a rainy holiday

 The garden... vegetable, herb, and flower... overall has been planted, though the garlic will be harvested soon and we plan to put in more tomato plants and sow more green bean seeds after tilling that soil. I cut the scapes of the garlic plants on Saturday. Here is a delicious and easy way to use your garlic scapes.  

 Into a skillet of olive oil add unpeeled russet potatoes chunks about the size of a nickel alongside the garlic scapes chopped into 1/4" pieces. Cook until the potatoes are crispy brown and tender.

We could comprehend that we are having a "mini holiday" today since the majority of the garden is planted for now and the days of preserving have not yet begun. Since the day is rainy and cool, we took a "holiday" opportunity and opted to go to the cottage and tackle the much needed job of painting the sun porch. This turned into a most enjoyable day with my husband doing something typically "different" from the usual holiday activity. May I state how pleased I am with my choice of using the same color paint as what is on the kitchen walls? It is by Glidden and called Silk Star; I am always fascinated with the names given to paint colors, but I also like to rename them. "Sliver of Butter" is what I named this paint color 

Notably, I forgot to take an after paint photo 🙄.

Take my word for it, it looked great, just what I was hoping to accomplish by extending the color outside the back kitchen door. We hope to return tomorrow evening and add another coat. ( I will get a photo then).

 My husband used a roller to add the color...I was priming white around the new windows that were put in earlier in the year.

The sun porch is a long narrow room that was added on at some point in time, it includes the stairway that leads to the basement. The wood boards on the stairs were added recently and now need some paint too. Gray? Or perhaps another color for the steps? We are pulling up the old tiles on the floor and will be adding a floor similar in color to that "oaky" color on the subfloor

After we finished painting the first coat around half-past four, we sat down at the dining table in the cottage and savored afternoon tea.

I love the hymns.  I grew up singing them and they never cease to bless me. I keep a hymn book by me in the early morning hours and many mornings I will sing all the stanzas of a hymn in worship and praise to my LORD.

Here are the words of the third stanza from the hymn, My Jesus I love Thee.

O Jesus, My Savior

With Thee I am blest,

My life and salvation,

My joy and my rest:

Thy name be my theme,

And Thy love be my song;

Thy grace shall inspire

both my heart and my tongue.

Blessings!

sophistication in simplicity

 The cilantro in my garden seeded itself and has become ostentatious in its pursuit to come up everywhere in the garden. I have already dried a jars worth and I decided I must cut the plants back to prevent them from going to seed with the hopes of retaining fresh cilantro in my garden for most of the summer. The smell was intoxicating, and I found sophisticated simplicity in placing them in a jar of water to set on the porch table.

There is a corner bookstore located in Louisville in an area called Crescent Hill, walking distance from Charlotte and Isaac's apartment. I have always made a point of going to this bookstore when I am in Louisville, mainly because they have the best selection of Wendell Berry books. They carry such a good selection since he is a Kentuckian author.

These little notecards came from this store, Charlotte gifted them to me so I have been writing notes this afternoon.The Tufted Titmouse is one of my favorite backyard birds and we are fortunate to have quite a few of them at our feeders. When they decide to sing...it is as a choir has booked a special flight to come and delight.

  

Years ago, I remember brewing a delicious summer tea using rosemary. Today after pruning my rosemary bushes I took a handful of the crushed rosemary branches (approximately 1-2 cups) brought them to a boil and simmered this brew for about 10 minutes. I added the strained rosemary tea to an equal portion of sweet tea also adding the juice of one-half lemon. Very refreshing, and the taste of rosemary was keen yet subtle.I realize that sounds like an oxymoron, but to me it describes the taste well.

Another way would be to make a rosemary syrup which basically means adding dissolved sugar to the simmering rosemary tea and pouring it into unsweetened tea, and even yet another way to make a good rosemary drink is to simply add the brewed rosemary tea into lemonade.

“The hill is like an old woman, all her human obligations met, who sits at work day after day, in a kind of rapt leisure, at an intricate embroidery. She has time for all things. Because she does not expect ever to be finished, she is endlessly patient with details. She perfects flower and leaf, feather and song, adorning the briefest life in great beauty as though it were meant to last forever.” 
― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

How has sophisticated simplicity shaped your May thus far?

"What matters is people"

My husband and I have just finished watching the complete series of Larkrise to Candleford. Have you seen this BBC series that ran from 2008 to 2011? Oh, you should. This morning at the breakfast table as we were finishing up, I asked my husband who was his favorite character, and believe me that is not an easy question to answer if you have given it no thought.

I realized this morning, my favorite is Queenie. Yes, definitely Queenie grew to rise above them all as my most favorite character. She was so full of love and caring for others, even those who would display such unlovable and selfish propensities in a variety of ways. But she was equally firm and not shy of admonishing and rebuking when needed. She possessed a contentment and joy of being comfortable in her own skin. 

 "I am no more than a beekeeping wife."

 Her sagacious words spoken to Gabriel at the end of the series changed the course of two lives. She was a world changer of sorts in a little hamlet in the English countryside, though she would not say so.

"What a person believes isn't what they think, isn't what they say; it's what they do."

~Queenie Turrill

NOTE: Queenie was superstitious and a reader of tea leaves.

She had some definite flaws. 

the graduation day

 It began with umbrellas and a rather steady rain, across the green lawn we walked with our umbrellas. Staff people from the school were trying their very best to wipe off the seats as much as possible...but it was basically a losing battle because the rain continued on gathering strength.

About ten minutes before the ceremony was to begin...

the sky cleared and the sun came out. The Ceremony took place under blue skies with a variety of cloud formations and the sun shining down on all of us.

 

                              And now we've come full circle. 

But so many amazing and wonderful things have happened since that day in August 2021. She has matured into a beautiful and mature young woman...a married woman as her first year anniversary is approaching on June 8th.

Congratulations to you, my Charlotte!❤️

she played

 The aim and final end of music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.   ~Johann Sebastian Bach

 I sat in the auditorium hearing and feeling the notes, the music of Mozart, Bach, Elgar, Gliere, and Mendelssohn being performed by her. I was very present in the moment listening with joy and tender pride as well as remembering the years that had gotten her to this place, her Senior Recital.

When she was just a wee baby I would whisper in her ear, "You shall play the strings". There was one time at the age of thirteen she wanted to quit the violin and I replied to her requests with complete sincerity,

"One day you will thank me".

 She has.

 

Charlotte's hard work, diligence, perseverance, and times of seemingly endless practicing have brought her to this place of beautiful accomplishment. But I would be remiss to not mention a necessary element of the overall picture as well, a part which flows strongly in my heart in the remembering. We, her parents, were always her most ardent cheerleaders.

  

My husband and I have purposely and gladly invested in Charlotte's music studies through the years. My husband has invested the finances required for all those years of piano and violin lessons. I have invested hours of faithfully driving her to her weekly lessons, and we've both invested time watching her through the many rehearsals, practices, recitals and concerts as she improved her skills and acquired the instruction needed to continue on to the next levels.  All this was done with complete happiness and  total willingness to see her achieve her goals. 

traveling to celebrate

 When something good happens, travel to celebrate.

Something good is happening this week and we are traveling a day to be there and to celebrate.  After almost four years, Charlotte is graduating from college!

 In our minds the memory certainly is not dormant of this particular day so well remembered with mixed emotions, and the four years (three years 9 months exactly) which have elapsed with all its mountains, valleys and in-between events are still seeking to find a place to settle.