A Snowy Day!

 

My view just yesterday across my little patio.

The Snowy Day is a 1962 American children's picture book by American author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats. It features Peter, an African American boy. It was written to encourage everyone to slow down and notice the small things in life, something I try to do here on this blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmZCQfeWjeQ&ab_channel=EJKFoundation

As a white man, Esra Jack Keats was one of the first to write a children's book with multi-cultural children. His book has been banned recently because of that. When my children were young, Ezra Jack Keats, was a favorite author of theirs and visited their school on author's day.

 

This morning and last evening, sights of snow from my window. Many have walked their dogs past my window and I love seeing them out enjoying the snowy day.

 

Sending love and warmth on this Valentine's day. Hoping you are warm and cozy, tucked inside on this snowy day. Now I must sip some tea.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Midwinter's Song

 

In the Bleak Midwinter

Song by Christina Rossetti and Gustav Holst

 

In the bleak midwinter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron
Water like a stone
Snow had fallen
Snow on snow, snow on snow
In the bleak midwinter, long, long ago

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ

Enough for Him whom cherubim

Worship night and day
A breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay
Enough for Him whom angels fall down before
The ox and ass and camel
Which adore

Angels and archangels may have gathered there
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air
But only His mother in her maiden bliss
Worshiped the Beloved
With a kiss

What can I give Him
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would give a lamb
If I were a wise man, I would do my part
Yet what I can, I give Him
Give my heart

 

 

For some reason this hit my heart this year at Christmas time. Hoping your Christmas season is magical and full of love.

My "live-in gardener" and I move the first week of January; so I am in the throes of moving, packing, clean, and preparing.

Sending love,

Marilyn

The Shortest Day

Last winter storms near the shortest day.

 

On the shortest day I just want to sit wrapped in a quilt, sipping tea, and read awhile by candle light.

 The Shortest Day

by Susan Cooper

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us--Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land;

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

 

Have you noticed the dark nights? By 5PM last evening it was so dark. I just wanted to put my pajamas on and head to bed with a good book or curl up to watch a movie. I will be so happy when December 21st comes and goes, for then I can anticipate the return of the sun.

 In the meantime I will savor the dark nights, light the candles, and sip something warm and cozy.

Sending love,

Marilyn

Happy New Year, dear Friends!

 

My teapot is empty, but held with anticipation.

I prepare by warming the water and choosing the tea.

The tea unfurls and opens for me.

In the quiet of the early morning hour it warms my hands,

Then the first sip of the day.

I breathe

I learn to just BE in the moment

My soul is replenished and I smile.

written by me this week

This is the early morning hour this very week.

 From The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater:

"Everything I have ever wanted is here, right now."

"The cold is making me hungry. I head in, pausing to warm myself by the wood-burning stove in the hall. My request for coffee is sweetly but firmly refused, and I drink green tea from deep cups instead..."

After going for an early morning walk in the cold he finds a coffee shop not yet opened, but enters and sits to wait. "The owner arrives, surprised but apparently unbothered by my having "broken in". She makes me coffee and brings hazelnut cookies shaped in unruly lumps like fat pebbles. A blue woolen blanket for my knees. And then a wafer thin ginger biscuit, coated in the thinnest white icing. Like frost on a roof tile. She lights a small wrought iron stove. I write."

And so it is, life goes on in the most perfect, cozy way and I also write to you, dear friends.

May you be blessed always and in the little things that delight you. May you be served a good cup of coffee or tea and wrapped in a blanket of coziness. Stay warm, savor each day, and above all else dance.

PS: I read The Christmas Chronicles every December, maybe not every word, but select essays that delight my winter, Christmas days.

Happy New Year, dear friends!
 

A Word for the Week

 Color

                                       My garden house a week ago. Pretty wrapped in snow.

 

Ice on branches in the garden. Again pretty in a wintery way.

But color calls to my heart.

Color delights me. 

Much as I try loving neutrals

Color is the song most heard. 

The rhododendrons were found at a park near my house right before our snow storm.

The tulips were found at the market.

Does color sing to your heart?

Do you notice when it is nearby?

My heart is full with anticipation of springtime!

I am dreaming and making plans.

How about you?

A Word for the Week

 

Colors for a Palette

Winter

Sooty black for the precise

Etching of bare trees. For ice

A pale translucent hue

Approximating grey; and blue

For shadows in the rifts

Between the moon and new snowdrifts.

~Kitchen Sonnets by Ethel Romig Fuller

"I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields,

That it kisses them so gently?

And then it covers them up snug.

You know, with a white quilt: 

and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, 

till the summer comes again.'" 

~Lewis Carroll 

The words from both Ethel and Lewis conjure up different colors to me.

Can you imagine walking through the grey and blue or

maybe covered by a quilt of white?

Do you sleep or hibernate through the winter months?

Are you searching for new life of the springtime?

Note: pictures taken on this day four years ago in my garden.

Today is much warmer with just rain and seeing a few daffodils pushing through the ground.

So if you haven't guessed the word today is WINTER in a multitude of colors.

Wintry Play and Tea

A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas:

“It snowed last year too:

 I made a snowman and my brother knocked it down 

and I knocked my brother down and then we had tea.”

 

I hope each of you have begun the new year with the delight

of play and then some tea.

Happy New Year, dear friends!

Happy weekend too! 

 

 By the way, there is no snow here right now.

It has been unseasonably warm, perfect for a walk. 

I can dream I am sitting by the fire, sipping tea, and watching the snow fall.

Garden Quotes 2019

 Pictures taken on a recent walk at the Portland Japanese Gardens.

 I often walk at the Lan Su Chinese Gardens, but rarely do I visit these gardens.

The camellia was stunning.

The light divine!

"Very gay they were with snow and sleigh-bells, holly-boughs, and garlands, 

 below, and Christmas sunshine in the winter sky above. 

All faces shone, all voices had a cheery ring, 

and everybody stepped briskly on errands of good-will."

  ~Louisa May Alcott, "Seamstress," Work: A Story of Experience, 1873

 

              There was an art show and I thought these ceramic camellias rather festive.
                                Wouldn't they be pretty stuck in greenery for Christmas? 
                                    There is something so glorious in winter sunshine! 
                                  And faces do shine while walking on a crisp winter day. 

   I will post a Christmas greeting in a couple days, but 

if you are busy and don't come on by I will understand.

Have a very special week of celebration.

May you be surrounded by those you love.

                                            May the light of Christmas shine down on you.

Chair and Winter Solstice?!

There is no doubt when I go through my pictures that I love chairs.

When I go out to the antique mall I always photograph them.

I would buy them and take them home if I didn't already have plenty.

The image of a chair reminds me to sit for awhile,

dream, and share time with a friend.

So as the winter solstice is here this very day,

the shortest day of the year,

I am dreaming of just that.

Grab a cup or glass of whatever you enjoy.

For me I will have a warm cup of tea in my hands.

Let's look back on the year as the warmth of your cup permeates.

We started the year dreaming of flowers, watching the buds come up 

from the ground in new life. We dreamed of the year to come.

Did you pick a word for the year and open your heart to it?

We are ending by celebrating Christmas.

Is that warm cup doing the trick?

Is it soaking into your hands and warming your soul?

Did your word for the year have an impact on you?

Was it a wild ride?

A hard one?

Did you get moments to sit in the sun?

Winter solstice, a warm cup in my hand, a chair,

and maybe a sit down by the fire always makes me contemplate.

Thoughts swirl through my mind in remembrance, sadness, JOY,

laughter, and dreams.

So come along with me, sit awhile, dream, and remember.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Happy Weekend, dear friends!

Find some time to sit awhile.

Garden Quotes 2019

And don't think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter.

It's quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.

~Rumi

The crocus are beginning to show their beautiful faces
in my garden.
Sometimes through the snow this past week I still see them. 
They are persistent and for that I love them.
Search for those little things each day.

Tea, Book, and a Cozy Fire

Many of you are experiencing record breaking cold weather this winter.

So far it has been mild here in Oregon, but snow may come in February.

In the meantime I am thinking of you sitting by the fire, wrapped

in a woolly shawl with a good book and a cup of warm tea.

What are you reading?

What is in your cup?

Lucinda Riley is one fiction author I enjoy.
I just finished a mystery written by her called The Love Letter.
Oh do I love the twists and turns of a good mystery.
In my cup is Harney & Sons Palm Court,
a black tea developed for New York's Plaza Hotel.
The tea is just right for a cold winter's day and
who doesn't like a good mystery.
So wrapped in a woolly shawl, sitting by the fire I will be.

What do you have on the shelf for those days that you stay in by the fire?
Is it a good book, a good tea, a warm shawl, or maybe
marshmallows for a hot cup of chocolate?

Adventure to the Island

Birds winter on our local island and I must always head that way
at least one time in the winter to search for them.
Recently my "live-in-gardener" and I ventured out to Sauvie Island.
Mt. Hood from Sauvie Island is always spotted as we cross the bridge.
Isn't it just gorgeous covered in white?

 Bald eagle, so near, yet so allusive.
He could care less that I was standing right under him.

 A hawk in flight nearby.

 An old barn down the road.

 Sandhill Cranes are what we were looking for and found in abundance.

 Break time with a cup of tea and a sit down.

 Egrets in the distance.

 Mt. St. Helens is also seen from the island; in fact, on a clear day you can see three mountains.

Cormorants love the inside passage, they were everywhere.

 St. Johns Bridge is a gorgeous bridge I must travel to head to and from the island.

If you come to Portland, Oregon any time of the year I can take you here.
The sightings of birds is most wonderful.

Happy weekend, dear friends!
Take an adventure this weekend.