garden — Page 206

Sunday

February 23, 2014 at 8:54 am by Claudia

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Oh gardening hat, you look charming. It’s been a long time since you’ve been worn by the mistress of this cottage.

Soon, soon.

I write this accompanied by the honking of Canadian Geese flying overhead. I love that sound. Many, many of them hang out on the river that’s just down the road. They honk and talk to each other, then some will suddenly take off and fly in a V formation. Others will stay behind. I find them fascinating. Sometimes I’ll see just a few on my walk by the river. At other times, it looks like I’m sneaking into a Convention of Canadian Geese. So many!

Yesterday the temperature topped out at over 50 degrees. The sun was shining. A tease, for sure, as temperatures will plunge again this week. But it was so nice. Tina and Noble stopped by and we chatted at the top of the driveway, feeling the sun on our faces. I can’t say with any honesty that I felt spring in the air, but I definitely felt a momentary sense of relief. It will take a long time to completely melt the huge amount of snow around here but I can see less snow on the roof and hear the drip, drip of melting ice in the gutters. The cold will return tomorrow.

Don was walking home from rehearsal the other night with some fellow cast members and there was a sudden heavy rain, out of the blue. His iPhone, which was in his pocket, got wet. Uh oh. He’s tried to dry it out in a bag of rice, which is the usual recommendation, but it’s still wonky. There is no landline in his apartment so we skyped the other night. It was so good to see his darling face! In the meantime, he bought a temporary phone and has an appointment at the Apple Store tomorrow. Let’s hope the phone can be saved.

My recommendations: 1. Get an umbrella. 2. In the future, stash the phone in the inside pocket of your coat, right next to your Kindle.

scoutiesnoozing

Scoutie snoozing. She gets up on the sofa in the den and noses that flowered pillow out of her way. Sometimes it lands on the floor. This time, it ended up in this position. Note folded ear on the right. My tired girl has had a hard time of it lately.

The big news can now be revealed. Please visit my sister’s post for today entitled Beautiful Blessings. I’ve stayed silent about this miracle until my sister decided it was the right time to post about it. We’re over the moon about this news! I will write more about little Z later; for now, let Meredith tell you this story. I cannot tell you how much I love and admire my sister and how thrilled Don and I are to welcome this sweet child to our family.

Tomorrow is our monthly linky party for the Christmas Critter Felt Along. I will be putting the post up at 6:00 pm this evening. So stop by tonight or tomorrow and link up your February creations. See you then!

Happy Sunday.

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Acceptance: On Feeling Blue

October 28, 2013 at 10:01 am by Claudia

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I woke up yesterday morning feeling blue. I didn’t feel like talking very much. I was very quiet. I wasn’t motivated to do anything but read. And all day long it continued until the late evening.

Sometimes you just feel blue. There isn’t always an obvious reason for that sad, quiet, keep-to-oneself sort of feeling that can shape an entire day. You can try to snap out of it, of course. You can try your best to be sunny and bright and energetic. But I am convinced that we all need days like that; days where you can’t necessarily explain why you feel this way, all you can say is that you do feel this way.

I try not to back away from my blue days. I try to remain open to that mood change. I try to embrace the slower pace, the quieter day, the sometimes unsettling feelings that are evoked. It is what it is. And while I certainly know there are people that suffer from a kind of depression that is all-enveloping, even crippling, and often require some kind of medication, the occasional ‘down’ day is entirely different thing.

The occasional blue day is a sort of rest for the weary. A day to be a bit more introspective than usual. A day to think and ponder and be still.

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There is an element of mystery in a blue day. It isn’t always easily explained. But after some thought, I had an idea about what might have contributed to that blue feeling. It was a predominately gray day, with periods of sunshine, the heat was on, there was a sense, to me, of winter’s impending visit. Despite my attempts to protect it, my garden had officially died that morning and all my flowers were brown or black or wilted.

Flowers, plants, green growth – they were disappearing, saying goodbye. Their season was over. I saw a Monarch butterfly about five days ago and last night I found myself wondering where he was now. Was he flying to Mexico? Was he already on his way south? Have the Canadian Geese left for good?

No more flowers for the bees, for the butterflies. All gone.

And it was, as it often is, rather abrupt. One day flowers, the next – none.

I am passionate about gardening, about growing things, about seeing my gardens all around me. They fill me with joy. Coming to this inevitable point of the year means that all of that is over for a long while. It means shorter days. It means winter is on its way and I find that I like winter less and less the older I get. I need light and flowers.

So there you have it. I needed that blue day to come to terms with a seasonal change that I have no way of stopping. I have to allow myself a period of mourning. Mourning will give way to acceptance. All is well.

Happy Monday.

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A Little Niche for the Desk

October 27, 2013 at 9:46 am by Claudia

We won’t talk about the killing frost that decimated my zinnias and morning glories. Or the irony that nightly lows for the upcoming week will be nicely above freezing.

No, we won’t.

We won’t talk about the controversial call in last night’s World Series game that handed the win to the Cardinals and kept me up half the night composing angry messages to the umpires and Major League Baseball. Or the cuss words that came out of my mouth when the call was made.

No, we won’t.

Instead, let’s talk about a little idea I had yesterday. Do you remember the desk that Don found on the street and brought home? The one I re-imagined? If you don’t, you can read this post. It’s been sitting in a corner in the den and has become a dumping ground for all my stuff. But I rarely sit there.

When I was in Hartford, all my blogging took place at the desk in the apartment. I liked having my calendar there and all my To Do lists and a pinboard above it. I still like blogging in my chair, don’t get me wrong. Anyway, I discovered I liked the option of sitting at a desk and the old yearning for a little office space of my own came back. Not a corner of the den, which competes with the blogging chair. No, a little niche just for me.

We have a little spinet desk that has been living against the staircase wall and we love it, but we don’t use it. And the only desk chair we have downstairs is there.

What if I switched them out? The spinet desk could go in the corner of the den. It’s lightweight and would be easy to move when it’s Christmas tree time. It would take up less space in the room. I could move my desk to that staircase wall and I would have a little office space of my own, off by itself. A little niche I can go to with my computer or my coaching research.

So, yesterday afternoon, I did some re-arranging. Don helped me carry my desk, which is heavy.

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desktop

I figured out how to hang that little piece of architectural salvage, which I love and is, of course, in my favorite color. I also wrestled with how to hang the pinboard. That little door under the stairs has molding around it which makes the wall surface uneven. Finally, I thought of hanging it from a spindle with some ribbon. Perfect. If I need to get in the cupboard, I can pull the desk away from the wall, open the little door and then move everything back. I was already doing the same thing with the spinet desk.

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Isn’t it cute? I think I will use it much more in its new home. That fabric covered shelf, by the way, pulls out and I usually set my laptop on it.

Imagine how pretty this whole area will look when the quilt is finished and hanging on the wall.

Oh boy!

Don, as usual, puts up with all my ideas and offers his keen eye and valuable advice. I’m going to try to get some more photos this afternoon when the light is better (although this little area is notoriously hard to photograph) and I’ll share them with you tomorrow.

Happy Sunday.

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Sunday

Acceptance: On Feeling Blue

A Little Niche for the Desk

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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