Bread and Butter 

Pumpkin Pie, Thanksgiving 2014 via instagram

This is the time, the very best time of the year to me at least. This was a strange weekend. I think this is the first weekend in a long time when I didn’t rush anywhere or have anything specific to do or see which I admit is the complete opposite for most everyone else. I had planned to do a lot but it just didn’t happen. I did my chores around the house I had to do. Did my shopping, did my cleaning up, more unpacking and so on, but I don’t think I saw anyone I knew. This was also a first. I don't recall many Thanksgivings spent solo. That didn't stop me from cooking like I was surrounded by hoards. When I wasn’t lying with a heating pad on my head fighting a very nasty migraine, I was cooking or baking. I made bread, I made a pie and I made a big ol’ fashioned pot roast. Then I ate to my heart’s content.

One odd thing I did this weekend, as the weather has finally “turned” here, was configure the house thermostats. It’s funny but you can see how the previous owners lives were so different than mine just by the thermostat settings. On these controls, essentially one for every floor, you have to set the times for 1) when you get up, 2) when you leave the house, 3) when you return home and 4) when you go to bed. Clearly the previous owners were morning people; early to bed and early to rise. Most of their settings are about 2-3 hours ahead of what I needed, which explains how the heat had come on and gone off before I was even up in the morning and the heat shut off about two hours before I’m even thinking about bed.

Waking up to a cold house that stretches and yawns itself to life is a very autumnal thing which you don’t have in the summer. It’s one of those things I hate (a cold house) and love (the feeling of house that is warming up). The bread I baked this weekend was the first time since, I don’t when, March maybe, and the smell of fresh baked bread and heat of the oven felt a little like a christening for this house. There’s an old tradition when you visit someone in a new home you bring salt and a loaf of bread – presumably staples that every house should have. Now this place finally has both.