THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORDS...

Wilfred J. Funk ( 1925-1940)  (Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia) created a list of the 10 most beautiful words in the English language...

HUSH...The Peace Rose blooms in October...

LULLABY... baby racoons watching from the trees.

MIST... First snow over the mist and clouds on the mountains.

"...when everything bursts with its last beauty..." -Lauren DeStefano

TRANQUIL..."Yum Yum the deer" sleeps on the hill, all day long.

GOLDEN...

"Pale amber sunlight...the twilight of the year is sweet..." 

-Ernest Dowson

"Harvest, orange, gold, amber..." -Shauna Niequist

"There was a feeling of autumn coming to last a million years..." -Ray Bradbury

MELODY...

DAWN...

LUMINOUS...

MURMURING...

"October, baptize me with leaves!" -Rainbow Rowell

CHIMES...at end of day.

"I love all beauteous things, I seek and adore them; God has no better praise, and man in his hasty days is honoured for them. I too will something make and joy in the making; although tomorrow it seem like the empty words of a dream remembered on waking..." -Robert Bridges ( 1844-1930) UK poet laureate.

Photographs 2026

 

"WHERE LONG the SHADOWS..."

THE SHEAVES ( 1925) written by Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)

Where long the shadows of the wind had rolled in

Green wheat was yielding to the change assigned,

And as by some vast magic undivined

The world was turning slowly into gold.

Like nothing that was ever bought or sold

It waited there, the body and the mind;

And with a mighty meaning of a kind

That tells the more the more it is not told.

So, in a land where all days are not fair,

Fair days went on till on another day

A thousand gold sheaves were lying there....

Shining and still...

...but not for long to stay...

As if a thousand girls with gold hair

Might rise from where they slept....

...and go away.

Photographs 2026 this poem "the Sheaves" is in the public domain

 

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