Tall Tales from Kansas

My name is Carol. I live in Kansas. I write about stuff that happens to me as I walk through the world. Most of it is true.

recent posts

  • how a life might turn out differently based on the name we are given

    The Names, by Florence Knapp, is my latest “listen” from the library on Libby. I finished it in the airport and on the plane while traveling to see Sister recently. This novel, set in England and Ireland, explores the idea of how a life might turn out differently based on the names we are given. It follows Cora, her daughter Maia, and husband Gordon as their lives unfold in 3 different ways depending on the name given to the new baby boy they have just welcomed into the family. Cora, Gordon, and Maia each have their own thoughts on what would be a good name for the baby. They are unconventional; Gordon says they are continuing the tradition and naming the baby Gordon, just as he is named after his father Gordon.

    The story is told in 7 year increments, and as life proceeds and the things unfold we are introduced to other characters that also inhabit the lives of the different iterations of the son. It is not just the son whose life is different based on his name, but all the others characters as they are are shaped by their interactions with the son. The author did not resort to making one path of the son “bad”, one “good”, and one “middle of the road”. Each path was filled with the highs and lows of life, making the reader feel the sadness and joy in each name he was assigned.

    This is a hard story at times. Gordon the father is abusive to Cora and everyone lives in the shadow of that. My friends Peggy and Annette also read or listened to this and we finished within a week or so of each other, making it very nice to be able to discuss it, while it is still fresh and very much on our minds. This is a book you WANT to talk about with someone else.

    Very highly recommended. Extremely well written and such a different concept for a story. If you can listen, the narrator, Dervla Kirwan is really quite exceptional.

    P.S. do you know why you were given the name you have? I never thought to ask Angie until after she was gone why she named me Carol. Just another one of those things you don’t think about asking until it’s too late.

  • hard does not take the fun out of it for me

    Season #3 of the Block Studies Collective with Tara Faughnan has begun. Above is the palette for October. Don’t you just want to dive into it and roll around in all the color? Then maybe run your hands over the fabric to see which shades tell you they want to play together?

    We started with cutting a bunch of strips and then the placing/sorting began.

    For my first block (the one on the right), I didn’t plan at all, just pulled colors so I could see how they would look next to each other. I have yet to sew the completed sections together – there may be more sections added. The one on the left was a more deliberate attempt to try combinations. I hated it at first. Now I love it. Especially since I added that cinnamon border around it.

    This bundle of mini-skeins of yarn came up in an e-mail from “Dances with Wool” – a yarn store in Richmond that I make it a point to visit when I go see brother. The pattern for the hat was a suggestion for a way to use it. Don’t I want to make a hat like that? YES, yes I do. I started working in some of the ends as I go. Best not to save all that for the end. A very enjoyable project.

    What is it about making stuff? Such an absolute joy to see something, or think about something, or get inspired by what someone else has done… and then tell yourself you can do it, you should do it, you will do it. We are moving into the height of sitting in front of the fire season, the cozy/warm time of candles, and of course creating. Do tell what you are discovering, trying, diving into, this fall. One of us may NEED to try it too.

    It’s time to slap a bunch of stickers on a new planner for the year. I try to keep appointments in my phone, but I am a paper planner person from way, way, way, back. They are a record, along with my journals of lots of stuff I may want to look back on.

    While sitting on the back patio at Moss Cottage last week, it was essential to try my hand at some drawing. Hats are hard. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But that is no reason not to try them. Heck everything seems hard when you don’t do it that often. Hard does not take the fun out of it for me.

    The November palette for block studies is below. Again, a wonderful collection of shades, tones, colors. One of the things I love about the format of this class with Tara Faughnan, is that you have a whole month to do things with no timeline, deadline, or due date. Work at your own pace.

    Creativity in the kitchen is calling me too. I have a serious hankering for pumpkin bread. Can you imagine how good that will smell baking while I sit at the table and knit? Yes, me too.

    Finally, because I have been meaning to do this for days, how about a fall mini flower arrangement comprised solely of the succulents and other plants out back that are showing off their fall colors? This falls into the category of “easy does not take the fun out of it for me”.

    This morning, when I sat down to do a read through of this post to check for typos etc I got a a message from Nancy with a link to a podcast. https://thetelepathytapes.com/podcast/the-telepathy-tapes-s2e03 With a title like The Consciousness of Creativity: Are ideas alive and do they choose us?, how could I not immediately listen. I am adding it here because it was intriguing, reinforcing, and informative. Plus, it is perfect to go with a blog post about “making”. This was one of my takeaways: Creativity is our birthright, we can all make art and become the best version of ourselves doing it. Powerful stuff. Let me know what you think if you listen.

  • it’s always a good time

    I was very pleased to see the pumpkin succulent designer at the market this morning. I NEED some for my thanksgiving tablescape. While we were chatting he told me he was glad to see the season of succulent pumpkins coming to an end because they are pretty time consuming to make. I am so glad he takes the time, and also know exactly what he means about being glad when it is time to get on to something else.

    Above and below I present 2 carrot crops. The farmer who grew the ones below told me that she tries every year to grow carrots and “they just grow where they want to” – in every direction with multiple limbs. She said she thought they just didn’t like her soil. I love her sign that says “Kansas Carrots with character”

    A cute mother-daughter duo with dog thrown in as added bonus.

    Fresh herbs available for holiday cooking.

    I was happy to get a couple of zucchini for the steak/chicken/pepper/onion kabobs Chris is making for supper tonight.

    They walked in as I was leaving. Loved the moccasins.

    Here is what came home with me today. That butternut squash is going to get roasted or it may get turned into a bisque. Leaving my options open for now.

    The market season is drawing to a close and I am soaking it up while it lasts. Storing up all the good food and feelings I get on my weekly visits… to carry me through the winter. If you are in the area, the holiday market is on December 13th and it’s always a good time.

  • she has warned me about laughing in class

    Howdy from Lawrence, where the trees have suddenly decided to do their thing. Amazing what a little sunshine will do to sharpen up the fall color. .

    I took these photos while on a drive through old west Lawrence earlier in the week. It was one of those drive, pull over, jump out, snap snap snap, get back in the car drive, look, repeat.

    I am taking my mental health in my own hands this weekend and flying to California to see sister. Yes, when I have been fully informed that flights will be cancelled. I will be channeling my inner Dottie, who always travels with the attitude of “it will be what it will be“. It is my way of revolting against the current state of affairs.

    I will bring projects to entertain myself when I begin to get annoyed.

    I have always wanted to visit the ginkgo trees at the Huntington in the fall. So here I go, come hell or high water. Sister has talked me into going with her to a swim class at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center. She has warned me about laughing in class and being a buffoon.

    She has been assured I will be on my best behavior. Besides, she is the one who usually gets us into trouble, not me.

  • an unparalleled lunch companion

    The Huff + 1 lunch club met at Grunauer in KC for German food last week. It’s Autumn and time for soup, schnitzel, and strudel… you get the idea. Nothing beats a warming lunch on a brisk and overcast day. If you go, I HIGHLY recommend the Frittatensuppe – a Viennese beef consommé with julienne vegetables and savory crepes that are cut into strips like noodles. OMG! I wanted to pick up the bowl and slurp but I restrained myself. Marti always classes things up when she is around and therefore I was on my best behavior. While we were partaking, there was a poetry recital to honor the season:

    “come, little leaves,” said the wind one day,
    “come o’er the meadows with me and play;
    put on your dresses of red and gold,
    for summer is gone and the days grow cold.”

    Marti is turning 102 next month. She manages the internal frustrations of the limitations of increasing age with a grace that we all we wished we possessed. When she mentioned being “a shadow of my former self” we reminded her that since her former self was head and shoulders above the everyday run-of-the-mill human, she still had a ways to go until she became a mere mortal like the rest of us. She remains an unparalleled lunch companion who never fails to lift the spirits of everyone in the room. We have not yet settled on a spot for the birthday lunch, but we will plan to bring you all along for a glimpse of the festivities.


  • we discussed the discomfort of cold hands

    It was a chilly 34 degrees (or right around there) on Saturday morning at the market. The smile from the seller of sunflowers warmed things up a bit. We discussed the discomfort of cold hands.

    There were less vendors than normal, such is the nature of things when the weather gets cold. We humans find it hard to get out of a warm bed when it’s cold and a bit darker in the morning. Less shoppers = less vendors. It’s a chicken and egg situation.

    Would you look at these beautiful green beans?! The farmer told me that “fall beans are the best”. I told him I always thought of green beans as an earlier in the year crop. He told me you could grow then anytime, “plant them and 64 days later they are ready”. Well let me just say that these were absolute tender perfection. Served alongside the chicken and noodles that Chris made they were divine. There was a biscuit too.

    If you want to “eat the rainbow” which is what we are all supposed to be doing for the health of our gut microbiome, this is the time of year to do it. Peppers are plentiful. With hummus or pimento cheese they are very snackable.

    How about this falls bouquet of flowers? The mixture of colors and textures is so lovely.

    Same for the collection of radishes below.

    This grouping below reminded me I want to get in one more batch of bitter greens, sweet onions, and sour cherries for the year.

    I could not resist one more shot of fall provisions.

    Here is what came home with me this week. That Rustic Rye bread toasted, with mashed avocado and a poached egg on top was perfect for breakfast. The woman who makes it said her husband loved it with peanut butter on top. I am in the camp of Rye bread toasted with anything on top of it is good stuff.

  • I have exactly 2 and it’s high time I did a third

    With exactly 90 minutes before the trick or treaters are due to arrive I have finally hung up the banner that goes over the fireplace. Not that any tricksters in costume will be coming IN to the house, it’s just (as mom would say) the principle of the thing. Halloween is today. The banner should be up.

    I am an unabashed kid when it comes to the “feeling” of halloween. I am not one of those people that costumes up to hand out the candy, but I do like to spread a little orange and black around the house and think about where the pieces came from.

    Every year at Halloween I tell myself to make another hooked pumpkin. I have exactly 2 and it’s high time I did a third. As Mary Ann said today about something completely different I have to “buckle down and do it“. I like imagining all the ones I will make… next year, for sure. That’s the thing about making, the idea of it is almost as satisfying as the actual doing.

    Well let me get to the business of being ready to exclaim over the wee hobgoblins that may be arriving any second. Happy Halloween to all.

  • some mighty fine advice to live by

    If you are a person who enjoys the heck out of walking in the out-of-doors, it is likely you have a favorite place to get away to on a regular basis. Somewhere far enough away from home to require an overnight stay, but not so far that it requires a plane ride. For me, that spot is in the Ozarks, and it just happens to be beautiful in the fall when we go down to tidy things up at the cemetery.

    We generally stay in a cabin at Big Cedar Lodge where you can walk right out the door and ramble to your heart’s content. They used to have unpaved trails in the woods that we LOVED. Alas, those are no longer maintained and would require a machete to attempt to navigate now. But I am easily pleased with the paved trails. There are lots of ups and downs, through lots of beautiful trees, and views of the water. It is the reason we stay there. Well, that and the putt-putt course.

    This was not the most colorful year ever.

    It was overcast, cloudy, and drizzled a bit each day. But temps were in the low 50’s, and it was perfect for throwing on a snuggly sweatshirt. Let’s face it, I am tired of shorts and tee shirts and humidity and mosquitos.

    I found beautiful leaves and berries to exclaim over.

    There was woodsmoke in the air from the fireplaces in the cabins.

    In other words, I got in all the walks I wanted and enjoyed each one to the fullest.

    I was listening to an Eckhart Tolle talk this morning in which he advised “do not argue with the is-ness of the moment, let go of thinking, and welcome what is“.

    That is some mighty fine advice to live by.

  • off galavanting

    As dad used to say when we were kids, and off on some adventure in the world… I have been “off galavanting” for a few weekends and have thus missed my usual trips to the farmers market. This is why you have received no photos of my purchases, which is really a shame at this time of year when the bounty is plenty and colorful. Let me try to slip these colorful shots in as a substitute.

    Peggy and Annette and I swooped in to the big town of Salina Kansas for a trip down memory lane, in the form of “Dinner at Saga”. Saga was the food service/dining hall at Marymount college where we happily consumed what we thought was some fine cuisine between the years of 1977 and 1981. A group of alums who are still in Salina, and do a great job of coordinating things like this, put the festivities together. Thank goodness for name-tags. We didn’t even try to fake like we knew names, instead immediately looking straight at the name on tag, and then back at the face, trying to find a trace of the people we knew back then. We are flabbergasted as to why some people could easily identify exactly who we were though.

    Even though these things are all about the people you hung with in college, going back to the buildings, the town, the dining hall, the cast of characters on the periphery – all of that contributed to the entirety of what was (and remains) at the heart of all that was good about college. I am incredibly grateful to still have these women as friends 47 years after we first met.

    Chris and I also motored down to southern Missouri/northern Arkansas for the annual sprucing up of Angie and Ray’s spots at the Maplewood Cemetery. The leaves were not as stellar as they have occasionally been in the past but that did not stop us from our appointed duties of grass clipping, whisk brooming, scrubbing, and flower changing.

    We did not let the drizzle and overcast conditions keep us from the appointed Moss Family Putt-Putt tournament. We blamed our poor showing on the course conditions, but I still beat Chris by 4 strokes and claimed victory. There might have been a fair bit of cursing, but I am chalking that up to the 2 glasses of wine before we played. Highly recommended by the way when you don’t have to drive and the weather is less than stellar.

    Back to regular programming from the farmers market next week.

  • the story of a young teen-ager who disappears in the woods

    I just finished listening to The God of the Woods by Liz Moore, narrated by Saskia Maarleveld. It was 15 hours of “good book love”… as in I couldn’t wait to get in the car to go run an errand so I could listen. I put this on my list of books to read after I read a review of it somewhere, probably the NYT book review. After reading it, while looking for an image of the book to use for my post, I ran across some reviews that were less than favorable. Such a great example of how a good meal, a walk, a painting, a piece of clothing, and finally a work of fiction can be such a different experience for every person that encounters it.

    This is the story of a young teen-ager who disappears in the woods while at a summer camp. Her brother disappeared from the same woods 14 years earlier. The reader moves back and forth in time between the 2 searches for them and the impact on the family, the camp, members of the community where the camp is located etc.

    I was very engrossed in the story from the get go. I loved the setting in the Adirondack mountains and the idea of the summer camp where kids learn some good life skills. Let me also say that I was a young teenager in 1975 and kids today are not like the kids of 1975. I feel like we were much more self sufficient, but maybe that’s as dependent on how we were parented as the times. One of the criticisms I read was about the “believability” of the book, to which I would reply, “It’s a work of fiction“. There were also comments about the ending, which I actually LOVED.

    Personally, I highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed my time listening to it. The narrator has a wonderful reading voice that was a pleasure to listen to.