Hi, Hey, Hello!
Goodness, I’m so happy to see you on this beautiful Autumn day! How the heck are you?!
What can I get started for you? I’m brewing up some black tea with milk and honey (obviously) but also have coffee or any herbal tea your heart could desire as well as some apple cider pressed from our orchard in the fridge I could easily heat up for you.
It’s a gorgeous day, shall we sit on the front porch and watch the fluffy clouds pass over the mesa while we chat?
Witnessing
It is not often that we get to witness the night sky light up in awe inspiring colors here in New Mexico, but we’ve been gifted with views of the Aurora Borealis not once, but twice this year!
Wednesday night offered up a spectacular explosion of red directly above the mesa that our front door faces. My wife saw it as she drove home from work and alerted me as soon as she arrived.
Did you get to witness the Aurora this week? It is truly such a spectacular sight!
Reading
After a bit of a dry spell in October with only The Last Bookshop in London finished, I’ve already read two books so far this month and am happy to have stories dancing in my head again. Here’s what’s been in my ears and on my bedside table:
Bog Queen by Anna North
Opening with a clip from Seamus Heaney’s The Graubelle Man before moving swiftly into the narrative of moss, this book pulled me in immediately.
The cured wound
opens inwards to a dark
elderberry place.Who will say ‘corpse’
to his vivid cast?
Who will say ‘body’
to his opaque repose?~Seamus Heaney, the Graubelle Man
Time of ending and beginning.
A colony of moss does not think or speak in language. But if such a colony could tell the story of its life, it might say this, “Once we flourished. Our capsules popped and our spores spread far and wide. We drank what we needed from the rain and stored the rest in our spongy depths. We made a rich home for ourselves, of ourselves. This time lasted many thousands of daylights and night times, and it was good.
This book came to me in perfect timing (as books tend to do on occasion). After completing the Divination class at the end of October I’ve had some rather lovely and profound communications from beyond the veil that have pulled my attention firmly towards my Celtic heritage. Bog Queen is a sweet and engaging mystery that spans 2000 years and is told through the voices of two women on either side of that timeline alongside the perspective of the moss. Unique and thoroughly enjoyable!
Itzá by Rios de la Luz
Great-grandma, also known as Abuelita, died in her sleep. Her bed was in the middle of the forest. Yellow leaves sprinkled her bed. A giant maple leaf covered her face. Her long white hair spread above her head and reached the edges of the bed. Mushrooms bloomed out of the mattress. Mist permeated between the trunks of the forest trees as the branches looked down on Abuelita. We don’t know how her bed got out there.
I loved this book. The author has a beautiful writing style that kept me completely transfixed. I will warn you though that there are some serious triggers around race and trauma in this book that the blurb on the back didn’t prepare me for. Even still, I am so glad to have discovered this book in my hunt for a Speculative Fiction title to complete the StoryGraph Onboarding Challenge this year.
What have you been reading lately? Any new and exciting or fulfilling stories flowing through your head?
Writing
Since we last met Over a Cuppa I have not been incredibly active here but have written three posts:
- Musings (berries, games, music, & more) as short reflections, a few pretty images, and the song that never fails to get me moving when I need a bit of motivation recently.
- 50 Before 50 Bucket List (update #1) where I do, in fact, offer up an update about how I’m doing on my list 😉
- Work(s) in Progress: Season’s Feelings Make Along where I talk about the mental health Granny Square scarf I’m making this holiday season with the Stitchwell community. It’s free and F-U-N if you’re interested. The link to more info and/or sign up is in the post.
Additionally, I’ve begun the official transitional period of releasing my family history blog and moving a few important/most popular pieces of content into this space.
I’ve published each of the posts on their original publication date so as to not muddy the writing I’m doing now. However, I did publish Deliria, a poem written by my grandma in 1933, on Monday. This poem set the foundation for much of her life decisions and opportunities and, I felt, deserved to be highlighted again here for you, Dear Reader.
The above posts and any future posts I move over will be categorized as Bold & Queer Family History so that those who are interested in family history can easily find all of the posts 🙂
Have you kept up with you writing goals so far this November?
That’s all Folks!
I so appreciate you sharing space and time with me today, let’s do it again soon, OK?
As always, sending a big thank you to Natalie for offering up the virtual space to share space and time together each weekend! Pop on over to see what other bloggers are sharing over a cuppa.
Also linking up this weekend to Book Beginnings with Gilion, and the Sunday Salon with Deb. Have a look around to see what everyone else is reading these days.
Onward,
Melissa
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I’d love to try some hot cider, thank you.
The poem you shared in your other post was beautifully crafted.
You are so lucky to see the Aurora Borealis from your yard. I so want to witness this we were looking at going to Norway.
Hi! Thank you so much for your kind words about my Grandma’s poem. She was quite the writer 🙂
I hope you are able to see the Aurora someday! It is quite a spectacular experience!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Beautiful photo of the Aurora. You’re doing so well with reading, writing and checking off your 50 Before 50 bucket list. Thank you for your weekend coffee share. Have a great weekend!
Hi Natalie! Thank you so much for all your kind words! Have a fantastic weekend!
The colour of that Aurora is amazing. I haven’t seen one recently, but my son and I went out for a walk last night. It was a dark, but clear night. The stars were amazing, and the geese were honking. It was a lovely walk.
Happy Friday, Melissa.
Oh, your night time walk sounds simply divine! There’s something truly magical about being beneath the stars like that!
Cider pressed from your orchard?? My mouth is watering.. How awesome you got to see the aurora! It was cloudy here in Michigan of course.. But, our trail cams on our land in South Dakota were lighting up like crazy.. How I wished we were there. I’ve not done well in the reading department.. I really need to carve out some more time.
Oh yes, true cider is like none other, I’m happy to share 🙂 How fun that your trail cams caught the Aurora! I’m sorry you missed it in real life, though, and hope you can catch a show soon! I also hope you find a book that calls to you soon! Happy weekending!
A cup of cider please!! Is that first photo of your place? If so, it looks amazing, just like the country home I’d imagine myself living in some lucky day 🙂
Hi Maria! Yes, that is our little red roofed home 🙂 It’s such a sweet little home and I do love how it looks from the trail up to the house from the farm. We are very lucky to live here! Hope your weekend is wonderful!
How amazing to see the aurora! We had it visible here on Long Island, NY for two days this week, but clouds and rain blocked all views. Seeing the aurora borealis remains on my bucket list.
Hi Antoinette! Thanks for popping over 🙂 I truly hope you will be able to witness the Aurora and cross it off your bucket list, it is truly sublime! Hope you enjoy a fabulous weekend!
I finished Bog Queen last night! Ooo-weee, loved it so! Thank you for recommending it 💚🤎🖤
Oh Yay! I loved it so much, I’m so glad you did, too!
You were lucky to catch sight of the red-lit sky. It’s just too cloudy here.
We were so lucky! I hope you get to see them someday!
I didn’t get to see the Northern Lights as it was just too cloudy here. What a beautiful photo. I really hope one day to catch them.
I hope you get to see them, too! It’s quite awe-inspiring!
A cup of apple cider sounds yummy. Beautiful picture!
Happy to oblige 🙂 Hope you have a lovely week!
Hot apple cider sounds wonderful!
I added Bog Queen to my TBR. Thanks!
Excellent! I look forward to hearing how you like it!
So beautiful. People in our state also saw the Aurora Borealis but not us.. I checked multiple times. I too have been meaning to read the Bog Queen, good to hear you enjoyed it.
I hope you have the opportunity to see the aurora, Hena! It’s such a cool experience!
What a lovely post. I brought along a cup of strong coffee so I didn’t have to disturb you while we viewed that amazing sky event. Thank you for sharing that.
I think I shall press ahead on putting together a little collection of my poems. It’s nice to think that someday someone in the future might run across one of them and find it worth reading.
Hi Deb! Oh, I so hope you do pull together your poems. I have no doubts that someone will be so very happy to have them!
Thanks for sharing all of these little and big joys. I always love following along with your work, your reading, and your insights. The Aurora photo is so cool. Here in the northeast, we can see them if we take pictures, but they are not visible to the naked eye. I really hope I get to see them in full effect one day!
Thank you, Jessica! I so appreciate you being here 🙂 The aurora was very cool! Definitely more subdued to the naked eye (thank goodness for cameras), but still quite magical!