In the summer many of the women like to can. It seems their season. They sit on kitchen chairs on back porches and they talk of their lives while they snap beans or cut up cucumbers for pickling. It is a good way for them to catch up on things and to have time together, alone, for neither the children nor the men come around much when there is canning going on.
In the winter many of the men like to hunt, and this seems their season. They take off into the woods together, their good dogs running ahead, and they hunt rabbit and sometimes deer and they talk about things and feel happy and free. If they shoot something, they bring it back home and skin it and cut it up and put it in their freezer to cook and eat later.
The children love all the seasons. They go down by the creek or into the woods or up the dirt roads with their good dogs and they feel more important than anything else in these Appalachian mountains, and probably they think often of God since they know the clouds and trees better than anyone. They have seen what God can do.
—Cynthia Rylant – Appalachia The Voices Of Sleeping Birds
A few months back someone sent me a copy of Cynthia Rylant’s book Appalachia The Voices Of Sleeping Birds. It’s a children’s book, but I just love it.
The illustrations are by Barry Moser and they go along with Rylant’s writing perfectly. The combination of the two is just lovely. In fact the first time I read it I cried 🙂 Silly I know. But I’m one of those people who cry easily when I feel great emotion of any kind be it sadness or great joy.
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a used copy of Appalachia The Voices Of Sleeping Birds written by Cynthia Rylant. Leave a comment on this post to be entered. *Giveaway ends November 21, 2023.
Last night’s video: Yuns Come and Visit With Katie and Me.
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I just live the seasons that are in the mountains. Different then what we have in SE Alabama. Enjoy every trip we get to up to the smokeys.
My daughter just had her first child and this is also my wife and my first grandchild child. I would like to have a book like this to read to him (Jeremiah) when he gets older.
All 3 of my children used to get me to read to them when they were young. I read Bible stories along with kiddie stories. I suppose their favorite kiddie story was The Bremen Town Musicians.
When I was a girl and as an adult, I enjoy breaking beans, but I don’t think I’ve ever canned anything by myself. I’d rather be out trailing Grandpa while he was hunting, when I wasn’t much taller that the gun stood up. And I am still a porch sitting, bean eating woman who loves the LORD.
How lovely this book must be!
Many a children’s book can bring me to tears, Tipper!
When we were young I would sometimes go hunting with my husband and his family. This particular trip was in the Ruby Mountains in Nevada. I had a license and carried a rifle but knew I never intended to shoot a deer. One day I decided to stay in our truck parked in a beautiful green meadow and read a book instead of traipsing all over. When I looked up from reading there was a pretty little doe grazing right next to the truck. I didn’t even pick up the rifle. I slowly rolled the window down and informed her she was in a dangerous place and for her to get back into the trees as fast as she could. She took off in a flash and I never told anyone on the trip what happened. That little secret remained between the doe and I. I hope she had a long and happy life.
Tipper have you ever hunted?
Joan-I never have 🙂
What a way with words!!
This would be a wonderful book for all ages but especially for children.
This sounds like a great book. I’ve always felt that a good children’s book should be appealing to adults as well.
I would love to read this book. My daughter and I both love to can and love your families videos.
Would first like to tell Miss Karen Mills, So sorry for your loss. You are certainly a brave person. God’s blessings to you and your family.
Miss Tipper, I’m a big crier too. Some times hate it, but we all need to clean out sinuses out sometimes. LOL.
I used to read like crazy as a child. So many wonderful stories for children back then. This story from Appalachia sounds like one I could really enjoy and pass on later to my precious Great Grandsons. Soon to be numbered 3. We have one coming around the same time as Katie. He will be Lukas, joining Logan and Landon. What a triplet of boys. Can hardly wait for them all to grow up and be the best of buddies. Logan and Landon are the sweetest two together. They are already besties, at ages 21/2, and nearly 1 year. Best wishes to Granny and Miss Katie. Y’all are very dear to me. Jen
Sounds like a delightful read!
Canning season is the best. Canning is such a valuable skill. My father-in-law taught me how to can green beans, because my mother-in-law was always afraid the pressure canner might blow up. She always got everything prepared and he would watch over the canner. These are some of my best memories that we spent together preparing and preserving fruits and vegetables.
Would love to read this book. Sure hope you get some snow this winter
“Sam and the Firefly” is one of my favorite books and it’s a children’s book. And I think it’s a blessing to feel emotions so strongly that you cry. 🙂 That reminds me of a saying that I like, “If that don’t touch your heart, your wood is wet.” ❤
One of the best gifts a parent can give to their children is a bringing up in the country. Whether it be time spent running in the fields, climbing into the barn loft or playing in the creek down the hill, every day of the week offers some splendor to remember.
Sometimes a children’s book is the best read. I cried when I took my boys to see the fox and hound.
Happy holidays Cant believe next week is Thanksgiving.
Hugs to everyone.
Oh this book has been on my list for a long time! My kids and I all love Cynthia Rylant’s books, and with my grandparents coming from the Appalachian region I’ve known this would be a special one if I can get my hands on it. I love the word picture she painted in that excerpt!
So touching! I would love to read this wonderful children’s book myself. I also am very tender hearted and the older I get, the tears, happy or sad come quickly.
I too love kids books and the beautiful illustrations.
A woman and daughters who could can and put up were greatly valued, and a man and his sons who hunted were considered good providers. Many families made it through the lean winter months by both these set of skills. Many still do!
Oh the book sounds amazing! Thank you, Tipper for all the ways you enrich our lives!
Hi Tipper. I love this post. It’s so true about my family. My mama and daddy always worked hard planting, harvesting and canning vegetables from our garden. They canned deer meat that my dad harvested too. My mama loved to take you back to one of her bedroom closets, where dad built strong shelves that she had loaded with garden veggies, deer meat and fruit such as apples and pears, and jellies. She was so proud to show her colorful jars, and so eager to share a jar with me after I left home. I now also love to can and freeze and put up food. My daughter and daughter-in-law both can food. My daughter-in-law just told me today that she has cooked and froze pumpkin from their garden and wants me to have some for cookies or pies. It’s such a wonderful tradition to hand down to our children and grandchildren. I also enjoyed your video with Katie last evening. You two seemed to have so much fun together.
Children’s books are some of my favorites!
I’ve never heard of this author. It sounds like it would be interesting. Thank you for this opportunity, Tipper. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Tipper, you are not alone. I too have always been tenderhearted, but it seems the older I get the easier the tears slip down my cheeks. Maybe it’s because I know how short time is getting to be, or maybe I have been forgiven so much….and maybe I am just an ol’ suck baby. Life sure is precious. Hope y’all are doing well. As far as children’s books I think I have always been more excited about the book fair than anyone. The smell of a book, especially an old one, still takes me back.
I cried just reading that small excerpt!
I haven’t heard of Cynthia Rylant, but will look into her books at the library.
I was one of those kids that didn’t wander off with the dogs when canning was to be done. I had to spend my time between the woodpile and the kitchen. I helped with all sorts of canning and preparing food for the freezer. I still do but on a gas stove = no wood chopping and carrying We moved a little over two years ago and in changing banks we mentioned to the banker we were doing some canning. Later we took him a jar of jelly and he said, “You two could live off the grid.” I said, “No. My wife won’t eat deer and squirrels”. We just made about 25 jars of jelly from apple peelings after putting apples in the freezer.
Reminds me of doing exactly this with my grandma Betty.
My Daddy and Husband and our Son loved going Hunting each Fall in Tn. We live in Eastern Ky. and they eagerly awaited that wonderful time of year. As the years went by my Daddy has passed, my husband is disabled from a coal mining accident and we have lost our Son almost four years ago. We are raising our Grandson now and Poppy often tells him “hunting tales”. He will never be physically able to take him hunting but we try to keep tradition alive through stories.
Bean snappin’ and knee slapping’ laughter.
I loved to hear my mother and neighbor Helen laugh as they did anything together.
What a beautiful book !!!! I’d cry too !!!!
Thank you ,as always , for sharing with us all !!!!
I love sitting on the porch snapping beans now! But I when I was kid I remember running from grandma when she said it was time to snap beans!
When I was a little girl Mama said I had a soft heart because I cried easily over the smallest things. I couldn’t stand to see a person or an animal suffer. I’m still a child at heart and love to read children’s books that touch the heart. I would love to have a copy of this book, then pass it on to two sweet little girls who live next door to my brother’s place in the North Georgia mountains. They come from a large family and don’t have much except for a lot of animals that they love and care for. One has dreams of growing up and becoming a veterinarian. They’re at such an impressionable age and I think this book would encourage them, touch their heart, and mean the world to them.
When I read the excerpts that you , Tipper, provide from John parishes book, I see two things. The first is that he absorbs the day all the while paying attention to everything that’s going on in it. Number two he makes me feel like I was there to see it too.
I would love to read this book!
Please forgive me if I’ve already replied to this one. I think I may have but not positive.
I love well-written children’s books. This one sounds so endearing! I know of only one that takes place in Appalachia; it’s nice to know there’s more!
With 30 grandchildren and twin boys on the way making 32, I’m pretty sure I can find a cutie to read to. I just love Appalachia and all the rich history. I’d love to share it.
Would love it.
Our grandsons would love that book. They live away from the mountains but hope to return some day.
I have a new great granddaughter that would be a perfect book for. It sounds like a lovely book, that book might have to stay at GGma’s so I could read it to her. . I agree with Teresa though, you should have a copy for LB (Little Bit.)
Sounds like a book I would love my grandchildren to read. Prayers for all. Take care and God bless ❣️
Having grown up in the mountains, I love the part about children “feel more important than anything else”. Even as an adult I can feel the love of God and a certain “all is right with the world” feeling when I am roaming about the woods. I also love children’s books.
It sounds like a lovely book. I would love to read it. Children, a sense of belonging & place. A beautiful gift to wish for all children
Oh wow! I would love this book for my new granddaughter. If I don’t win it…I will look for it online.
Maybe you should just keep it for your new grandson!! LOL!
I recently learned to can green beans! My favorite vegetable! I love sitting on my back porch snapping them into bite size pieces. Most of the time I am alone, so I listen to a podcast preacher, or a watch a video on YouTube. Tripper’s Appalachia stories are a favorite of mine! Thank you for sharing these wonderful stories with us!
I would love a copy of this to share with my Granddaughter. She is living in a big city and it’s very different in her neighborhood.
I have a picture on my refrigerator door of an older lady’s lap with her apron on and a pan of beans she is shelling and it reads “The problem with the world today is no one sits on the front porch shelling beans with Grandma anymore.” So true. I learned a lot about life lessons and kin folk, cooking, canning, jelly making, keeping chickens, and how to be still…..haha, on the front porch with Grandma. Now, when I shell beans and can and make jelly, I think of my Grandma and remember all those times. I miss her so much. Another blessing remembered today, Tipper. Love and prayers to all of you and Granny too.
I’m blessed to have five great grandchildren and one on the way; all live in an urban or semi urban environment. The farm I reside on is a refuge from their normal routines and experiences with each seeing and doing all we enjoy. And, of course I try to instill an appreciation and liking for the bits of yesterday still around here. Every now and then, I tell them stories of myAppalachian childhood days and what and how living in the holler was such a really wonderful and meaningful experience. It’s tough competing with an IPad or something they visually see so often. As a believer in the power of books, an most certainly children’s books; this would be a welcome to my personal library and in my eyes • “icing on the cake”! And might help them visualize a tad better and have a better understanding of that era. I do get a few, “Aw, grampa’s”, but that’s a good thing. Great story, Tipper; well done and thanks, my friend!
Sad people work and don’t have time to help each other in gardening and canning like years gone by. my son and I work on gardening and canning together. I haven’t lived in area for years but still say youns, y’all and alot of other terms. I still get ask where I’m from. I love to play with people and say I was raised in the north ( we live in Ohio) they look so odd trying to figure out my Southern accent. I then say yep raised in North Carolina. lol. I have some of my family papers from church meetings that has info about your great grandfather preacher Truett. if you are interested I’ll copy and email to you. enjoy your videos.
Charlotte-I would love that! I emailed you 🙂
It’s ok to cry. It shows emotion and who you are. You have a heart if you cry. I thank God I can cry. Thanks Tipper.
I have always loved Cynthia Rylant’s children’s books. She has a way of telling the story that is honest and moving. I didn’t know about this book.
Cynthia Rylant has written numerous children’s books.
I remember Daddy talking about the old chestnuts. What’s available now is not too tasty to me. I wish somebody would happen across some old native tree that had somehow been resistant to the blight. Those seeds would be sucked up as fast as the tree could produce them. I occasionally do run across a “scaly bark”. Don’t know if that’s the same as hickory.
So many memories.
I helped my mother and grandmother can hundreds of jars of fruits and vegetables.
When I was quite young I washed the jars, my hands were small enough to fit inside.
As I grew up I helped to fill the jars for the stovetop pressure canner. Mostly we canned in quart jars, that generally was enough for our family of momma, daddy, and 5 kids. Peaches were canned in 2-quart jars though, they lasted for only one meal with our crew. My momma made sure we had 49 jars of everything, that was enough to feed us for an entire year.
I was oldest and worked in the house and kitchen. BONUS: I have pretty nice skin because I never had time to work or play outside in the sun.
some people canned food, because they had to
to survive!! my dad use to buy used cars to fix up for profit, he would drive the new car to work the next morning and return home for lunch we called it dinner , sometimes you had to beat on the dash board to get the radio to play, he would pull in the drive way for lunch and sit in the car, he would open the door and play the radio , you didn’t run uo to daddy and scresm and holler when he was doing this ,you were careful , sometimes he would be crying , listening to that song playing in on the radio, thsnks for the memories with tears in my eyes, God bless you Tipper
I greatly enjoyed this post. I remember when my mother would gather the nearest kids (there were 7 of us) to snap beans or hull peas. I loved it when I was a child, and adapted to canning and freezing for my own family. There is nothing like the satisfaction associated with a day of canning beans, tomatoes or peaches. Haven’t done much of that since I taught my daughter how to can.
I have a perfect use for that book. My neighbor’s children are at my house a few times a week now.Sometimes I read to them.
Prayers, love and blessings to all of you.
I have another book by that author about children in the mountains and it is very good, too.
My little Appalachian boys need to hear this story! Thanks for the book suggestion, Tipper!
Oh how I remember shelling peas and snapping beans with my grandmother and my mom. Such good memories! The book offered in today’s post sounds like a wonderful read for all ages, I would love to add it to my collection. Thank you for all you do Tipper!
Reading about lives like these remind me of my own grandparents and parents. How different our lives are from theirs. I long to share such stories with my grandchildren who can learn of such a lifestyle through our storytelling. And as I tell them of ways long past, I may be shedding a tear or two.
As one gets older the seasons of the year are a blessing! As Kelly said they pass by quick, don’t close your eyes!
Everyone get out and enjoy this beautiful fall day! Blessings to all.
The best children’s books appeal to adults as well as to children, and Cynthia Rylant’s are among the best.
My canners come out in the spring when the strawberries begin and they don’t go back into storage until hunting season ends. In fact, this evening after work I’ll be canning deer that was given to us by a co-worker and her husband, and this weekend I will (finally) be finishing the last of summer’s tomatoes that have been waiting in the freezer until I can get to them! Some of my favorite memories are of canning with my mom in the summertime, often until the wee hours of the morning to finish up. I’m so thankful she taught me how!
A children’s book that brings back so many memories! I remember dusty summer days riding my bike, kicking up clouds of dust, and thinking how immense God must be to be watching over the whole world. My siblings and I picked blackberries under the old coal chute; enough to fill the wash tub so Mom could make jelly and can some berries for winter. Mom set snares around the vegetable garden so that she could catch the rabbits that wanted our bounty. She would serve stewed rabbit and garden salad, all thanks to summer. We worked the garden, raided the woods and roadsides, and sometimes the creeks too, to fill the house with foodstuffs. My dad and uncles would load shot gun shells and off into the woods, to come back with grouse, pheasant, squirrel and turkey. Venison was a stable in our house more often than beef. We didn’t know we were poor, because we had plenty of what was needed.
Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorite children’s authors (former teacher) but I never heard of this book. I would love to read it so I would be so happy to win a copy.
Gee, so many things this post brings to mind. I don’t know where to start and won’t know where to end. First of all, Cynthia Rylant; love her books. She has a Christmas one called “Silver Packages” about a Christmas train in Appalachia. My wife fell in love with that one. Second, for the criers, cry on and bless your heart. I am not one and I reckon it has cost me some years. I do my crying on the inside so far but I have an idea that may change. Because, thirdly, I am in perhaps my final season and many of the cares of life have rubbed away. My heart is nearer to the surface now and breaks out easier and easier. And I wish it would. I have been pressed the last week or so with studying on how we finally understand to our bones that the life questions that matter not the most but at all are heart questions. Tipper, you are part of that. Here on BP&A hearts speak to one another.
Sometimes children’s books are the best ones!
I would love to read this, how cool that it’s a children’s book. ❤️
Even though you said it was a children’s book I’d love to read it. I read through the Little House series often too! Reminds me of how people lived back then
I too are very easily brought to tears. My sweet little mama was the same way. Some of my best, very best memories of my childhood were quilting bees in my grandmother’s living room. The frame hung from the ceiling all year. Drawn up to be out of the way when not in use. But then when my great aunts, my Granny’s sisters and some of the other ladies that they knew gather around there would be the best food and vibrant conversation. My great aunts could out gossip, oops, yeah gossip anybody on Earth. LOL. They were priceless and precious to me. And then sitting on the front porch with Mama and Granny breaking beans. Watching Papa kill a chicken for Sunday dinner. Cutting up apples and drying them on a screen out on the saw horses in the front yard. The big house only had one bathroom with a clawfoot tub and the washing machine and the rinsing tubs. Monday was wash day and when the weather was beautiful they were hung outside. When the weather wasn’t so beautiful they were hung upstairs in the four empty bedrooms where Papa had put up lines just for that purpose. I feel sorry for kids this day and age that do not have those precious memories. Of helping Papa in the garden. And helping Granny and Mama break beans. And then when Granny died Mama kept up the tradition of putting away food. Dad didn’t hunt but we raised Hogs. In the summertime we put up vegetables and in the fall we can sausage and tenderloin and hung hams in The Smokehouse. I have tried very hard to keep these Traditions going. No killing Hogs but “putting up” food. I haven’t been able to raise a garden but I have a first cousin that she and her husband raise absolutely wonderful vegetables so I have the privilege of purchasing vegetables for them so I can “put them up.”
So many children today have no clue about those things. I tried to instill those things in my grandsons. They do hunt and harvest deer. One thing we can count on in this life is change. Not always for the better. I appreciate electricity running water and plumbing facilities but! How I long for the old days. I will soon be 77 and I really have lived through a lot of changes. I was 5th generation grandchild, my son was 5th generation his son was 5th generation and his son was 5th generation. Now I am the oldest of both maternal and paternal cousins. And to my knowledge none of them are involved in putting up food for their family. It’s sad that these things have disappeared. I’ve tried to teach my nieces, I only have two, about putting up food. They’re just not interested. Sad. As always Tipper, love all writings of yours. I pray that Granny is still doing well.❤️❤️❤️
Seems like every time someone seems me with tears in my eyes, they think I’m sick or hurting. I just have a sensitive heart I guess and it weeps at the slightest bit of joy or pain, emotional or physical. I kinda wish I wasn’t this way. Doctors keep telling me I’m depressed. I don’t think so….Just melancholy.
Oh! I love Cynthia Rylant books and have several of them, but this one is unfamiliar to me. I would love to add it to my collection. I read to my babies from an early age and one of mine turned around and read to me when she was four. I taught preschool for ten years and loved seeing the children’s faces light up at various stages of a story. Thanks for introducing me to this book!
Thank you Tipper for all the posts I have read this month! I remember well canning season and up early to pick, shell and watch my Momma get all those vegetables ready for the freezer and pantry shelves. I love children’s books and this one sounds like a keeper.
I worked in a used bookstore for 20 years and shelved children’s books for the last 5 or so that I was there. I could just do my job and almost robotically shelve those about robots or dinosaurs or characters from kids tv & movies. But the ones that caught my attention, that I had to sneak a quick read of, we’re the ones that were about children doing the things I did as a child. Being outdoors, climbing trees, watching animals and birds, or helping sweep porches or work in gardens with parents and grandparents. Rylant’s books were always attention grabbers.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under Heaven.
I enjoyed the read and could feel a part of it in it’s passing. The years go by so very fast, though the days may seem to drag on.
Haha, I am the same way! I cry over the silliest things.
I will have to look up that book for my little boy. I’ve read her other children’s book When I Was Young in the Mountains. It’s wonderful too.
Today’s children are growing up in a world where the connection to nature (which thankfully is still here in Appalachia) is rapidly disappearing. It sounds like this book seeks to keep that “tie one that truly binds.” It’s OK to get wound up about the beauty and majesty of these ancient mountains and the life they have provided for those of us who are fortunate enough to be in and near them.
As some of you may know, I was in the USArmy and have PTSD AKA post traumatic stress disorder. I can’t watch or read or expose myself to much unpleasantness or it affects me badly. The excerpt Tipper shared from Cynthia Rylant and her wonderful children’s book is right pleasant and good reading. Ifn I don’t win this book, I’m definitely gonna check it out cause it’s up my alley. The way I see it, I’m a winner every day cause I fight the good fight striving to do better than yesterday. Here’s a REAL laugh for ya. A friend of mine works in a mental facility. Anyway, the story is a guy handed his stamped mail to another patient to put in the mail. He called his mom to see if she got his letter. She said I did get a letter with your writing on the envelope but inside was no letter from you. It was a letter from the patient LEO. It had lots of tape on the envelope too. I laughed so hard thinking of the narcissist putting his letter in a disposing of the guy’s letter to his mom. I think it’s HILARIOUS! Blessings to you all and especially Granny Louzine and those sick or oppressed in any way.
I liked the descriptions of women canning because that’s how I feel when I can, it’s my season and I enjoy it. I also liked the description of children liking all season, walking through woods and think of God while looking at clouds. I may not walk through woods like I use to as a youngin, but I still look at clouds and think what an amazing Creator God is and I am thankful He is my Lord. Oh and I still love all seasons!
I have always had an interest in watching birds! Now since I’m retired I have more time to watch! I feed them more in the winter than any other time of year! Especially if the ground is snow covered! We moved to the countryside from town in 1987 and I was just surprised of how many different species of sparrows, finches and all other kinds of birds there are. You can see Gods creation in it all!
I’m like Tipper. Some things hit me and I shed a tear or two. I joke that I could cry at a Walmart opening. Jim Casada said some song could jerk a tear from a glass eye, or words to that effect. Good one!
Hey Gene, I cry every time I see another Walmart opening too! Seriously if a man is not suppose to cry, I am not much of a man. It seems like every day Something will bring up memories from the past and I will shed a few tears.
For many years I looked more forward to Thanksgiving Day than Christmas. By now I would have been so excited I could hardly stand myself. Rabbit and bird (bobwhite quail) hunting seasons opened on Thanksgiving Day. Unless raining, Daddy and me always went hunting on Thanksgiving morning. After getting married, it would be with my father in law and a few other family members rabbit hunting. There was no deer in my area until they begin to show up in the late 70’s, now it is nothing but deer and no rabbits or quail. Recently a friend of my son sent him a picture of at least 18 deer standing in his front yard and my son had 13 come out on him this year while he was deer hunting. A local man was killed last week by a deer running into him while driving his motorcycle. Well at least the state wildlife department is happy, now it is all about deer and turkey, that is their bread and butter. I never cared for deer hunting, a lot of my hunting enjoyment came from being outside watching my dogs work, not the actual killing. Like was said, the game would be brought home, cleaned and cooked for food. The meat you buy at the grocery store or the leather for your shoes, belts, or pocket books didn’t come from an animal that got well and went back out in the pasture. I have not had any dogs or hunted in 25 years. I wonder how many wrecks and other destruction have been caused by rabbits. The roads around here are littered with dead deer each morning.
I’m out there trying to thin the deer population and provide protein for the rest of the year. I too enjoyed rabbit hunting until the deer herd exploded. Now it’s a rare sight to see a rabbit and very, very infrequently see or hear any quail.
Nothing wrong with reading children’s books. Sometimes they are the best because they convey thoughts and emotions using simple words. They get the message across without using complicated and flowery language. I still love Golden Books!
I like reading young adult or books for maybe middle school aged children. My all time favorite is Where The Red Fern Grows , some of my favorite authors are Walt Morley and Jim Kjgard, he wrote Big Red and some other books about Irish Setters when they were still hunting dogs along with Stormy an A Nose For Trouble. I probably misspelled their last names. I like to read. I have bought and read many books Tipper mentions.
I love this post so much. Talking about the natural rhythms of life. The bike riding reminded me about my childhood even if I wasn’t in the mountains it was the freedom and sunshine.
I could see the women of my family canning and chatting, wonderful memories.
Wow, such lovely descriptions. I was surprised by you saying it was a children’s book. This sounds like a great read for children! And you are not alone Tipper…I find myself teary eyed more and more about the simple yet sweet things all around us. Thank you for highlighting these different books this month!
I’m a crier too! I am a man! Women can get away with it. Women all gather around the one who cries and they all cry and give each other hugs. Men look at you and grunt “what’s wrong with you?” and you say ” nothing, it’s a gnat or something flew in my eye.”
Prayers continue for Granny and your family. My Granny was smart around pea shelling time. She’d call mama to tell her that she had some peas, butterbeans or beans for us. We would get in the car and go to house to get the bounty and Granny would have “just sat down” and started shelling or snapping. Of course we would grab a chair to finish the job. LOL Granny managed to increase visit time during harvest season.
I would love to win the book for my grandchildren.
My grandma had a closet of shelves that were filled with vegetables that she canned during the summer. What wonderful memories these stories bring up.
My, thanks for today’s post about birds. Sounds like my kind of book.
I do believe you have a great collection of good reads there at your house.
Carolyn
Hi Tipper
The Voices Of Sleeping Birds, this brought me back to my childhood, we lived in a very small settlement, I remember getting up early in the morning and I take a stroll in the woods, I can hear the chirping of the birds and it was so peaceful, what a wonderful memory of long ago when life was so much simple and so carefree, like you Tipper I cry very easy whether happy times or joyful, what I would give to go back just for a day and experience it all again.
I can not wait for you to meet your little grandson. You know it already I’m sure, but it’s joy like you’ve not known yet! It the greatest blessing the Lord has given me, getting to babysit my 12 mo and 24 mo old grandbabies!
I love children’s books! Thanks for sharing this one.
I love fall. It’s so peaceful by the woods. Watching deer and turkey. The color of the leaves. The clouds in the sky.
I look forward to reading your post every morning.
I am far from Appalachia, but you take me there everyday.
Thank you so much!
Tom , northwest Ohio
I can see canning season being a woman’s season. I find canning season comforting.
I love this. What a sweet book.
The book sounds wonderful, like you I cry very easily when something happens happy or sad, the book may be something that you would want to share with your first grandbaby. I read the Mother Goose book to my son when he was very young, I read the stories over and over, he loved them, he would correct me if I tried to shorten anything when I was reading.
Again you’re right about the canning season, it’s hard work but enjoyable work because you know you’re feeding your family good clean food, some how it’s really peaceful while snapping beans etc. then to see the beautiful food in the jars, ready and waiting for you to put them on the table. My husband and son are hunters, I expect they get the same satisfaction from hunting and providing for the family as I do canning, however lucky for me if my husband isn’t busy he jumps right into the middle of canning and helps me.
Blessings to all
What beautiful writing! Cynthia’s going on my authors list today! Thank you, Tipper, for sharing from her book!
The first paragraph talking about canning season makes me think of what my mother must have experienced though like it points out, I, as a child, do not remember being part of the sitting and shelling/snapping or anything. And I have no memory of her actually canning though I found a lot of jars in her attic and her canner (which I only knew as her soup pot, without the bottom insert) after she had passed on. If I could go back in time, I would tap into the knowledge my mother and aunts and Grandma had that I didn’t know to ask for at the time. Me too Tipper, for me-since my dad passed on and mother too- I am especially emotional like I never used to be, similarly with anything sad and even joy, now that my children are older. It’s as if I am more sensitive to the emotions of others because I now recognize it. Through reading your blog and hearing the interviews and all, I can still tap into some of that knowledge from others and I appreciate that about the work you and your family do.
Some of my best childhood memories were of walking through the woods talking to God and looking for fairies.
Love hearing about the different books. Thank you.
Love reading your posts about our Appalachia ways and traditions! Keep up the good work!
sounds like a wonderful book! we continue to watch your YouTube channel and I read your blog daily.
Back in 1996 when we moved to Blue Ridge was the first time I had ever heard the word ‘yuns’. I was taken aback and had to ask, because I cannot stand to pronounce or spell a word incorrectly..something my 5th grade teach who taught grammar, and was told…it is just another way to say y’all. Interesting. Another phrase was, ‘I have to tell you this’. Those were just a few different renderings of the English language and so I adapted some of them. As far as tearing up when you hear or read something that is touching to you, let ’em fall. I think that shows you are a caring human. Sometime I will see one of the feral cats I feed daily and they look a little sad and wonder, what are they feeling or seeing or experiencing. After all, God made us to be human and human we are. Lovely to see Katie as we don’t really see her as much as Corie and I am sure she is working. Praying for Granny and you guys. God Bless
Some of my best memories are of sitting outside snapping beans with my mom. She canned s lot of our garden. Thank you for bringing those happy moments back to my memory.
I loved this post. It’s sure enough the truth!
The seasons of the year, the seasons of life…
they pass by quick.. don’t close your eyes