All Things Nice . . .

 

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A morning crisp as watered silk,

With blankets of new fallen snow

Tucking the little houses in

For fear their naked feet will show,

The trees and shrubs are beautiful

Wrapped in their coasts of carded wool.

The children on their way to school

In knitted caps and scarlet coats,

Play hide and seek behind the drifts,

Their laughter rises high and floats

Above the highest maple trees,

Like half forgotten melodies.

The shop where mother buys the bread

Has glittering panes of frosted glass

Through which the lights take on a glow,

Like holy candles at a mass.

The streets are paved with softest down

As if a king had come to town.

A sleigh goes by with chiming bells,

Young people riding for a lark,

Their merry voices seem to ring

with extra sweetness in the dark,

As if they tasted suddenly

How lovely simple things can be.

When Earth puts on her ermine wrap

And holds white diamonds in her lap.

~Edna Jacques, Winter Morning

The Golden Road, 1953 

 

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Sometimes I feel as if I was born fifty years too late. Of course, in that case . . . I would no longer be here, so I am glad that I wasn't, but my heart does long at times for a simpler day and age. Sometimes my heart just feels too tender to put up with all that is going on in our world, and I wish to block it all out and just snuggle inside my warm safe home, leaving all the nasties at the door, but alas, that is not how life works is it.

And there is much about modern times that I do enjoy, such as having a wealth of knowledge at my fingertips on my computer and telephones and cars, television, etc.  Perhaps it is the simple values of days gone by that I envy most? I am not sure. 

But I know when I see a photo of someone who keeps their home in the old ways, my heart looks at it with a special longing. Is it possible to embrace the new and yet still keep the old? I wonder . . . 

There is a happy balance to be found between the two, I am sure.  

I found myself one of those Moroccan star lanterns.  I am mesmerized by it. I do not have a permanent home for it yet. Right now, it is hanging from my living room lamp frame. It is a pole lamp. Very cheap when I bought the lamp, from Amazon, but I find myself longing for a table lamp in its place. I must keep my eyes open and maybe I can find one on sale somewhere. I have looked online but they want too much for the ones that my eyes are drawn to.

When my children were growing up, we had a lamp that someone had made. It was kind of a silly lamp really, but it had character. It was an old log cabin with a stone chimney.  The stem to hold the bulb and shade came up out of the chimney.  When I think back on it now, it was quite interesting. I think we had found it at a yard sale.  We had a table lamp as well that I had won as a prize when I had sold Tupperware and we also had a lamp that I had bought at the Eaton's sale warehouse.  It reminded me of the wooden lamp that Beaver and Wally Cleaver had in their bedroom.  

There was something about the Cleaver home that sang the song of my heart and still does. I know it was not real . . . just a tv set, but it looked just like a Home Sweet Home to me, and something I aspired to. I found a tour of their home on YouTube. Feel free to click on it if you are as interested as I am. I thought it was quite interesting myself. It's an interesting channel called Mockingbird Lane.  This gal does digital simulations of a lot of the television homes we love and admire.

Another home I always really loved was the Gilmore girls' house.

 

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It's quite cold out there this morning. As I look across the way I can see where some snow has accumulated on the roof tops across the way. There is none on the grass though and there are puddles on the street.  I have seen photos where it has snowed in the UK. Quite unusual this early in the year. I think the earliest I remember us getting snow when I live there was on Boxing Day.  At least where I lived at any rate. I am sure they got it a lot earlier up North. 

Mr. McG's house is looking quite empty now, although a lot of his yard ornaments are still there. The grandson is there most days clearing things out. Quite a task I would imagine, going through all the leftovers from someone's 92 years of life. You would want to keep the really important stuff and to do so with respect and care.

I think Mr. F on the end must be in the hospital again. I believe his daughter is there staying and taking care of his house. He was in the military with my father, in fact Mr. McG was as well. There are a lot of people living on these two streets that are of my mother and father's age group.

 

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Now that's a novel idea, every pun intended. I would say that's a few too many books.  My ex-boss used to use books as a bit of a decoration in their dedicated family sitting room. They had formal sitting rooms downstairs, three to be exact and all beautifully appointed, but those were for entertaining purposes only. Upstairs they had a room that was used by the family, and which held their television. That is where she had books stacked. It is possible to have books stacked and to do so with decorum.  Hers always looked quite nice anyways. I do not have that skill. Mine would always just look like I had a stack of books out that I was too lazy to put away, lol.

Perhaps it depends on what kind of books they are?  Maybe . . .

 

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Any collection of things can be made to look quite attractive. It is all in the positioning and placement of them.  I have an old stone marmalade jar that holds all of my measuring spoons. I managed to have enough forethought to stick them into one of my boxes that came over, and I use them all the time. 

I need to really organize my house a bit better. It is so easy for your house to look cluttered when it is such a small place. I like the way my house is set up pretty much. I would like more light in my kitchen, but for the most part I think my wee place is just perfect for me. 

There is a bit of stuff on the table at the moment from where I have been wrapping Christmas gifts. I was doing a box for my daughter's two children yesterday afternoon. I simply got them some books I thought they might like to read. Books that I enjoyed when I was their ages. I bought one of those boxes you can get at the post office now. It's called a flat rate box. If it fits in the box and doesn't go over a certain weight, it mails for what you paid for the box. Of course, there was some space around the wrapped books, so I filled it in with little mini candy cane. I suspect that they will probably be more popular than the books, but I will never know for sure.  I have never gotten any acknowledgement of anything I have sent them. 

It used to drive Todd crazy that I would send gifts, etc. every year even though I knew I wouldn't hear back.  I used to tell him that it was about doing the right thing and so long as I did the right thing, then nobody could ever accuse me of not doing so.

Besides when you give people gifts, it should not be with the expectation of getting anything, even words . . . in return.  Giving should always come from a place of love in the heart and nowhere else and for no other reason.

 

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I am thinking this must look really lovely lit up at night. Such a simple thing and yet so beautiful.  There is a house across the way that has those candoliers in every window. It looks so lovely at night.  So warm and welcoming.

There used to be a house in town that the people who lived in which owned Eisner's restaurant. Every Christmas every line and angle of the house would be decorated with white lights, the windows would have candles in them, and they would have Christmas carols playing on some sort of audio thing. People would come from all over just to look at it. It was simple and yet so beautiful.

One thing we always used to love doing with the children when they were growing up was to drive around the neighborhood and look at all the Christmas lights that people had put up. Some people go to great lengths to decorate.  It's very nice to see.

  

 

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There's a program I have been watching on Amazon Prime called Three Pines. It's a Canadian production, and actually quite good. It is very rare that I enjoy Canadian television. I know, shame on me. 

"A man investigates murders in Three Pines; he sees things that others do not: the light between the cracks, the mythic in the mundane, and discovers long-buried secrets and faces a few of his own ghosts."

It's very well done, and the cinematography is beautiful. It's based on a book by Louise Penny, called Fatal Grace. Interwoven in the story of a murder is the disappearance of an Indigenous girl as well. Very thought provoking and current. If you are looking for something to watch, I highly recommend.

Well, here it is quarter to ten and I haven't done anything this morning except sit on here. It's been one of those mornings where I have become easily distracted, first with one thing and then another. It is my ADHD for sure. I am one of those people who often starts off doing one thing and ends up doing another completely! I know I am not the only person like that!

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

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

 *The best Christmas gift is to realize

how much you already have.

~Unknown  •。★★ 。* 。 

In The English Kitchen today something delicious for Christmas. Christmas Morning Rolls. Made with refrigerated biscuit dough and a jar of mincemeat. Very nice. Easy peasy lemon squeasy and so tasty!

I hope you have a lovely Saturday! Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

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And I do too!