Wednesday Rambling: Art, Music, Vlogs, Blogs I'm Enjoying Just Now

 

Ralph Vaughan-Williams is one of my favorite composers, especially his " The Lark Ascending".  This time of year, I love that piece, because in my area, wheat is ripening, and I often see the birds over the fields of wheat.  The birds I see are most commonly the red winged blackbird or hawk.  We don't have larks in my region from what I can tell.  

Never mind.  The music is lovely and suits spring in my area.  It also makes me think of Van Gogh's painting, Wheatfield with a Lark.

I listened to other pieces and really enjoyed "In the Fen Country".  I often listen to other pieces by a composer once I've 'met' him.  I didn't care for some of his music, but these two pieces were lovely in my opinion, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Gabriel Faure is another composer I found in recent weeks.  I thought I'd share his life story in a future blog post, but I wanted to go ahead and share the piece that drew my attention to him in the first place.  I don't know which piece it was!  However, I do recall mightily enjoying this recording of "Faure plays Faure".

Blogs:

A Lovely Inconsequence   Sometimes it's just nice to have something to look forward to each month.  This writer posts only once a month.  The artwork that accompanies most posts is exquisite, the writing is calm and serene.   

A Housewife Writes   There are two authors who share on this blog.  Some posts are shared from vintage sources as well as some personal posts.  Right now, the posting schedule seems to be once a month because one of the authors recently moved.  This too is a lovely restful blog.

It's a Classical Life   Kirsti shares classical books she's read, favorite quotes in Bitesize Inspiration posts and general observations based on what she's reading.  I love when she is inspired to write a post taking what she's read and applying it to real life.  

Food Storage Organizer   Over the past year, I subscribed to a number of food storage blogs and vlogs because I thought I might need to learn a few things yet.  I did and I have.  I've pretty much unsubscribed from everyone else who wrote about food storage because this one and the two following blogs are sensible, don't get bogged into long term prep as much and tend to break things down in doable steps. 

This lady has a weekly prompt.  Yes, she does have long term food storage included as well, but she covers more than just food.  I'm not so interested in long term storage as much as I am in stocking my pantry.  But I do appreciate posts like she made the first week in May about having an emergency cooking source and supplies.  She makes me think about things I might not think about otherwise.

A Working Pantry    Patsy always has a fresh approach on stocking her pantry.  Right now I'm really enjoying her "What's That In Your Hand?" series of posts.   You can be sure that whatever she's sharing it is always frugal, too.  Well worth following if you're interested in gardening, canning, or creatively stocking the pantry.

The Bluebirds Are Nesting On the Farm:  Annabel is like Brandy at The Prudent Homemaker.  Whatever she does, she does in the prettiest ways possible but completely sensibly at the same time.  She's frugal and always looking to be prepared.

I've gotten into the habit of watching several cooking vloggers of late.  These are my top three favorites and the ones I'm most prone to copy a recipe from:

Mandy In the Making is one of my favorite vloggers for recipes.  She only shares the recipes that her family genuinely likes. If they didn't like it, it didn't make it into a video.  

I love watching Mandy.  She and her husband Steven enjoy cooking and eating and are generally upbeat and happy in their videos.  The recipes she shares are based on what she knows her own small family will like.  I've made several of her recipes and I truly have enjoyed them.  

She has a companion blog where she shares the written recipes and credits them to the original source when she can.  

It's a Country Life   Jennifer Brockman shares a lot about their cranberry farm operations, her large family, grocery hauls, and more importantly she shares her family recipes.  She is the author of two or three cookbooks that she's compiled.  Her recipes are practical and use pantry ingredients.  I've tried a few of her recipes just as I have Mandy's and they are consistently good.  

And much as I've promised myself no more cookbooks...I'm terribly tempted to order hers.

See Mindy Mom   Mindy focuses hard on frugal/budget meals that save time as well as money.  Again, we're talking about ingredients that would generally be found in the pantry.   She shares some of her own family favorite recipes with a focus on making meals quick and easy for busy households, as well as keeping things budget friendly.  

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