Thursday, December 02, 2010

The Garden in December

It was warmer today, - really quite a pleasant day.  Late in the afternoon, just as the sun was preparing to slip away, I went out to fill the bird feeders.

I took the camera to catch some of the pretty pink wisps of cloud that were floating high above, and also hugging the hill tops.



When all was replenished in the bird feeding department I strolled through the garden, trying to give cover to the most vulnerable plants, and admiring what the frost had done to the yellow roses that got caught unprepared for its chilly advances.



...and the 'grocery store' roses



as well as the Pearly Everlastings....




Here is another lovely rose, and now I really must go and finish the toe on that sock I'm knitting -still three more socks to knit and parcels to mail, and cards, and baking and shining up the house before we decorate!

But I will do it all as simply and tranquilly as possible!

Monday, November 29, 2010

ABC Wednesday
The letter for this week is T
and I would like to think that T stands for Tranquility occasionally...


A few wise words about Tranquility....

While conscience is our friend, all is at peace; however once it is offended, farewell to a tranquil mind.
Mary Wortly Montagu

All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't.
And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.
Robert Kennedy

Don't ask to live in tranquil times.  Literature doesn't grow there.
Rita Mae Brown

Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed,
the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.
Indra Devi

The more tranquil a man becomes the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good:  calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.
James Allen

A few pros and cons which lead me to believe that tranquility is greatly desired in moderation,
but to be avoided at all costs if we become so calm and peaceful that we are
tranquilized to all the enthusiasms of living as embodied in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's Psalm of Life.

We don't want to obliterate our 'footsteps in the sands of time' completely, now, do we!!

For more T interpretations click here to go to ABC Wednesday and enjoy!







Sunday, November 28, 2010

Good News, Good News



It is the evening of June 3rd, and I pick up the phone to call my sister on a mobile phone

She talks to me from a restaurant in Edmonton where she and her oldest son are having a pre-admission supper before she undergoes major heart surgery the next day.  She is bright and positive, with plans to attend her granddaughter's wedding in three weeks or so.....

Between that evening and now she has had more medical adventures than you could shake a stick at, and I have not heard her dear voice for six months less four days, so you can imagine how my heart leapt when I went to answer the phone this afternoon and saw her name and telephone number displayed.  Home on a two hour pass from the hospital with two of her children, she sounded as bright and positive as she did six months ago, and it seemed as if all the distress and despair of the intervening time was a very bad dream.

I had to post this news, - it just seems so WOW! How Awesome!  And I am so full of gratitude........