"Wittering on" on a Wet Wednesday . . .

The pretty Rain from those sweet Eaves 

Her unintending Eyes . . .

Took her own Heart, including ours, 

By innocent Surprise . . .

The wrestle in her simple Throat 

To hold the feeling down 

That vanquished her . . .

defeated Feat . . .

Was Fervor's sudden Crown . . .

~Emily Dickenson 

The rain is just bucketing down this morning  . . .  it streams from the eaves like a torrent . . . drops bouncing inches back up into the air as it hits the pavement beneath the shed roof . . . 

   

 I tried to capture it with my camera, but I know nothing about shutter speeds and such.  This is the best I could get . . . not too bad I suppose for someone who knows nothing about what they are doing. 

 

As a child . . .  rainy summer days were somewhat boring  . . .  we couldn't go outside to play . . . there was nothing to watch on the television . . . we had to content ourselves with quietly reading books so as not to get on our mother's nerves too much, or  we could play a game with our siblings . . . perhaps Monopoly . . . or Go Fish . . . that is if they were old enough to also play . . .

Being the oldest of three,

mine were not

. . . 

 

If you were really lucky a friend's mother, who had the same bored children on her hands, would take pity and invite you over to play at their house.  My mother never liked us having children in to play . . . she was very particular about things like that  . . .  so the invites would have to come from other people, and I always felt guilty a bit because I knew I could never respond in kind.  As we got older, she did not seem to mind as much. I think that older kids . . .  teenagers . . .  were not so much of a concern to her as young ones were.

I remember sitting on the sofa sharing

ghost stories in the rain with her 

and my best friend when

I was about

16 or

so

... 

It was a windy, rainy, thundery afternoon, so particularly spooky . . .  and I remember us all jumping and screaming when the wind caught some plastic bags on the clothes line by the back door and flung them against the window, startling us.  Good times!

 

I love the smell of rain  . . . all fresh and green . . . it has a special je ne sais quois . . . something which is undefinable, and inexplicable.  Fresh and green are the only words I can think of to describe it.  I am hoping you will know what I mean  . . .  and things have a special colour in the rain . . . also hard to describe . . . 

I think today may be a baking day while the kitchen

is nice and cool and there are no worries

about heating it up too much.

bad for photography

however

...

  

The stack of these gets taller and taller, and is oh so colourful.  This is not all of them either.  I have given some away. They make great hostess gifts with a box of choccies.  Each day I manage to pop out one or two while I am watching the television with Todd in the evening.  I can't just sit and do nothing.  I like to be busy and productive, even if I am watching television.  Speaking of which, last night we watched the program "Our Mum Diana" about Princess Diana by her sons.  It was very good.  It brought more than a few tears to my eyes.  They shared many touching photos and memories with us.  What a beautiful woman Diana was . . .  eternally young now.  She will never grow old.  I remember getting up very early in the morning to watch her marry Prince Charles on the television and thinking it was a  great fairy tale, except it was real life.  I followed her greatly through the years.  I can still remember exactly what I was doing when I found out she had been in an accident.  I was playing video games on the television in my boys room with them, when my husband shouted out from our bedroom that Princess Diana had been in an accident.  I was in shock really . . .  and glued to the television until I fell asleep about midnight . . . waking up to the news in the morning that she had passed away.  It was all very horrific.  I remember the seas of flowers and watching her funeral and seeing all the flowers being thrown onto the hearse, so many that the driver had to use windshield wipers to clear them constantly so he could see to drive . . . watching the boys follow behind the hearse . . .  walking to the chapel and my heart breaking along with theirs.

It was so very tragic, and so very sad.

I am glad that they have found

peace in their memories

She will always

be the people's

princess

...

The English Kitchen has won an iVisa Global Blogger Award.  I got an e-mail telling me about it this morning.  I did not even know there was such a thing, but I am chuffed to be so honored.  You can read about it here. I like what they said about me.  Scroll down as it is further down the page under The United Kingdom beneath the "Cooking" heading. 

The internet, in its immensity, makes possible for thousands of bloggers to express their thoughts and share information for everyone to see. However, you need to filter through to find the best ones, which brings us to the point that bloggers are seldom awarded for the time and effort they put into their work, and that there is the need for them to be appreciated. Writing, in all its forms, is an art. Not everyone has the talent of putting into words even simple things, like gardening tips, and not everyone knows how to reach a particular audience, like cars enthusiasts. There is a right way to do every little thing, and some of the bloggers you will read about in this piece know precisely what they are doing.  

Some bloggers have a particular charm that attracts a certain category of people. Some may call it writing style, but language is something that everyone appreciates in a personal manner. With that in mind, iVisa chose 178 bloggers from all around the world who are worthy of the iVisa Global Blogger Award. 

Do you think perhaps that this might be my year after all?  Hmmm . . .  we shall see.  I am happy no matter what.  And I blog simply because I love to cook and I love to eat and I love to share those experiences.  The internet has made it possible for us to all be writers, and writers which get read. I love that.

 My friend Di posted this on her Instagram page.  I love it.  It is so much my philosphy of life and how I feel about things. (I hope she doesn't mind me sharing it!)  I was not always so kind to myself, but I have found as I have gotten older, my priorities have changed and I am not so bothered by the same things that I was bothered about in my younger self.  Life is for living and I plan on living the rest of it with some Joi de Vivre!

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

.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.° ˛°. .LOVE is the most powerful, 
miraculous energy on this planet
and it is inside each and
every one of us. ~Penache Desai  .° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

Spiritual Enlightenment 

  

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  a Simple Caesar Salad.  My favourite of all the salads.

Have a really wonderful Wednesday no matter what you get up to.  Be blessed and don't forget . . . 

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

And I do too!