I’ve been trying to ramp up my leafy green consumption lately. Summer seems like a good time to do it.
Isn’t it pretty! More pink than I’d expected. (And yes – it’s not just salad…)
I could say “Sumer Is Icumen In”, but it’s more like summer has come barrelling in, flattening all before it. Still, the days have become brighter, and the sun picks out flashes of colour and light. I have (finally) got around to displaying some of my jewellery – including a new “cat” badge.
Can you tell which one it is? 😀
I don’t really wear jewellery much. I prefer to decorate with it. The different metals catch the light, and glow contentedly in their space.
Glass sparkles on the shelf…
Even seemingly plain feathers find their colour in the light!
A shy little glass flower reflects…
And the rainbows continue to sing – sometimes captured…
Sometimes on their own, dreaming.
Summer is here, and we can bask/dream/sing in the sun. We were made to live in the light! ❤
…Parton, that is. I’ve had a lovely day of catching up with this and that, enjoying the (slightly) cool day, and reminiscing with music. One of those CDs was a Dolly Parton “Greatest Hits” – I don’t know all her songs, but there are some I remember from many years ago (my first cassette tape was a country hits tape 🙂 ) Her voice is distinctive, and comforting. She seems like someone you’d like to meet, too!
I popped in to a bakery down the road this morning. Indulged in a BBQ pork bánh mì, then saw some Neenish tarts in the display case.
Haven’t had one in ages! I remember my Dad liked them. I don’t remember the ones he had being quite so violently pink, though. It was an experience 🙂 The icing was hard (it cracked, rather than behaving as icing should…) The filling is mock cream, with a base of jam, so – a bit richer than I like these days. It also seemed to be a lot bigger than I remember.
But – that was my day. Bimbling (mentally 🙂 ) Listening to Dolly. Eating a Neenish tart.
Reminiscing.
It’s not the way I thought my day would go, but that’s OK.
(and if you want to reminisce along with me, as well as feeling the springtime vibe…)
Feels like I’m climbing out of the (not so fun) side quest that our life has been lately… We went out to the shops today, just to see if we could. Went pretty well overall, although a bit tiring. I wore my mask (still unsure if I’m broadcasting germs – I don’t think so, but don’t want to risk sharing to the general public). It co-ordinated nicely with what I was wearing 😀 I’ve been catching up with online classes today, and probably tomorrow. Otherwise, I’ve been ensconcing myself in my comfy reading nest.
…with my coffee at my side, and a lovely breeze through the windows.
Because we’ve been out of action for so long, it feels like we’ve stepped out of the flow of life for a bit. A bit disorientating – it probably doesn’t help that lately it seems like the world has spun off its axis in some ways! We’ll be back. And moving forward. Here’s a song to help settle the existential swirl.
Looking at my calendar, I see that it’s been just over three months (thirteen weeks) since we first heard that we had to leave the previous house. It’s been an eventful few months! A lot of changes, and a bit of uncertainty as to where we were headed. Some things are still up in the air. Time to fly! ❤
Another week of rest and recuperation… I’ve been up and about more, though 🙂 Did some organising in the art room, which included excavating some tiny things from a soapstone box that I haven’t really seen for years! Lots of little trinkets – finally figured out what to do with the glass beads I brought back from Venice, many years ago.
It’s a bit difficult to focus properly when there’s glass around, and not much space to maneuver. They’re prettier than they look… There were shells at the top of the box. I’m pretty sure I picked at least some of them off the beach. Possibly all?
We (briefly) ventured out on Monday. It was our anniversary, so we popped out (suitably masked) to the local bakery.
I celebrated with a lemon meringue tart, and half a vanilla slice.
Next week should see us slowly getting back into gear. There are things to do! Places to be! And a song to share, which seemed to fit the “breaking back out into life” vibe.
The skies have been beautiful lately. As the year starts to chill into mid-winter, the evenings fade into shades of pink and lavender. The other day was a lovely purply-to-blue sunset.
This evening, the clouds took up the hue.
Our housing future has been looking a bit cloudy. We had another open house last Saturday. There didn’t seem to be anyone who put an offer in, but an investor from the first open house did…twice. Both offers were refused. This Monday we got our notice to leave. It seems the owner wants us out anyway. We’ve looked at one place so far, which looked good online. It…was not. There are others bookmarked, so we’ll see how that goes 🙂
In the meantime… we wait. And trust. And probably, at some point, pack.
But the moon still rises, bright in the purple blue.
And the sun throws out its fire, as it leaves for another day.
Whatever the day, there is always hope in the world.
We got a call on Monday to say that the owner of this house is putting it up for sale. The agent came round Tuesday for a chat, and the photographer came round Wednesday to take photos for the listing. Which went up Thursday. This morning was an open house – not sure how many there will be. My laptop charger decided that connecting to my laptop was no longer in its job description…
It’s been…a week.
Still, I spent last night and today at an online conference, which has been inspiring. It meant that I was sat on the sofa with my headphones on while people were traipsing through the house. Worth it!
There weren’t many visitors, but it’s possible that one (an investor) might put an offer in. If that happens we might get to stay here. Yay! 😀 Our lease is up first week of September, so hopefully we’ll know by then.
Last Sunday, on our way to church, there was a rainbow through the clouds. It was bright, and a timely reminder that we are never forgotten, and that we can trust God with whatever comes our way.
It was brighter on our way in. But it still lingered, arching over the prayers outside the church building before the service.
❤
Here are a couple of songs we sang at the conference.
I don’t know what the next weeks/months will bring. Rain, or rainbows? Either way – it’s allgood!
The beginning of last week was great! I did stuff. I even did more stuff! And then my body said, “No.”
Somewhere towards the end of the week fatigue whacked me over the head, and I’ve been trying to sleep/rest enough to replenish. I’m glad I did all the stuff last week 😀 Just might have been a bit more than my recuperating self was expecting! 😆
So, the boys are in varying stages of recovery from the “virus-that-has-no-name”. And my Babe started coughing Friday morning, and stayed in bed for a couple of days. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to have caught what we had. Or he just heals really quick…
Today was a new day. Yay! I still needed to sit and rest. But I also managed the washing, and my share of the cleaning/dishes. Double yay!
In my sit-down-before-I-fall-down time I read some Mary Oliver. Then I put my headphones on, closed my eyes, and listened to a CD I picked up a few weeks ago ($1 at a charity shop!)
Here are two poems that sang to me. And two songs that spoke to my (weary) heart.
I Worried Mary Oliver
I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it? Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better? Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows can do it and I am, well, hopeless. Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it, am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia? Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.
How Would You Live Then? Mary Oliver
What if a hundred rose-breasted grosbeaks flew in circles around your head? What if the mockingbird came into the house with you and became your advisor? What if the bees filled your walls with honey and all you needed to do was ask them and they would fill the bowl? What if the brook slid downhill just past your bedroom window so you could listen to its slow prayers as you fell asleep? What if the stars began to shout their names, or to run this way and that way above the clouds? What if you painted a picture of a tree, and the leaves began to rustle, and a bird cheerfully sang from its painted branches? What if you suddenly saw that the silver of water was brighter than the silver of money? What if you finally saw that the sunflowers, turning toward the sun all day and every day – who knows how, but they do it – were more precious, more meaningful than gold?
I’m still climbing out of the dark chasm of feeling-absolutely-horrible. Probably sitting somewhere between ordinary-icky-take-a-rest and ooh-let’s-go-to-the-shops-(if-we-don’t-take-too-long) right now. Biggest Boy is not too well at the moment, although his 4-in-1 test was also negative. So, we have/had something. Just not something with an easily identifiable name 😆 I’m able to read and watch YouTube (and enjoy both!) without overdoing it. I was even able to watch church online yesterday – yay! The week before it was too much to stay upright for that long…
The weather is still cooling, and I’m hoping to do some work this week. I’m booked for a Micro Business Skills course later in June, so it makes sense to get some work done towards the business itself!
No interesting photos to share. I have a variety of views from my window (as seen from the bed), not sure anyone wants to see a range of cloud formations… But I have a couple of new songs I’ve enjoyed over the weekend 😀
No Beyonce. Enjoy anyway!
…and here’s a way to have a laugh at yourself, while gently teasing your fans… (you’ll need to put the captions on [that little “CC” button on the bottom])
I’ve had a cold/virus of some sort since last weekend. I had a go at one of those 4-in-1 tests from the chemist on Sunday, so – not covid, RSV, or flu 1 or 2. Yay? It’s been a drifty, in-and-out week mostly, although the last couple of days have been easier. I’m able to sleep a bit better now – which is what I was doing yesterday when I opened my eyes to a big heart-cloud outside my window!
I think I took the photo, then rolled over and went back to sleep.
I’ve lost my voice, as well, which always feels odd. Lots of hot, strong tea helps immensely.
I have been reading, but it took a few days to feel up to doing anything much. I feel like I haven’t been here in a while (probably because…I haven’t been here in a while), so I don’t have a lot of sparkly, witty things to say. But I do have flowers. Lots of lovely flower photos, taken over a month or more, but not finding a space here yet. This is their time to shine! So to speak.
Wrapped flowers at Aldi. Probably for Mothers’ Day.
Also – some random street flowers.
So pretty!
And just to round off the evening…a song that found me this week.
We voted today. The actual election day is Saturday, but we like to get in early… our area has a lot of independents running (the senate paper overflowed the voting booth), so it took a bit of research to figure out who was running for what. A friend posted a link to Build a Ballot, which we found helpful in sorting out preferences. Have a go! 🙂 There are also links there to the various parties’ sites – you can check out what their actual policies are. We didn’t want to waste our vote by not knowing who we were choosing. Sweet Bean spent ages weighing up different parties and policies – he’s happy to have made his choice 🙂
Although we usually go for a coffee on a Wednesday, there’s an appointment to stay home for tomorrow. So we indulged in a Tuesday coffee!
(… and cake! ❤ )
And, speaking of democracy – what great things can people do when they get together! I have never been to a Pub Choir evening in person (I will one day!), but I did a few Couch Choirs in lockdown. Over the last few years they have been recording a phrase or line from Bohemian Rhapsody in every place they go. Here is the end result.
a bit of creativity, a bit of eco consciousness, a bit of inspiration.... hopefully not a lot of pompousness and blathering :D
i'm not entirely sure what's going on here... let's travel along and see...
1000 Fields of Roses 