As I sit here, I smell the turkey necks and giblets simmering in the kitchen, with a faint whiff of a brownie pie beginning to share the air.\u00a0\u00a0 Turkeys are defrosted (finally) and will go in the roasters in the morning.\u00a0 (We now get smaller turkeys plural instead of the giant bird I used to get, because it’s easier.\u00a0 And we’re older.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The ham is ready to go in the oven with a homemade spiced pear glaze.\u00a0\u00a0 Guests will start arriving tomorrow morning, some bringing food to share, some bringing themselves only, which is fine.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is a middling year (big years, we end up with ~20 at the tables; this year it’s 15.\u00a0 Small is 10 or fewer, small enough that we don’t need to put up another table.)<\/p>\n
Thanksgiving is the one time in the year I get to pull out all the old stuff and show it off (much of it’s used in small bits during the year, but not all at once and on the big tables, and some pieces are saved for the big day.\u00a0\u00a0 My mother used the two cut-crystal bowls (had been her mother’s or grandmother’s) at Easter and Christmas as well as Thanksgiving, but now that we’re both singing in church choirs for those holidays, we don’t try to entertain then.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I use the last of my great-grandmother’s Haviland china (four or five\u00a0 salad plates) for dessert plates–they’re pretty, and why would I not?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They should be enjoyed and “matching” isn’t a priority.<\/p>\n
So I have fun with it all.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s not a formal meal, in the sense that anyone dresses up for it…part of the fun is the juxtaposition of the fancy table and the casually dressed people.\u00a0\u00a0 The people are the rest of the fun.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We started years ago doing Thanksgiving with another couple (it was in-law avoidance…we “already had other plans.”)\u00a0\u00a0 Then we started adding people who were “strays”–without plans or family.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And additional friends.\u00a0 And so on.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s not exactly the same group every year, though the original other couple is still part of it (almost 40 years now.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But we invite people who make it fun for the others–who enjoy each other, and arrive ready to enjoy the feast.<\/p>\n
It’s been warm and humid all week, with strong winds from the SSW blowing the pretty leaves off the trees–most of our oaks peak the week before, or of, Thanksgiving.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We started planting oaks from collected acorns 30 years ago, and now they’re really showing their colors.\u00a0\u00a0 Some are orange, some are golden, some are red in every shade from flame-red to burgundy.\u00a0 \u00a0 Some of the roughleaf dogwoods still have dull purple (in direct light–lavender with the light behind them) leaves, and some of the rusty blackhaw viburnums are in shades of deep rose to rich red, often with a black margin (something nibbled…) \u00a0\u00a0 The fig leaves and mulberry leaves are bright yellow; the few remaining ash leaves are butter yellow.\u00a0 The Caddo maple has tricolor leaves in green\/yellow\/red; the bigtooth maple hasn’t started turning yet. \u00a0\u00a0 If the weather were going to be right for it, we’d take people out on the land to see what colors are out there (and what birds.)<\/p>\n
But the weather is about to change–a lot.\u00a0 Sometime between 5 am and midmorning,\u00a0 the wind will shift as a strong cold front moves in–NNW instead of SSW–and the temperature will drop about 30-35 degrees tomorrow–from highs in the low 80sF the last few days, with lows in the upper 60s, right down the scale to tomorrow night’s 30-31F with Friday’s high in the low to mid 50s. Rain, even thunderstorms, may accompany the front, and wind will increase in the new direction to 20-25 mph with gusts higher. \u00a0 Not, for people who’ve been back in early autumn for over a week, the kind of weather in which you drag people out onto the land. \u00a0\u00a0 In good weather, we also get the swords out and do some fencing, and in any weather people may bring instruments and play them.\u00a0 There’s no requirement, it just happens.\u00a0 (We’re all acoustic-instrument fans here–lute, guitar, flute, sometimes violin and piano.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When the weather’s really nasty, though, people head home early–and reasonably so.<\/p>\n
Two sets of people are driving down from the north–they’ll be having an interesting drive (busy road, possible rain and certainly gusty wind) as the front will be getting to them by midnight tonight and their drive will be along the back side of it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll be wishing them safe travels, for sure.\u00a0 Others are coming up from the south (head winds, but a shorter drive.)<\/p>\n
And I’d better get back to work instead of indulging myself here.\u00a0\u00a0 I need to lay out the tables and feed the horses and make the last of the desserts I’m making. \u00a0\u00a0 The book, by the way, has been going better the past couple of days (not today–this is a cooking day and tomorrow is a people day–I’ll work on Friday.)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The coughing fits are mostly gone and energy is returning at last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I sit here, I smell the turkey necks and giblets simmering in the kitchen, with a faint whiff of a brownie pie beginning to share the air.\u00a0\u00a0 Turkeys are defrosted (finally) and will go in the roasters in the morning.\u00a0 (We now get smaller turkeys plural instead of the giant bird I used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[112,20],"class_list":["post-939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-beyond-writing","tag-life-beyond-writing","tag-progress-report"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=939"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":940,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939\/revisions\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}