Wednesday Witterings . . .

 

 

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No cute little robins here, yet,  not ever. We get much larger ones.  (Soon, soon . . . ) What's up with the weather this Winter?  It keeps swinging back and forth from warm (ish) to frigid. We have had very little snow, loads of rain though. Our snow is all but gone now and it is -7*C (19.4*F) but just two days ago it was 8 or 9*C (48*F) above!  My friend Glenna's bulbs are all up above ground now.  Its just really wierd.

I guess this is called Global Warming. Very unreliable, and yet my brother in Ottawa has had well over 220cm of snow fall this Winter.  He is sick to death of it. He is having to shovel his own now because apparently the snow removal people won't come once it gets past a certain amount?

Anyways, weird weather. Our snow is all but gone now, but more is expected tomorrow.

 

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I was having the sweetest dream this morning just before I woke up.  In it I had gone camping to some camp with my family.  I was cutting up hotdogs in the buns and serving out mac and cheese to my children. I can remember someone telling me (back when my children were small) to enjoy those days because they would be over all too soon, and they were right.  Time is like that. You don't see it disappearing, but blink and it is gone.

My sister and I were talking about that one day.  About how much we wish we had been able to enjoy the years we were bringing up our children more.  But it seems there was always something that needed to be done. Laundry or house cleaning or  . . .  whatever.  The moments passed too quickly. 

Now that I am an oldish woman and my children are long since grown up I wish that I had been able to capture and relish those special growing up years more than I did.  Perhaps it is the same for everyone.

I would love to be at a camp, cutting up hotdogs and serving out mac and cheese to them again, with them hungry and clambering and nipping at my heels all over again.

It is so frosty out there this morning, the rooftops across the way are sparkling in the rising sunshine.  I am not sure if you can see the sparkles or not. Just like diamonds, glittering and sparkling.  Such a beautiful thing to see. Isn't nature wonderful.  Such a gift to behold.  A real treasure.  And to think, if I was not an early riser I would miss things like this.

I have always been an early riser.  When we were growing up my father would not allow us to sleep in. If he was up we all had to be up, and then of course raising a large family someone always had to be up with the children. And then working, I needed to be up and out the door early.  It is a lifelong habit for me. I feel over tired if I am not up early, like I have slept too long.

The early morning is a gift to me.  You get to hear the birds waking up and to watch the earth awaken in a special way that you don't get to see or experience at any other time of the day. 

Cinnamon was also enjoying them with me.   She is the funniest little cat. Half the size of nutmeg. Whenever I get up and move, she jumps down or out from wherever she is to join me.  She trots along side of me, her tail standing straight up in the air. She is not a cuddler, unless she wants to be (on the very rare occasion.)  But she is ever attuned to my movements. She does love to be brushed and I love brushing her. If I stop, she nibbles on my fingers, wanting me to begin again. It is so sweet.

Although she is the smaller one, she is the braver one. The other day I had a piece of cardboard that had holes punched through it like a grate. I thought they might enjoy me sticking things through the holes and try to catch them. I was in the sewing room sitting on the bed and I picked up a knitting needle and was poking the top end of the needle in and out here and there.  (Not the sharp end.)  Nutmeg was terrified of the knitting needle!  He did that rear back and multiple bat thing to it, like he thought it was some kind of monster.  I had to stop immediately.  I would not want to terrorize them at any time.  It did make me laugh however at what a chicken he is despite his size.  Cinnamon had been quite enjoying it.

She loves to get into the laundry basket when I am folding the clothes. Not always fun for me, but mucho fun for her!

 

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Something I have been doing each day after I crawl into bed each night, before I say my prayers.  Reflection on the day I have just spent. As I recall and gather all the moments I call it basking in God's goodness. No, every day might not be a good day, but there is good in every day . . . and practicing gratitude for those moments is a way that I have learned to create for myself a joy filled life.

I look over each day . . .  a soothing that comes before slumber  . . . and I pick through the moments that others might call co-incidences, that some might overlook.  The moments where I couldn't find something, and one small prayer later it is at my fingertips. I trace his goodness throughout my day, small and simple things for the most part,  taking none of them for granted.  

It is in the ordinary details, in promptings followed that lead me to blessings, in tender mercies that some might not see as miracles . . .  but I do . . .  in small and meaningful things that whisper to me of His tenderness for . . . me.  Every single night I gather in all of these small things and I see evidence of His presence in my life. 

And I remember as I trace His goodness. 

He. Loves. Me. 

 

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I saw this photo this morning and was immediately reminded of a moment when I was living in Blacon. I had gone out to the back shed to get something and as I came out the door, Canada Geese were flying immediately over head. They seemed close enough that I could reach out and touch them, even though they were not. The sun was glancing off their bellies and they looked almost golden. I was transfixed.

Flash forward to the night I before I left the UK to come back to Canada, my heart broken into a million pieces. I was on the doorstep to my house waving goodbye to my friends Tina and Tony, knowing I would probably never seen them in person again and up, in the sky, over head, a flock of Canada geese beginning their journey south.  Marking the sky above me, their cries piercing the air with a sound that has been all too familiar to me my whole life. It is the sound of change. 

I knew then that the journey I was about to undertake was the right choice for me.  I felt very reassured. God is in the details. Some people might just have seen that as a happy co-incidence, but I knew very much that I was being cared for and that He would be with me every step of the way, and . . .  He was.

My friend Glenna said to me the other day she did not know how I have been able to traverse all the things that have happened in my life.  My reply . . .  I knew I was not alone.  In any of them.

I will never look at Canada Geese flying overhead again in my lifetime without being reminded that I am not alone, and never have been. Not now. Not ever.

 

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I put a loaf of bread into my bread machine yesterday when I got home after having gone with my sister and father to his Doctor's appointment. I did not have any bread left in the house and, although I could have picked some up at the shops when I was out, I wanted to make my own.  It was a bit late in the day when it was done. I took it out and left it to cool on the cooling rack.  Later on, as I wrapped it up, I thought to myself, I am going to enjoy a nice piece of that in the morning with some butter.

And I have. A simple slice of bread and butter. The heel. My favorite part. Slightly crisp and slightly chewy and rich with the taste of softened butter gilding its surface.  The breakfast of champions.

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

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

 *Courage is the price 

that life extracts for granting peace.

~Amelia Earhart•。★★ 。* 。

 

In The English Kitchen today  . . . . Drop Cornbread Biscuits.  Simply delicious.

I hope you have a fabulous Wednesday. I am off out this morning to pick up some cream for my skin at the drug store. I am having a flare up of my eczema. Then tonight Wednesday night supper with dad and his friends!  Yay!   Whatever you get up to today, don't forget!

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And I do too!