Valentine's Day is always a bit higgledy-piggledy for us. As I confessed, last year, somehow, we just can't seem to make it fit into one day, really. I'm afraid that I'm just too mellow at this time of year to work myself into an organized frenzy to make it all happen at once. On the actual day, as long as we have chocolate and flowers and all the school Valentines delivered - we know that, in the end, it will all turn out alright. but what to share with you all, today? I think that, at this point, I might be the last blogger to squeak their post in for this festive occasion. Well, I've decided to show you everything I've got (er, everything we've accumulated so far so that we can celebrate, that is - don't panic!)
I've got the chocolate, the flowers and some cheery new flatware for
when we have the chance to sit down and have a yummy treat together. Oh,
all sorts of fun things are happening this year for Valentine's
'day'....it's just slowly happening over the next week or so; so, I'll
share that shtuff with you later.
In the meantime, I do have some puppy love to share with you....
Either you'll think that this is soooooo romantic or you'll think, like Lucy:
"Ugh! I've been kissed by a dog! I have dog germs! Get hot water! Get some disinfectant! Get some iodine!" ;-)
(it's even cuter if you click on 'youtube' and watch it there. It's easy! =])
Some of you may have noted, if you've read my blurb "about me" in my profile, that I'm married to the pastor of one of the small country churches, here, in town. It's true! =] It sounds rather idyllic, doesn't it? but, there's been no sleepy or simple rural existence for us - especially, this year! (Actually, I think that 'the uneventful life' might just be a myth). This year, our church community has, literally, been through fire and water! The water I refer to is, of course, Hurricane Irene which really did cause some tremendous damage to our town and the outlying areas. The fire was set in our 'prayer closet' by some unknown individual on a rainy day, last spring. (Not the kind of fire you want to start in a prayer closet, I mean!) It was, of course, a frightening thing but we barely had time to register the reality of it all as we were standing out in the dark, drizzly night by the light of the parade of firetrucks up and down Main Street, before we were told that they had caught the fire just in time. A moment later (and I mean seconds!!!) and the flames would have been fully ignited in the walls and attic where they would have been beyond the firemens' reach. I am - we all are - so grateful! SOgrateful! The 'church' isn't made up of brick and wood and plaster - it's made up of people. However! We tend and love our little sanctuary - a beautiful historic building. It holds so many memories and, I should, also, mention,....it's super set up to worship in!!! ;) =]
Well, the building was spared but there was tremendous water and smoke damage. Our burgeoning church huddled (crammed ourselves) together cheerfully, on Sunday mornings, downstairs in the vestry, through the very warm summer months. In the meantime, the main sanctuary was undergoing the most thorough renovation and spring cleaning it's ever, ever received. Perhaps, a hop, skip and a jump down the road, we'll call it a wonderful blessing in disguise but, up close, well....it hasn't been a walk in the park - not bad - not easy. Anyway, Vermonters just love how adversity gives them a chance to really show what tough stuff they're made up of. They really shine! So, no trouble! ;)
What was totally eaten by the flames, though, (besides those tremendously ugly, pea green, moth eaten, dusty, old choir robes - "Hallelujah Chorus", anyone?) were all of our 'decorations'. Particularly missed were years and, even, decades of accumulated Christmas festiveness (and, I think that 'accumulated' is a good word, here.) We'd spent years finding quality things at good deals that needed to be replaced come Christmas time. ....and, yes, I spent a thousand dollars at Michael's Craft Store (after really, really shopping around - and that's with 50-75% off pre-Christmas shopping, too!) ...and, it turned out so beautifully - more beautifully than we had planned, which was an appreciated piece of serendipity, since we were at the mercy of what was available. We bought our ribbons, we bought our greens, we bought our silk flowers and shiny berries and put it together - problem solving with our resources all the way - and stood back and gasped! We couldn't have planned it any better!
It turned out to be a huge but fun project and the sanctuary was decorated just in time for the community choir's Christmas Concert. The church was absolutely packed! I got to sing a solo that was sheer joy and....we've built more memories together, of course, that no flood or fire will take away!
(Just a note as you look through the pictures: we are undergoing an organ transplant. It's been removed and is being cleaned and restored, to boot, in the process; so, there are usually brass pipes that line the front of the sanctuary, between the two trees. It should be mostly back by Easter. We just stretched some deep sky blue felt across and put an appropriately glowing "Bethlehem star" there to hide the mess. ;) Also, around the time of the winter solstice, something very special happens. The sun is at such a slant that, in the afternoon, the rose window glows in a spectacularly golden way that it doesn't do through the rest of the year. Some of those images are dark because I couldn't expose for both the dark room and the bright window. It's always a breath catching sight - especially, because it's usually discovered silently - when no one else is there.)
but, the church is made up of people.....decorated in festive Christmas red! (teehee!) ;)
I could, also, call this post, "just forget what I said in the last one...." I had just finished putting the finishing touches on my dreamlike words of winter isolation and had contentedly sunk down into the muffled quiet - the comfortable pillow - of a welcome hermitage, when, the temperature rose and we experienced a week of unseasonally warm temperature. A vague sort of thaw! I mean, we have patches of bare ground, here and there!!! Someone even said that they heard the chickadees calling their spring songs. I'm confused - I was all ready for winter but who could resist venturing back out of their cave - both literally and in their psyches - when they hear that!?!
Being reticent to hope too soon for spring - only to have 'Indian Winter' sneaking back to disappoint - if you don't mind - I'd like to celebrate the pretty, glittery winter garden that we had, early on. Ooooh, we had some sparkling mornings at the very beginning of the season! The light was thrilling! =] In the meantime, I'm still going through one kajillion, bazillion photos of my summer garden - trying to get them down to a handful so that I can, FINALLY, share them with you - wish me luck! ;)
(try clicking on this next image so that you can really see the ice crystals...=])
I
love January - it's such a peaceful, quiet month - resolutions and new
beginnings or not. After the flushed and glowing, ginger heavy scentedness that seems
to hang over the bustle and busy of November and December, this part of
the season is filled with the fresh air of comparative blankness. This
year, the snow has matched the activity of the calendar beautifully. As
the earthy meetings with friends and family (which can start to feel cumulatively complex) finally slowed down and the noise faded away and the calendar cleared, the landscape outside was blurred to simplicity in the white blanketing of snow that has, finally, apparently, come for good. Now, everything's purified and made newborn in pristine white. Now, the cold and ice has come in earnest,
driving us indoors, even as the sun is coming back to us more and more, every day, and streaming
through the windows - making our home a veritable solarium of bright
warmth - its own genial terrarium - while the hard cold presses in from the
outside.
I'm not sure if I've been dancing into the new year or dreaming, drifting and floating into it. I do know that this year has started with much more happiness and peace than the last one did and I am deeply glad for that. In the meantime, reading so many posts, lately, it's been a bit bemusing to observe how differently we all react to January. Some of us seem to charge into the new year - robust and energetic - full of gusto and plans. Others of us seem to be introspective and, even, a bit lost in a happy way. I am, definitely, of the latter perspective. No matter how hard I try and plan ahead in December, I slow almost to a misty halt in January.
Speaking of dreaming, a couple of you have asked me if I'm planning for my garden, yet, and I must confess, I've had only a brief and vague thought for it as I've made sure that I would receive my seed catalogs, this year. However, the time to plant seeds seems so very, extremely far off - like in another world or era. The magazines are telling me that I want to reorganize my home and, indeed, I have projects started - both in my heart and in earnest (think, 'reorganizing closets and cupboards'! =]) - but, mostly, I'm dreaming of it all. Just dreaming - reading, thinking, thinking, thinking. I'm thinking of beautiful images and ideals while I'm looking through my windows at the beauty outside and loving the way that the light shines back, falling on my half finished projects. Even as night and dark and chill, still, come early, we're snug and cheery inside.....
The frost garden on my bedroom window...
"The quiet in the house echoes the quiet outside, where ice-sheathed
bare branches are gilded in the sunshine, and snow has stifled movement,
except that marked by the little birds' interwoven tracks..... This day
is waning, the wan sun sinking, the fire needing a stir and a poke. And
what have I accomplished? My January day, like the forest outside,
looks from afar like a snarl of dead ends and broken places - sere, not
serene. But I know different, here at the beginning of the year. Things
are stirring, however circular my thoughts, just as the sap is rising in
the tangled and hidden world outside. The strength, the purpose, and
the flowering of the coming months start here, in the depths of winter,
and the icebound month of January."
~Catherine Calvert for Victoria
Magazine, January/February 2010
I'm sorry to the few of you who've heard about this, already.... I have to confess that the quiet of January was violently interrupted for a few days with much shrieking, clamor and waving of excited hands when my "Jack Frost" photo (shared in the middle of the post, up above) - an image taken of the frost on my bedroom window - was selected as an 'editor's choice' on 500px. You can read about it HERE. It was funny how easily and quickly life calmly slipped back into its sleepy ways, again, though. It's, sort of, old news, now - sort of....but very happy and I just wanted to share it with the few of you who wouldn't have heard about it, yet. =]
