Journal entry of an afternoon tea.

A white linen tablecloth to dress up the wicker table on the covered porch,

cream scones with strawberry jam and black tea with hints of peach.

And the enticing scent of the newly blooming lilacs set in a mason jar.

Thankful to my Heavenly Father for such peace and beauty to enjoy.

April fireside contentment

A cool evening in April, therefore, my husband suggests a fire.

Everyone happily agreed it was an extremely good recipe to end our day.

Toasting marshmallows on wire coat hangers, and discovering that some like them browner than others.

We wrapped ourselves in light flannel wraps and sat close to the fire until the warmth of the flames created comfortable temperatures

Pure backyard contentment

rings and bells

What a surprise!

I pulled up my blog and a different look altogether popped up! Rose took me seriously and gussied up my site. She has been so concerned about the unembellished characteristic of my blog for some time. Maybe rings on my fingers and bells on my toes in the world of blogging works for me too.

I think I like having an "assistant".



Thank you Rose...have another cookie.

sowing seeds

Gardening for me these days usually means herbs and perhaps a few favorite flowers to tend. I also manage a bed of lettuce and spinach that keeps fresh greens on my table from late spring to early summer. If I had more space that would get ample amounts of sunshine in my backyard I would aspire to more vegetables and flowers certainly.

Sowing sweet basil seeds in a pot of soil is easy enough to do. Sprinkle the seeds over the wet soil, lightly spread a topping of soil and then apply plastic wrap to provide a greenhouse effect until they sprout. A plastic container would hold moisture the best, but I prefer the stalwartness of a clay pot.

A recent baking session, eight eggs alone for a German Chocolate Cake, provided containers for some nasturtium seeds. The rest of the seeds were sown directly into the soil yesterday. One can never have enough nasturtiums within my scope of beauty in any size garden.

sunshine happiness

Sunshine was pouring its happiness into my house one morning. I was drunk, even though the strongest drink of my day was only coffee laced sugar and cream. The ray's brightness and the wonderful way it played upon the ordinary things of my home created such a happy place.

Made me smile like the sun!

plums

Little plums of our weekend captured on film.

* Alan's birthday with German Chocolate Cake
*Dying Easter eggs
*Good Friday Tea

The recipe for the cake was found on the German Chocolate package.

Charlotte takes a bow

Charlotte's best design of any dress is how much they flounce about her as she dips, twirls, and sways. She makes "marshmallow" skirt bottoms and arranges fancy bows with extra cadence.

Maybe one day she will actually take note of the extra handwork on the dress and be equally pleased.

A Living Hope

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

In His great mercy He has given us

new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-

kept in heaven for you."

I Peter 1:3-4

Easter

Oh Lamb of God,

Sweet Lamb of God,

I love the holy Lamb of God

Oh wash me in His precious blood

My Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
-Twila Paris

Happy Blessed Easter

springy blooming

All Maundy Thursday's should be this marvelous in weather and temperament. Spring in our steps and hearts tuned toward the happenings remembered on the last evening of our Lord's life.

Tea sipping outside where the savoring of the loveliest blue skies with all the colors of spring can be better enjoyed.



A tea cozy sewed up one afternoon in March when old man winter was still awake, but mimics this first day of April when the arrival of spring is in full bloom everywhere.

White Linen

In church yesterday someone prayed using the words, "intricate work of the Holy Spirit", which immediately put a picture image in my mind having to do with the hand sewing I am totally engrossed in these days....drawn- thread hemstitching.



After drawing out the linen threads, you collect three tiny threads, and then embroider them with stitches in order to make a fine edging along the border of what is to be, in this case, a table napkin. I am mesmerized with each little stitch of this involved work.

And so on this Holy Week, I am also absorbed in certain remembrances regarding white and linen:

"Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Isaiah 1:18

"So Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen." Mark 15:46

The intricate work of the Holy Spirit.