[a dozen dark photos from the past week — thank goodness the clouds finally moved on]
It was terribly dark and stormy for a few days. I love weather, but too many dark days in a row and it begins to feel like someone has reached out and pulled black curtains over the windows of my heart. This morning, Idaho is bright and cold, twinkling and wild, rising up in humps of stone — the mountains are elk molars! Precious, wild, earthen ivories. It is, indeed, a very good day to be Idahoan.
We are hosting a stragglers American Thanksgiving feast later this week — which is just a silly way to inform you that we are hosting Thanksgiving for all our friends. I refer to anyone who doesn’t travel for the holiday a straggler.
Get along little dogies!
We also have family coming to town for Thanksgiving which is a big deal for us. Any time any of our family members take the time and energy to visit us here in Idaho it means the world to us. I’ve been readying the spare room for them, and by spare room I mean the Airstream. I hope they bring their warmest pajamas!
Last year, we cooked a huge elk roast for the table, with all the Thanksgiving trimmings. This year, we are dreaming of and working on gathering enough game to roast one dozen wild shot pheasant for dinner. We have even been experimenting with a few recipes. Boy howdy. Have you ever eaten a whole roasted wild pheasant? Two nights ago we smothered a whole pheasant with honey and herbs, dutifully basted it to smithereens while roasting it and the meat was beautiful, golden brown on the outside, and tender and moist on the inside. It was amazing. It was delicious. I’ll let you know how our feasting plans proceed. Hopefully I’ll have an incredible photograph of a dozen roasted pheasants with their darling little drumsticks raised in wild defiance by the time Thanksgiving arrives! I bought a gorgeous turkey, just in case Rob and I can’t harvest enough pheasant for the table by Wednesday…I suppose that makes me faithless…or perhaps wise beyond my years! But oh, I love and believe in a wild harvested Thanksgiving!
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Besides being wonderfully run off my feet with too many irons in the fire, these past two weeks, I have been suffering this feeling of being splayed out on a large map of the world, reaching and straining to touch all the places my most loved ones live, and failing to physically touch any of them at all. Everyone and everything seems so far away at times. Robert and I have always lived where we want to live and we have always felt free to chase our dreams, no matter where they might take us. But the flip side of all that freedom is the fact that we miss our far away people, our various tribes, our families — we miss them all, all the time. I tend to get especially lonesome and melancholy for my people this time of year, but I also realize how thankful I am for the incredible batch of friends we have here in town — friends who are like family to us. That’s the truth of the matter.
How about you? Are you where your people are? Are you also splayed out on a map, trying to reach out and connect with all the ones who are far away and loved?
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Boy howdy. Didn’t November fly? The months have wings. If time flies, I’m a small rider on the back of a bird; it carries me forward and I hold on with fists full of feathers, my eyes are teary with wind, the seconds are measured in wing beats.
On the purchase of the turkey-wise my dear, not faithless. I personally feel better when there is a contingency plan in place, especially while entertaining. That gorgeous turkey could be saved for an Un-Thanksgiving. 😉
I now live close enough to family where we visit often. But when we lived up there, away from everyone, during those rare occasions when we actually saw one another visitation seemed very different. Solid, genuine, we captured each others attention because we all missed one another. I do miss that. Distance and the excitement it brings.
And kudos to your family for visiting! That is exciting. It does take time & energy to get to Pokey! My family drove from SE Texas to Chubbuck…and it takes a full days drive to get out of TX! Have a wonderful feast!
Ha! I’m so glad someone else thinks it is wise! 🙂
“Distance and the excitement it brings…” Good point!
That seems to be the curse of living a nomadic life, that splayed feeling. It sometimes feels like parts of my heart are scattered, North and South, coast to coast. But the joy is in the gathering! One of the many reasons that I love this time of year. A wild harvested thanksgiving sounds incredible. Very romantic and true to the spirit of the day. Good luck with the hunt!
I had some time lately to listen to audio books, and I took your suggestions. The Language of Flowers was a beautifully gritty and tender story. I now have a flower dictionary on my library list. I’m also halfway through the Wildwood Chronicles, which is reminds me of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It’s a fun audio book too, the narrator does the characters voices well. Thanks for the suggestions!
Also- the offer still stands for borrowing those books! They’re just sitting on my shelf, collecting dust. Let me know!
X
The joy is TOTALLY in the gathering. I feel the same way.
I thought the same of Language of Flowers…it really got in my heart. I’m also questing for the best flower dictionary book on the market. It seems so important now, doesn’t it?
I would love those books.
Send them over.
X
Oh, pheasant!!! I’ve been dreaming about smoked pheasant chowder from my childhood. And roasted quail over a mushroom base and wild rice pilaf. I die. And elk. Anything wild, really.
We will be roasting a turkey of our own tomorrow, since we are visiting others for the actual holiday. I am greedy and want turkey sandwiches while I slave away in the studio.
I know that feeling of too many irons, being too spread out. My heart feels so thin at times that I can’t even think about it. Thesis year is tough. There is no time for friends, hardly any time for connection. It kills me a little but I know it’s temporary.
Sending you love!
Smoked pheasant chowder…hot diggity!
Have a beautiful little feast of thanksgiving, my friend.
Hang in there with school. You are SO near the end.
X
Wishing you a beautiful and bountiful holiday filled with love, laughter and feasting, Miss Plume.
Thank you, Sandra!
i adore all this ramblingness….photos and words….
we are giving thanks at home, just the few of us [2 humans, 1 feline, 2 canines, 1 rabbitine] again this year. i will come home from work and fall face-down into thanksgiving breakfast. sleep a while. wake and do it again.
love the image of the pheasants with their drumsticks raised in the air!
happy thanksgiving to my favourite idahoans. xxxx
For just the two of you, you sure will have a full house! 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving to you too, friend!
X
I have been having the same feelings. Although I love where I live I long to be near to my family and little nephews to see them grow before my very own eyes. Living on a Caribbean island has its perks but around this time of year this Canadian girls craves to be in the snow and all the wonderful things that come with the season. I have to admit Jill I have been living vicariously through your photographs and they have been getting men through the season changes. I miss it, so thank for all of your beautiful photos and keep them coming. I can’t get enough!
I’m glad to know that you are appreciating my photography — knowing you are yearning for the cold of home makes me want to run out and photograph the entire day for you! Be well, Maegan!
X
Who are all those doggies? I only know one.
The labs belong to friends of ours — Tanner and Kaibab are their names!
I see you found another skull, blue jean baby queen.
Wild locks, Canadian sweater & pen in hand. This is the you I love. x
I did! One more cow skull for the cow skull tree here.
XX
Love the skulls! I just collected my first – probably a rabbit, but I’m not sure. Do you do anything to them to clean/sanitize/preserve?
A wild thanksgiving sounds just fab…trying for a year where I do a totally local thanksgiving!
We just returned from a long elk hunting jaunt (unsuccessful, sadly) but my dear husband brought a cow skull back to camp for me as a present. A very first for my collection and I thought of you instantly.
I must be changing… and it must be obvious – as never before would I have appreciated a cow skull as a present…. and never before would my dearest have brought me one.
Sorry you guys didn’t get your elk. Real sorry. It’s so much hard work, elk hunting. At least it is for Rob. He usually takes his miles from the nearest road up at 10 000ft. 🙂 It’s disheartening to get skunked.
Glad he found you a cow skull too! I love it when Rob brings me dead stuff as presents! 🙂 XX
When I was in Montana we called it the Orphans dinner, for all of us who were far from family and “alone”. But we weren’t alone – obviously, because we had each other and some really wonderful times. My father would bring home pheasant for Thanksgiving when I was very small. For some reason my mother always told us ( my brother and me) that it was turkey. I asked her why once, and she said it was because she thought we wouldn’t eat it if it wasn’t a Thanksgiving “TURKEY”. LOL
I lived out there in those beautiful mountains where you are for 30 years. Most of my adult life to date in fact. My Home. My Heart. My Soul. A while back I moved to the midwest to be closer to children. Family – also home – also heart. What I have learned is that it’s a trade off, no matter which direction you go and the only cliche’ of an answer is to embrace where you are at any given time. Not very profound – right? Also not as easy as it should be – but definately possible. I know you will be enjoying your holidays and your family! The pheasant sounds DELICIOUS!!!!
“Orphan dinner” is certainly appropriate!
Things don’t need to be profound to be TRUE. I appreciate your thoughts on the topic, so very much, you beautiful, wise woman. Thanks for being here, darlin!
X
<3
Meow-rooooo!!!
hi you gorgeous acorn nugget,
totally harvested thanksgiving! i love it! if we were to do that, we’d have eggs, cherry tomatoes, lemons & beets for our whole dinner… hmmmmmm…! the splaying out; everyday i miss my people in far away places. everyday. you know what keeps me close to them? texting them. whenever i feel like it, on a whim, about something or nothing at all. for this technological miracle, i am most grateful.
xxxooo
Well howdy!
Your home harvested dinner sounds delicious. 🙂 Nice point on the texting. We sure are lucky to live in a time where we can be so darn connected every moment of the day. Imagine those lonesome pioneer women who had to scribe long letters to family in countries across the oceans…they had it bad…but I bet they were too busy to really think about the big ache in their hardworking hearts…
X
PS Your letter came. I have missed you.
That is the perfect portrait of RW. All American boy with the Budweiser neon in the background.
I know. That’s why I took it. HA! Love you. X
I used to ache for my siblings….perhaps because I was the youngest…always having the three older ones to fill the space up above me
and when we scattered I found that ache grew and I held on to a past that was long gone
I had to move on
it took some grieving
and
well
growing up to realize that things had changed
but
even through that change, good things had grown
family became more than those I grew up with…and I changed, I grew, I opened up to possibilities and found I belonged in other places too
the older two are distant to me now..but the one above me…my brother
a gift
I drink him in when we are together
just thinking about him now as I type this brings tears to my eyes
not because I ache to have him closer
but because I am so blessed to know this kind of love…steady, unchanging love
no matter where we are
we are together…
Happy Thanksgiving my friend…be blessed
love and light
Looks like they are using your photos on this website.
http://www.acontinuouslean.com/2013/12/01/american-gear-skookum-dog/
Cheers,
Chris
Hey Chris!
Skookum sure IS using my images — I work for Skookum Dog! I’m their lifestyle photographer. 🙂
X
I have to know! Did you fill the buffet with pheasants??
We did not.
We opted to use a turkey instead.
We are saving those pheasants for ourselves as Rob didn’t get an elk this year. Boo hoo hoo.
Hope you had a great weekend!