I'd Meant To Tell You (the backstory)

It's a peculiar habit of mine
to think of
the one thing more 
I'd meant to tell you
after the fact

Invariably it occurs to me
at the exact moment I've just:
1) sent the email
2) hung up the phone*,

3) posted the blog entry

4) et al...

Peculiar, possibly endearing,

possibly annoying
but either way
something that's hard-wired into my being.

Hence it's seemingly appropriate there'd
eventually be a a blog tag and blog titles
that reflect and delineate

my quirk-related 'Oh! I meant to' bits
that wander into the station of my mind
 after the train has already pulled out

So, when you notice the title or tag
I'd meant to tell you # ___

 you now know the back story, lol

* I do actually remember when one
hung up the (corded) phone
as opposed to turning it off,

pushing the end call button
or placing the handset back
in the charging stand
(with such admissions I admit
that I may indeed be inching my way
closer towards being classified as
older than the dinosaurs, lol)

A fiddle, voices & words that transcend time

Tis a love song I share with you today
A love song I can well imagine

having resonated  within the walls
of my old girl in her one hundred & forty plus years

Times change, society wanders
but the depth of the heart
ah the the depth of love

alters never
Click Here for a direct link to the song in case the embedded image link below
doesn't work for you (a couple of people have had a bit of trouble with it - not sure why...)
Blackest Crow By The Showponies Band
(CD to be released Spring 2012)

Without doubt I will learn the tune and words to memory

and it will be heard within her walls in coming days...

(not as lovely in the singing, lol, but it will be sung)

Enjoy

On A Cool & Rainy Monday

On this cool and rainy Monday I treated myself
to catching up on blog reading (so enjoyed)
and editing some quasi-recent images to share.
Some hither and thither views from around
the 'old girl' that I hope you'll enjoy!

Spring = PROJECTS so there'll be much more
to share in the coming weeks (amid my advil
groans :-)

PS there are images of more clapboard scraping
pre-painting too ~ but they're far from lovely to
view lol so I spared you those!

Happy rain-filled-Monday from me to you....

It's a great life if you don't weaken

I bid thee farewell
sad news and bad news
offered up on platters
of airwave, digital text
(and the few remaining printed pages)

For past days many, weeks winding
and months marching
you have been a steady companion
while the old girl and I weathered
another winter more ~ together

Just yesterday, as May made her way
back to the farm again
I heard a knock upon the door

and found Spring waiting, full of hope
full of promise in spite of a winters' worth
of nay-saying-ramblers

Mother natures' May mentioned (in a warm wind whisper)
"it has always and ever will be so"
Sad news and bad news run rampant
yet one can (one must) set it aside

Set the hoplessness aside
when once again May comes calling
choose to dance

with Spring
and hope

come May

When on your porch-step
when at your door-step
May comes knocking
choose her....

Verse/text/images by IDF 2012

If April Showers Bring May Flowers....

What will a massive painful April Snowstorm bring?

The damage was unavoidable as mother nature had lured

the unsuspecting blooms to embrace the oh-so-early

warmth and sun...

Branches and blooms fell prey to the snow and wind.

Despite my hours spent shaking limbs free from snow
Despite my efforts in the aid of my rooted friends
some were, despite all assistance, harmed.

I choose to think they'd have been harmed more had I

not done what I could ~ but 'tis heartbreaking still to witness

the joy of Spring set back by Winters' willfulness.
Difficult to see times' growth undone
With a wrenting tear none can repair...

Yet Spring, Winter, Trees of Pink (and I)

know Spring will have the last word

(eventually)

As they say in my beloved New England
Spring comes
"wicked slow"
to some parts of the land...

 

Simple Work Full Soul

There is an elemental soothing

a renewal of the inner being

found within comparative simplicity

(hence my term simple work).

Sans computer, sans software

beyond the reach of text or tweet

hand to flour, milk and egg

(hence my label simple work)

Glorious, straighforward, free

water, yeast, loaves rising free

unfetterd by technology

The oven warms, the towels are draped

my gaze is drawn to window-scape

the field fresh turned

the crows approve

For these few hours time is stopped

it hovers in overlap

it could be any year in this old farmhouse

this old kitchen, with these timeworn bowls

For a heartbeat of history

I am connected, interlaced in purpose

with each of the women before me

who have stood

here

looking out this window

in this kitchen

hands covered in flour

with the tic-tic-tic of their oven warming.

Blessed be, simplicity

your joys, all but lost to haste

are under-rated

**Wheat and basic white breads in my image of recent bread baking**

Text & Images by IDF 2012

Handkerchiefs Of Happiness

Every segment of life holds its own particular triumphs & tribulations.
Progress hard won, distance gained & ground claimed is sometimes lost.
The warp and weave of time, writing yet another page of
who we were, who we are, who we will become....

One of joys I revel in now, here at this point in my journey
are what I've come to refer to as

handkerchiefs of happiness

Small tangible or visual or heartfelt treasures

that tuck safely in a pocket or picture or corner of
the heart....

When I was small, my grandmother ever and always carried

a perfectly folded, painstakingly ironed handkerchief.
Each was beautiful in its own way, made of

beautiful floral fabric or edged in detailed delicate lace.

They were light as air, translucent as a cloud, cheerful as sunshine
 and the epitomy of gentle womanhood.

Even when she and I would head to the fields to weed or
pick peas or strawberries she would have a 'hanky'
tucked beneath her dress belt or in her pocket.

Oft times I'd discover a flower or rock or clover - a treasure
I was anxious to carry back to the farmhouse
(even as a wee one I was a saver! lol)

But with picking or weeding to be done in the fields
it was easy to misplace and lose small treasures.

So early on grandma would wrap my 'treasure' in her
beautiful handkerchief, to safe-keep it till our work was complete.

As I grew older, I'd do the wrapping but the hanky was
always hers. Crisp, fresh, smelling of line-dried-breeze.

Ironed. Always ironed.

Perfectly folded and beautiful.

Perfect. Beautiful. Like the days in the fields, the chatter, the memories.

Nothing yet everything being woven into my soul
amid peas and berries,weeds, treasures and lace.

Thru my life, my Mum continued the teaching, the lesson
the importance of finding joy in small ways, places, moments.

To this day still, a tiny treasure found on a walk, a moment of time
frozen in a digital picture, the emergence of a flower ~ any small
joy becomes a handkerchief happiness to me.

The added layer of joy now is that I appreciate  fully, in a way
no child can, the depth of contentment each small happiness

brings...

Below are some imges

of my most recent 'handkerchiefs of happiness'

&

I'd love to see some of yours
(if you'd care to share)
In fact, how about a
'handkerchiefs of happiness bloghop'?!?

PS the sunflowers are a bit of Spring baking I did, as I
love to bake (cooking not so much, lol) I was pleased
with the outcome, loving the way they look!
(and they were quite yummy too) :-)

Our bees and a request

The early bird may catch the worm
But the early BEE  gathers the most pollen!

Happy not tooooo long till Spring! Hoping all's well with everyone....

**On a serious note, on behalf of bees, I humbly recommend
taking a moment or two to read this & then consider:
*planting a few (or many!) more flowers to help our bees
*leaving or encouraging any wildflowers that you may have
*consider using less yard & garden pesticides to help our bee-buddies 

December Remembered



Just Shy Of Forever

Or perhaps longer (seemingly) since last I've been here to visit with you....
Happily no desperate, dastardly nor dilema strewn reasons for my absence.
Simply life ~ unraveling and wandering ~ as she does, as she will!

I've missed each of you tremendously and hope to regain some sanity (or at least some momentum, lol) facilitating the time necessary to return to posting my snippets of text and saved images set aside in my mind to show you. Soon soon. *hopefully in the next few days*

I'd be honored (as ever, as always) to find you've stopped by here, pausing once again here to share the warp and weave of my days, my thoughts, my images. The adventures and views that are the lifeblood of myself and 'the old girl' farmhouse.

See you soon(ish)!