In Appreciation
Mr Chiots and I live in a small town and we love it. Every week when we head in to town we chat with the friendly folks at the Post Office, the library, and the bank. We appreciate each every one of these people, sure they’re working and getting paid for what they do, but they do their jobs well, which makes our lives a little easier. The librarians know what kinds of books we like and will save new ones out for us. The post office will add any additional postage I forgot and just let me know how much I owe the next time I come in, and the ladies at the bank give Lucy treats in the drive thru.
Because we appreciate how well they do their jobs, we like to show it during the holidays. Every year I make a few batches of caramel corn and Mr Chiots heads in to town and passes it out. After the first year I knew I could never stop because I started getting questions around Thanksgiving about the caramel corn. One of the guys at the post office even tried to get me to start a business selling it so he could buy it all year long. Since everyone loved it so much, I’ve been doing ever since, which I think has been 5 years at least. Yesterday I spent the evening baking up four batches and packaging it up. Today Mr Chiots will head in to town to show our appreciation!
Do you make anything to hand out to neighbors and others during the holidays?
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And They’re Off
Last week I talked about taking photos and setting up our Christmas card. I sent them in to the printer on Sunday night and the UPS man delivered them Friday evening, not bad turnaround time for custom printed Christmas cards. Saturday morning was spent addressing all the cards while Mr Chiots was out sitting in the woods waiting for a nice doe to walk by. I finished up most of them right before noon and ran them in to the post office so they’d be on their way for delivery later this week.
Some people forgo holiday cards for environmental reasons, others for time or cost issues. Personally, I enjoy sending them and receiving them. In a world dominated by quick virtual communication, I find it satisfying to address glossy cards with a pen in hand. I enjoy thinking about the people I’m sending them to and about the ways they each arrived on my Christmas list. The creativity involved in coming up with my Christmas card every year is also something I thoroughly enjoy, it’s a good challenge (and I LOVE a challenge). This year I sent out cards our personal cards and cards from Ethel, which I spent Sunday afternoon addressing and writing notes in. Some of the people overlap from my personal to my work life and they’ll be getting one of each.
Since you’ve been waiting to see what our final card looks like, this is it. It features the little camper we built this summer and took on our trek across the country.
Since I received the printing overages I have a good number of cards left. If you’d like to receive a Christmas card from Chiot’s Run use the “contact me” button to the right to send me your mailing address. I’ll gladly send one along as I’d rather seem them hanging in your home than in the recycling dumpster in town.
How do you display the cards you get from others?
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A Cheery Delight
Most years, my front porch is all decorated this time of year with fresh pine greenery, big white Christmas lights, grapevine stars, terra cotta pots, pinecones, and all things natural. I spend the better part of a day outside stringing garland and lights and adding a touch of the holidays to our home.
This year however, my front porch is bare, there is no pine garland, no white lights, and no grapevine stars. I never got around to buying the garland and I haven’t been able to find the time to pull out the stars. It’s kind of sad, I really miss the big white lights shining through the front windows during the evening. I didn’t want to go completely without any outside lights, that makes me sad.
We are not completely devoid of holiday cheer in the garden. Some big colored lights were strung in a small blue spruce out back for our Christmas card photo.
Generally I’m not a colored light kind of gal, but I find them to be a cheery delight when I see them through my kitchen window in the evenings.
The nice thing about this little strand of lights is that no one else can see them but us. It’s like our own little holiday display on the back hillside. The extra nice thing is that it will take me all of two minutes to take down the outdoor holiday decor instead of the usual couple hours.
Do you add any outdoor decor/lights to your home during the holidays? Which do you prefer: white or colored lights?
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Here Comes Suzy Snowflake…
“To appreciate the beauty of a snow flake,
it is necessary to stand out in the cold.”
-unknown
Yesterday about noon the snow started flying here at Chiot’s Run. It happened at the perfect time, as I was working on my Christmas cards. Not too long before the sun went down I grabbed my camera and headed out into the cold to capture the first snowfall of the season!
“The Sweets” aka the feral garage cat, doesn’t come out of the garage much unless she hears or sees us out. She’s really missing having me in the garden a lot during the day. Whenever she hears the door open, she appears in a flash and is rubbing on my legs legs to get some attention, so much for being feral right! Everywhere I went yesterday, there she was, right behind me. As you can see by the second photo, she got some of Miss Mama’s green in her eyes!
Mr Chiots was hunting all day in the neighbor’s woods behind our house and he came home while I was out. I managed to sneak a photo of him all dressed up in his warm woolen layers. He’s off to the family hunting cabin today to meet his cousin, who’ll be deer hunting for the first time – wish them luck!
I’m happy to have it on the ground as long as the cold weather sticks around. Nothing brightens up a dull dreary winter day more than some beautiful white snow. Not to mention, I need to make up for all those white Christmases I missed while growing up in South America!
Do you get snow in your area?
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Before I Gardened…
Mr Chiots and I were talking the other day and I said “what did I do with all my time before I gardened?”
Before I gardened I ran, lots of and lots of miles and I spent time lifting weights. I trained and ran races and I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise. Then I started having to decide whether I should spend an hour weeding the garden or spend that hour logging some mileage. More often than not, the garden came first and soon enough I had to retire my running shoes for my wellies. I don’t really miss it though, I feel like I’m actually in better shape from gardening that I ever was from running. Gardening provides such a wide variety of activities to work all your muscles including your heart. I could still run in the winter when my garden in sleeping, but I now choose to do yoga instead because it keeps me in better condition for gardening chores than running does.
Had cable TV and enjoyed watching shows. Then little by little I spent more hours in the garden and had to spend my evening getting my work done (I work from home). Of course I should attribute this one to this blog too, as blogging takes up much of my extra “free” time nowadays. I don’t mind though, I cancelled my cable and save myself a good chunk of change each month.
Before I gardened I sewed and did other fun crafty stuff. Then my winter slowly became engulfed in ordering seeds, reading gardening books, and tending to tiny seedlings in the basement (my seed starting begins in January with celery, leeks and onions). This year at least I’ve been able to do a little more craftiness because of my job at Ethel.
Before I gardened I kept my floors clean enough to eat off of. I started choosing to spend my time cleaning out the flower beds instead of cleaning the floors. Instead of sweeping and mopping twice a week, the floors only get it once a week or sometimes every other week! With a big dog and three cats running around it can get a little “furry” in between those cleaning times.
Before I gardened I kept my home much neater and more organized. I used to hate clutter, it drove me crazy. Then my seed collection started to grow, I had flats of seedlings that wanted to be warm upstairs instead of cold in the basement, and the stack of gardening books on the table started to grow. I acquired miniature indoor citrus, ginger, figs and too many potted herbs. I started blogging about my garden and spending my spare moments snapping photos of everything. Now my house is much more “lived in” that it used to be, but I’m learning to be OK with it. I now am happy that I have some clutter and hope it makes people feel more relaxed when they come visit.
The truth is that I could still have time for all these things if I hadn’t chosen new hobbies. If I didn’t blog I could still run, if I didn’t take as many photos I could still sew, if I didn’t garden I could clean my floors several times a week. My priorities have changed and thus my time is spent differently. My job is also more of a priority than it used to be, I’m focusing on turning what I love into a career. I think that many of us mature into adults between the ages of 25-35 and this is the time I happen to have lived here at Chiot’s Run. As a result I have hone in on those things that make me happy and have learned to make time for them.
Have you given up any hobbies for more time in the garden?
