Wednesday, 7 June 2023

Wednesday Witterings . . .

 

 I had to pop over to one of the local grocery stores yesterday afternoon to pick up some bin bags. We have two grocery stores in town.  Usually I shop at the Independant, but occasionally I will go to the other one and pick up the specials when I need what is on offer. They had their own store brand bin bags on offer this week and so I went there.

There is this cashier in The Foodland that is such a bundle of energy. She always makes me smile.  She is bright and engaging and so friendly and kind and loving, yes . . .  loving to everyone who goes through her till. She always makes you feel like you are the most important person in the world to her at that moment. I love going through her till.  

I don't know what her name is or anything else, but I know how she makes me feel, and probably how she makes everyone she comes into contact feel.  Special. Seen. Important. Like I matter.

I have been going through the cash before in shops and felt like I was putting the person out by making them do their job. Like they wanted to be anywhere else on the planet than checking out my groceries. Like I was a big pain in the patootie and a source of frustration. You just know this is a person who hates their job and as a consequence of those feelings, you are low on their list as well.

What a wonderful talent this girl has, to make others feel special and like they matter. You come away from her feeling like a million bucks. I want to be like her. We should all be like her.

Can you imagine a world filled with people who "see" you and validate your worth? What a different world it would be!


 

I got home and puttered a bit. Killed some more ants. Then I went to the mailbox to post a letter and check my mail. I had nothing, but at least it got me out there walking. Sheila was on her deck talking to Millie.  Millie used to live in my place but moved over one street to the fancier places.  Millie knew both my mother and my father.  Guess what they were talking about?

Ants.

They are both having problems with them as well. I think that's because it has been really dry this year. Usually the landlord has someone come around and spray for them. Nobody has been around this year, not yet anyways. Here's hoping.  I had ants in my kitchen yesterday and in my bedroom, crawling up my nightstand. You can imagine how creepy that made me feel.

The cats are quite curious about them in a very nonchalant way.  They just lay there and watch them, tilting their heads back and forth, giving them the occasional tap with a paw. I don't think they find them to be very exciting.


 

There is a huge rut the end of our road, about six feet down from the stop sign. Its about 2 feet wide, runs the whole width of the road, and is now a good 3 or 4 inches deep. It is hard on the car driving over it. Its from where they were working on it about two weeks ago. The people on the next road over had lost their streetlights.  The maintenance man said due to somebody shoveling so for some reason they dug up all along the grass from that street to this one and the width of our road, I suppose to hook up those lights to our lights.

I hope they come and fill it in soon, even if it is only with gravel.  With all the rain it keeps getting deeper and deeper.  Its an unfinished job. I was always taught that when you started a job you needed to also finish it.  That is the hardest part of any job, the finishing. I often struggle to finish things, and need to make myself do it.  I think that is the ADHD in me.  My brain is always skipping forward to the next thing.



This morning I am enjoying a bowl of Scottish porridge for my breakfast.  I cooked it in  milk and have drizzled it with some golden syrup for a real treat.  It takes me back to the trip I took to Scotland a few years back. We stayed in a hotel in the Trossachs National Park. Every morning we were treated to a nice bowl of porridge, along with other choices.  

There is something very comforting to be found in a bowl of porridge. It is something I have come to really enjoy as an adult. When I was a child I could never understand the appeal. To me, back then  . . .  it held about as much appeal as eating a bowl of wall paper paste. My mother could never get any of us to eat it.

My ex husband's mother ate a bowl of it every morning and she is 96 and going strong.

It is not something I have every morning, but every now and then I fancy a bowl of porridge, always made with milk and always enjoyed with some syrup on top.  Golden, Maple, etc. Not a lot, but just a touch so that you know it is there. Date syrup, if you can get it, is especially good.


 

Canada is on fire.  There are wild fires burning in just about every province.  It is a huge problem.  The air quality in Ottawa where my brother lives is very poor. Thankfully all the rain we have had here in Nova Scotia has helped to control them a bit and some people have been allowed back into their homes and communities, but it could spring back up at any time. We need to be vigilant. 

This is the worst year for fires on record and they are saying it is going to be an ongoing problem right on into the month of August. Another sign of Global warming?  Perhaps. The impact on our wildlife is going to be catastrophic.


 

Listen and attend with the ear of your heart.
~Saint Benedict

How often do we allow ourselves to slow down and listen to life with the ear of our heart.  The opposite of silence.  We may think we are surrounded by silence, but there is a cacophony of  sound which attends our every moment.  At  times the silence can be quite deafening. 

Right now I can hear the refrigerator humming, the keys on my keyboard tapping, there is a slight ringing in my ears (there always is), the dull roar of the odd car that travels down the main road near my street.  Cinnamon's little cries, she wants treats. The sounds of silence.


 

If there is paradise on the face of the earth,
It is this, oh! It is this, oh! It is this.


These last few years I have been on a journey. The journey of discovering the Divine in the ordinary. We often think that we can only find something so special as the Divine by going to places like church or synagogue, great cathedrals, temple  . . . 

I believe the Divine surrounds us. I have determined to make my home a place of refuge, quiet, and comfort.  A place where I can experience the Divine on a daily and ongoing basis. The things I choose to allow in my life, the art on my walls, the books I choose to read, the places I choose to visit when I am online, the conversations I choose to have, the things I choose to watch or the music I listen to.  

There is a great blessing that can come from losing everything if you allow it to take hold. Unfettered by the flotsam gathered by years and years of life, you have the gift of being able to consciously choose exactly what you wish to invite into your life. This is a great luxury and a blessing in disguise.

First you have to let go of the things you held on to, and that is a very painful process, but once you have done that, there comes a freedom, opportunity. Life takes on a new meaning, and I would never have thought it to be so.

The choice to walk away from everything was probably the single most difficult thing I have ever had to do in my life. But I have found paradise in the process.  I have been able to see the hand of God moving in my life in unimaginable ways. Ways I would never have experienced or been able to see otherwise.  And I am so grateful for that.

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." ~Philippians 4:8



 

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
I'll praise the mount I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wondering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee
Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above




I just wanted to share this beautiful arrangement of this hymn this  morning. It is so heart warming.  I often listen to hymns, and each Sunday I take note of the hymns we have sung in church and go over them again later in the quiet of my home and ponder the words.  Some of the most meaningful testimony meetings we have had at church have been where people share their favorite hymns and why they are their favorites,  and then we all sing the first verse.  I have a hard time picking a favorite. Most of them speak to my heart in a special way.

That is my heaven.

And with that I will leave you with a thought to carry with you for the day  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *.˛.°Who hears music,
feels his solitude peopled at once.
~Robert Browning  •。★★ 。* 。






In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Instant Pot Pot Roast. Yesterday I cooked my traditional pot roast in my Instant Pot. It took a fraction of the time and was so delicious! I really enjoyed this a lot!


I hope that you have a lovely day!  Cindy and I are meeting Dad and Hazel at the Chinese restaurant tonight for a change. I am looking forward to it!  Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ 
⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════   
  


And I do too!    

   

Tuesday, 6 June 2023

A Day Book . . .


 

OUTSIDE MY WINDOW ...

We have been getting rain and lots of it.  That is a good thing. Most of the people in the Halifax area that had a home to go back to have been able to return to their homes. There are some who had no homes or businesses to return to.  People have been donating to help with the relief. There are still fires burning and we still need to be vigilant.  Our Government is saying that Canada needs to be gearing up for higher than normal fire activity across the country this summer, right through 'til August. 

Sigh  . . . 



I AM THINKING ...

Yesterday I filled a whole compost bag with partially eaten packets of crisps (potato chips.) I need to stop buying the big bags.  They will have the on offer at the shops, two for a certain price. Then I will eat a few and the rest stay in the bag.  I have vowed from now on only to buy small bags and only when I am really craving them. I shouldn't be eating the darned things anyways! Potato chips are one of my many weaknesses.



ALSO THINKING ...

I picked up this free book on Kindle yesterday. The Practice on the Presence of God: a 40 Day Devotional. The first day was about Becoming Wholly God's.  Imagining a world where there is just you and God in it.  What would change in your life and become your mindset if you were able to do just that?  A mindset where the love of everything that wasn't pertaining to God faced away into nothingness.  I found myself wondering if that is how it was for Adam in the garden of Eden.  Where he had nothing to do all day but revel in God's creation and walk around talking to God, with no care or thought as to anything else.  I wonder if that is possible  . . . 



MOST NIGHTS ...

Most nights I am well ensconced on my sofa embroidering or crocheting.  This sweet companion is never far from my side. He likes to be close to me.

Meanwhile ... 


My sweet girl is  usually on her perch.  Normally she is flat out and splayed, but when I got up to take her photo last night, she up-righted herself and this was the photo I got. She is alert to my every movement.  I will think she is fast asleep and as soon as I move, she is on the move.  She trots around with me like a little puppy. Its cute.

I love my two companions very much. 



SOMETIMES I GET MAIL ...

I got this lovely postcard from Tatiana!  It features the art of artist Inge Look.  I love this artist's work. There is just so much detail in everything.  And I love Tatiana.  She is so thoughtful.  I need to go to the drugstore in town and pick up some postcards so I can return the pleasure.




SPEAKING OF ARTISTS ...

Another scandi-artist I really like is Carl Larrson.  I have a coffee table  book of his art that I treated myself to last year.  I love looking at the photographs of his artwork.  There is a part of me that would love to have a house that looked just like that.





REMEMBERING ...

She is 13 years old today. Miss her every single day.  She was everything to me.



I AM NOT VERY GOOD AT ...

Writing letters, e-mails, keeping in touch. My days get away from me and all of my well intentioned plans go astray.  That doesn't  mean that I don't think of the people I love and think of them often.  I do.  My friend Tracy in Norway.  I think about her all the time and wonder how she is doing. I am just not very good at writing long lengthy e-mails. I am more of a shorter message kind of girl. But I feel like I need to write a lengthy e-mail and it gets put off for when I have time and then it doesn't get done. And then suddenly too much time has passed.  I feel bad about that. I wish I was better at it. Tracy used to blog at Pink Purl and then at Prana Light. She was also on Instagram, but she is not on any of those things any more.  She posts patterns on Ravelry. She is an expert knitting designer.  Such a creative soul and such a sweet lady.  I miss her.

When all that stuff happened with Todd, I stopped communicating with a few people. I just could not bring myself to.  People like Tracy and my friends Lura and Sybil. I used to communicate with them almost daily. But my heart was so broken that I don't know  . . . I just couldn't.  And then, too much time had passed. I feel bad about that.



I LOVE ...

Chocolate.  I used to always keep a stash of it in my house.  A just for me kind of a thing. My ex husband used to go to the local Needs store every night and buy himself 2 or 4 sweets.  Usually a packet of Wine Gums, a Bit Turk, and an Eat More. Sometimes a McIntosh's toffee bar as well.  He used to give me the black wine gums because he didn't like them.  They were my favorites.  Black Currant. I love Black Currant anything.



YESTERDAY ...

I went out with Cindy in the morning and picked up a few bits and then came home and made a pot of chowder to take over to Glenna and her son. What a good son she has. He was there all day Sunday puttering and fixing things up for her and he was there all day again yesterday.  Making sure she is okay. Such a nice man also.  I took the chowder over along with some sweet Lemon Biscotti I had picked up at the Costco shop the last time we were there. Who doesn't enjoy a little bit of sweet.

Most of the day I was battling the ants however. I think I am winning the battle. Don't want to speak too soon and jinx myself.  The cats had a rather large one with wings last night. I caught that sucker and flushed it down the toilet.




STILL LOOKING FOR ...

A birdbath . . .  I will see one on Amazon that I like and then I read the reviews. So much stuff comes from China and they are experts at making things look good, but that end up being crapola.  The idea of turned upside down clay flower pots really appeals to me. 




SOMETHING TO READ ...

The Moon in the Palace, by Weina Dai Randel

"A thrilling work of historical fiction, bringing romance, intrigue, and the unexpected rise of an Empress to intoxicating life under the inscrutable moon. In Tang Dynasty China, a concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the Emperor's attention. Many hope to lure in the One Above All with their beauty. Some present him with fantastic gifts, such as jade pendants and scrolls of calligraphy, while others rely on their knowledge of seduction to draw his interest. Young Mei knows nothing of these womanly arts, yet she will give the Emperor a gift he can never forget. Mei's intelligence and curiosity, the same traits that make her an outcast among the other concubines, impress the Emperor. But just as she is in a position to seduce the most powerful man in China, divided loyalties split the palace in two, culminating in a perilous battle that Mei can only hope to survive. In the breakthrough first volume in the Empress of Bright Moon duology, Weina Dai Randel paints a vibrant portrait of the Emperor's Palace—where love, ambition, and loyalty can spell life or death—and the woman who came to rule all of ancient China."

I have always been fascinated by Oriental Culture.



SOMETHING TO WATCH ...

Happy Valley on Acorn. I watched the first series when I was living in the UK. I just finished the second series on Acorn and am about to begin the third and final series.  I love LOVE British Crime Dramas.  I actually love British television full stop. They do it all so well.


 


TRACING THE GOODNESS ...

Not every day is a good day, but there is something good in every day.  Each day, at the end of the day I try to find at least five things to be thankful for in the day just spent. I never have a hard time.  In fact most days I could go on for quite a while tracing the goodness in my days.

I was talking to my friend Jacquie yesterday and she was saying how lonely she is. I am sorry that she feels lonely. I am so grateful that I don't ever really get that way.

I am very lucky to have a sister, father and daughter close by, but also I am very lucky to have a life that is very busy.  I am grateful for my little job that keeps me in pinafores and a roof over my head and that also keeps me active and busy and thinking.  I am grateful for my two furry companions that keep me daily company. I am also grateful that I am a person who enjoys her own company. 

I don't really get bored and I don't really feel lonely.  I do sometimes feel sad, but that is more because of the things which have happened, etc. Thankfully those times are becoming a bit fewer and farther between.

This blog has been a saving grace for me.  Even if not a lot of people read these days, it has given me years and years of therapy.  It feels good to put down your feelings and thoughts each day.  Its been good for me anyways, plus I have met some very good people through this medium, people who have enriched my life in unimaginable ways. I am blessed.



SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU SMILE ...


Faster than fairies, faster than witches, 
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches; 
And charging along like troops in a battle, 
All through the meadows the horses and cattle: 
All of the sights of the hill and the plain 
Fly as thick as driving rain; 
And ever again, in the wink of an eye, 
Painted stations whistle by. 

 
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles, 
All by himself and gathering brambles; 
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes; 
And there is the green for stringing the daisies! 
Here is a cart run away in the road 
Lumping along with man and load; 
And here is a mill and there is a river; 
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!

~Robert Louis Stevenson (About a train journey)


 


A FEW PLANS FOR THE DAY ...

A bit of work, a bit of play, a lot of joy along the way  . . . 





COOKING IN THE KITCHEN ...

Creamy Ham and Corn Chowder.  Quite simply delicious.


A THOUGHT TO CARRY WITH YOU ...

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *.˛.°"Why not?" is a slogan
for an interesting life.
~Mason Cooley•。★★ 。* 。
•。★★ 。* 。•。★★ 。* 。


And that's my daybook for this week.  I hope you, yourself, have a beautiful day filled with loads of the things that bring you love and joy.  Whatever you get up to, don't forget! 

═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════ 
⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ═══════════   
  


And I do too!    

   

Monday, 5 June 2023

Small and Wonderful Things . . .

 




"The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But who gets excited by a mere penny? It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted with pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. what you see is what you get." ~Anne Dillard 


 A few of the small and wonderful things which bring untold joy into my life. It's the small things in life which truly mean the most. Simple abundance . . . it's the best.


 


Yesterday started off a bit upsetting. My next door neighbor Sheila called me to tell me that Glenna had called her to say she wasn't going to church and could she let me know.  Apparently she had fallen during the night and laid on the floor all night. Her son was on his way down from where he lives about an hour away and an ambulance had been called.  They took her away to see what had happened.  I was very concerned.  Thankfully she was home by last evening and nothing too serious was wrong. She has had some changes made in her medications, etc.  Her son was there all afternoon yesterday. He was working so diligently to clean her house, lay down new carpets for her, etc. I thought what a good son.

Thankfully the day ended on a much higher note than it had begun.

In speaking to her son he mentioned that he was going to see about getting a key lock box for his mother so that people could get in if anything like this happens again.  I thought what a good idea.  I might think about getting the same thing for my place.  We all lock our doors at night, but when you live on your own it effectively locks you in and nobody can get in to help you if anything happens.

Grateful that Glenna is okay and that she has such a wonderful son. 


 

After a weekend filled with rain (with more on the way) the wild fires near Halifax are now considered to be contained. People that have not lost their homes have been allowed to return to them.  This could have been so much worse than it was.  I hope and pray that there will be a lot of help in place for those who have lost everything.

So grateful for the rain.


 

My bathroom is absolutely infested with ants. They are swarming.  I am kind of upset about that.  I hardly slept a wink last night worrying about them.  I vacuum them up and they are soon replaced with hundreds more.  I can't find where they are getting in, but I think it is in a corner of the bathroom wall next to my next door neighbors. I don't have any anywhere else. Just in there. It won't be long however before they are everywhere. 

I never had this problem last year or the year before.  This has been such a dry year I guess.  I will need to do something and do it soon or it will be beyond my control.

This is not so wonderful, I admit. But it is not the end of the world either.


 

Its very damp and chilly in here this morning. I have had to put my heat pump onto the heating mode. Yay, my heat pump now works!!  I am so grateful for that.  

I am not complaining. It will be all too soon and we will be sweltering in hot and muggy temperatures.  I hate hot, muggy and sticky weather.

Grateful that I have a way to keep myself warm.


 

Sunday dinner with the family.  Cindy, Dan and Dad.  Yesterday my sister did a roast chicken in her air fryer and we had roasted tender stem broccoli and sweet/white potatoes. It was really yummy. But, of course, the best part is being with family. 

I love my family. Not everything is perfect. I wish that I had a close relationship with all of them, of course, but for whatever reasons it is what it is. I don't think any family is perfect. We are all only humans after all.  I just cherish the blessings I do have and keep trusting in the promises of God that one day all of our tears will be wiped dry and all hearts will be mended.

Grateful for family and family love.



 

Prayer.  I am grateful for the power of prayer.  It blesses my life abundantly, this two way connection which I have with my Heavenly Father.  Not all prayers are answered immediately.  Sometimes we have to wait a long time for the answers, but trusting in God's timing in all things, we can know that His timing is right for us. We don't always understand it, this having to wait.  Our impatient hearts want immediate answers. Waiting for answers can sometimes be really hard.  What am I saying?  Its always really hard. The waiting.  But in the  meantime we can be at peace, knowing and believing that answers will come eventually. Weeping may remain for the night, but joy always cometh in the morning.



 


A new day.  Each one is a gift to be opened. Will we open it with joy or will we open it with dread.  The choice is ours.  Getting old is a privilege that is denied to many. Sometimes it doesn't feel like a privilege I know.  It is a gift that comes with all sorts of aches and pains, but having a positive outlook makes it all much easier. Positivity just makes life better. I am grateful that I am a person with a positive outlook.  I am grateful for the peace that comes from having faith and knowing that life contains far more ups than it does downs.  If we keep our eyes and hearts fastened on the good, then we've cracked it.  Being negative never made anything better, or easier. 

I don't know what today will bring to my table, or what this week, month, year, etc. will bring. I just try to find as much joy as I can in the moments I am given. Its not always easy, but its always there. I just have to look harder sometimes.

And with that I best leave you with a thought for the day.

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *Summer weather, like being in love,
is a philosopher's stone which turns
our ordinary days into gold. But not
the whole day . . . For it is never the
whole day, never all our life which is
transformed in any happiness,
only the exquisite moments.
~Nan Fairbrother•。★★ 。* 。

 



Cooking in The English Kitchen today  . . .  South Carolina Bird Dog Sandwich.  Simple and delicious. A buttery toasted bun topped with bacon, chicken fillets, cheese and a honey mustard dressing/drizzle. Thoroughly enjoyable.


I hope you have a beautiful week. Be happy. Be blessed. Don't forget! 

═══════════ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ═══════════ 
⊰✿░G░O░D⊰✿⊰L░O░V░E░S⊰✿⊰░Y░O░U░⊰✿
═══════════ ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ ══════════  

 

And I do too!     
      
 
 








Saturday, 3 June 2023

All Things Nice . . .

 

Sunlight is such a lovely word
And means so much to beast and bird
And creeping things upon he earth,
It is old wood upon a hearth,
A sun porch where red roses twine
As lovely as a valentine.

An orchard where old twisted boughs
Bask in the sun . . . and open mows
Are filled with fragrance to the brim,
And purple shadows cool and dim
Where swallows hurry in and out,
And new-born kittens prowl about.

Sunlight is oil in shaly beds,
Deep in the earth . . . and watersheds
Holding their moisture in the store
Of Nature's spongy reservoir
Where moss and tangled vines are thick
Along a hidden swampy creek.

Sunlight is color . . . reds and blues
An arching rainbow's seven hues,
The sky above a maple tree
The emerald darkness of the sea . . . 
A patch of sunlit window sill,
As golden as a daffodil.
~Edna Jaques, Sunlight
Fireside Poems, 1950

(This is the book that started off
my love for Edna, back when I 
was just a child.)


 It must have been a sign way back when, when I was a child taking this green covered volume of poems from my mother's bookcase again and again to read, a sign that I was a tad bit different.  I was becoming a person that enjoyed small things, tender things, simple joys in life, poetic things, words. Words that painted poetic pictures in my mind and my heart.


 
Life in a Small Town

I live in a very small town. I don't know what the population is.  I just checked, it was 1,873 in the 2021 census. That's less than I thought it would be, but it was up 2.2% from 2016!  I guess it just seems larger than life to me.

We lived here for a time when I was age 13 to 15. Not the happiest years of  my life actually, but that's a whole other story.

Life in a small town is quite nice actually. We have characters and heart, and we probably end up knowing just about everyone.  Your cousin owns the pizza place, your other cousin works in Home Hardware with a host of other relatives you never knew you had and your daughter works in the drugstore.  And  . . . 

When the  knob of your clothes dryer breaks just when you are putting a  load of bedding into it, a guy from the local hardware store drives over and hand delivers a new knob for you and installs it, all for the cost of the knob. I like this town.




This is a  monument that sits in the park in our town. It is a  monument to the Loyalists who first settled this town in the 1750's.  Timothy Ruggles and Samuel Bayard of the King's Orange Rangers and Major Thomas Barclay of the Loyal American Regiment.

Timothy Ruggles was my 6th Great Grandfather.  Timothy Dwight Ruggles (October 20, 1711 – August 4, 1795) was an American colonial military leader (Brigadier General), jurist, and politician. He was a delegate to the Stamp Act Congress of 1765 and later a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War.  His wife, Bathsheba (my 6th Great Grandmother) was a direct descendant (great great granddaughter) of Elizabeth Tilley and John Howland, both of whom came to American on the Mayflower.

He is buried in the graveyard on the Eastward side of the Old Trinity church here in town.  He is also the ancestor of my friend Glenna, who lives across the street from me.




From Wikipedia:

Ruggles was born on October 20, 1711 to Rev. Timothy Ruggles.  He was grandson of Capt. Samuel Ruggles of Roxbury and Martha Woodbridge, who was a granddaughter of Governor Thomas Dudley. He graduated from Harvard in 1732; studied law, and established himself in practice in Rochester. In 1735 he married Mrs. Bathsheba Newcomb, widow of William Newcomb and the daughter of the Hon. Melatiah Bourne of Sandwich, Massachusetts. He was a military officer during the French and Indian War, rising to the rank of brigadier general in 1758.

He served multiple terms in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and was its speaker from 1762 to 1764. He participated in the October 1765 Stamp Act Congress as a representative of the Massachusetts General Court and was elected its president. Called to devise a common colonial response to the Parliament's 1765 Stamp Act, Ruggles refused to sign both the Declaration of Rights and Grievances sent by the Congress to King George III and the accompanying petitions sent to both Houses of Parliament. That made him become publicly censured by the General Court. 

 He subsequently became one of the leading Tories of New England. He commanded the Loyal American Association and was a Mandamus Councilor appointed by General Gage in Boston. 

 From the outset of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, he stood with the Loyalists, left Boston soon thereafter for Nova Scotia with the British troops, and accompanied Lord Howe to Staten Island. His estates were confiscated, and he was named in the Massachusetts Banishment Act. In 1779, he received a grant of 10,000 acres  of land in Wilmot, Nova Scotia, where he settled.

His daughter Bathsheba Spooner was the first woman to be executed in the newly-independent United States of America. Hung while she was 5 months pregnant. That in itself is a very interesting story. If you have time you should click the link and read. Her case was the first Capital case in US History.

And now you know more about Timothy Dwight Ruggles than you ever thought you would, lol.

And it all started with a new knob for my dryer.




I took this picture of Eileen enjoying her burger at lunch the other day.  She is a happy soul most of the time.  We were making plans for the things we are going to do when she comes to stay here in July.  Tim will be away to Ontario with his mother for 10 days.   She had a delicious looking burger. It had apple butter on it and sliced apple, which was quite unusual.




Tim had his usual fish and chips. He loves his fish and chips. (I can understand that!)  Its quite good at Jonny's.  Usually he has two pieces, but having had them there just the week before I talked him into having just one as two would have been too much for him to eat.  Afterwards I got them each a small ice cream to enjoy in the car.  The small one was HUGE. I don't think either one of them could have eaten a regular or a large. It was two scoops of hard ice cream and they chose to have it in bowls rather than a cone because we were going to be in the car.  

We all enjoyed out lunch out together very much! I love this daughter of mine so very much and am so grateful that we are now getting along a lot better.  That is a great blessing to me.



We are getting some very much needed rain this morning, and it rained last night as well. Hopefully this will help with the fires.  It is a steady rain at any rate, but probably not as heavy as what is needed to really make an appreciable difference.

I never did hear from my daughter directly in answer to my message to her, but my other daughter did message her to ask if they were okay and she answered her that they were, so that is good.


 


We had a really nice celebration for Dan's birthday at my sister's last evening.  My sister had made homemade pizza and salad and she had made a delicious double chocolate cake for dessert.  It was really good, all of it and Dan was  most appreciative of all the efforts made and for your Birthday greetings to him on here.  Family times are indeed the best of times and I am so grateful  now to be enjoying so many of them. This was something I really missed for the time I was living away. They are priceless.





Diadamy is getting ready to play ball. She has her summer shorts on and has her hair up in pigtails.  She is just waiting for the rain to stop. It is no good telling her that we need it to keep raining. She's just a child and only really wants to get outside to play with her ball.  Oh well Diadamy. Guess you will have to get your head stuck into a good book today.  It won't be raining forever.

I wonder what book she will read?  Perhaps my favorite book from my childhood, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, or maybe she will continue on with Little Women.  She really relates to Jo.



And with that I best leave you with a thought for the day  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~\。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ | 田田 |門 ★

 *To love oneself is
the beginning of a lifelong romance.
~Oscar Wilde•。★★ 。* 。•。★★ 。* 。



 



In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Cherry Topped Fairy Cakes.  Delicious and simple to  make. Charming!

I hope you have a beautiful weekend!  I hope its filled with loads of nice and lots of blessings!  Don't forget!

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And I do too!