The first blooms on the Cecil Brunner rose bush made their appearance this weekend
I begin most of my mornings with a big cup of creamy French roast coffee, while I'm curled up on the sofa that sits in a room with two big windows that look out onto the garden and into the park across the street. I sit there quietly, most mornings, with just Miss Luna to keep me company. I've always loved quiet in the mornings, and I used to get up very early when my son was small, just so I could have some time to myself to think my own thoughts, listen to and watch the birds explore the garden, and just be for a bit before the day became about all the things that most days do. I suppose in a way, this start to the day is my version of meditation. It brings me more peace than I can put words to, and without it, I'm not quite as graceful within my life as I like to be. Lately, the mornings have been quite lovely, seen through the filter of the softly diffused light that often seems to accompany warmer spring days, and the garden has been full of birds singing their sweet songs. Out one window I see the pink flowers of a clematis blooming and the lilac colored rhododendron, and out the other I am greeted with a view of 100 year old elm and maple trees, the white hawthorne in bloom and yellow roses blossoming on the front arbor. I see lavender accompanied by honeysuckle and irises, grandma's poppies and a carpet of white candy tuft....and overhead is a bright blue sky. I am quite fortunate I know, to be able to start my days in such a way.
I haven't just been daydreaming or working in my garden these days though. I've been busy trying to make a few things too. ATC's for my blog friend Helen, are on my worktable. I've just set aside my Lost and Found project for Liisa again, and I've been working on my book for the collaboration that my friend Beth and I are working on for spring. I'm happy with the way all the projects are turning out, but I have to admit that I've struggled with all three. The smallness of the ATC's has been really hard for me, as I tend to be a detail sort of a person. The largeness of the project for Liisa too, because I've been timid about working really large, and the book, because I have too many ideas for it, and feel like I've been taking too much time finishing it, and getting it sent off to Beth, who is very good at completing projects quickly. At least compared to me. She has been very patient though, so I thought maybe I'd start giving her a glimpse of some of the pages, so she can start thinking about what she wants to do.
Starting with this one. It is a page that sits towards the middle of the book, and I really like it. Mostly, because it is simpler, and the background is an interesting and fun to read old article on growing a garden from seeds and "slips" from a neighbor friend.
The basket page sits next to this one. I like the way the two pages look together, and I like them because they aren't complicated. They look like something a lady may have created at her kitchen table. On a rainy day, after her chores were done. The rain is keeping her from her garden, but she's still thinking about it. The laundry''s all folded. There's vegetable soup simmering on the stove top, and bread baking in the oven. She has a bit of time to herself to daydream, to cut and to paste. A bit like children do. We all need to make time for quiet and to play. I am fortunate I know, to have time for a bit of both.
....'til next time in Merryville.
