I waken this morning, just after five.  When I open my eyes the sky is blushing a pale rosy pink, through the north window,  beckoning to me to come and see the early a.m. show.

I don't stop to dress, - sometimes these events can be quite transitory, and so I am out on the deck in my  nightgown, gazing in delight.  The whole bowl of the sky is a misty pink, - a few scattered raindrops fall, and close by in the west, a perfectly arched rainbow frames the whole confection of rosy sky

 and a valley awash in apple blossoms.

I skip down the steps (did you know that 86 year old ladies can skip when inspired to do so????) and move across the lawn, trying to gain distance, but I am such an amateur, and cannot contain the whole rainbow, although I do remember advice I have been given and focus on something closer

before moving in to snap the lens.

Very soon it all began to fade, and by the time I turned to come in the sky was once again a sulky grey.

It was so lovely while it lasted, and I wished I had more camera skills, - 

but oh, my dear, you just had to be there!

Last night's storm with its rain and great gusty winds has moved on;  the sky is clearing in the west and the air is still, so early in the morning.  I take my coffee on to the deck and the fragrance of the apple blossoms  is sweet and faint from the orchard.  They are out in full bloom this morning to celebrate the day of anniversary, - sixty-six years since we 'pledged our troth'.   Young and eager and as fresh as the apple blossoms that proclaimed the day in the wartime song, our song,  - 'I'll be with you in apple blossom time.....'

Just days before Charles had sailed into New York Harbour to bands and balloons and streamers, returning from Europe.  It was a bittersweet homecoming as he left his two brothers buried in France and Holland, and it would be fifty years before we returned to bring plaques, embedded with stone from the hills of home, to their graves.


Occasionally the old ardour surfaces;  occasionally life is a little tempestuous;  but on the whole we have settled quite nicely into being ancient and nostalgic; filled with memories and gratitude for a life well lived, a love well preserved, and a family well loved.

ABC Wednesday

The Quaint and sometimes Querulous letter this week is Q

Q is for Queen

Here are some pictures of our own beloved monarch, Queen Elizabeth the Second.

All, I am afraid, courtesy of the Internet, although Charles and I once were at a garden party at the Lieut. Governor's digs in Victoria where the Queen was Guest of Honour.  But we weren't introduced, and pictures were not allowed.  It is too bad, really, - we would have had a lot to talk about, being of the same generation and it being at a time when we both had rather rowdy teen-agers......

the marriage of Elizabeth and Phillip Mounbatten

her coronation

masquerading as an English Rose

and one of Wordsworth's beautiful daffodils

but this is the picture that makes me smile and evokes a delightful personality. 

as well as being steady-as-she-goes!

Long May She Reign.

For more quizzical Q's wander over to ABC Wednesday here

with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and all her helper.

In the evenings why am I not reading, or knitting, or making cookies, or flipping through magazines and getting inspired??

I'll tell you why, - I have become addicted to Texturing!

The pictures come from the camera looking quite gorgeous (well, most of them, - the ones that don't are quickly deleted), - but my imagination drives me to experiment with textures, and I think ' what would this flower, or tree, or person look like with a Serendipity texture?  Or one of the new Zen creations that I stumbled over while surfing the net.

Sometimes I think they are great, - more often than not I am wary of my judgement , - but in any case it is great fun....

The pretty tulip above somehow escaped from the garden and ended up down by the pasture fence, so this morning while I was inspecting the latest Chinese Lantern Railway sub-station I went and snapped a picture of this lonely little tulip in amongst the dandelions.

Shortly after a strong whirly wind came up and snapped the stem of this tulip, and also two of the pink ones in the garden, so I brought them in and put them in the old white teapot with the broken spout, and took a picture of that, too!

Here is the bouquet, untouched, straight from the camera. 

and here it is all gussied up with fancy textures......

Am I frittering away my time?????

or am I just not very good at it yet (sigh)

Happy Mothers' Day 

to all who have the delightful task

of loving and enchanting children

...........and the fairies all ran away with their clothes

Charles Sims


and blowing their noses and cleaning their ears and seeing that they don't eat worms and such stuff.