In The Sunny Spot

      We had a lovely Easter.

The earth is greening up nicely and the trees are budding out. The warm temperatures broke the records from a hundred years back. Nieces got sunburnt swaying in rocking chairs on Grandma's porch (her house is just up the hill from ours).

The pond was shimmering and had been completely ice free for 2 days already. Daddy and our 3 sons and 1 nephew went rowing and canoeing. I think that 1 good natured nephew was stranded on the small island there. He has since become the "coolest" thing to walk the face of this good earth in the eyes of my young guys!

     This was the first celebration at Grandma's beautiful new colonial style house. It was full of subtle and fresh, very softly natural and neutral spring colors. Since Grandma now lives next door, this was the first Easter that we didn't have to pack up the car and travel 2 hrs for dinner and then drive home again. It felt like we had 5 more hours in our Easter day, which, we actually did!

All the while, my good friend, the pleasant breeze, whispered and whispered around us.

     The church service was wonderful. Pastor Tom (my husband) gave a wonderful, logical, challenging and touching sermon. Worship was joyful and true. (Yes, Madelief, that is my husband in the palm sunday photos with the children. I am always noticing and putting together little facts like that, too.)

Monday, I was tired!

     I realized, after being awake for half an hour, that this was a day that I must listen to my body and do nothing. Sometimes this can get sort of boring. I pass the time with magazines or  the computer or, if I am too tired to do either of those, I watch movies.

     Yesterday, we watched one disc of the world of Beatrix Potter stories - The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, Two Bad Mice and Johnny Town Mouse, Mrs. Tiggy Winkle and Jeremy Fisher, one very disagreeable Mr. Tod and (for a strange Christmas twist) The Tailor of Gloucester.

     We don't receive any channels on our t.v. up here in the hills; so, we watch videos or DVDs occasionally. There are certain ones that we watch at certain times of the year. Besides the Beatrix Potter stories and a few others, I usually watch Sense and Sensibility in the spring. Yesterday was the perfect opportunity for that and, today, I thought that I would share a humorous story of when Tom and I went to see it for the first time in the movie theatre.

For the 10% of you who haven't seen it - I am sure that you will be able to catch on.

Well, the story goes like this ....

     My husband, being a very kind soul, and knowing how much I love Jane Austen (and knowing how reading Sense and Sensibility - oddly enough - was the "feather that pushed me over" in my decision to marry him), consented to take me to the movies to see Emma Thompson's adaptation of  the same title. (Are you with me so far?) Living in the country, there weren't many people at the theatre. There were maybe 20 others, sprinkled here and there in that large, dark cavern. I think that, at least, half of us were die-hard Jane Austen fans. The other half were husbands.

The scene is set.

Now ....

     Do you remember the part when the romantically minded Marianne trips and sprains her ankle whilst attempting to chase some blue sky during a tremendous rain storm? She "falls" for her dark, handsome and mysterious rescuer. The next day, he brings her a bouquet (somehow magically knowing that she would prefer wildflowers). He inadvertently sits on a book - a copy of Shakespeare's sonnets. He begins to quote his favorite, inviting Marianne to join in and recite it with him. When they come to the word "tempests" and he says "storms", there is confusion ...

... and he says,

"Isn't that funny that you are reading them, for, I always carry around a copy in my pocket,"

thereby producing said tiny book!

     Now, I know the story but my husband does not. It was at this point, (being wrapped up in the cinematic performance) that I slowly realized, out of the corner of my mind, what was happening. When the shady Willoughby pulled out his copy of the book and uttered his utterly simpering line, my husband gave a very, very loud and disdainful snort. I didn't notice this at first. What I did notice was that my husband, a few seconds later was sinking way down into his seat. I was turning, curious, towards him. It was then, that the rolling chuckling from the audience began to break into my awareness and I realized that they were laughing at him.

That's it!

That's the story!

AH! What a good memory.

I'm still laughing.

Well, I hope that I didn't bore you to tears with a "you-had-to-be-there" kind of story.

Happy fresh, new week after Easter!

Love,

Katy Noelle

P.S.

 

I should tell you that this "picture" was a wedding gift from a very thrifty and creative neighbor. She found this beautiful vintage pillow but the bulk of it was very damaged. She salvaged the lovely lady on it, added some trim and a bit of quilt stuffing behind it and framed it. Not only is it pretty and perfect, but, the thoughtfulness and effort behind this gift really touches me.  It was made with love and care! Best of all, it reminds me of one of my first friends when I moved back east. We would sit in the sunny breakfast nook and sip tea and eat the lemon tarts that were made from her great grandmother's recipe from England and we would laugh and chuckle at so many silly, simple things in life. Such a very pleasant lady and even more good memories!