the friday feed: le beaujolais nouveau est arrivé!

The third Thursday in November celebrates one of the wine world’s most exciting dates. “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivé!” (The Beaujolais Nouveau has arrived!) Every year, this is the moment when the very first red wines of the vintage are released. This year this wine was made available to the public at 12:01 a.m. (00:01) on November 20, 2025. What’s great about Beaujolais Nouveau is that, for once, wine isn’t taken seriously. There’s not a prestigious bottle, no need to be an expert picking up notes, and no tasting skills required. It’s just about celebrating wine and all the work that’s gone into this year’s harvest. This observance has grown from a local farmer’s tradition into a global celebration.

We were in Cleveland last weekend and one night babysat our little sweethearts while the big sweethearts went out for Jen's birthday celebration. Todd and Andrew had gone to Giant Eagle for a quick grocery run and when they got back to the house, Todd announced, "You'll never guess what I found!" He pulled a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau out of the grocery bag and after the little ones were all snug in their beds, we had a couple glasses. 

Young, lively red wine

to celebrate the harvest

at the midnight toll.

But then I got to thinking, this is November 15 and the third Thursday is the 20th. Hmmmm...somebody at the Giant Eagle didn't get the memo that this wine isn't supposed to be on the shelf until November 20. C'est la vie!

nothing gold can stay

Nothing Gold Can Stay

By Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

🍁 🍂 🍁 🍂 🍁 🍂 🍁 🍂 🍁 🍂 🍁 🍂 🍁 🍂 🍁 🍂 🍁

Autumn's gold is disappearing and the falling leaves are brown. Around my neighborhood more trees are bare than they are leafy. It's the progression of the seasons. 31 more days until winter.

My first reaction to this poem was that it's a sad poem. But poems are meant to be read more than once and I read it a couple more times. Despite the theme that nothing beautiful can last, the poem is not necessarily meant to be sad. Instead, I see it as a call to appreciate precious moments while they last, because their impermanence is what makes them so valuable. 

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

This past week I spent a few days working in the yard, cleaning out the flower beds and the rest of the herb garden. I pulled out the already dead dill plant, smiling at the memory of the swallowtail butterfly caterpillar chewing non-stop through one of the plants in a couple of days. I snipped parsley and rosemary for freezing, in anticipation of catching a taste summer freshness in my winter cooking. I let the marigolds go as long as they could, keeping the yellow and gold and orange flowers for last minute pollen gathering for the bees. After all 100+ plants turned brown, it was time to pull them out and turn up the dirt to make space for the new marigolds to be planted when the soil once again warms. Todd raked leaves to cover the bare soil for the winter. Over the winter the leaves will compost and nourish the soil for the upcoming spring. 

We took the yard waste to the Montgomery County waste facility and parked next to a man who was dumping his landscaping debris. Laying next to his flat bed was his red Craftsman wheelbarrow. Memories came flooding back of my dad and his career at Sears and how good the Craftsman tool line was. Back in the day Craftsman was exclusive to Sears. Now you find it at Lowe's, Ace Hardware, on Amazon, and probably other places. After the trip to the dump, I took my car to the car wash. It was embarrassingly dirty plus that impromptu snow storm from earlier in the week put so many wet, mushy leaves on the roads which topped off the dirtiness. 

We are headed off for a little weekend jaunt with some friends to celebrate Todd's birthday. After our trip to Cleveland, I'm not buying any groceries for this week and using up what's in the fridge. I've never made the popular baked feta with cherry tomatoes. I had the basics - the feta and cherry tomatoes - and added some fontina, green onions, and red bell pepper. I used the recipe but with my additions, cleared out a few items that wouldn't have lasted over the weekend. I emptied a box of pasta that had an inch of noodles left and after boiling it to al dente, enjoyed a nice little pasta lunch with that ooey, gooey cheesy sauce. 

monday's mulling: leaf raking (part 2)

Last week's Monday's Mulling focused on leaf raking and how having nice, clean lawns looks good but takes away habitats for insects. 

This week is leaf raking but from the viewpoint of a 3-year old. We spent this past weekend in Cleveland for a couple reasons: a Browns football game and to help our son with yard work, primarily raking leaves. He and his family live in a neighborhood with a lot of big trees that drop a lot of leaves. Todd and Andrew spent all day Saturday raking piles and piles of leaves to the street. But this time a little 3 year old guy was involved. Leaf piles are such a natural playground for little people and Owen's sparkling eyes and laughter brought so much joy to the hard working dad and grandpa. Didi, too 😁

the northern lights

Geomagnetic storms brought the northern lights to much of the U.S. this week, painting the sky in vibrant hues of green and pink and the colorful aurora borealis appeared over Ohio for two nights. The northern lights are not always blazing over the sky. Sometimes they are modest...quiet...peaceful. And that's what they were from my backyard.

 

congratulations, hallie!

Proud Didi (grandma) moment? My granddaughter received an award from her daycare. 🤣

Just to let you know,

Poop jokes aren't my favorite jokes...

...but they're a solid No.2.

And Hallie's award could be passed along to the members of the U.S. government.

What do politicians and diapers have in common?

They should be changed regularly because they're full of crap.

Butt...this has gone on long enough.

Why did the lady stop telling poop jokes?

Everyone said they stink!

the friday feed: tomato tart

October 31 was the last day of business for the farmers market where I worked this spring and summer. Sigh. My bosses buy a lot of the produce that they sell from the Mennonite community that is a little over an hour away but they also grow crops on the farm. It's a good mix of home grown and local. The growing season is done and now we wait until spring for Treadway Gardens to open their 57th year of business.

My boss gave a box filled with over 20 fresh red and heirloom tomatoes to me on my last day of work. What a treasure! I've made a few tomato sandwiches, quartered and diced some for freezing, and with the last few made a tomato tart for the end-of-the-season employee party. For the party I always try to make something that includes veggies from the farm and so the tomatoes were the inspiration for the Last Supper of the 2025 Treadway Gardens season.

Last fresh tomatoes

Happiness is an heirloom

Mmmmm…Love at first slice.

the tree of lights

It's that time of year when the Carillon Bell Tower transforms into the shape of a holiday tree towering 200 feet in the air and glowing with 20,000 white lights.

As of yesterday, all the wires are in place for the holiday lights to be strung.

2015 was the first year the Tree of Lights illuminated the Dayton skyline. The idea for the Tree of Lights was inspired by Indianapolis's "Circle of Lights" and it honors the first public carillon concert in Dayton, which took place on Christmas Eve 1941. 

The tree lighting will take place the day after Thanksgiving, November 28. It's a beautiful sight to see from many vantage points around town.

 

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

Autumn is in its peak color glory. A walk at Hills and Dales MetroPark filled was an immersion into some beautiful golden hues.

We took a drive to one of the highest points in Dayton to take in some more fall colors and a gorgeous sunset.

The frost is on the pumpkin? Nope, more like three inches of snow!

And now presenting the clash of the seasons!

Follow the yellow brick road. The neighborhood ginkgo trees dropped their leaves in a matter of hours. Now a couple days later, the leaves have turned to mush and my car is a mess. Hope it warms up enough to get it into a car wash.

More gold upon white. 

Leaf confetti.

I rediscovered a word. Flâneur: Someone who strolls aimlessly but enjoyable, observing life and the surroundings. What a spot-on description for this past week.

 

veterans day and poppies in my kitchen

Today is Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in the UK and its Commonwealth countries. In the UK its citizens celebrate by wearing poppies. This practice originated to commemorate those who died in World War I as poppies grew wild on the battlefields of northern France and Belgium. The poppy has long represented peace and sacrifice, most famously portrayed in John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields”, which he wrote after seeing poppies grow on battle-scarred fields. 

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high. 
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

While we traveled in Scotland and England, we explored a few churches and in them were memorials dedicated to the towns' soldiers who died in various wars. These simple but profound shrines gave pause for reflection and gratitude for their service and sacrifice.

At the Tower of London is a poppy memorial to the soldiers who died in the service of their countries. It features 30,000 ceramic poppies to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. This installation opened on May 6 and closes today. What a breathtaking display and powerful symbol of remembrance.

A little while ago I bought a little poster that has a nice blessing on it and some poppies to add a pop of color to the blue and white in the majority of the piece. Later on while at an art show at a coffee shop, I bought an all red poppy piece painted on barn wood. My kitchen is fairly monotone and I wanted something to brighten up the wall space. A splash of red does that well. 

The silver rain, the shining sun

The fields where scarlet poppies run

And all the rustling of the wheat

Is in the bread that we now eat.

So it is with grateful heart we feel

When we sit down to every meal

That we are eating rain and sun

And fields where scarlet poppies run.

~ Alice C. Henderson

“Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere who bravely bears his country’s cause.”  ~ Abraham Lincoln

monday's mulling: leaf raking

Yesterday was a chilly, drizzly day, one where it was good to stay in the house and putter around, make a grocery list, make some lists to start planning out the upcoming holidays, and listen to my husband yell at the TV while the Cleveland Browns mess up play after play in their football game against the New York Giants. I was inside all day and in the late afternoon, as it was getting dark, I put my coat on and told Todd that I was going for a walk. It wasn't the best weather to be outside but cabin fever was getting the best of me and I needed to get out. 

With the weather getting colder the leaves are dropping, covering the lawns and streets. People have been raking their leaves to the street in anticipation of the city trucks coming around and sucking them up to take to the city compost pile. By raking leaves to keep our yards clean and green, we take away habitats for insects. 

Do you remember the summer nights many years ago when the lightning bugs dotted the darkness? There were so many! But now fewer lightning bugs show up in the summer because one reason is that homeowners now spend more time raking leaves. Lightning bugs live most of their lives as larva in leaf litter, so if we remove all the leaves and put them by the side of the road, we’ve probably removed all the juvenile lightning bugs from our yard. Also, fewer lightning bugs are observed due to a combination of drought conditions and along with a lack of leaf litter, that impacts their multi-year life cycle during the egg and larva stages. If there is not enough moisture, firefly eggs and larva are susceptible to drying up. The leaf layer provides a critical, moist environment and shelter during the fall, winter and spring months. Removing the leaves as yard waste, the firefly larvae lose their protective habitat and are carted away with the debris.

The balance between to rake or not to rake, humans and nature is a thin line.

bye, bye daylight saving time and a bit of dayton history

The time changed last Sunday and we fell back an hour. This past week I took a stroll along the bike trail that goes along the Great Miami River past Carillon Park and Dayton's most famous timekeeper, the Callahan Building clock.

This clock was perched atop Dayton's first skyscraper, the Callahan Building. It  started ticking in the late 1800s, becoming the heartbeat of the city skyline. The Callahan Building was demolished in 1978. I remember driving past the demolition and it was sad to see this beautiful structure knocked down to a pile of rubble. It was replaced by a building designed by I.M. Pei (best known for the glass pyramid he designed for the Louvre). It's now a cool, modern building and it has a "Pei pyramid" on its top but but there's something about old architecture that gives a city its character. And right now the building is sitting empty. The clock moved to the Reynolds & Reynolds building where it was a prominent sight to commuters traveling on I-75 until 2006. R&R moved its headquarters and the clock made its final move to Carillon Historical Park, where it stayed in storage for 12 years. 

The Brethen Foundation presented a $500,000 gift to Carillon Park to construct a tower to "lift the historic Callahan Clock into the air and return this well-known landmark to Dayton's skyline." (Dayton Daily News, Oct. 10, 2018). In 2018 the clock became an anchor on the museums's 65-acre park and now sits on the appropriately named Brethen Tower. 

As I walked along the path quite a few wooly worms warmed themselves on the concrete. If you go by weather lore, wooly worms are a predictor of winter weather so winter might be a little more harsh this year. One of the eagles that nests in Carillon Park flew overhead. What a majestic bird. On the left hand side in the background is the Carillon Bell Tower which will be turned into a giant Christmas tree for the upcoming holiday season. I love the Tree of Lights and it's a beautiful beacon to celebrate the holidays.

flowers are still hanging on

My hardy petunias are still hanging on. They've made it through a few frosts. The hummingbird feeder had its spot right in the middle of this pot of flowers. Hummingbirds like red and trumpet-shaped flowers. Now that these little birds have migrated south for the winter, I've removed the feeder to clean it for their arrival in early to mid-April. These petunias look so pretty with the burning bush as its backdrop. Fall is going out in its blaze of color.

 

the friday feed: cauliflower

Toward the end of the farm season there were some beautiful heads of cauliflower on the shelves. They were gorgeous - huge, freshly picked heads of the typical white cauliflower but then gold and purple showed up to add some color and interest.

Cauliflower is an old vegetable, originating in the Eastern Mediterranean region and evolving from wild cabbage. Arab scientists first documented it around the 12th or 13th century. It spread to Italy and Rome, eventually reached France by the 17th century and became more widely cultivated across Europe. Then it made its way across the pond. Cauliflower's "cousins" include broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts. 

From cabbage, it grows,

Crunchy, raw, or softly steamed,

Very versatile.

I love vegetables that are familiar and I can't resist buying the ones that are a little bit different. Isn't this golden cauliflower gorgeous? I just had to buy it. And then it sat in my refrigerator for a few days, right during the chaos of my son's upcoming wedding. I needed to do something with it because there was absolutely no way it would end up in the trash bin. 

I was tasked for providing some food for the bridesmaids' and groomsmen's lunches before the wedding ceremony. I went to Submarine House and bought a big tray of sandwiches. I told my son what was the wedding day sustenance was, he said, "Thank you. Oh by the way...the maid of honor is vegan."

Well, alrighty then. 

My thought went to the cauliflower. It was the answer for a vegan meal and would rescue this beautiful Brassica from becoming unnecessary waste. A google search bought up a gazillion cauliflower recipes and one right off the bat caught my eye, Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Salad. The wonderful thing was that all the ingredients were in my pantry.

The young lady was very surprised that I did this. "This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me." I don't think it was but she was caught up in the moment and it was a gracious sentiment. This was easy to make, didn't add any stress, and feeding people is one of my "love languages."

⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘ ⭘

Roasted Cauliflower and White Bean Salad

Salad

1 medium cauliflower (about 2 pounds), cut into 2-inch florets (about 7 cups) 

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

Generous ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 

¼ teaspoon black pepper 

4 cups arugula (I had a mix of arugula and spinach)

One 15-ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed 

½ cup thinly sliced celery   

Basil leaves 

Dressing

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 

2 tablespoons lemon juice 

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil leaves 

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 

1 teaspoon maple syrup 

1 small garlic clove 

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste 

Directions

1. Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 425°F. 
2. For the salad, place cauliflower florets in a large bowl. Drizzle olive oil over florets and gently toss to combine. Season with the salt and pepper. Transfer to the a baking sheet. Bake, turning halfway through, until golden and tender, 20 to 24 minutes.
3. While the cauliflower is roasting and before assembling the salad, prepare the dressing. Place the olive oil, lemon juice, basil, Dijon mustard, maple syrup, and garlic in a Mason jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake to combine. Adjust flavor with salt and pepper.
4. To assemble the salad, arrange the arugula, beans, and celery in a large, shallow bowl. Pour half the dressing over the mixture and toss gently to combine. Top with the cooked cauliflower; add remaining dressing. Toss to combine.

 

st. leonard

My mom had Alzheimer's and she lived in the house she loved - her home for 41 years - until a health crisis caused my siblings and me to find a long term care facility for her. The name of the care facility was St. Leonard. 

She did not understand why her children took her away from her home and in the world she created, she told us that we put her in this jail so that we could steal all her money and valuable possessions. She was a prisoner in this place that was out in the "boondocks" of Centerville, Ohio. She was so mad that she was in Centerville. "Your dad and I never wanted to live in Centerville. We chose to live in Kettering." FYI, Centerville and Kettering are neighboring suburbs. 

When I saw this information about St. Leonard, it made me smile and pause to think. Mom's life went from a lovely ranch home to a single room with a bed, dresser, desk and chair, some of her favorite pieces of art, and a very small closet. Her life was turned upside down, she was totally pissed, and could not get out of this place. In her mind, she was a prisoner.

A couple years later, we moved Mom to a care facility in Kettering. She was happy to be out of Centerville but the happiness didn't last for long. She wanted to be back in her house and pretty soon she was back to feeling that she was just one of the inmates in this new building.

Dementia is a tough journey for everyone.

wednesday's words and wanderings and wonderings

What a week it was! Saturday we welcomed a new daughter-in-law to our family and now all of our children are married. 

The house slowly filled starting last Tuesday and by Thursday it was bursting at the seams. Every room, every bed, and a couch was filled. I started cooking before the influx: a big pot of chicken soup which was just right for Tuesday's late arrivals and then for a couple of lunches as the others got here. I'm not going to list all the foods but there was a menu for each day with leftovers filling in for lunches.

I made a little book that I filled with daily stuff to do. It was very simple - a few pieces of computer paper stapled together - but each day had its own two pages and that little "book" stayed with me as I crossed off and added tasks that needed to be done. My kids fuss at me to use the Notes app on my phone, but no. The old school, hand written notes work so much better.

The rehearsal dinner was held Friday night (Halloween) at Patrick and Kelsey's house, with her parents handling the dinner. Kelsey's step-dad grew up in the family meat store business and he made some to-die for pulled pork and burnt ends baked beans along with lots of other delectable delights. Her mom and step-dad now have a small bakery business and they also provided all the desserts. If people went home hungry, it was their own fault. 

Kelsey loves Halloween and has dreamed of a Halloween Day wedding. The rehearsal dinner was the backdrop for their surprise Halloween nuptials. The parents knew what was going on but none of the other guests did. On Saturday, Patrick and Kelsey were once again "married" at their Halloween-themed, costumes encouraged, wedding at the venue. So many people dressed in costumes and if guests chose not to dress up, black clothes were encouraged. The bride wore a black dress and it was perfect for the occasion.

I will admit that when a Halloween wedding was in the making, I wasn't overly excited about it. Halloween isn't on my list of favorite holidays. As a little kid, it scared me, and going up to doors and saying "Trick-or-Treat" was hard to do. I DO NOT like horror movies. All that aside, this wedding reception was a blast and people really got into the Halloween spirit. It was the celebration the newlyweds were hoping for the start of their married life.