Wednesday Witterings . . .

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That's what I try to do most days, is to take one day at a time.  The past is already gone and the future is yet to be.  There are a few things I look forward to, but for the most part I just take each day as it comes. I try not to worry about the things I have no control over and leave it all up to God. I try to seek out the small pockets of joy that are in each day and I always find them.  What is life, it not a collection of moments.  Some are tender and sweet, others we can do without, but they are all a part of the fabric of who we are and who we are becoming.

I don't think we ever stop becoming. I like to think that today I will be a better person than I was yesterday and tomorrow I will be better yet still! But for now . . .  I will live in today. Be present in the now.

 

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Lady Bugs, or Lady Birds as they are called in the UK, have always brought delight into my life. I am not sure why that it, but I think it may have a lot to do with their cheerful polka dot coats. Red and black and then the black and white.  I am not a gardener so I don't know if they wreak havoc on gardens or not, but I do know that they are one of the very few insects that don't freak me out when they get in the house!

For the most part I do not like having insects in my home.  It is said that spiders in a house mean that your house has good air.  I like the thought of having good air, but I like the spiders to live outside, or at least where I cannot see them.

Flies I cannot abide at all.  I would not like living in Australia I don't think. For one thing too hot and for another, far too many flies.

I used to have/own my own coffee shop/canteen at the Military Police school in Camp Borden, Ontario.  When I first took it over we were in a very old building and its only entrance was a door that was kept open during the day. No screen.  We were very near to a stable.  The flies in that place in the summer time were unbelievable.  I spent most of the day killing them. It actually used to make me feel quite nauseated sometimes.  Yuck.

We moved into a new building eventually that was much, much better.

 

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I remember making a bunch of felt apples like these pears, once upon a time. I used to do a lot of crafts. I miss doing crafts and I miss doing my artwork, such as it is.  I don't see it as art so much as just me drawing silly little drawings and coloring them in.  Silly or not, I always had a lot of joy doing them. 

I would sit at my art table, put some music I enjoyed on and then just create. It was very rare that something new did not spring from my fingertips. 

I remember designing rubber stamps for one company. That was hard. All black linework on white paper. Very hard on the eyes.  And then another company used my artwork to make digital card making supplies/papers.  That was fun also. At least I got to work in color.  Doing the illustrations for that children's book was also fun.

But mostly I just liked to just draw and color for myself.

 

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I had one of those nights last night where I just could not tick over into sleep.  I slept at very short intervals for most of the night. I think I finally clicked over around 3 am and then this alarm that I had set on my iPad a while back (I need to be up for blood tests) woke me up at 6 am.  I don't know how to get the alarm off the iPad.  I am surprised I figured out how to get it onto the iPad in the first place! haha  Anyways,  I will be dragging my butt today,  which I so did not want to do.  I was really looking forward to this lunch with Cindy and Sheri.  I will still enjoy it, but I will be pretty tired all the same.

 

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I will miss going out for supper with Dad and Hazel tonight, but it won't hurt to miss one week. The change off is having lunch with Cindy and Sheri. I think Sheri is bringing her little boy Sawyer. He goes pretty much everywhere with her and is a very well behaved child.  Somewhere I have a photograph of mom holding Sawyer when he was just a baby. He is going into High School now. Mom always thought the world of Sheri.  She is my Aunt Freda's youngest child. I can remember when she was born, just this wee little baby. So cute.  She is about 15 years younger than I am. 

She is a really hard worker.  She worked in her brother's pizza place for years and years and years. Now she works in the hardware store in town and is still working hard. Occasionally she works at the pizza place when they are short staffed. She has always had to work hard to support herself and her son.  Its always been just them. He is a really nice boy. I admire her for the job she has done and all on her own.  I am looking forward to having this lunch together. It will be fun!

 

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I wish strawberry season lasted longer.  It is something I look forward to every year.  I wonder who invented strawberry jam?  I am sure it was seen as a way of preserving the summer's bounty for the winter months. Sugar is a great preservative (as is salt.) 

When we were children it was a real treat to be given a dish of vanilla ice cream with some strawberry jam spooned over top. Oh boy but that was some delicious.

When we lived in Manitoba as really small children there was a railroad track that ran along the back of our house.  Wild strawberries used to grow all along them.  In the summer we would pick them and mom would clean them for us and pop them into a small bowl that we would then enjoy with a sprinkle of sugar and some cream on top. They were so delicious. Not one being much larger than one of my fingernails.  So much strawberry flavor concentrated into such a small berry. 

I remember the smell of the hot tar on the railroad ties and the scent of the berries in the hot sun.  It was quite enticing.

There also used to be these huge piles of coal behind the house past the field, on the way towards the base. I am sure it was used to heat the buildings.  We used to try climbing them.  I know . . .  very dangerous when I think of it now. My mother would get so angry with us, partly because it was dangerous but mostly because we would come home with our clothes all blackened by the coal and our hands and faces too.

They reminded me of dark sleeping giants, all curled up with their backs to us.  Much the same feeling as I got the first time we drove up to Cumbria when I was living in the UK. 

Cumbrian Fells 2008

There was nothing to look at much and then all of a sudden the car went around this curve and the Cumbrian Fells lay before us.  For all the world looking like sleeping giants. One half expected them to wake up from their naps and just start striding across the landscape.  Massive and beautiful. I don't think a photograph can do them real justice. But if you look at the size of the cars on this motorway in relationship to the size of the fells you might get somewhat of a picture of their majesty.  Soft green mossy looking mounds of sleeping giants.

 

Pendragon Castle

I loved our holidays there. The cottage we used to rent was right on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park and Pendragon Castle was right at the bottom of the hill our cottage was set upon. We were surrounded by fields of cotton boll sheep.  I really enjoyed hiking over the fells and exploring the castle ruins. 

I miss my gardens in the UK and the little fairies I had placed here and there amongst the flowers  and plant pots.  They took on a lovely weathered look that I thought was quite beautiful.  Gardening there was so easy. Everything grew so well, at least flower-wise.  Pretty much the only battle you had to fight was the slugs, of which there were plenty.

For the most part it was a lovely life. It is too bad it was all based on lies of omission. But I can't do much about that.  It is impossible to just erase 20 years of your life and pretend it never was. It leaves a big gaping hole, and so I try to think only about the good things of it and there were plenty. I cannot pretend that there wasn't and I cannot pretend that those years did not happen.

It is a very weird situation to be in.

 

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Well, I best get cracking. I am picking my sister up in about an hour and a half now and I have a ton of things to get done before then!  We want to go to this new farmers market we discovered before lunch.  I went to the one next door to get carrots yesterday and it was appalling.  I can't believe they get away with selling the poor quality of vegetables that they do.  I think this market is the last one (Avery's) down the Valley so I am sure it gets the leavings of every other one.  It was quite disgusting actually.   I bought just the carrots and some bird seed.

And with that I will leave you with a thought for today  . . . 

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

 *.˛.Summer afternoon . . . summer afternoon;

to me those have always been the two most

beautiful words in the English Language.

~Henry James•。★★ 。* 。•。★★ 。* 。

Chicken Tot Pie is an easy fun twist on classic pot pie. Tender chicken, corn, peas, and carrots in a creamy sauce with crispy tater tot crust. Its delicious and sized just for two.

I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday!  Whatever you get up to be blessed.  Don't forget!

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And I do too!