WILD NOVEMBER...

"Now in November, nearer comes the sun down, the abandoned heaven..." -D.H. Lawrence

"I have always been fascinated by the ocean...touching eternity, that it goes on forever, till it begins here again..." -Lauren DeStefano

"There is October in every November, and there is November in every December. All seasons melted into each other's life..." -Mehmet Murat Idan

"The wild November comes at last beneath a veil of rain..." -R.H. Stoddard

"Mist to mist, drops to drops, for water thou art, and unto water shalt thou return..." -Kamand Kajouri

"The world is tired, the year is old, the fading leaves are glad to die..." 

-Sara Teasdale

"November wind has a different sound than any other..."-Gladys Taber

"It was the best kind of November day....cold and crisp, but not quite freezing, not icy..." -R. Rowell

"It was November, the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep hymns of the sea, passionate wind songs of the pines..."

-L. M. Montgomery

"The sea is a desert of waves, a wilderness of water..." -Langston Hughes
 

"Be thankful for what you have. Your life is someone else's fairy tale..." -Wale Ayeni

"November at its best, with a delightful sort of menace in the air..." -Anne Bosworth Greene

"Peering from some high window, at the gold of November sunset, and feeling that if day has to become night, this is a beautiful way..." -e.e. cummings

Photographs 2025

HAWKS and MOUNTAINS...

"Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky..." -Ursula K. Le Guin

           "The mountains are calling, and I must go..." - John Muir

"A pine needle fell in the forest.The hawk saw it. The deer heard it. The white bear smelled it..." -Edith Pattou

"Climb the mountain, so you can see the world, not so the world can see you..." -David McCullough, Jr.
 

                            "The wild hawk to the wind-swept sky...." -Rudyard Kipling

"Prayer clears the mist and brings back peace to the Soul..."

                                                                                                                              -Rumi

"Like a hawk, let your vision be sharp, your focus unwavering, and your determination unyielding..." -Unknown

"No wolf falters before the bite, so strike No hawk wavers before the dive just strike..." -Shannon Hale

          "I see you watching me like a hawk..."-Willie Dixon

"...his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front..."

                                  -J.R. R. Tolkien

"I have need of the sky, I have business with the grass, I will up and get me away where the hawk is wheeling lone and high..." 

                                                    -Richard Hoovey

"So long as the mist envelops you, be still. Be still till the sunlight pours through and dispels the mists..."-Chief White Eagle

"Dost thou love hawking? Thou hast hawks will soar above the morning lark..." 

                        -Shakespeare

"Faith moves no mountains, but instead raises them up where there were none before..." -F. Nietzsche

"The mountain remains unmoved as its seeming defeat by the mist..." -R. Tagore

"As I stood and watched the mists slowly rising this morning, I wondered what view was more beautiful than this..." - H. Borland

"The silence holds with its gloved hand the wild hawk of the mind..." -R.S. Thomas

Photographs 2025 

    Sharp-Skinned Hawks ( I think), and Mt. Washington range, Vancouver Island, B.C.

CARAWAY...

"Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead, have never watched them dance on a windy day..." -Shira Tamir

The battle of the Caraway Seed Cakes. It's here. My mother used to bake caraway seed cakes every Fall, before she tackled Christmas Fruit cakes. Her fruitcakes always left something to be desired, but the seed cake was something to be  devoured on stormy, rainy days ,when the leaves came tumbling down.

This year I made two different cakes. One on the left is baked using a goldencake mix with lots of other ingredients, and the one on the left is from my mother/grandmother's old recipe. They were both taste tested afterwards. Drum roll please.....wait for it...

So, while the home made cake version sits and cools, it's time for some Caraway Seed trivia. Did you know caraway seed was used in Love potions, way back when, and was also used to ward off evil, during the time of superstition. Any child, liberally sprinkled with caraway seed was believed to be protected from harm.  Can you imagine?

In ancient Egypt it was used to calm upset stomachs, while the Romans ate the roots as a side dish. What we call "seeds" are technically small, fruits of the caraway seed plant. Now it's time to try the new version....here it is:

SOUR CREAM CARAWAY SEED CAKE ( using a cake mix)

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees. Prepare a bundt cake pan or 1 loaf pan sprayed with veggie spray.

1 box golden cake mix,  4 eggs , 1 cup sour cream

½ 1 cup oil,1 tsp vanilla extract,

Zest of one lemon or orange (Optional but it's SO good)

¼ cup sugar, 1/2 cup orange juice or water ( the juice is better)

2 tsp caraway seeds

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree..."-Emily Bronte

If using oranges or lemons, scrape the rind to gather as much zest as you wish....I used two oranges, because that's what I had in the fridge.

Mix all together with a wire whisk or large fork. Beat till well combined.

Plop into the loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes. I test it after 40 minutes to see how it is coming along. Every oven is different.  

"Is this not a true Autumn day? Just the melancholy I love that makes life and nature harmonize..." -George Eliot

I sliced up both cakes. Is that drum roll still going? Surprise.....the one using the cake mix was our favourite. Nicer crumb, more even, lovely taste. Mild caraway seed. My mother's version: stronger in caraway, more dense, like bread, rather than cake.  It makes really good toast, or croutons, by the way. 

"Autumn would come to this place of welcome, this place I would know to be home..."-Henry Rollins

"I loved Autumn, the one season of the year that God seemed to have put there just for the beauty of it..." -Lee Maynard

 
          "All at once, summer collapsed into Fall..." -Oscar Wilde
                                         

 Photographs 2025