A Haven for Vee

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Only Fifty Years Ago

~my pile of preserved leaves~

It's a little longer post day. Please fix yourself something hot and delicious and come sit with me for a while. 


I preserved my little stash of leaves hidden under books and heavy silverware boxes until I took the time to paint them using the wax from a Good Neighbors soy candle scented "Autumn Magic." They have some oomph now, some added texture, and they smell great. It's been pinned in my *Autumn File,*  yet when I went to source it today, it goes nowhere except a photo — I need to check things more carefully when pinning. 

~~~

Only Fifty Years Ago by Gladys Hasty Carroll (a Maine author)is a charming little memoir of the author's childhood. It is divided into a calendar year so I promptly headed for October. I thought I'd share a bit with you:

October cannot be gainsaid. That which it had in its pockets, in its cupboards and eaves, is safe and held in trust to be distributed through the months ahead to those who earned it and so to whom it is due. What is not there never will be there.

My how things have changed in another fifty plus years from the time this book was written in 1962.


~~~ 

Perhaps in the interest of frugality, I sent John up an apple tree this week.  Otherwise, it was not so smart.


He's well camouflaged. I'll not be sending him up there next year. Oh no! In my defense, I didn't want him up there this time; I merely wanted a dozen or so apples. He just couldn't get the "good" ones without climbing.


They were tasty enough, but in rough shape. It was very fussy peeling. Still we did get a jar of apple butter, which made the house smell heavenly all day while those apples simmered in the crockpot.

~~~

Thank you for another really terrific Note Card Party. It was Autumn in high gear all day for me. Loved it! Thank you for visiting one another and sharing your most lovely photos with us. The party will close this morning at around ten so there's still time for someone to link.

47 comments:

  1. Your leaves are pretty. Sounds like a delightful little book, too. I know you'll enjoy the apple butter. We woke to rain this a.m. but it is still warm enough to have the windows open.
    Enjoy your day, Vee.

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  2. I love your leaves ! A wonderful Autumn post !

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  3. I absolutely love the preserved leaves...and then they must smell wonderful too! (Becky has such fabulous scents in her collection!) Oh, but there are not many things that smell better than simmering apple butter! Mmmmmm...

    When I read the title of your post, I first thought that you were making a reference to the rapid passage of time, and I was going to chime right in! :)

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  4. I really enjoyed hearing about the preserved leaves .
    I loved imagining the scent of apples in the crock pot ,
    and I am now yearning for apple butter !
    I did sit here sipping a hot pumpkin spice coffee while I read your post :)

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  5. love your preserved leaves. apples, pumpkins = autumn for me. i've been wanting a baked apple -- today may be the day!

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  6. Hi Vee,

    Such a cozy compilation of the joys of fall. Collecting, storing, simmering and preserving, all seasonal techniques we practise with nature's bountiful gifts, to nurture us through the long winter months ahead.

    Lovely post, thanks so much for sharing.

    Poppy

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  7. What a wonderful idea about the wax from those candles! Ah, I need to call Becky!

    I am loving this season!

    Deanna

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  8. Your leaves and display look very pretty. I find when I post something to Pinterest it usually just posts the photo and not the link. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I think I visited all of the participants yesterday. I was busy looking and commenting. Such fun! I'm drinking Pomagranate green tea and eating a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie by the way. :) My morning break.

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  9. All three books in the top pic intrigue me...really enjoyed your post. Thank-you

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  10. love your leaves, in fact, love this whole post! oh, and I can smell those apples simmering! Enjoy your day Vee!

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  11. No ladder?! John is still pretty spry, I'd say.
    You'll surely appreciate that apple butter all the more
    this winter, knowing Joh risk his neck for it!
    The leaves turned out great. The whole vignette is pretty.

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  12. When my nostalgia kicks in, my fervent wish is to go back to the 50's and relive those times and stay there. Politically they did have their challenges but not like today. Halloween was a little kids day then. Adults have kind of ruined it with all the goriness they like to put into it. I sure don't want my grandchildren to go trick or treating anymore as dangerous as it now is. Halloween should have always stayed a little kids fun day. I yearn for the apples in the fall. Mother was always making something out of them and the smell of cooking apples still hits me when I see beautiful apple photos like yours. We had a huge orchard of apples and pears on that farm. Which is gone now. Canning was a big fall thing with the farm wives. And the basement shelves of bottled goodies lasted the winter. I doubt that my children have nostalgic memories of their growing up.

    *sigh*

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  13. What an enjoyable post...and I just soaked it all in. I am laughing about the apples, my hubby picked cactus pears for me one day...and yes, came home with cactus needles in his hand..what a man will do for his wife, how precious.

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  14. Have you had pumpkin butter? I was given some as a gift several years ago and always meant to find a recipe. Maybe John can pick pumpkins next year?! He is brave to be climbing up a tree. He certainly did his part for the apple butter.

    Please share more information about the leaves. . .and pictures.

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    1. What would you like to know, Diane? It was so easy! I just pressed the leaves as I would usually do to flatten them. I didn't wait very long...a week or even as little as a couple of days. Then using a child's paintbrush I had hanging around, I just dipped into the melted candle wax and painted it on. I gave them two coats of the melted wax with a drying in between, which didn't take too long. One could use paraffin, but it wouldn't smell so lovely.

      No, I've never had pumpkin butter. It sounds wonderful, though!

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    2. what a great idea..I will have to try this. I love to dry leaves in the fall. My grandmother used to dip camellias in wax and arrange them on her dining room table..thanks for this Vee...
      love, Mona

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  15. Lovely Vee. I know where there is an apple tree, think I'll get some. The smell of apples in a crockpot sounds delightful. Always love the pictures of John. Thanks for sharing your book, photos and warmness for today. ~ Abby

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  16. Vee, I wanted to say thank you for talking about books on your blog. I read A Year on Ladybug Farm and loved it...I was so happy to find out it was first in a series..Now I am on the second book..so glad you introduced me to this book...do you know about any more like this? I have read so many series that it is hard to find a new one like this.. <3
    Love, Mona

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  17. First time I'm hearing about preserving leaves...
    It does look a tad scary seeing John way up in that tree. Glad the apples were worth it and that the house smelled good!
    Thank you for hosting the Note Card party.

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  18. Nice visiting with you this morning. : ) Tell John I said hi.

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  19. Love this post (as I do the others). Thank you for your card. I was going to write a real e-mail but now that I'm getting ready for surgery...

    ((HUGS))

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  20. Love this post too, and thanks for another great card party! So much color it was like a feast for the eyes. Bravo on John getting those apples! It would have taken my breath away, so bravo to you as well!

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  21. Dear Vee, How are you this wonderful day? I just loved this post, and I would like to try it! As you probably know this already but we live on the prairie, so I must look a bit harder to find some leaves!
    Now, Would tubleweeds work ? LOL
    Could I link up on your next notecard party? How does it work?
    I still have tons of Apple Butter from last year, "What's a girl to do"
    I must eat more toast I guess:)
    Blessings, Roxy

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  22. You brought me back to my childhood when we used to wax leaves. I had forgotten all about that.
    Thanks again for hosting the note card party. It is always such fun.

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  23. Hi Vee! Blessings of the season to you - and I see you have been enjoying them already with a crock pot of apples and the scents of goodness and beauty to delight! My son took his three year old daughter apple picking on Monday and I loved the photos they shared on facebook - they live so far away. I reminded him of the many October apple picking forays I took him and his sister on when they were young. Blast - he doesn't remember. Gah! Wish I had digital cameras in those days to preserve those memories. As it is - I am sorting through a HUGH technical upgrade and career change on every front so I'm getting myself back on track for daily posting in Blogland. Hoping to be sharing for PostCard link-in in November. I might really have mastered WordPress by then!
    Joy!
    Kathy

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  24. Good morning, Vee! What a lovely post this is, full of autumnal joy. Loved seeing John's devotion to getting the very best apples. You'll surely enjoy the apple butter. I love those old-fashioned books - will be looking this one up! Have a good day, and rest up after the party. I'm off to see if I've missed any participants.

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  25. Vee, can you share your recipe for apple butter in the crock pot? I tried several on online ones and it always was way too thin and never thickened enough. I have said it many times, but it bears repeating, I love this linky, I enjoy visiting the other participants, and you have the nicest followers. xo

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  26. What a nice post. I like Gladys Hasty Carroll's books and have this one you quote and the other one I think of as part of her memoir, To Remember Forever. They're in my bedroom on the shelves that have my favorite books, but I have not reread them in years. Perhaps this is a good time to revisit them. I also like Mary Ellen Chase's memoirs and Janet Gillespie's two books about her family's summer home in Maine. What a blessing good books are.

    The apples from my tree this year are a complete mystery. There were a lot. And suddenly they were gone, ever the ones high up. I've seen ground hogs climb into the lower branches to eat apples, but I can't imagine they could get up so high!

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  27. I also love your note card party...one of the best, I think.
    It seems I'm in a time warp...My server was bought out and I was going to have to change my email address..we decided that since I'll be on son's internet, no need to pay Xanadoo..so I changed my email to bjconklin2@gmail.com, NEVER realizing it would change MY BLOG. I am sooo dim witted!! Now, my dashboard is totally GONE...my DESIGN at the top of our blogs is GONE and I can';t find where to compose my posts, plus ALL my past posts and drafts are GONE....and I've GONE out. of. my. mind.
    I don't have a clue what to do...I can't get to my Design page to change anything...I can't do another post and the one there now will be there forever and ever, Amen.

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  28. I haven't pressed and waxed leaves since our girls were little, and I just used wax paper. Boy, painting with scented candle wax sounds like a much nicer way to do this.
    I've bought apple butter from the Mennonite ladies at the weekend flea market but never made it myself, however I can just imagine that yummy smell in your house.
    I enjoy your monthly note card party, the group is friendly and it's a good way to show off our photos.
    Judith

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  29. Hi Vee! I see John up there! God bless him for climbing up there. He must really love his wife :)

    Thank you for the book review. It looks like a few of your readers are familiar with it, but I'm not, so I learned something today.
    Painting leaves with candle wax? Wow. That would be awesome!
    Have a great day, Vee!
    Ceil

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  30. How nice to have some fresh apples. Tell John he's a sweetie for picking the best ones for you. I think he's sweet on you....of course he DID write me a poem one time and I haven't forgotten that! heehee! The note card party was fun...everyone was so sweet and visited each other. Hugs!

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  31. I can smell those apples simmering from here, Vee. I can remember picking apples like that on the farm and trying to cut around the "bad spots". Nice post- xo Diana

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  32. The smell of apples cooking is wonderful.
    Merle.........

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  33. I have apple butter simmering in the crockpot too! :>)

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  34. I have a ton of apples from the trip to the orchard...not having a tree in my yard. Care to share your apple butter recipe?

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  35. Love your chattiest posts, Vee. Great apple story...from beginning to end. I made some applesauce today. Better stop thinking about it or I'll go eat some more of it!
    It was a great party yesterday!

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  36. I have never heard of painting leaves with wax but would like to try just to see what the leaves would look like. Thanks for the tip Vee!

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  37. Vee, 'tis apple season! Bless your husband for picking them for you!

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  38. I've never done wax leaves - but I hope to try them now! I love your post! I always like seeing what you and John are doing!!!

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  39. Love the idea of doing the apples in the crockpot..very smart indeed. We have an apple tree that give us apples that need to be fussy cut too, it's worth it though as they are sure good inside. xo

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  40. Hello dear Vee
    It's so nice to visit your blog and have a little chat - that's what I feel we're doing (only you don't get to hear my side of the conversation - so here goes)!

    I love scented candles and always light one when friends come to visit - it has a special meaning for me - it brings my daughter into our life even though she is far away - the flickering light is her presence.
    "Only Fifty Years Ago" sounds like my kind of book - I lean towards biographies and hearing about how others have lived their lives - I'll see if our library has it.
    Now your John is really a Jack of all trades - a handy fellow when apples are to be got!
    Vee tell me how you make Apple Butter please - not something we have in NZ (is it the apple version of Lemon Curd - pray tell?)
    I love the Note Card party and visiting everyone who takes part - they are all such nice people!
    hugs
    Shane

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  41. Waxed leaves, what a great idea, Is there a tutorial coming here soon. I just clicked on your autumn pinterest and it looks wonderful, must get by there tonight when I have more time, still contemplating pinterest, just need some extra time. Loved the photos of John picking apples. Do you like your apple butter real spicy, I tend to add more spices than what the recipe calls for.
    Thanks for hosting the notecard party, I made some knew friends and am looking forward to getting to know them.

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  42. Everything smells like autumn over here...autumn magic candles and simmering apple butter! Ask John if he knows what ladders are for.

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    1. Yes, he sure does; however, see that ditch he's climbing up out of? The apple tree is down there. Guess he thought it easier to climb the tree rather than to drag the ladder down there, set it up, take it down, and haul it back up out of the ditch. ☺

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  43. The pace at which things have changed in the last 50 years we could not have imagined at the time. I had been married 4 years, was living in a rented and partly furnished flat. The TV was not much bigger than a shoe box. No tumble dryer or automatic washing machine, or freezer. As for mobile phones and computers not even in our imagination. The web and i-pads - I could go on forever!

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