For the Love of Dirt

Wednesday, October 7, 2026

THANKSGIVING HARVEST LOAF...

"I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual..."

-Henry David Thoreau

HARVEST ORANGE PUMPKIN LOAF (1970-)

My mother used to make this with cranberries and raisins soaked in sherry, (she used to keep a bottle in the fridge to lacquer fruitcakes!) As it baked, the house was filled with the heady scent of cinnamon and cloves. She would slice it warm from the oven, slathered with butter. You can adapt her recipe with gluten free flour if you wish, but this is the version she always made, and I still make it. I replaced the sherry with orange juice....I also DOUBLE the recipe to make two loaves. One for freezer and one to gobble up.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray and line loaf pan(s)

with parchment paper (use two pans if doubling recipe)

1/3 cup softened plant butter, 1 1/3 cups sugar, 2 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

Combine all together till well blended.

1/3 cup orange juice concentrate or water

1 grated and pureed orange

Combine these and add to butter/pumpkin mixture. (If you wish you can substitute water or ground up apple instead of an orange)

DRY ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp baking powder

Pinch salt( opt), ½ tsp cinnamon,½ tsp cloves

Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and combine but do not beat or the mixture will be tough.

½ cup chopped nuts ( I use pecans)

1 cup dried cranberries/raisins mixed ( I toss in a bit more for good measure)

Fold all together and plop into parchment lined pans.

Sometimes we used to throw in a handful or two of chocolate chips. Or just an extra handful of fresh cranberries!

Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour with larger loaf pans.

Check center of loaves with sharp knife. If still unbaked slightly, add time to finish baking.

Cool and wrap to freeze.

Serve with anything and everything…..also good as sandwich bread OR for adding to stuffing!

"Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow..." -Meister Eckhart

Photographs 2026

Saturday, October 3, 2026

CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. in OCTOBER

"It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar and cinnamon..."-Sarah Addison Allen

The forest in the valley before Mt. Washington range, from my front window.

Yum Yum, one of the urban deer who lives in the green belt and regularly sleeps in the back yard after eating a good deal of leaves and fallen apples.

"...Nature has been saving up all year for its grand finale..."

-Lauren DeStefano

Dogwood Hill leading into downtown, with Quadra Island in the distance.

In the meantime, Yum Yum is still sleeping on the back yard hill...zzzzzzzzzz

On the edge of town, the bridge that reaches over the Campbell river...

"Listen! The wind is rising...

...and the air is wild with leaves,

we have had our summer evenings...

...now for October eves!" -Humbert Wolfe

Heading down the main street of Dogwood, leading to Dogwood Hill....

"Is this not a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love, that makes life and nature harmonize...

...the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay and begin to strew on the ground..."-George Eliot

Oh look, Yum Yum has woken up from his 6 hour nap. He's eating leftover apples that fell from the compost basin....Mr. Spencer at the window with Rona shadowing him.

....and Little Marshmallow on his new perch, looking for the older cats. Yum Yum seems to like the cats and the cats....well, I wonder if they think the deer is just a VERY BIG cat.