Saturday Meanderings

After today, there’s just one Saturday left in August. I find myself holding tightly to these final weeks of summer—it’s easy to do in the glorious mountain weather. But tomorrow we’ll be heading back to the Phoenix heat for a short while, and I suspect that within 48 hours I’ll be longing for the first signs of fall. Welcome to my favorite post of the week, Saturday Meanderings. I am happy you are here so let’s get started on all good things this week.

Geranium Love

Don’t my geraniums look fabulous this year? Some of these plants had frost damage last fall and I wasn’t sure they would regenerate.

But what a wonderful surprise to see them come back to life. Warmer temperatures, water and fertilizer does the trick. A good reminder for us to bring the planters back down to the Valley before freezing temperatures in the mountains.

A New Painting

My inspiration is a tea towel with this sweet bunny motif by William Morris (1834-1896). William Morris was an English textile designer, poet, artist, and writer associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. Nearly 130 years after his death, the British artist William Morris’ designs are everywhere, from wallpaper and dinnerware to phone cases and hand cream.

As you know, I am not a well-trained painter. I did take some classes back before the pandemic and often, I wish I would be more disciplined to paint daily, or even weekly. But the reality is that I only crank out 1 to 3 paintings a year, even though I seem to enjoy it immensely.

With this William Morris one, I clearly am aiming over my head. But I am slowly plodding through and here is the status of the painting as of today. Color adjustment and more details are in order, but I do like where this is headed.

Hopefully I will share the finished product next Saturday…if I’m lucky.

Blackberries are in Season

Our dear neighbors, Peter and Gloria are now picking fresh blackberries from their 500 plants. We are the lucky recipients. Peter and my husband, Scott went fishing the other day and Peter said he would love to have a fresh blackberry pie (and willing to spend $20 on it). Even though I’ve never made a fresh blackberry pie, Scott thought it would be a nice surprise for his fishing buddy.

Without having many of my recipes here at the cabin, I did an internet search for the “best pie crust” and found this Easy Flaky Butter Pie Crust from Inspired Taste. With a score of 4.9 with 472 reviews, it has nearly 1200 comments. For the blackberry pie, I find this recipe from Kristine’s Kitchen blog.

The lattice crust provides plenty of places for the blackberry filling to bubble out. We did a golf cart delivery only to have the skies open up with a torrential downpour. But the pie made it and we are awaiting Peter’s review.

From the Internet

I recently shared the annual home tour here in Pinetop. Some of the houses are original cabins, while others are new builds or extensive renovations. Looking back, though, I realize the newer homes all tend to blur together in my memory. They were beautiful, yes—but few felt truly collected or curated. Instead, it was as if I were walking through the pages of the same magazine over and over again.

If you are tired, like me of seeing the same cookie cutter instant house look, there’s hope on the horizon. According to Cindy Hattersley, the collected look is back in style. To curate a collected look you need to gather furniture, art, and objects from different places and eras, in order to give your space depth, character and history.  Check out her post here and be inspired.

A Tempting Fall Recipe

My Canadian friend, Maureen, has a recipe blog, Red Cottage Chronicles. She makes the most delicious dishes and this Maple Apple and Walnut cake has me drooling.

With all the autumn flavors, this upside-down cake (so easy to make) looks like a winner that should be on repeat the next few months. Can’t wait to try it!

Do You Love Looking at Kitchens?

Everything about this kitchen I love~especially the banquette against those gorgeous windows. Just found this website, W Design Collective and I could get lost in the photos of all their projects.

They create so many beautiful spaces that combine new and old, but warm and full of character.

6,000 New Words added to Dictionary

Not sure how I am feeling about the internet creating new words to officially add to the Cambridge Dictionary, but apparently there are 6,000 of them. When I read articles like this I feel old….because I have no idea what these words mean. Do you?

New words like skibidi, delulu, tradwife, and broligarchy. To find out, see more here. Chances are you will not find me adding these to my vocabulary.

Making Apple Butter

With Fall around the corner, imagine making apple butter at home in your crockpot. In addition to this tasting delicious, this recipe will make your kitchen smell good too. Apple butter makes a great gift too.

Heidi, from Eleanor Rose Home, shares this delicious (and easy!) recipe. The apple trees in the mountains (not ours) are full of fruit, so I look forward to making this soon. Time to dust off the crockpot!

Mary’s Must Haves

If you are curious about natural healing remedies, you may be interested in the Forgotten Home Apothecary by Nicole Apelian, PhD. Nicole is an herbalist, survival skills instructor, anthropologist and biologist. An author of multiple books on herbal remedies, she focuses on a healthy living strategy.

It is very interesting and some of my own remedies are confirmed in this book. The sections include remedies for cardiovascular, digestive, respiratory, nervous, auditory and visual, musculoskeletal, immune, skin, endocrine, reproductive and urinary systems. You can find it on Amazon for $37.00 here.

Look at these pretty stemless wine glasses from Twine! My husband actually bought a set at a local shop. With a need for more wine glasses, I found the identical ones online at Target. However, they have gone up in price since last week and Walmart has the set of two for $28.00 (I paid $27.99).

The evergreen sprigs suit our mountain decor, but these would be very pretty for the holidays. A bit of elegance is added with the electroplated gold rim. Plus, they are a good size at 16 oz. I ordered 4 sets.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend! Today is a cleaning day and getting the place ready for our departure. I will be traveling next Saturday, so I hope I have time to write a post. If not, I will catch up with you in September. In the meantime, stay safe out there!