Thursday Randomness . . .

I finished it last night in bed and it's a book I could have written.  Susan has captured beautifully all the things I love about this beautiful country which I am blessed to live in.  We are kindred spirits in this way I believe.   If you haven't gotten a copy of this yet, I suggest you try.   You will fall in love . . . you truly will.



It is completely charming from beginning to end and everywhere in between and it captures the heart.   I am sorry that I have finished it because I never wanted it to end.  That is the sign of a very good book . . . don't you think???

 

The blueberries are all ripening on our bushes now.    I am so excited about that.   Blueberries were one of the things I missed most when I first came over here to the UK.   They were not very easy to find and when you did find them . . . they were very expensive.   They are quite common now, which goes to show you how much things can change in thirteen years.  We have six bushes of them . . . the cultivated ones . . . and we try to add to them each year.   They're very prolific, which is a bonus.  If you love blueberries, and as you know . . . I do!

They're really good for you to.  Filled with anti-oxidants and other good things!



I love this picture of this lovely little family.  I adore that they, too . . . have a cocker spaniel.  I think this is a different royal couple than any we have seen thus far.  More down to earth.   More in touch with the common man.  Wanting to live lives that are real, to experience things which we all take so very much for granted, like changing nappies . . . and having pictures taken with point and shoot cameras and being happy with that.  Driving your own child and wife home from the hospital as a new dad . . . all sorts.  It only makes me love them more.



This bunting made me smile.  I love bunting and yet . . . I don't own a scrap of it.   It's so easy to make and yet, I do not . . . I wonder why that is.   We long for things, admire things . . . some of them such simple things that they are easily within our grasp and yet we hold them away . . . perhaps because it is good to long for something . . . to have something to wish for.   If everything became ours as soon as we wanted it, with no thought or work behind it, perhaps such things would be meaningless . . . just a thought.

 

Lemon Bites my sister Cindy made.   I love lemon.  They are raw . . . that means uncooked.   They look like creamy little truffles and are probably quite good for you.   My sister is into raw food.   She likes to eat healthy . . .



She also made these cinnamon dusted raw donut holes.   They also look very tempting and delicious.  I don't know how anyone could resist.   My mom won't even try these things.   She has decided she does not like raw food.  She is stubborn about things like that.  Once she makes up her mind about something . . . there is no budging her.   That's ok.

I'll have hers!

My sister sent me some raw treats when I was home in the Spring.   Strawberry and Almond Grawnola nuggets and raw fig newtons, and a few other treats.   They were delicious.  I loved them.   I bought the buckwheat to sprout when I got home so I could make some too . . . but it's still in the bag.  I have been too lazy.  I need a kick in the arse!



I would have loved to have had something like this when I was a little girl.  I had a cardboard box which was printed like a stove.  I had gotten a Robin Hood Bake set in the box for Christmas.   I pretended it was a stove/kitchen.  I ate raw cake mixes.   We had a play kitchen at school in kindergarten.  It was my favourite play place during play time . . . that and the puppets.   There was one of Mammy Yokum from Lil Abner.  I coveted that one.  Any child who was fortunate to grow up with things like play kitchens and puppets, and Lite Brite, and Lego, and a multitude of other toys were very lucky indeed.    I devoured the Christmas Wish Catalogue each year, dreaming of Santa Claus bringing me such things, but he never did.   It didn't really matter.  Again it is good to have something to long for, and it is good to be content with what you already have.   We were.  You must take your blessings where you find them.



The doorbell rang yesterday.  Todd said . . . "Oh no, what did you order now?"  It was a flower delivery.   This beautiful basket of flowers had arrived from the people who sponsored our trip to the farm last week.  It was such a lovely gesture of thanks.

 

They're just gorgeous and I was so surprised.   What a beautiful little bit of excitement they added to my day, which was already pretty special due to me feeling a lot better than I had been.  They have invited us to go on another farm day on the 30th of August, this time in North Sommerset . . . YeoValley farm.   It will be a dairy experience, which Todd is particularly interested in as he used to be a cow man.

Again blessings.   We could not afford a holiday this year, and yet God has been providing us with all these lovely days out to places in this beautiful country that I had not yet seen.   God is indeed very good.  Plus I got flowers.  ☺



I feel it in the air.  Or is that wishful thinking.  It is my favourite season of all.  I love, LOVE the autumn and everything it brings to the table.  The colours, the smells, the tastes . . .

I am not wishing summer away.   Everything in it's time and it's season.  I am just anticipating with pleasure what is to come, and soon now . . .

Yes, I listen to Christmas carols in July.

A thought to carry with you through today . . . wisdom from half pint . . .

The true way to live
is to enjoy every moment as it passes,
and surely it is in the everyday things around us
that the beauty of life lies.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

If you think this was random, wait til you check out  The English Kitchen today . . . they be a whole LOT of randomness going on there!  There's lots of tastiness to sink your teeth into!


Have a wonderful Thursday!