a spirit of simplicity

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ A glad heart makes a cheerful face, But by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed. Laundry day and I cleaned out the kitchen china cabinet where the dish cloths are kept.  In the Waldorf tradition: Monday is purple day... Tuesday-red Wednesday-yellow Thursday-orange Friday-green Saturday-indigo Sunday-white This morning I hung the purple cloth over the the handle on the stove  and replaced the white beeswax candle on the kitchen table with purple. Mondays are also for cleaning the kitchen. I clean the fridge - wipe everything down and take stock of whatever’s in there. Wipe down the appliances Change the tablecloth. Dust off the hutch and make sure all the recyclables have been put to the curb. Monday is trash day on our tiny, narrow street. Put away all the little random things that didn’t find their way home over the weekend. Kitchen’s make me happy. They fill my heart with gladness. We very often have music

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t And the Lord said,  “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.” Genesis 4:10 ~ ~ ~ “Please, please, please, I can’t breath.” Is what that voice said. Did you know that George Floyd was a Christian man with a history of ministry work? Say his name.  Sunday scripture blessings Scripture and a snapshot You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The mornings have been getting warm enough to walk down to the harbour with a cup of coffee and watch the sunrise. The dock is in at the town landing. It was so calm and peaceful.  The Alliums that we planted in the Autumn have grown almost 4 feet tall! I’m just 5 feet so that’s almost as tall as I am.  They’re so pretty against the garden wall! Even though we couldn’t gather anyplace to honor Memorial Day the houses in town were all decked  out to honor those who have fallen fighting for the freedoms we hold so dear. We shared the first salad with lettuce greens from my garden! Yum! I haven’t had a pedicure yet but I did get new garden shoes! My mum and I drove quite a ways to a garden center where she wanted to buy a rose bush and she bought me a new pair of garden shoes. It will be nice to have something I can slip on and off at the door. ~ ~ ~ Friday fave fives

Poppies in a neighborhood garden. They are growing all wildly-nilly along an old split rail fence. The harbour is just across the old and narrow street. Just a few houses up hydrangea is getting ready to blossom. I think the bright blues and pinks are very pretty but they are just a little too ostentatious for my taste. I’m partial to the old fashioned type myself.  Phlox maybe? With grey/purple cat-mint interspersed.  It’s a lovely mix. Lilacs bend over fences and wisteria hangs over courtyards. Gentle breezes wafting the scents of so many flowers And the smell of the Atlantic I walk the crooked streets toward home. In my own garden There are a few strawberries coming along And the Columbine Here and there a Cosmos blossoming from between the perennials. How is your garden growing? ~ ~ ~ Little things Thursday Thursday favorite things You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Before 1954 Veteran’s Day was referred to as Armistice Day.  It marked the occasion on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour when the armistice signed between the allies of world war 1 went into effect.  30 May is the official Memorial Day but that is celebrated on the last Monday of May which makes it the unofficial kick-off of summer fun.  I am partial to Armistice Day which seems to represent the overwhelming sadness and futility of war. I am also partial to the third verse of My Country Tis of Thee because it doesn’t speak of one particular country but rather the freedom that all mortals seek. My country ‘tis of thee Sweet land of liberty Of thee I sing Let music swell the breeze  and ring from all the trees  sweet freedoms’s song  let mortal tongues awake  let all that breath partake  let rocks their silence break  the song prolong PEACE ~ ~ ~ Our world Tuesday Pictorial Tuesday Image-i

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Morning glory t But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. James 3:17 Open to reason and full of mercy God clearly tells us that we are to get wisdom. And then he goes on to tell us what wisdom is.  He doesn’t say, once you’ve got it do this...., because I think he must know that we are going to need a lifetime to make sure we have it and keep it. To be full of mercy alone is a big job, let alone all the other things listed in this one verse of James. If I want my walk through life to emulate Jesus...and I do, then I need to cultivate these qualities of wisdom from above. I am finding myself studying these kinds of verses more often since we have been in lock-down. People are acting out in fear, and anger, and hatred, and ignorance. There’s so much information and much of it is contradictory. It’s hard to understand what to do or how to act. Do

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Let music swell the breeze And ring from all the trees Sweet freedom’s song Let mortal tongues awake Let all who breath partake The song prolong ... I love thy rocks and rills Thy woods and templed hills My heart with rapture thrills Like that above.  ~  Every evening at six O’Clock, since the Quarantine began, the church bells ring out all over town. The evening of Memorial Day it was misty and cold.  It was quiet with no one parading, no picnicking, no boating on the harbour. When the bells rang they called me out to the little landing on the back stairway. Without those who gave their lives for our freedoms we would not be able to love  the natural beauty that surrounds us. Nature notes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Create in me a clean heart, O God,  and renew a right spirit within me.  ~ There is fresh milk for coffee in the morning though this afternoon I will walk to the market to freshen up our supplies. We will need more milk and sourdough bread and peach jam. And lemons for tea. The hutch in the kitchen holds books among other things. Cookbooks and books about keeping home... The left side of the top shelf has a stack of old New England books. Shipwrecks of New England which includes an 1849 wreck just off the coast of Marblehead and tells the story of all the townsfolk coming out to see it. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Did you know that he and Nathanial Hawthorne were great friends? The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson, who also wrote Silent Spring which began the Environmental act in the 1970s. She spent many years here in New England...and we share a birthday. Three O’Clock Dinner. This book belonged to my grandmother, Florence, and she wrote h

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The good is the flag flying high over the harbour and old town. We can just see it waving from the living room window. The crane is used for lowering boats into the harbour. The fun is a sunrise walk. The town dock is in. Random is the Allium in the garden.  It’s almost as tall as I am! ~ ~ ~ The good, the fun, the random

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t But as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined,  what God has prepared for those who love him. “ These things God has revealed to us through the spirit.  For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  1 Corinthians 2:9-10 Sunday scripture blessings Scripture and a snapshot You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I live in an old fishing town. The boatyard uses the crane you see to lower boats into the harbour...or to lift them out. Memorial Day and Independence Day the boatyard hangs the flag off the giant crane. We can just see it above and between the rooftops from our living room window. All of old town can see it and all of the boats in harbour can see it as well. There’s something very settling about seeing that flag this year. We may not have the parades or wreath laying ceremonies or back yard picnics with all our friends and family while we quarantine But “we’re kinda proud of that ragged old flag.” ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The Allium that mum planted in the Autumn are just about to blossom! They stand so stately and tall against the garden wall.  ~ This is the small area where I sit to drink my morning coffee. The wisteria is blooming and it looks so pretty from the window in our conservatory. In the morning it beckons me so that even if I have to put on a sweatshirt and a vest I can’t help but go out into the garden and the morning sunlight.  My son-in-law is re-sanding and painting the old flag pole in the their front yard. He had a friend help him replace the old eagle that sits at the top after he repainted it gold. My grandson, Verne, likes to swing as high a the trees! My granddaughter, Abigail, had a dance-off party with me in the back yard!  Look at that delicious, apple and home-made cookie filled belly! ~ ~ ~ Friday fave fives Friday favorites

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Can you even begin to believe that it will soon be Memorial Day?  I feel as if we are all living underwater and every once in a while  something that we recognize floats by. ~ ~ ~ Little things Thursday

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Early morning in the morning with coffee in hand I slip on my boots and step downstairs to check on the garden. Last summer we moved into the second floor apartment above my elderly mum who moved into the first floor apartment. Almost upon arrival we began to plan the garden. My mum grows beautiful roses and I mentioned that I would love to have a rose in the garden. Quick as a minute she had one planted. She doesn’t remember what the name of it is but it matters not since she refers to it as Kara’s rose. At first I thought that my husband and I would be close by her in case she needed something. But at 57 I am fully convinced that there will never be a time when I don’t need my mum. There are quite a few buds but this is the one that will blossom first. Oh so early in the morning I look to see how far along it has come later in the morning, when she’s woken up, mum comes outdoors to see as well. When I was younger, I didn’t like geran

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ The lilacs are blooming in neighborhood dooryards. There is nothing like a lilac nestled by your back door. May brings delightful smells as you come in from a trip to the market. The house on the corner has just been painted. It faces the old harbour and town landing. I love grey on a beach house and the pink of the magnolia (Dogwood?) looks so pretty against it. There are so many different types of flowering cherry trees. They create a canopy of blossom over the narrow lanes of my old town home. The  blossoms float down down and sprinkle the ground with pink and white. ~ ~ ~ Our world Tuesday Pictorial Tuesday Image-in-ing My corner of the world Community Global Nature notes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ t She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Proverb 31:26-27 My husband and I live in a house which was originally built (and rebuilt about 150 years ago) by Captain John Merritt, of the American Revolutionary War, who was in the Marblehead regiment with General Glover. We live in the apartment on the second floor and my mum, who is elderly, lives in the apartment on the first floor. In this way she’s not alone if she needs something. In old houses, the rooms are rather small and usually have quite a bit of character.. You work with what you have or you tear the whole thing apart and start from scratch but that is far from the ideal because it ruins the history and the charm of the house. Old house living isn’t for every one. The street that I live on is very short and narrow. It’s part of the original village and it’s lined on either