Category: Grateful

This Week In Photos

Fawn sightings have been few and far between this Spring, but just a few yards from our porch, this brief encounter was long enough for a quick shot. The doe was not happy with me and gave me a ’foot stomp’, before ‘high tailing’ it to the woods with the fawn at her side.

It was one of the hottest days this month when we helped to cross off a bucket list item for a friend visiting us. I love quilts and this hand-pieced, hand- quilted did not disappoint, but in 90+ degree temps, it looked a little out of place. Flowers on the grounds gave me opportunities to practice composition.

Purple Poppies

This week also included a visit to a local historical mansion with the same friend. Flower gardens surrounding the mansion, gave me even MORE opportunities to practice the skill of composition.

Back at home, this beautiful Northern Flicker has been a regular visitor to our own garden.

We were doubly treated to some lake moments with a short walk to celebrate the triumph of a new sailor in our family who navigated his sailboat to a nearby cove for the first time, and by a heron who made a quick stop to gulp down a fish before taking off again for other destinations.

Cookie testing, cheese tasting, fossil hunting, sorting vintage buttons, and trying my hand at photographing lightning bugs added some excitement to my days, (and nights) as I wait on the healing ankle, which is making progress, I’m happy to say, thank the Lord!

Until next week, and a new set of photos, (maybe even some twin fawns) thanks for stopping by.

You are loved.

Happy birthday, Mom

These little African Violets, once my mother’s, now make their home on my kitchen window sill. After making them my camera’s muse, I can see why she loved them so.

They were the perfect remedy for so many ills of life here on earth.  Besides the fact that they must have eased her loneliness when her house was empty – first of children and then a husband of 70 years, she, as I do today, must have felt the relief from the grays, browns, and whites of winter with the arrival of each pretty bloom. 

Happy Birthday, Mom. If, by chance, you’ve been asked to to tend Heaven’s African Violets – with your attention and care, I know they are in good hands. For these you left to mine, thank you so very much.  

You always knew how to give good gifts. ❤️

It’s July 4th

and my thoughts turn to a quiet spot located in the Adirondack Mountains, in a little wooded cemetery just a few miles north of Keene N.Y.. It’s there you would find the resting place of my great-great-great-grandfather, who as a Rhode Island teenager, enlisted with the First Continental Army. He remained a soldier for the entirety of the Revolutionary War despite suffering bayonet wounds at two separate battles and nearly dying of small pox. The battles he fought in were many. He crossed the Delaware, he endured the cold of winter at Valley Forge, and the heat of summer at the Battle of Monmouth, NJ.. Having known two teenage boys, I could reason that the decision of William Edmunds to enlist might have been driven by the desire for adventure, but adventure aside, might there have been a time, even in this young man’s heart and mind, when circumstances made his hopes grow dim? Was he ever overwhelmed with the enormity of the task at hand – even survival- as he sat with other soldiers around a fire keeping warm from the cold of winter at Valley Forge? I would hope that if he were alive today that he would know that the cause was a noble one and worth his sacrifice. It’s with deep gratitude, this July 4th, that I say thank you, Private William Edmunds, for the sacrifices you made, the dreams that you helped to inspire, and the legacy you left behind.