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.

Sunday dinners with the family.  Cindy, Dan, dad. It means a lot to me to be included.  I always really enjoy our time together. It's not really about the food, although that is always very good, it's about being together as a family and making memories. All those years I was away in the U.K. I missed having family times very much and used to long to be able to sit down with my family and spend time together.  This is an extra special blessing that I do not take for granted.

 

Being able to go to church on Sunday, fellowship with the Saints and partake of the sacrament. I love going to church. I was so grateful to be able to do so online during Covid and now it is an extra special blessing to be able to do it in person.  I love singing the hymns, renewing my covenants through the sacrament, listening to the talks, sharing with the sisters in Relief Society afterwards. It is all good and always makes my heart feel full. There really is nowhere else I would rather be on Sunday mornings.

I have enjoyed reading and studying the Book of Mormon this year. Right now, we are in Third Nephi and studying the account of the Resurrected Jesus. It has often been referred to as the fifth Gospel of our Lord because, like the New Testament, it focusses on the ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ. I think it is my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon.

(source)

Most of the leaves are off the trees now. We had a very windy weekend, and many fell. They spent the weekend dancing, skittering across the pavements and twirling through the air. As I drove to Greenwood yesterday afternoon for my Covid booster, they were raining down on the car. It was just lovely. It reminded me of Autumn in the old Disney Fantasia film. 

I loved that film when I was a child. The music . . .  the pictures . . . 

I think the dancing mushrooms were always my favorite part, but I did love it all.

Fantasia and Disney's Once Upon a Wintertime, two of my favorite childhood cartoons.

 

(source)

Hot drinks on cold mornings. I have lovely, spiced apple drinks for the Keurig machine.  They are perfect for frosty mornings.

 

(source)

Having a comfy bed with warm blankets to snuggle into at the end of the day.  It always feels so good to get into bed and sink down into my mattress which just hugs me. It is so comfortable.  And then to have warm blankets to wrap around me.  I am truly blessed.

When I went to my sister's yesterday, I popped into dad's bedroom to see him before Supper.  He was all snuggled up on his bed watching an old movie on TCM. He got himself one of those mechanical beds when he moved to Cindy's, and he had it positioned just so that it was cradling him. He looked very comfortable. It made my heart smile.  We had a nice visit.

I am so grateful for Cindy's loving care of my father, and I know that he is too. That is a gift to all of us.

 

(source)

This. It is a good reminder to always be kind. 

I managed to get another video made this weekend and uploaded to YouTube. This one was for a Jelly Roll.  It took over 8 hours to upload for some reason.  The important thing is that it did in the end. You can see it here if you wish to have a look. 

 

(source)

The warmth of lamp and candlelight in these increasingly darkening days.  The clocks go back an hour this next weekend. They went back an hour this past weekend in the U.K.  I wish they would stop messing with the time, in all honesty, but it is what it is, and you just have to live with it.  But I am grateful for light in the darkness.

 

This was Cinnamon lying next to me on the sofa yesterday afternoon. She was so happy and content, wanting me to stroke her belly.  She was in seventh heaven. The look on her little face was pure bliss. She is much more affectionate than Nutmeg in many ways. I love them both very much.

I really do have much to be grateful for. Faith, family, friendship, home, pets, prayers.  I do appreciate them all . . . 

A thought to carry with you . . . 

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

 *Never lose an opportunity of seeing

anything beautiful, for beauty

is God's handwriting.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

~Ralph Waldo Emmerson° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

 

 

In The English Kitchen today, Pickled Apple Slices.  These are really good and very simple to make.  If you can make a brine and slice vegetables, you can make these.  They are a delicious mix of sweet, tart, and spicy. They would be lovely on a Charcuterie or Cheese tray for the holidays.

I hope you have a beautiful day and that your week is filled with an abundance of blessings. Whatever you get up to, don't forget!

═══════════ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ═══════════ 

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

 

And I do too! 

 

All Things Nice . . .

 

 

(source)

I'd Like To Know

The things that pine trees whisper

In the still and dead of night,

The ageless tune that wild geese chant,

Through the long hours of flight.

I'd like to know what waters say,

Flowing toward the sea,

I'm sure they speak of quiet springs,

Back where they used to be.

Of sloping banks where cowslips bloom

And trees whose feet are pressed

Against the heart of Mother Earth,

Where all things come to rest.

I'd like to know the ageless song

That lonely mountains know,

When winter crowns their ancient peaks

With diadems of snow.

The language of the quiet beasts,

Must be a friendly thing,

When something deep within their breasts,

Is telling then of spring.

For Earth and all that dwells therein

Are part and parcel to

That spark of that eternal life,

That beats inside of you.

~Edna Jacques, I'd Like To Know

Fireside Poems, 1950

This is the very book that started my love of the poetry of Edna Jacques. It was a slim green covered book, the dust cover having long been lost, that sat in the small bookcase of our home the whole time I was growing up. I was always a voracious reader. I could never get enough of words.  I read all the books I had. I read all the books I could take out of the library. I read our encyclopedia, all of it, cover to cover . . . and I read this book of Fireside Poems. 

I forget where my mother got the book. I am sure it had been a gift to her at some time from someone. Mom was not a reader, and she didn't really read books. Not for fun anyways.  She did devour the newspaper every day, and I remember her reading short stories and articles from magazines. (I remember her liking True Story Magazine.)

Anyways, I loved this book, and frequently visited it. My mother gifted it to me one year and it travelled across Canada and back with me. It was something I read often through the years. It even crossed the Atlantic with me, a trip I am sure it had taken before when my parents moved to Germany when I was a baby.

It got left over in the U.K. with all of my other books when I came back to Canada four years ago.  It made me sad to have to leave it behind, but it was just one of the losses I had to bear that year.  A friend kindly gifted me with a new/old original volume of it, dust cover intact, at some point afterwards.  I was so, so very grateful for it. Nobody could have given me a nicer gift. Truly. It was like they had returned to me a piece of my broken heart that I thought I would never see again.

 

(source)

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, 

and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth

 seeking the successive autumns.”

~George Eliot

I wonder what it is about Pumpkin Spice that makes everyone love it so. The smell, the taste . . . it is just a beautiful thing.  It is all of the delicious autumns of my lifetime rolled into one beautiful thing. I think that I can say without equivocation that the Autumn is my absolute favorite time of year, and it is all rolled up in Pumpkin Spice.

As I was leaving my sister's place the other evening, I caught such a beautiful scent of autumn in the air. And she must have heard me exclaim my pleasure out loud because she opened the door and breathed it in as well. And she said, the smell of autumn.  It was so tangible in that moment.  Dry leaves, woodsmoke, earthy and musky-sweet . . . the sugary smell of maple mingled with the last vestiges of the summer's warmth . . . evaporating slowly into the ether.

It is a smell that I love, and it takes me back to all of the autumns of my lifetime. Autumn is a one-of-a-kind smell that wraps us up in a comforting mix of biology, nostalgia, science and magic, pure magic. Soothing . . . almost like a warm and cozy hug.

 

(source)

These last few weeks we have had some frosts. Our first of the autumn. Not terrifically deep, quite half-hearted but enough to take out the flower basket that decorated the front of my home all these summer months and turn it into a dead basket . . . a mere whisper of the glory it once brought.

All the gardens up and down the street have been put to bed now.  Plants trimmed back and soil overturned for the last time this year.  All is in preparation now for the really cold weather which lies ahead of us. The tall weeds in the ditch which runs along the road which passes to the East of us do not seem so disgraceful now. Occasionally you will come across something which still blooms, like a forgotten sun, hanging on a frost-burnt vine.  The last love, a note of the hunting horn, sweet on the threadbare wind, the dregs of sherry in the bottle, the final flight of the grackle blowing above the ravished cornfield . . . 

You will still see the occasional brown field, empty save a few lost pumpkins which sadly got left behind, their bright orange color popping against the starkness of everything else.  Forgotten  . . . you almost want to pick them up and cuddle them close, whispering "there, there" into their invisible ears . . . I see you. You are not forgotten.

 

(source)

Yesterday, as I was on my way to my sister's place to pick her up, I was thinking about eyes and how they truly are the windows to the soul.  About how someone can look very unremarkable and almost unattractive. and then you look deep into their eyes, and . . .  like a special kind of magic, they become beautiful because their eyes reflect back to you the depth of their hopes and dreams, the measure of the soul behind them, their joys, their sorrows, the beauty that lies within. 

Beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. This is true of everything. It is what looks out of our own eyes that makes loveliness. The essential you leaps from your eyes and is visible to all who take the time to notice.  The beauty of your youth is there, no matter what has ravaged your outsides. The imprint of your inner loveliness . . . your beautiful soul and all that it carries. Your past. Your present. Your future.

 

(source)

I've always been observant, cognizant of the world around me.  I am grateful for that.  By being so I have collected jewels that are mine to hold in my heart, riches that are mine alone, that nobody can take away from me.  Of significant worth . . .  to me. I carry them with me always and they bear no weight. They are not unwieldly. They do not need a special case to hold them. They do not need me to protect them from the elements or prying eyes, fingers, hands. 

And whilst my thoughts and observations may be similar to those of others, they are also very unique to me.

 

(source)

All week long I have been watching an episode or two of the Mary Tyler Moore show each evening on YouTube. I really enjoy them.  When I am watching them, they really bring a smile to my heart. I am a girl again. Just the theme song does it. It is great escapism from much of the negativity of the days we are living in. It was a much simpler time.

 

 

My brother and his wife at last night's

church Youth Group

Still smiling, still serving.

I have not much else to say this morning except to thank you for the many prayers and happy thoughts being offered on the behalf of my dear brother.  I will keep you up to date with what is going on. It is early days yet and decisions as far as treatment etc. have not been made. Hopefully he will not have to wait overly long for his CT scan.

Also, my dear friend Aileen passed away yesterday from Liver Cancer.  Please pray for her family. Thank you.

A thought to carry with you . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

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

 *.˛.°Every leaf speaks bliss to me
falling from the autumn tree.
~unknown° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Six Perfect Brownies.  Perfect for the smaller family or for someone who doesn't want an overload of temptation sitting on the counter.  Rich, dense, chewy, fudgy, delicious. 

I hope you have a beautiful weekend!  I hope to do a video today and tomorrow afternoon I am having my next booster. I finally managed to bag an appointment!  Whatever you get up to, stay safe, be happy and don't forget!

═══════════ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ═══════════ 

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

And I do too!    

   

Dear Neighbor . . .

 

 

(source)

ESTATE LANE, NS

cool and overcast

Hello my online neighbors,

My beautiful invisible friends.  Thank you so much for coming to visit me this morning/today. I really do appreciate you. This is something many of you have been doing for many years now, and I want you to know you are an important part of my life. You have seen me through my highs and lows over these many years now and I have always felt your love and support, your prayers as it were.  They have always been so very appreciated by me. Although many of us have not met in person, our hearts have touched and for that I am grateful. Kindred spirit friends of the best kind. 

I am always fond of saying that every day may not be a good day, but that there is something good in every day. Yesterday was not a good day, not really.

Myself about six, my brother one, my sister three

We are sitting in my father's Easy Boy recliner

About 1961

Yesterday, my baby brother got the news that he has cancer of the kidney.  There is no happy way to receive news like this. My brother is a very fit, 64 years old. This has come as quite a shock to us all. Two years ago, they had noticed something on a part of his kidney which showed up in tests for something else. So, this year he had an ultrasound, and a recent MRI. So now he is going to have a CT scan to determine if there are one or two masses. If there is only one, they will remove the mass, if two, they will remove the whole kidney.  I am hoping that it will be the best-case scenario and that it will have been caught in time enough that it has not spread anywhere else.

My brother has always been one of my greatest supporters. Always. He is a kind, kind person who has always been out there helping a lot of people, but he has been especially helpful to my sister and I through the years. 

When we were teenagers and smoking the wacky tobacco, he would follow us to make sure we did not put ourselves in any danger. He has been there with his love and his prayers always, and sometimes his pocketbook.  He is just a good, good person, and of all the people that I know, he does not deserve anything like this.

But then again . . . who does. This is not something that anyone deserves, and it is something that happens to good people all the time.

As I was praying in bed last night, the words came to me, "Fear not, be believing."

We live in an imperfect world.  Bad things happen to good people all the time. We are all met with challenges. Some worse and scarier than others.  I believe it is the way we meet these challenges which matters most.  It's okay to cry and to be afraid sometimes, but we mustn't stay in the tears and the fear.  We have to believe that we can beat and overcome whatever comes our way in one way or another. Standing still and wallowing has never been a viable option.  I would ask that you all join me in prayers for our baby brother and his wife/family, both to have the strength to get through this massive challenge, and for healing.  Be believing.  He can and will get through this.  And we can help him along the way.

My brother who has so selflessly helped so many through the years now needs our help.  The gift of prayer is one of the greatest gifts that you can give to another. I firmly believe that. All will be well.

 

(source)

They say you learn something new every day.  A bit earlier on I decided to make myself some toast. I had a loaf of really nice grainy bread that was a bit past its sell by date, but it looked perfectly okay.  It also smelled okay.  I popped it into the toaster.  When I took it out of the toaster I noticed funny looking spots on it, that continued to grow and evolve as I looked at it. Mold.

Who knew?  This morning, I learned that the heat from my toaster could expose mold in my bread and actually help it to grow.   What was hidden very well from my eyes, was suddenly dramatically exposed.  I am so grateful for being able to see it.  

I hate the taste of mold. I am so glad that I noticed it before I started to eat it.

 

(source)

The day that my sister had tested positive for Covid, I had spent a good part of the day closed up in my car with her. Thankfully I did not come down with Covid myself, but I did have a few moments where I felt like I was getting something and took an Emergence-C. I did test myself several times, and all were negative.  Yesterday Cindy stopped in and as she was leaving my neighbor across the way stopped to say hello with her wee doggie Peanut. She said something about having had a bad cold. 

I felt guilty because on the day that my sister had come down positive, before my sister told me she was positive, this same neighbor had been on my doorstep for some reason that I cannot remember.  We did chat for a few minutes outside my door, and I found myself wondering yesterday if I had unwittingly passed some germs on to her.

I will probably never know for sure I guess.

 

(source)

The leaves are coming down fast and furiously now. My back yard is full of the golden leaves of the maple that is there.  Like a beautiful gold carpet.  All of these leaves that appeared as small sprouts in the spring and that did such a great job of shading my back yard all summer dancing with their strength in the summer breezes . . . they have been busy showing me over these past few weeks the strength to be found in letting go. The beauty of letting go.

There is a lesson there I am sure.  They have let go and they will lay on the ground and become one with it, eventually nourishing and strengthening the very tree that gave them life. They will become a part of its giving birth to new leaves in the spring.  And the circle of life will continue.

Change can be beautiful in all of its forms.

 

(source)

Cindy and I have plans to go shopping today.  I have a list of things that I need to get. I have been putting it off all week.  Each day I think I am going to go and then my day gets away from me and I don't.  I decide . . . I will go tomorrow and then tomorrow comes and the cycle repeats itself.  Today I will go however because I need to. I need milk and flour, and I have no fresh vegetables to eat or fruit other than apples. I also need to do something with them.

I am thinking I will do another video tomorrow. I have not decided on the topic yet but I have a few ideas mulling through my mind.  One thing is for certain, I am not able to pause any video and whatever I chose to do will have to be done in one fell swoop, until I can learn how to do it otherwise. I will keep exploring and learning and eventually I will get it. I hope.

I did get some fabric cut out this week and so maybe I will even get some sewing done this weekend. Hope springs eternal as they say. I do not know how I managed to get all the things done that I did when my children were growing up. I had so much work to do in the home and somehow it all got done and I still had time for sewing and crafting. So much so that my sister and I had enough wares to take to craft sales. What has changed?  It defies my knowing.   My days seem to evaporate at the speed of light. I am no sooner getting out of my bed in the morning than I am crawling back into it at night and in between not a lot has occurred with the exception of what has to be done.

I do not believe I am the only one who experiences this. It seems to be a common complaint

And with that I will leave you with a thought to carry with you . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

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

 *.˛.°I will practice coming 

back to the present moment,

not letting regrets 

and sorrows drag me into the past

or letting anxieties, 

fears, or cravings pull me out.

~Thich Nhat Hanh  ° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ 

I finally got around to cooking that new and different squash I had picked up at the marker. Oven Roasted Candy Roaster Squash.  This was a simple way of preparing it that really helped to bring out its natural sweetness. I am sure it would work with any winter squash.

I hope you have a great Friday my special online friends. Near or far, stay safe, be blessed, be happy and don't forget!

═══════════ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ═══════════ 

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

And I do too!    

   

My Favorite Things . . .

 

These are some of the things in life that I enjoy, and which make me happy, inspire me, or put a smile on my face. Maybe some of them are yours too.  Let's share! 

 

(source)

Acorns  . . . I love their little caps.

 

(source)

Cranberries.  As sauce, in breads, cakes, pies  . . . love them.

 

(source)

Autumn teapots  . . .

 

(source)

Reflections  . . . 

 

(source)

Pretty pies . . .  especially if pecans are involved . . .

 

(source)

Poppies  . . . 

 

(source)

Enchiladas  . . . 

 

(source)

Counted Cross Stitch  . . . used to do a lot of it.

 

(source)

Mist  . . . 

 

(source)

Chinese lanterns  . . . 

 

(source)

Chips  . . . 

 

(source)

Shirley Temple  . . . 

 

(source)

Pretty cardigans  . . . 

 

(source)

Jars in frilly caps  . . . 

 

(source)

Scarecrows  . . . 

 

(source)

The ballet  . . . 

 

(source)

Pumpkins, gourds and squashes  . . . 

 

(source)

The majesty of nature  . . . 

 

(source)

Tender beauty  . . . 

 

(source)

Birch bark  . . . 

 

(source)

Owls . . . they look so wise . . . 

 

(source)

Beautiful.  Is this a painting or is it real?  I cannot tell.

And those are my favorite things for this week. Hoping some of them were yours also.

A thought to carry with you  . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

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

 *.˛.°There is a moment when you get lost in the woods,
when the woods begin to feel like home.
~Jeffrey Eugenides° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Everything Bagel Biscuits. Delicious!

I hope you have a wonderful day today. Fill it with some of your favorite things! I am not sure what I will get up to yet, but it will be something!  Whatever you do, don't forget! 

═══════════ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ═══════════ 

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

And I do too!