Show & Tell Friday: All Things Fall

So, barring the fact that my eyes are so swollen from being up late with a screaming 5 month-old I can barely see out of them to type, I. am. determined. to. be. positive. Especially in this post.

Or, as Meg Ryan says in French Kiss: I will triumph!

Moving on.

Fall.
Autumn.
The harvest season.
Or, as I like to refer to it: the most wonderful time of the year.

I adore Fall. Maybe it’s its incandescence–its fleeting nature–that makes it so special. It’s only here for a heartbeat–the falling leaves, the crisp air, the crystalline blue skies, the silver morning fog, the vibrant colors laid like a wizard’s cloak over the mountains. The football.

But I love it. I’m swept up when it’s here and sad when it’s gone. If you ask my husband, he’d tell you that I like to over-commit to Fall. I plan an abundance of activities, including–but not limited to–hot chocolate and S’Mores in the backyard fire pit with friends, hiking above the Blue Ridge Parkway with friends, walking to the Farmer’s Market every Saturday morning, popping by the bakery, going to the pumpkin patch, taking mini road trip through the mountains to tiny mountain towns nearby, piling up leaves and letting the kids and their friends (and our dog, Scout) jump in them, watching “Fall movies,” decorating our house for Halloween and then Thanksgiving, and oh so many more. Oops. I forgot football.

I sort of have a Fall fetish. But Fall and I understand each other. We’re there for each other. We are kindred spirits, the Fall and I.

So, in celebration of my favorite time of year, here are 7 Things to Share/Love/Do this Fall:

1.) Hike up along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

If you don’t live near enough to get to the Blue Ridge Parkway, I am terribly sorry. It’s an incredible place, especially in the Pisgah National Forest section of North Carolina. Just last Saturday we headed out with friends and hiked with our kids up to the Fryingpan Mountain Lookout Tower, then picnicked afterward at the Shut-In Trail overlook. Fryingpan is a great little hike to do with kids (ours were 4 years-old, 3 years-old and 5 months old, respectively) that ends with a big bonus. You can hike up to the tower, but the trap door to get up to the big viewing area is currently latched–due, I’m guessing, to the government shutdown. That being said, you can still hike up almost to the top and see out of the gorgeous Blue Ridge.

The leaves weren’t changing too much yet, but it’s already been a week and the leaf-changing moves fast at this elevation. I’m guessing there’ll be a lot more color this weekend, and certainly by next weekend.

Here are some shots of the view from the lookout tower:

Our hiking crew, at the Shut-In Trail overlook in Pisgah National Forest

 

There are hundreds of miles of trails in the Pisgah National Forest, with a variety of elevations, and many are still open despite the shutdown. Just Google “Fall hikes in Pisgah National Forest, NC” and see what happens.

 

2.) Head to the local Farmer’s Market

We’re lucky: we’ve got a farmer’s market we can walk to right in our town–the Transylvania Farmer’s Market. Packed with wares from local farms including hormone-free beef and chicken, honey, eggs, vegetables, fruit (apples!), goods made by local artisans (jewelry, wood art, furniture, fabric arts and more), and serenaded by local pickers, it’s the place to be on Saturday mornings. At least until it gets too cold to do anything round these parts. (Psst: lots of farmers and tailgate markets are open past the harvest season–ours is open through December.)

3.) Pick up a new book

Chilly Fall nights are the perfect time to snuggle in bed with a good book. Lately, I’ve been rereading some old favorites. But here are a few on my radar to checkout:

The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent (historical fiction set on the 19th century Gulf coast)
A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver (poems by the Pulizter Prize-winner about life on the Massachusetts coast)
Strong Enough to Die by Jon Landis (a thriller starring 5th generation female Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong)
Shake Down the Stars by Renee Swindle (a tale of love, loss and the human spirit)
The Bookstore by Deborah Meyler (debut novel about a woman who finds answers in a quirky little bookstore)
And anything by Alice Munro, who just won the Nobel Prize in Literature!



4.) Watch an Autumn-themed movie or TV show; or heck, anything that makes you think about Fall

cast of the Gilmore Girls

My favorites, the stuff I watch over and over each year, are the movie Runaway Bride with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, and the TV series Gilmore Girls. Runaway Bride is set in a small town in rural Maryland, and the scenery is gorgeous–Fall colors and small-town charm everywhere you look. Gilmore Girls is set in small-town Connecticut (the town, Stars Hollow, hosts a festival every chance it gets) and is filled with a quirky bunch of townsfolk with whom you’ll fall quickly in love. Pour yourself a cup of hot cider, grab a warm quilt and prepare to stay awhile.

5.) Speaking of cider …

Any hot Fall drink will do. Around football season, we like to spike ours with Bourbon. Every general store is selling cider right now, and the spicier the better. If you like hot chocolate, try whipping up some of your own. My Grandmama Scottie used to make the most mouth-wateringly delicious homemade hot chocolate in a pan on her stove. Nothing’s better than homemade.

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes:

WARM CITRUS CIDER (from Southern Living magazine)

Ingredients:
1 gallon apple cider
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 orange, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
1 1/2 tsp whole cloves
3 cinnamon sticks

Bring the above to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 10 minutes.
Discard solids.
Garnish with an apple slice and serve hot!

Makes 4 1/2 qt.
Total time: 25 minutes

DELICIOUS HOT CHOCOLATE (from The Pioneer Woman)

Ingredients
 2 cups milk
2 cups half & half
1 cup Good Semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Combine milk and half & half in small saucepan.
Warm over medium-low, then stir in chocolate chips.
Stir until melted.
Add more milk and chocolate chips as needed to taste.
Add sugar if you need more shugah.
The Pioneer Woman suggested dropping a couple of peppermint patties into each mug for an extra special kick.

Serve with whipped cream!

6.) Listen to live music

There’s all kinds of live music around Western North Carolina any night of the week, and I bet if you check, it’s available in your town, too! Tonight, my family’s headed to Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard to listen to our friend Bradley Carter of Sanctum Sully pick and sing!

Thomas Wolfe once wrote, ”All things on earth point home in old October; sailors to sea, travellers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken.” So wherever you are this Fall, enjoy your home. Find a pretty spot and share it with the ones you love. I know I will.
 

Show & Tell Friday: Summer Solstice Edition

Hey, all! I'm posting this here and at my author website a wee bit early. This is the fault of baby brain: if I waited until tomorrow, I'd never remember.

Today is the Summer Solstice: the longest day of the year, the official first day of summer  and, as it so happens, my husband’s birthday!

Oh, how I love the summer. Sunday was the first night I’d noticed the lightning bugs. I’m sure they’d been around already, but we’ve got an infant in the house, and so some things have lately gone unnoticed. We tried to get our 3 year-old to catch them with us, attempted to explain just how cool these little glowing creatures are, that they mean summer and freedom and magic–but she just wasn’t into it. Oh, my broken heart. But she’ll get it one day.

Some good stuff to share:

1.) Native Eyewear is sponsoring a contest called the “Locals Only Project,” where viewers can vote for the best outdoor town. Native Eyewear will travel to that town and make it the centerpiece of their next catalog. My town, Brevard, NC, is up this year! And we are truly lucky and blessed to live where we do: in the Blue Ridge Mountains, at the foot of Pisgah National Forest, with the best mountain biking track and hiking trails East of the Mississippi.

Check us out and vote here.

2.) Last night I pulled a movie from our DVD library that I haven’t watched in a long time. Called True Women, it was a CBS miniseries in the ’90s starring Angelina Jolie, Dana Delany, and Annabeth Gish, and based on the novel by Janice Woods Windle. I’d picked the DVD up in some pile of “for sale” stuff a while back. Set over five decades, starting in 1830s Georgia and Texas, against the backdrop of the Indian Removal (Trail of Tears), the Alamo and Texas independence, the wars with the Comanches, and eventually the Civil War and women’s suffrage, it’s full of capital-D Drama.

Parts of it are overly-sentimental–mostly the over-the-top Southern accents, which only Gish really gets right–but it’s a rousing adventure and a story of three very independent Southern women in a wild and dangerous time. The relationships between Delany’s and Gish’s character (they play sisters), and between Delany and her character’s husband (played by veteran Western actor Powers Boothe) is lovely and real.

Check it out: an escapist adventure for a few hot summer nights! (And I bet you could get it for free from your local library.)

3.) Speaking of libraries–very cool places to be in the summer–here’s the list of the latest books I’ve checked out. (All novels.) They’re sitting on my bedside table and the side table where I feed my baby. I’m optimistic I’ll make it through all of them in time to check out more for July, especially considering the wee hours and I have grown quite friendly:

Ashenden by Elizabeth Wilhide
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
The Casual Vacany by J.K. Rowling

I’ve got to admit: I’m a chronic re-reader. I just finished re-reading Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness, and Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff. And, I recently gulped down Susanna Kearsley’s newest, The Firebird, as soon as Amazon.com delivered it to my door earlier this week. More on that soon!

4.) In my CD player: (And, yes, I still have a CD player) I’m currently listening to new albums by two camp buddies of mine (read: friends I worked with for years at a camp in the NC mountains): Bradley Carter’s The Real Job (CD jacket designed by another camp buddy and talented artist, A.J. Power) and Shannon Whitworth’s High Tide.

Quite a bit of talent comes out of the NC mountains. Check them all out when you have a chance. And I’ll write more later about all these books and this great music, here and at my blog. No guarantees on when (she types as the infant cries from the bassinet), but it’ll come.

Happy Summer Solstice to everyone!

Books, Music & More: Show & Tell Friday

Last week, I inaugurated “Show & Tell Friday” here at The Writing Scott and over at my author website.

I dug it. I’m doing it again.

First up, my dear writer-friend Christine Byl’s debut book of nonfiction: Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods. I was lucky enough to get to know Christine back in 2008, when we spent a month as writing fellows at the Vermont Studio Center. We talked the wonders of Alaska, and she lent me her cross country skis. She is good people.

I know from personal experience reading her work that she’s an incredible talent. This is a book worth buying! It releases April 16, 2013 from Beacon Press, but you can reserve your copy now at Amazon and other stores, including your local independent bookstore.

By the way, that’s her in the wheelbarrow on the cover!

Next, a poem to share: “Waking,” by Stephen Dobyns. This was Monday’s featured poem on my daily dose of The Writer’s Almanac (which can show up in your Inbox, too, dear reader, if you only sign up). I am an awful poet, yet I adore poetry. And this poem just touched me with its gorgeous familiarity. It’s about marriage, and family, and it says so many of the things I’d like to say if I could.

Bradley Carter

Then, for you Western North Carolina, Upstate South Carolina, Eastern Tennessee readers–heck, anyone in the near-enough area–there’s some great music being created in my neck of the woods. This time, by two of my favorite people: Bradley Carter and H.R. Gertner, guys I worked with in my college days at an outdoor adventure camp in the mountains. Back then, I got to listen to these two pick, play, and sing on Sunday nights around a roaring campfire. (They’re also mad climbers and paddlers.) Check them out on Facebook!

Now they’re sharing their talents with the world. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for dates when they’re playing near you. Bradley will be coming home to Brevard, N.C. on April 16, 2013, to play at 185 King Street!

Finally, I’ll be signing copies of Keowee Valley and chatting with readers this Saturday, March 9 at the Oconee Heritage Center in Walhalla, S.C., from 2 – 3 p.m. My visit coincides with Old Time Music Day, so there should be a lot of great sounds coming from this fabulous little museum. (There’re also two incredible 18th century, preserved Cherokee canoes–pulled from nearby rivers–to check out at the OHC, along with all kinds of other cool stuff.)

18th c. Cherokee canoes - Oconee Heritage Center

Happy Friday, everyone–hope it’s a great weekend for us all!