Friday Favorite: Camping
Mr Chiots and I are campers. Until this past summer we were tent campers until this past summer when we built our tiny teardrop trailer. Our tent won’t be going into the garage sale pile, we still enjoy tent camping and can see a place for it in our travels. While the convenience of the tiny camper is wonderful, you can’t hear the birds or the breeze as much as you can in a tent and that’s one of the things we love about camping, being surrounded by nature!
I think the reason I love camping so much is because of the simplicity of it. Since our lives are so filled with technology all the time for our jobs, we love the unplugging that comes with camping. When you stay in a hotel there’s not much to do, so you find yourself on the internet or watching TV. When you’re camping you find yourself sitting around a fire enjoying a cup of tea. You get the watch the sunrise while you drink your morning coffee and cook breakfast. There’s really nothing quite like it in my book!
Are you a camper or do you prefer less rustic vacation accommodations?
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Friday Favorite: Sage
When it comes to herbs my favorite has to be sage. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I love it’s wonderfully complex flavor.
Maybe it’s the fact that stuffing is my favorite Thanksgiving side dish (as long as it’s got a good amount of sage). Maybe it’s how it tastes perfect with poultry or sausage. Or perhaps it’s how it perfectly flavors a big pot of bean soup. To me sage tastes like pure comfort.
As a result of my love of sage, I have an abundance of it in the gardens of Chiot’s Run. I have a few different varieties and I plan on adding as many of the varieties that Richter’s carries that I can (at least of the edible kinds). Coming in second to sage has to be thyme as my next favorite culinary herb.
What’s your favorite herb and which is your favorite dish to make with it?
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Friday Favorites: Finding Secondhand Items
After many requests to start them back up again,
Friday Favorites are back!
This past Sunday I showed you what our closet looked like after we installed a new organization system. In that post, I mentioned that I despise plastic items; Daisy commented that I needed wooden hangers so I could do away with the plastic ones. The funny thing is, I’ve been looking at them on-line but couldn’t bring myself to spend the money to replace the ones I had which were still OK (though they’re starting to break in increasing numbers). When it comes to purchasing items, I prefer to find them used because they’re cheaper and usually things made even 10 years ago are higher quality than those made today.
Luckily, I received an email from my local outdoor outfitter store that they were having a sale on wooden hangers. 50 cents each, 5 for $2.25 or 50 for $20. WHAT A GREAT DEAL.
The only thing is, they’re branded, which is quite funny if you know me and know how much I dislike branding. We grabbed a box full and spent some time removing all the old plastic hangers from my closet yesterday. Thankfully, I don’t have many clothes so for $25 I got 60 hangers and I have plenty for all our hanging clothes, coats and other items. I even have 23 empty ones for future expansion (though we try to get rid of items when we buy new so we probably won’t need these).
Another reason I like to buy secondhand is because it’s kind of like a game. It’s no fun to simply run out and buy what you want whenever you want it. I have a list in the back of my mind of things I’d like to have if ever find them for a good price. Mr Chiots and I like to stop at little antique & second hand stores while we’re traveling and we’ve found some wonderful things this way. It’s even better when you can find an item you’ve been searching for in a small store while driving through Virginia on our way to Monticello. Stumbling across something you’ve been wanting to buy for a couple years in a random little shop is such a joy!
Do you like to buy used items? Found any great used items recently that you’ve been patiently waiting for?
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Friday Favorite: Childhood Books
There’s nothing like rereading books you loved as a child when you’re an adult. I was particularly fond of the Little House on the Prairie Series. My sister and I had a set and we read them so much they had to be taped back together many times. My sister actually still has the set and my nieces love to read them.
Last winter I got the Little House books from the library and really enjoyed rereading them. They’re just as engaging now as they were when I was 10. Last summer on our trip to Monticello we stopped at the Royal Oak Bookshop in Fort Royal, VA. It’s a wonderful little place with a great selection of used books. I was able to find almost the entire Little House Series in hardback, there was only 1 missing. I purchased the missing book used on-line this past winter and now I have a lovely set of one my favorite childhood series. This winter I’m planning on reading through them again.
I also loved The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe as a kid and the rest of that series (the Chronicles of Narnia). My sister and I also wore out the set of those as well. Five or six years ago I purchased this set as one big book in C.S. Lewis’s preferred reading order. I’ve read this series more as an adult, I even took a C.S. Lewis class in college. It is a wonderfully engaging series for kids and adults and I’m looking forward to reading through it as well this winter!
What books did you love as a kid? Have you ever reread any of them?
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Friday Favorite: The Smell of Tomatoes
You don’t really think about it during the long dark winter and it’s still a distant memory while you’re seeding all your little tomato seedlings. When repotting or planting your tiny tomatoes it’s not very strong, a faint whiff of what it will be come high summer when the plants are growing in the heat of the sun. One day when you head out to the garden to tie up your tomatoes it hits you, that smell that is tomato foliage. An unmistakable smell it is, that of tomato foliage – it is much stronger and more pungent than the fresh fruit. There’s nothing quite like it really.
Some people love it and some hate it. I was firmly in the HATE IT camp my first year of growing tomatoes. Then I learned to LOVE IT. So much so that I decided to make it a Friday Favorite. I spent some time out tying up the tomatoes this week and was thinking about how much I love that smell.
What about you – are in the love it or hate it camp when it comes to the smell of tomato foliage?
