Saturday, October 11, 2008
It's time to ready nest for winter
Libba Wolfe
Libba Wolfe's column appears twice monthly in Extra.
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“Change” is the buzzword this month. Breathe deeply and let your blood pressure fall: This is not a political column.
I’m thinking of change we can all vote for — autumn. Wouldn’t it be awful to live in a place where one season drifts into the next and nothing changes? I’m afraid without the cues from the sun and the weather, I’d be a lazy slug. It’s amazing how a change in the temperature energizes me. I’m feeling brisk.
Some folks are excited about fall because it brings football games or hunting season. Sure, there’s still plenty to do outside but, for me, October is intensively domestic. I enjoy getting the nest ready before settling in for the winter.
I look forward to packing up my flip flops and pulling out the thick socks. Replacing piles of pale, limp T-shirts with stacks of turtlenecks and sweaters. Bathing suits and shorts are out, fleece pullovers are in. Ahhh, I love wool and flannel.
I love airing the blankets that spent the summer in the attic. All the taking out and putting up gets me in the mood for fall cleaning. The mood, alas, doesn’t last long, but it’s satisfying to tidy drawers and sort through piles that have accumulated over the summer.
Every year I do a little less of what my first mother-in-law, with anticipatory relish, calls “deep cleaning.” Gone are the days when I felt the need to take the house apart and put it back together sparkling clean. But it is nice to head into the closed-in months in an orderly, spiffed up house. I do what I can.
Nowhere is the change of season more obvious than in the kitchen. Instead of “deep cleaning,” I’d rather do “deep dish.” The only way to eat the last fresh peach is to know that apple crisp is coming right up. Blueberries for breakfast give way to oatmeal and raisins and lots of brown sugar. All the quick summer meals built on fresh and easy vegetables are replaced with slow-cooking, all-day dishes.
Cold weather means more time inside, and I like to fill my house with mouth-watering aromas. There’s nothing like opening the oven door or lifting the pot lid to savor the steamy fragrance of beef stew or roasting chicken or pot roast.
For 26 years my husband and I have discussed the matter of year-round soup. He’s all for it, but as long as I’m running the kitchen (and I have no hope that this will change), soup starts in October. Just this week I hauled out the million-pound cast iron pot and made vegetable beef soup. The season has begun.
In 1980, my daddy had a hunting accident and had to spend two months in a hospital at Duke University. (Not only was he seriously injured but health insurance was seriously better! Drive-by surgery hadn’t been invented.) Mama stayed with him, of course, and it was a long, grim time to be away from home.
On the day they finally came home, my grandmother went to their house early and put a pot of her famous vegetable soup on to simmer. Mama says she will never forget opening the front door and being enveloped in the aroma of soup. She stood in the doorway and wept.
Just last week she told me she still gets teary when she makes soup and the smell brings back the memory of that moment.
No matter where you’ve been — running errands, raking leaves, off on a trip — nothing welcomes you on a crisp fall day like soup.
TO DO: The Hanging Basket and Annual Flower Giveaway will be held from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 17, in Parking Lot A of the Roanoke Civic Center. Plants from the hanging baskets and flower beds will be available, with a limit of two hanging baskets per person. Nothing will be given away before 7 a.m. Bring boxes or bags to transport the plants. Come early for the best selection. Blue Ridge Potters Show and Sale. 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Oct. 17; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 18; noon to 5 p.m. Oct. 19. Cave Spring High School, Roanoke County.
