You can find me blogging about rhubarb today on this sweet money saving blog: http://bargainhoot.com/2013/05/20/rhubarb-season-is-here/
Monday, May 20, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Giving Thanks Friday
This week I am thankful for:
The return of the Spanish lavender blooms and knowing the English lavender is not far behind. I love lavender!
The variety of personalities in my life ~ those that compliment me and those that challenge me. Especially those that challenge me.
Artists who sacrifice greatly for their art and the blessings their creations bring.
Music to touch my spirit, lyrics to touch my heart and the combination to touch my soul.
A husband who doesn't mind frozen pizza on a Friday night (even though he has worked a long, hard day) when I really don't want to cook. Love that man.
What are you thankful for?
May your weekend be filled with many reasons to give thanks!
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Be still
Step away from the noise
and the cares of the day
In this very moment
pause
"Be still and know that I am God"
(Psalms 46:10)
Be still.
Be changed.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Giving Thanks Friday
This week I am thankful for:
A yummy row of fresh made strawberry-rhubarb jam. It tastes great now but is a jar of summer in the midst of winter.
The strength and resilience of the rescued ladies from Ohio and the mom trapped for 16 days in Bangladesh. God bless them all.
New beginnings and do-overs.
My mom and mother in law who have been such examples in so many areas of my life. I love them both!
What are you thankful for?
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
The Blackberry Incident
We spent yesterday evening doing some yard work that
included staking up our second year boysenberry plant onto a trellis. It has a lot of blooms and I am excited to
see those berries develop and ripen. A
few days before I managed to reign in the somewhat unruly raspberries but not
before their thorns left me with several bloodied scratches. No pain, no gain ~ even in gardening!
Working in the berries I can’t help but be reminded of a childhood memory involving me and “Gammie”. Gammie was my great-grandma, the mother of my Grandma Peggy and my Mom’s grandma. I used to stay with my Grandma Peggy a lot growing up and Gammie had come to live in a small, single wide trailer on their property, close enough to my grandparents that they could keep a watch on her but far enough away that she still had her independence.
I would eat breakfast at my Grandma Peggy’s but then would head over to Gammie’s a bit later during her breakfast time and have toast and jam. We would visit and she would entertain me. She was full of spunk and always had a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
Weather permitting we also went on walks around the property. My grandparents had big rhododendrons, fragrant lilacs and various other wonders to see and smell at their country home. Occasionally we would wander down the dead-end road just past their house. It was on that road that the blackberry incident occurred.
One warm, summer morning, after toast, Gammie decided she wanted to pick some of the wild blackberries along the dead-end road and I was more than happy to accompany her. We set off with buckets in hand to claim our treasured berries. All was fine at the start as the berries were picked and plunked into buckets. A few were eaten, because who can resist a warm blackberry fresh from the vine?
We continued our picking when she spied a few berries under the brambles on top and leaned in to reach them. A result of her age, her balance was off and in she tumbled, head first right into the blackberries! Hearing faint cries for help, as she fell deep, off I ran back to my grandparents where my Mom and Grandma were visiting inside. Tears streaming I tried to explain Gammie’s plight but was so upset I could hardly choke out the words. “Gammie fell.” My Grandma Peggy and my Mom ran quickly.
Me? I hid under the dining room table scared to death!
My Mom and Grandma came back soon, definitely shaken. Gammie was not hurt though, other than a few scratches and what I now imagine were a few bumps and bruises to boot. I, however, stayed under the table. I was scared for her. But I was scared for me too, scared of losing her.
Well, I eventually came out from beneath the table and life continued as usual. We had many more days of toast with jam (though we both avoided the berries) before she was unable to be cared for at home and was moved to a nursing home. Due to age and health her body was declining but her inner spark remained. I assume this must have been what attracted a fellow nursing home resident, gentlemen caller, to visit her room. I still remember them sitting side by side in their wheelchairs holding hands. That and the silverware she would take and hide in her bedside drawer, but that is another story (grin).
I miss my Gammie but am thankful to have had her in my life for as long as I did. I think of her on warm spring and summer days when I smell the lilacs or tend the berries, when I make jam or have toast. And when we venture out to the woods to pick the little wild blackberries, it’s then that I miss her most.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Giving Thanks Friday
This week I am thankful for:
All the new baby calves in the neighborning farm fields. They are SO cute.
Glorious spring sunshine in our neck of the woods! It gave me a chance to catch up on some weeding and sneak in an hour or two of reading outdoors - my favorite.
A lunch date with two special friends and my daughter (who tolerated all the three of us very politely).
Sweet kisses on the cheek from both my Grandma AND my Grandpa.
What are you thankful for?
May your weekend be filled with many reasons to give thanks!
Friday, April 19, 2013
Giving Thanks Friday
This week I am thankful for:
A friend who made time to share her heart with me this week and let me do the same.
This farm girl turned city dweller who continues to challenge me to love in extraordinary ways with her inspired words.
Rend Collective experiment and their "homemade worship by handmade people" CD. Their music has been blessing my socks off : )
Finally, the dear residents of Boston, the marathon runners, their family and friends who came to cheer them, the police force, first responders and countless others, who came together to help the grieving, the wounded and the frightened, in the face of yet another tragedy. We stand with you. We mourn with you. Our prayers are with you as well as those who faced their own loss in Texas this week.
What are you thankful for?
May your weekend be filled with many reasons to give thanks!
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