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.  

 

Fresh garden peas.  Does anything on earth taste as good as they do?  Probably, but for now they are delicious and a real summer treat.  I adore them raw and eaten out of hand, freshly picked. We did not grow any ourselves this year but were gifted. Nothing we tried to grow made it.  The slugs got it all. Bad, bad slugs. But they obviously have good taste.

 

The bees.  They love the clover in the wild part of our garden. Clover is not the most attractive flower to have but so many insects love it, especially the bees and so we keep it for them. 

 

Cloud watching . . .  I love to watch the clouds that float across the sky at the back of our house. We have a really long garden and so the sky isn't totally obliterated by somebody else's house.  I get to see the sky in all its glory.  Sometimes I like to take photos of the clouds.  I find clouds fascinating.  

 

In science in Grade Six we learned all about the different clouds and their names  . . . Cumulus, Nimbus, Cumulus Nimbus, etc. I could not tell you what is what now, but I do love to watch clouds and take photos of them from time to time.  

 

Jackdaws and crows . . .  sitting there every morning.  I love how the moss grows along the tops of the rooves and down the clay tiles, don't you?  So much colour  . . . 

 

Knowing this to be true  . . . 

 

God grant me the serenity to

accept the things I cannot change.

The courage to 

change the things I can,

and the wisdom

to know the difference.

This sounds like a plan. There is so much out of our control at the moment. This virus has really thrown the world for a loop. So much information is flying back and forth, but in truth nobody really knows anything for sure. Most of it is conjecture or guess work. One thing for sure is people are dying all over the place and it doesn't look like anything is going to be getting better anytime soon.  I have a feeling this is our new normal for the unforeseen future.  Wearing masks, social distancing, staying put. 

They have started to let people go back to church. Our church has had two meetings now. But only those who are invited to attend can go and there are very strict rules in place. At this point we have not been invited and to be honest I wouldn't go if I was.  Instead we watch it via a Zoom meeting on the iPad. The sound is awful, and Todd can't make out anything that is being said because of his hearing. In truth I can only make out half of it, and I have no hearing issues that I know of.  But we watch it anyways because that is what's being asked of us. 

Our other lessons are great though. Relief Society, Sunday School, all done via YouTube and they are excellent. You can hear and see everything perfectly. We are so blessed to have modern technology. 

 

This little lady. She is getting older and so are we. We are both slowing down I think. Every afternoon I talk to my daughter on FB messenger and she asks me what is Mitzie doing and I take a photo to show her, and Mitzie is always sleeping.  She sleeps a lot more these days. She has brought so much joy into our lives.  Dad and I were talking yesterday about how much good having a pet does for us. He has a really fluffy cat that he adores.  Pets are good for the soul. 

 

I am not sure what I did to my neck in the night, but I woke up with a really sore neck this morning. I hope its not my new pillow that I spent a fortune on. 😢  I doubt it as I hav ebeen using it for a few weeks now and this is the first day I have had an issue with it. I know it was okay when I got up to go to the bathroom at 2 am. so something happened between then and when I woke up at 5:30. I can hardly move it. I have put cream on it and am hoping it will gradually improve as the day goes on. In the meantime, ouchie. 

Oh, and first thing this morning I opened the refrigerator to get Mitzie's food out to give her and a glass jar of green enchilada sauce jumped out at me and broke on the floor.  Glass and green sauce everywhere. I somehow had to clean it all up with a neck that isn't working right. I managed, and washed the floor, but will have to hoover it to make sure I got all the glass.  I hope this isn't a portent of the day ahead of me! 

And I am still trying to sort that thief out.

But yay, Tina is supposed to come today to pick up her Sunday School Print Outs. (A friend of ours does a lovely blog post about them each week and I print it out for Tina as she can't seem to get to his blog.) It will be nice to see her!  She had wanted us to come for lunch one day this week but I am not ready to do that just yet.  Mostly I don't want to do that because she would have to drive here all the way from Wales to pick us up and take us to their place and then do it again in reverse. I think its too much work for her and she is still in incredible pain since her car accident last October. She has yet to receive the settlement from the insurance as her Doctor has not been able to sign her off yet.  When she does finally get the settlement I hope it is a lot because she deserves it! 

 

The art of puttering.  That's all I think I am going to be doing for a few days until this neck business sorts itself out!

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.° ˛°. .Its nice to be important,

but its more important to be nice. .° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 

 

 

 

On Saturday I did a half batch of my ex MIL's Green Tomato Chow. I had not done any pickling in years. I used my instant pot to water process the finished jars and it worked a charm. I was so pleased with how it all turned out.  This is a taste I have been missing for what seems like forever! 

Have a wonderful week. I hope its filled with lots of small and wonderful things! Don't forget! 

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And I do too!     Stay safe!