, we had a secret weapon

Anouk had an absolute blast -- she's an apple fiend, so she was pretty much in heaven. She swiped several apples from low-hanging branches and ate them as quick as she could. We had to stop her from sampling the ones that had fallen to the ground. The orchard echoed with her little cries of "yum, yum, yum, YUM!"





Once we'd filled our bags, we went to look out at the water for a while and then wandered around the shady paths. By the time we headed home, just as the sun was starting to get low in the sky, we felt like we'd gotten our fill of both apples and of pure coastal North Carolina beauty. I already want to go back -- I have a feeling a September visit to Martin's Vineyard is going to become an annual family tradition.

For more information on apple picking in the Hampton Roads area, check out My Active Child's post.

What are your favorite apples? More importantly, what are your favorite apple-based recipes? Send 'em over -- we could use them.

Mount Trashmore

I have to admit right off the bat that Mount Trashmore is not one of J.'s favorite places. He comes from DC, a place where they ship their garbage off to West Virginia when they're done with it. They definitely don't heap it up in the middle of town and cover it with grass to make a nice little park out of it, no siree. He can't quite get over it, a hill made of garbage creeps him out a little.

But I do like Mount Trashmore -- I think I like it because it is a glorified landfill. Mostly because I have this Anne of Green Gableish streak in me that likes the idea of making something ugly into something pretty, something that can be enjoyed by everyone.  I have fond memories, too, of flying kites at the top with my dad, or rolling down the sides with friends. And it's refreshing to stand at the top of a nice windy hill. I forgot that, since becoming a flatlander again.

In any event, in an effort to combat the November blues, I've been trying to spend a fair amount of time outside this month, and Mt. Trashmore is a favorite destination. The park is a good one, with lots of climbables and swingables; there are always geese by the lake to wave at (scream at, in A.'s case); when the trees still had leaves, and after they had turned, the view from above was so pretty, and it's really only of the interstate, so that's saying something.  The stairs up to the top are a very effective workout (judging by the miserable cross-fitters we passed on our way up and down), and the loop around the hill and park is the perfect little after-dinner walk.

This was Baby A.'s inaugural Trashmore visit, and her thoughts on the place consisted of "Wow," "Cool," "Yay," and "Doggy!" Which sums it up, doesn't it?

Pumpkin Pie Playdough

We have a few pre-Thanksgiving playdates scheduled for this week, and so this weekend, Anne and I set to work making a little treat to take along to give to our friends when we see them. Pumpkin pie playdough! It made our house smell super-amazing.

I've been thinking of scented play dough for a while. I like the idea of making playdough into a full sensory experience (which is why in our house, you'll find jars of crazy-colored dough studded with all sorts of things: marbles, pine needles, pennies) Pumpkin pie-spiced playdough worked in another of those senses and seemed appropriately festive for the season.

There are several good pumpkin pie playdough recipes out there, but none of them seemed quite scented enough for our liking, so we made up our own, adapted from the basic playdough recipe at How Does She? (our favorite).

Pumpkin Pie Playdough (makes enough for two)

-2 cups flour
-2 cups water
-1/2 cup salt

-2 tablespoons olive oil (any oil can be used)
-4 teaspoons cream of tartar
-food coloring (any color you desire; we were going for verisimilitude, so we used red and yellow to make a doughy brown color)

The spice mix:

-2-3 tablespoons cinnamon
-1 tablespoon allspice
-2 teaspoons nutmeg
-1/2 teaspoon ginger

Or you can just go to town with a jar of pre-mixed pumpkin pie spice.

Mix all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until the dough forms into one big clump. Turn out onto lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is cool and stretchy. You can adjust the scent or color at this point by adding more spice or food coloring (just make sure you knead it some more to get everything incorporated).

I think my favorite thing about this recipe is breaking out the cookie cutters and having the cookie-making experience...without the extra calories (because you definitely don't want to eat this stuff, blecch). Frees up more space for all that (real, hopefully edible) pumpkin pie.



Do you have a favorite playdough recipe? Please share! We can't get enough of the stuff.

November, so far

Oh, November! You are really flying by this year. Or maybe it's just that the general sluggishness that hits me when Daylight Savings ends has hit me extra hard this year that makes it seem like it's all flying by. Plus the election -- and the houseguests who so kindly visited us -- and Nanowrimo, which I have decided to (try to) participate in -- it all adds up to one very tired mama. None of the Halloween decorations have been packed away yet; no Christmas presents have been planned or bought. I'm just trying to keep my head above water.

Anne's new thing lately is toddling around and saying "Thank you thank you" for everything, a dozen times a day -- and every time she says it, I'm trying to bust away a little more of the November blues and remember to be thankful for the things I am lucky enough to be enjoying now. And so, in no particular order, I give you some of my favorite things about this November, thus far: homemade candles in little walnut shells to shine out through some of this darkness; happy little mums, holding in there later into the season; chevre from Shady Goat Farm in Virginia Beach (a new favorite -- don't even get me started on their goat cheese truffles); A. learning her letters from the Obama sign in the yard (she can pick out A and B); the brilliant sugar maple right outside my window that makes me happy every time I see it.

What are your favorite things about November so far?


November links: 

• Darcy (one of my all-time favorite bloggers) posted this thought-provoking article about what it's like to raise a prodigy. 
• Local photographer Jessica Riehl took some great portraits of the Salvation Army bell ringers: "As I passed by the last in an unkept list of bell ringers, I started to think about who these people are, standing there in the frigid cold weather...This Wednesday as I went about my holiday task list, I photographed a few on my 'joy committee.'" 
• If you missed out on the fall foliage this year because of Sandy...why not take a virtual trip to the best leaf-peeping destinations in the world?
• Just for kicks, I've been following along to the Smithsonian Institute's "This Day in the Maya Calendar" feature (mostly because I want to see what they write when it runs out later this year!)