Sunday, November 04, 2007

Little Cabin in the Woods........

It was quite apt that Sir Laughsalot and I had been reading that first book by Laura Ingalls Wilder when we went to this Harvest Party at Fiddle Girl and her husband's cabin.... I could have sworn we went back in time and were at Half-pint's little house in the big woods....

The bounties of the harvest were brought by everyone..... canned and preserved, baked, or made into other tasty dishes.... the tables overflowed.....



Home-made chicken and dumplings were cooked in the kettle over the fire.....
Even Fiddle Girl's son got in on the action and showed his young entrepeneurial spirit by cooking up Hot Chocolate in his own little kettle..... 50 cents a cup, he said.... to go towards buying a steam engine. I guess you can't start dreamin' and schemin' too young....










And if you drank too much hot chocolate, or enjoyed the fruits of the harvest a little too much.... you had to wait your turn to use the johnny-house, as there was no indoor plumbing or electricity.....

We drew the evening to a close by getting our instruments out and playing by the light of oil lamps and candles that were scatterred about the cabin.... Even Sir Laughsalot played along on his harmonica.

Living history.... or maybe a more appropriate term would be 'Living traditions'......
"Smoke hangs like haze over harvested fields, The gold of stubble, the brown of turned earth.
And you walk under the red light of fall..
The scent of fallen apples, the dust of threshed grain
The sharp, gentle chill of fall.
Here as we move into the shadows of autumn
The night that brings the morning of spring.
Come to us, Lord of Harvest...Teach us to be thankful for the gifts you bring us ..."

17 comments:

photowannabe said...

This time and place puts a yearning within me to see and experience what you did. Its hard to believe that the Simple Life still exists.
Yes we have lots of things still blooming. The roses look lovely and my camelias are bursting now with color. I'll post a picture of the first blossoms in a few days.
I believe the Manzanita bush or tree is found in the western states, usually in the foothills and dryier areas. Google has some interesting info. on it.

christianne said...

Mmmm . . . I could so smell that campire burning as I read this post!

Anonymous said...

What a delicious (in al ways) evening you must have had! I would have been making the kid rich drinking up hot chocolate...yum!!

Anonymous said...

You surely had a nice time there. The winters are coming & we here will also be having lots of outings now especially in the woods & river banks...some nice shots there!

Anonymous said...

How charming! I love the Little House in the Big Woods book and use it as somewhat of a resource in terms of simple living--sugaring, cheese making, homemade sausages. What a wonderful fall day!

kirsten said...

I agree, so charming! I felt drawn in & welcomed. I want to be there!

Oh wait. Except how many hundreds of miles lie between us?? ;o)

Kerri Farley said...

Wow! Looks like so much fun! When I was a child.... I loved the Laura Ingalls Wilder books!

Chica, Cienna, and Cali said...

you again made me go sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, blue :)

what a lovely day it must have been and i too would have bought the whole kettle of hot chocolate for his steam engine :)

JAM said...

That would have been a blast. I don't know which I would have liked best, the food or the music. I guess I'd probably have to say food has the edge though. I love live music in informal settings like that. Magical.

Lovely Wife makes a mean batch of chicken and dumplin's. She's our church's secretary and took a mess of 'em to work one Friday for the few that are there at lunchime to eat, and ended up having to do that three Fridays in a row by popular request.

Some folks just don't cook much any more and when they get some good food flavored up really nice, they don't know what hit them.

Anyway, thanks for sharing the day in word and pictures. Awesome.

Cosette said...

You really do enjoy such beautiful times! Isn't it every little girls dream to actually 'be' Laura Ingalls :) Looks like you had a fun time.

Lakshmi said...

That looks straight out of the classics or a fairy tale setting ..Loooks like you had a great time ..

Wayfarer said...

Would have loved to have been there for the music..Really nice blog!

Anonymous said...

You captured the essense of that lovely evening so vividly. I honestly could almost smell the chicken and dumplings cooking and hear the music. You are blessed to live where you do and to have the friends you have. You have many reasons to be thankful.
(And, by the way, I love the roof on their outhouse!)

Anonymous said...

A beautiful seasonal celebration. Very nice outhouse...lots of orange colored trees ...and I love the candle in the window shot. It makes me smile.

ASHE said...

What a heartwarming post, Blue :) True quality time with friends and family, can't beat that with a stick.

TwoSquareMeals said...

I just found your site through Catherine at Everyday Life as Lyric Poetry, and I love it! I was born and raised in the BlueRidge of East TN, and I, too, have a passion to stop mountaintop removal. I have posted about it a couple of times on my site. Thanks for the lovely pics that make me homesick. (I'm 2 1/2 hours away from the mountains now.) I'll be coming back to visit. Mind if I link to you on my blog? I would love to have my readers see a piece of Appalachian life up close.

bluemountainmama said...

2squaremeals- welcome! east tennessee is beautiful, too! i go thru there on my way to my parents in western north carolina. of course you can link here. glad i'm able to give you a little glimpse of 'home'. :)

and i am ALWAYS glad to meet someone that's helping fight MTR!