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A life is good that holds within its span
The normal healthy life of common man;
Boyhood and youth with dreams enough to show,
How rich the days . . . how wide the road we go.
A home is good where laughter is a guest,
Where there is a quietude and joy and rest,
A haven in a world beset by fears,
A blessed shelter for the creeping years.
A face is good - whose lines are kindly drawn,
From which all selfishness and greed are gone,
Leaving the blessed virtues of mankind
Goodness of heart, serenity of mind.
A day is good whose dawn is rosy red
And all day long warm sunlight overhead
Shining on homes were working people live;
A wounded heart that can at last forgive.
A night is good - when quiet stars look down
Upon its huddled rooftops of the town,
Shedding their peace upon the souls of men,
Giving them strength to rise and work again.
A life is good - that holds joy in its score
Small children . . . old folks and an open door,
Where friends are welcome and the poor are fed
And dignity and truth dwells at its head.
~Edna Jacques, A Life is Good
Fireside Poems, 1950
This is the book which started my love for the Poetry of Edna Jacques. It was a volume of poetry that sat in our family bookcase for many, many years. As a child I had a great love for the written word, and I would read anything I could get my hands on. I cannot tell you the number of times that it was this volume of poetry. Mom had her favorite poems in the book as well. We discussed them a few times during the years when she would find me reading the book. She gave me the book when I moved away from home and out West and it is something that I carried with me for my life, until I had to leave it behind when I moved back to Canada in 2020. Thankfully I was able to find a secondhand copy. It is not quite the same as the one that my mother gave me. The dust cover on hers was always missing. This one has a dust cover.
It does break my heart when I think about having had to leave this book behind. There were so many things that were precious to me that got left. Things like the little ginger stuffed kitten that Douglas gifted me with many years ago. It was one of those Beanie Baby ones. I kept it on my desk in my craft room, a daily reminder to me of a son's love. I have never been able to find another one to replace it.
Sentimental things gathered over 65 years of life. Not much of any great financial worth, but still very hard to walk away from. Every time I think of something that got left, I feel the tiny ache of loss, but it is what it is and there was nothing else that I could do but walk away. To be honest most of the time I just try not to think about it. That is what's best, and things are only things. In the end none of it goes with us.
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Being Kind. That is something which is sadly lacking in our world today. Perhaps it has always been lacking but we are just much more aware of the world around us these days? And of course, the media delights in sharing all of the bleak and dreary things of the world with us. That is why I do not watch the news. I know that I should so that I am more informed about things, but I really cannot stand to listen to all of the gloom and doom. I decided that I would no longer watch the news a number of years back and I have stuck to my guns. I might glance at the headlines that present themselves to me daily on my computer homepage, but I rarely read them, unless it is something which is truly newsworthy and most of the time none of it is.
"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
The church that I belong to has 13 core tenants of faith. Written in 1832 by the prophet Joseph Smith they explain the basic doctrines and principles of the Church. They are called The Articles of Faith. That is the thirteenth and final one.
Life is just better, more meaningful and sweeter. Be humble. Be helpful. Be honest. Be kind. Love others and treat them the way you would like to be treated.
There are far worse ways to live your life, and yes, I know you don't have to belong to any church at all to do those things.
Seeing this made me smile. I found it on a page with a whole lot of other ones. They are attributed to Ramona Wultschner on Instagram. That is a really pleasant and inspiring feed. It is all digital art, but it makes me happy to look at it. I think my favorite one is this one.
What a beautiful perspective on rain. These are the things in life we should pay more attention to.
Nutmeg
I did get out for my cat food yesterday. Cindy and I ended up going out for a short in the morning. I say a short, but somehow it always ends up being a couple hours before we are through. We went to Walmart and then Cindy popped into Giant Tiger. I just waited in the car as I didn't really need anything there. Then we went to Sobey's to pick up a few bits and then it was time to get back so that Cindy could take dad out for his tea and donut at Tim's. If she is not back, he will take himself and we don't really want him doing that. And, if she doesn't get there at a certain time, the disabled parking spot is gone, and he really cannot walk very far these days.
Yes, they have only one disabled parking spot at the Tim Hortons in town.
She is not in it for long. Just long enough to drop dad off and get him settled inside. Get him his tea and his donut. Then she leaves and comes back in about an hour to pick him up again.
I noticed when we were out that my passenger side front tire was almost flat. So we got some air in it. There was not a free air place nearby so I ended up having to pay $2.50 at the Sobey's service station to put some air in. I will have to keep an eye on it and see if it happens again. I may need to take it back to the place that put my Winter tires on to have a look at it. I need to take it back to have my wheels torked anyways. They said to come back after 200k's. No appointment needed.
Cinnamon
I can't leave Cinnamon out. She deserves equal time. I love her too. I love them both, very much.
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More and more Christmas stuff is showing up in the shops, etc. Yesterday in Walmart they were playing Christmas Carols. I am not ready for that. As Cindy said, I am still in October wondering how the heck the year got to October so quickly! ha ha
Seriously this year is just flying back far too quickly for my liking. I don't know if it is the same way for everyone, but I suppose it could be worse. Time could be dragging.
Do you remember when you were a child and everything seemed to take forever to come about? Every minute and hour stretched out far too long. And now it seems, they pass by at the speed of light.
It is the same with distance. I can remember as a child making the drive from Greenwood to Middleton in the car with our parents and it seemed to take forever. Google says it is approximately 12 k's or 12 minutes of time. When I was a child, it seemed like the journey would never end.
What is it that happens between childhood and becoming an adult which changes our perception of time so much? I wish I knew. Perhaps magically I could make time not whip by so quickly did I know the secret.
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What a pretty pot.
One thing which I used to love to do on Saturday afternoons when I was a much younger woman was to watch cooking shows on PBS. I can remember watching The Frugal Gourmet, and Cooking Ireland with Paul Rankin and his then wife. Marcia Adams and her Amish Kitchen. America's Test Kitchen. And a few others. It was a pleasant way to pass the afternoon.
And I actually learned stuff. I can remember scribbling down recipes in the hopes of recreating them in my own kitchen.
I have always loved watching cooking shows. When I was a teenager, I used to like to watch the cooking segments on a Canadian show called Take 30 each afternoon. I also liked to watch The Galloping Gourmet, Julia Child and Madame Benoit. Oh, and of course Wok with Yan.
I still like to watch cooking shows. When I first moved to the U.K. there was one on at 4 pm every day called Ready Steady Cook. On it, two contests would show up, each armed with a bag worth of ingredients. They could not total up any more than a certain value. Two Celebrity Chef's would work with the bags, each having one of them, to make as many dishes as they could from the ingredients in the allotted time schedule of the show. Usually about 20 minutes, and the clock would be ticking. I can remember always being so amazed at what they could come up with. There were of course staple ingredients in the studio for the chefs to use. The contestants would help a bit with chopping and of course tasting at the end. At the end the audience would vote on which chef had created the best dishes, and the winner would get a special prize. Well, the contestant, not the chef. It was great fun to watch.
I still like to watch cooking shows.
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Have you seen a more beautiful tin of biscuits/cookies. When I was a young woman I used to do up Cookie Trays at Christmas as gifts. I would start baking cookies in November and freezing them. A couple of different types a week. Ready to put onto decorative trays to gift to friends and neighbors. It was so much fun. I don't have the space to really do such a thing now. My freezer is full. And to be honest, I lack the ambition to do so.
I love those tins you can get at the shops around Christmas time filled with Belgian Biscuits or Swedish butter cookies. You used to be able to get a package of an assortment of cookies all year round back in the day, containing a few of several varieties of cookies. I have not seen one of those in a very long time. Mom used to always buy those. We only ever rarely got homemade cookies. Mom worked full time and she didn't have a lot of time for baking and she didn't like us messing up her kitchen either. So, we mostly got store bought cookies except for Christmas. She would bake a few treats then. Shortbreads and Date squares. Most years a War Cake. She would often buy a fruitcake slab as well. Sometimes she would make a mincemeat tart. I was never a fan, although I love mince pies now. The small tart ones.
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Things seemed to be a lot simpler then, and we did not feel deprived. With the rarity of such things, they became much more special.
We never ate out in restaurants. Never. Such a thing only ever occurred if we were moving or on a trip to visit our faraway relatives. When we did get to eat in a restaurant it was a real treat!
There were no such things as ready-meals. Everything we ate was made at home from scratch. Oh, occasionally mom would buy us a TV Dinner as a treat, and it seemed to be a treat as well. We liked the Swanson Fried Chicken one. Made even more special because it came with a baked in dessert. And the chicken was real fried chicken, on the bone. You would get two small pieces of fried chicken, some mashed potatoes, corn and a dessert. All together in a metal tray. I think the dessert was usually apple crisp. Sometimes she would buy frozen pot pies. We liked those as well. Even though our mother made delicious homemade pot pies. (Every roast dinner was followed by a homemade pot pie.) For some reason we liked those insipid frozen ones that were mostly white sauce, peas and carrots with the odd piece of meat. I suppose because they were only ours to enjoy very rarely.
When I grew up and was married, we used to take the children out to supper every pay day. It was a treat for us as much as it was for them. It was usually a McDonalds or a Burger King meal. They really enjoyed those suppers out. So did we. Back then there was the advert that you could feed a family of four for under $5. Try that nowadays!
Well, time has really gotten away from me this morning. I was up about half an hour later than I usually am and I have been running back and forth after the cats, well Cinnamon (she is very demanding these days) all throughout my writing this missive. It is 9:30 now and I really need to close this off.
So, I will leave you with a thought for the day . . .
☾ ° ★° * 。
• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★★ 。* 。° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
*Keep reading.
It's one of the most
marvelous adventures
that anyone can have.
~Lloyd Alexander• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★
• ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • •。★★ 。* 
In The English Kitchen today . . . Stick of Butter Dessert. Three simple ingredients. One delicious dessert. It's a doddle, really!
I hope that you have a really nice weekend! It is cold and damp here. Today should be dry however. Whatever you get up to, stay safe, stay warm, be blessed and don't forget!
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And I do too!
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