Daybook/Life is so Daily/Living the Moment

March Daybook and Other Things

Posted on by Joy / 7 Comments 
March so fickle, March so fair,
Pouting, shy, with wind-blown hair,
Nut-brown shawl and crocus cup,
Smile that lights the whole world up.
- Sara L. Vickers Oberholtzer -

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Hello Friend,

Come in! Come in. You are very welcome here. Hasn’t it been a long time? Please have a seat by the fire. March is so unpredictable, and today is one of those days when a fire is cozy and reassuring.

A lot of life has gone by since our last visit; in the world and for each of us personally. Are we the same people we were six months ago? I do pray that at our core we’re still noticing the beauties around us, big and little; that our faith hasn’t wavered and our courage holds fast.

I’ve been baking Amish Friendship Bread. Won’t you have a slice or two? I prefer it with butter. Would you? It will go very well with our tea. Cream and sugar are there for your choosing too.

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Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

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Outside my window …

As usual, our March weather has been erratic. Some days one thinks, “Ah, finally Lady Spring has arrived!” On other days it still feels like Old Man Winter hangs on with his powerful grip. Funny how we think of winter as Old Man, but by this time of the year he has grown old, in more ways than one. And we’re ready for spring to come in as a lady. We’re ready for beauty and elegance. This week, on her first day, Lady Spring didn’t know whether to rain or snow. We had no sun, but a little bit of this and that all day: rain, sleet, snow. I suppose as she grows into herself, she’ll realize what she can do.

Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

Kenneth Grahame (The Wind in the Willows)

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Until we get a proper bird feeder, I put a plastic container outside the window. What a delight it’s been to watch the happy chickadees flutter and flit under the porch roof to perch on the rocking chair before deeming it safe enough to nibble. They hop right into that little bowl, politely taking turns. 

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:-
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

William Wordsworth
from his poem, Lines Written in Early Spring

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An unexpected thrill this morning: while I was out on the deck, the grand duchess of birds flew overhead. A swan! It’s the first time I’ve ever witnessed a swan in flight.

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I’ve been reading …

Elizabeth Fair is an English author whose novels were published between 1952 and 1960. “Perfect light reading with a dash of lemon in it …” and “All [her novels] are characterized by their English countryside settings and their shrewd and witty study of human nature” are just a few descriptions of the books. Her humour has been compared to that of Trollope and Jane Austen. You get into each character’s head, learn who they are. And, for me, each character’s foibles and ways, how they like, dislike, have opinions about, and get on with their neighbours is hilarious, and could be written about anyone today. That’s what makes her books timeless. Landscape in Sunlight has been my favourite so far.

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I’ve been watching …

The Ken Burns documentary on Mark Twain. So interesting, of which, learning how Samuel Clemens chose the pseudonym Mark Twain, was most interesting of all. I highly recommend it. We found it on PBS.

In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.

Mark Twain

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I am wearing …

Black pants, flowery blouse with ties at the neckline and pretty ruffles at the wrist, lip gloss called Blanche, and my favourite fragrance – Femme.

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A few recent delights …

  • the way the lace curtains puffed out at the open window in my library on a fine day
  • sitting at my (finally) clean and organized desk
  • receiving a beautiful card in the mail (shown in the book photo above) from my writing buddy. She even shared a pretty piece of cake and cup of tea in the form of stickers on the envelope.
  • chatting with daughters Sweetie, Peaches, and Babe individually, in person or by video chat
  • the way the snow sits like cotton balls atop the birdhouse outside my window
  • visits from all five grandchildren at different times in the last two months, one of whom asked to stay with us for a few days instead of having a birthday party. What an honour! Each of these singular little people brings so much joy to The Cowboy and me.
  • reminders of the blessing of dear friends through texts, visits, a card in the mail, a photo on my desk, needlework on my wall, a gift book with a marker at the page that reminds her of me, sharing the starter for Amish Friendship Bread.
So, blessed are our flying buttresses.
For they hold us up
when everything seems ready to come apart,
allowing us to face today-
not because we're doing it alone-
but precisely because we aren't.

Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie
(from The Lives We Actually Have pg. 61)

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I am creating …

I spent most of fall making quilts for six children. The one below was for Little Man’s birthday. The bison is a symbol of courage for him, and he has needed a lot of courage in the last couple of years. This bison is particularly fierce looking, and I hope he takes on some of that courage as he snuggles under it.

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For Christmas, Mom gave me a big ball of crochet cotton in soft pinks and greys, and I’ve been remembering the stitching I learned when I was younger. Back then I started and never finished an afghan. I loved the butter yellow colour developing into satisfying patterns. Mom found the unfinished project years after I’d begun it, and finished it for me. It is draped on the couch here in my library, and I still love the soothing buttery yellow of it. Dishcloths were first on the list with the new crochet cotton, and next I’ll learn how to make a potholder. There’s been a meme going around social media about how engaging in old lady crafts can add years to your life. I don’t know about that, but it certainly is a calming and de-stressing activity. I highly recommend it! You can find all kinds of tutorials online. I’m blessed to have my own master teacher living with me.

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I’m listening to …

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I’m so very glad you decided to stop in today. You’ve made this day lovely, and sometimes lovely days are hard to find. On hard days I try to remember that God is still in His heaven. He sees the beginning from the end. That means He already knows the end, and He’s not worried.

Thank you so much for coming. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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Feature Image by Luda Kot from Pixabay

©Joy Bailey, March 2026

Daybook/Living the Moment

Birthday Daybook

Posted on by Joy / 3 Comments

Time is such a funny thing; one minute it’s forever and the next, it’s gone.

Susan Branch

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Hello Friend,

I’m looking forward to our midsummer visit today. After all the rains, the sun is shining, and every kind of flora and vegetation is flourishing. By this time of day, the front veranda is in shade so we’ll sit out there in the breezy warmth. The rain is supposed to come back soon so let’s enjoy this while we can.

The rhubarb has erupted in big bushes – I’ve frozen some and baked with some. Today I made a rhubarb coffee cake. It’s a family favourite and I hope you’ll like it too.

I have coffee, hot or iced, on offer today. The Cowboy and I have taken to enjoying an iced coffee with a flavoured coffee enhancer in the hot afternoons. It’s so refreshing. Which would you prefer? As always, cream and sugar are there on the little table.

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Image by Nguyên Trần from Pixabay

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I had a birthday this week, and I decided to celebrate all week long. Every day, I did something to observe the occasion. From drinking Dr. Pepper out of a crystal goblet, to getting a pedicure. It was soul refreshing to do something a little extravagant every day; to be aware of things I love to do or see or hear, and make them happen. For someone who has spent most of her life catering to others, it was a blossoming exercise, and I highly recommend it.

Today

A little bit of this and a little bit of that …

I am wearing …

An orange sundress with white polka dots.

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You can’t have a bad day in polka dots.

Anna Kendrick

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Outside my window …

Pale blue skies, dark green evergreens, trembling aspens whispering to each other. The wheat field across the road is in the middle of its transformation from pale green to feathery blonde, a lush backdrop to the vibrant magenta petunias mushrooming out of my big pots on the corner of our property.

In the garden …

The Cowboy’s Grandma’s Hollyhocks are spreading. In a few years they should fill that flowerbed, just like they did at Grandma’s.

In the vegetable patch, I’ve pulled out all the overgrown radishes. They were bountiful and bushy. And tasty! But now they’ve become overgrown and not good for eating. For me, radishes are a vanity vegetable because they sprout quickly and always grow, in all conditions. They make you feel that you are a wonderful gardener. So I always make sure radishes are among the seeds I sow in the spring. They give me a boost when those little sprouts shoot up before anything else.

Birthday delights …

My birthday week began with a book in the mail from a dear reading and writing buddy. In A Year of Wonder, Clemency Burton-Hill tells a behind the scenes story of one classical piece of music each day. And you can find a soundtrack online to go with it. If you know me at all you know I love classical music, and I’m learning something new every day.

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Music, which extends across cultures and boundaries, which requires no translation to be understood, is the most uniting language we have.

Clemency Burton-Hill

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Mom made me something new for every day of my birthday week: quilted fabric baskets in lemony gingham, raspberry jam, crocheted potholders and a dishcloth in rainbow cotton. The amazing thing is that each thing she gave me, she had made that day!

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And of course, all the other birthday greetings were really lovely. From poetry shared by text to the Happy Birthday song sung over the phone, I felt special all week.

In progress …

Writing – A guest blog post on the topic Seasons of Life is in the works. So many ideas have been jotted down. So many ways this could go. I’m also working on a short story for an anthology: a grandma, a little girl, and a three-legged dog. It may or may not be ready to enter into a writing contest this month. And of course, I’m always working on Mom’s story, even if only in my head.

Quilting – I’m working on a new quilt that I chose because I think it’s pretty. It’s full of colourful butterflies on a background of white. I don’t know if it’s for me or someone else, but it doesn’t matter because the reason I quilt is for the joy of sewing and creating. Of course, like any serious quilter, there are a few others on the back burner…

Meanwhile, to switch things up, I’m attempting to make a handbag. We’ll see if I have any talent for this, but it will be fun to find out.

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Summer reading …

There is a temperate zone in the mind, between luxurious indolence and exacting work; and it is to this region, just between laziness and labor, that summer reading belongs.

Henry Ward Beecher

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I would recommend any one of these books, but I’ll highlight only a couple.

I spent a long time reading The Mitfords. These are actual letters exchanged between six sisters born between 1904 and 1920. They were prominent members of British society in the 1930’s and 40’s. Their lives are so interesting because the paths they took couldn’t be more polarizing, and I found myself wondering how these astoundingly unique personalities could have been raised in the same family. Among them are a lifelong fascist, a communist who became an American, a friend of Hitler and who moved in his closest circles, a successful author with a biting tongue. The least prominent sister became a farm manager; the youngest became the Duchess of Devonshire (she lived until 2014). The fascist and the communist didn’t speak or write to one another for over 30 years, but the others’ letters show a warmth for each other despite their radically individual views and life paths.

There are many documentaries on the sisters that you can find online, and BritBox just released a new series on the Mitfords entitled Outrageous. But I like this book because the letters are unfiltered and real, a glimpse into the authentic Mitford sisters.

*

Of course, Hilary Mantel will always be one of my favourite writers, for her seemingly effortless ability for clear and beautiful writing. This book was published posthumously, and it’s a collection of some of her essays, articles, and lectures written throughout her life. “Compelling, often very funny, always luminous, it is essential reading from one of our greatest writers.”

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Ink is a generative fluid. If you don’t mean your words to breed consequences, don’t write at all.

Hilary Mantel

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I’m listening to …

The Year of Wonder soundtrack quite a lot over the last week.

But today I’m listening to a jazz playlist, and this. This! Is the epitome of summertime. Turn up the sound to hear all of the instruments clearly. And … is that someone humming in the background?

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Closing thoughts …

Here in Canada we have just come through a long weekend. The holiday Monday is called different things in different provinces. In Alberta it’s Heritage Day, but I think most Canadians just refer to it as August Long and look forward to the extra day off work. The Cowboy and I went to the parade in the little village near us, and from home we could hear the nightly performances taking place all weekend at the Music Festival there.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the coffee and the cake, and the rather long and lazy visit. Do come back soon. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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Feature image by Jill Wellington on Pixabay.

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©Joy Bailey scrapsofjoy.com

Life is so Daily/Living the Moment/Passages

Dawn, Wind, and Becoming

Posted on by Joy / 2 Comments

If you were a bird, and lived on high,

You’d lean on the wind when the wind came by,

You’d say to the wind when it took you away:

‘That’s where I wanted to go to-day!’

A.A. Milne (from The Complete Poems of Christopher Robin)

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Hello Friend,

What a lovely day for you to stop by. Not too hot, not too cold, the perfect day for a chat on the verandah. Why don’t you have a seat on one of the old-fashioned rocking chairs and I’ll go get us some tea and cookies.

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Image by Irina Savchishina from Pixabay

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I made chocolate chip cookies. Will you have one or two with your tea? There’s cream, sugar, honey, and maple syrup there on the tray for indulgent additions – whatever you prefer.

When I got up this morning, the sun had risen just above the horizon. It cast a golden glow on the trembling aspens, and through the trees long slices of it shimmered on the lawn like soothing light radiating through cathedral windows.

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Adrian Campfield from Pixabay

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The wind has diminished into an oh-so-slight breeze. We’ve had wind for several days, and one evening it was so alarmingly strong that it took down trees in the neighbourhood. The Cowboy had to go hunting for a couple of lawn chairs, but my wind-whipped flowers survived, proving themselves stronger than I would have thought.

I love getting up in the early morning on days like this. I often sit out here on the verandah with my coffee and Morning Journal. Stillness, quiet, meditation. Gratefulness for grace given, in all its forms.

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Grace comes into the soul, as the morning sun into the world; first a dawning; then a light; and at last the sun in its full and excellent brightness.

Thomas Adams

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Image by Надежда Мельникова from Pixabay

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In the garden, all the vegetables and flowers are planted. Radishes, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, potatoes are well on their way. Tomatoes look strong and hardy. Tulips have finished their last blazes of colour and I’ve left the leaves to die back, which is good for the bulbs I’m told. To my great joy and satisfaction, the perennials I planted last year – daisies and delphinium – are growing for all they’re worth. And (magical wonder!), the cosmos has reseeded itself and is springing up in little feathery bursts. As each tiny seedling pops up it seems to peep, “Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!”

I’m a seasoned vegetable gardener, but a becoming flower gardener, so these things thrill me to my core.

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Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.

Walt Whitman

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Image by Nadine Doerlé from Pixabay

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In the last seven days The Cowboy and I have attended a baptism, a wedding, and a memorial for the son of a friend. Despite affairs happening on the world stage which capture everyone’s attention just now, these life passages carry on, as ever they have done throughout time. We rejoice and we lament – these mere words hold such simplicity, such complexity. In the case of my friend, not only the loss of her son, but the loss of her life with him in it.

Each of these life passages spotlighted young people. Don’t you think that the older we become, the more we understand the significance of these milestones? We contemplate the ripple effects, the ramifications, the actions that lead up to that point. Joy and sorrow, pain and scarring, hope and prospect. Looking forward, looking back.

Each passage, a becoming.

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Praise God in the mystery of our grass-like lives, brief as a wind gust, with storms of pain and arid tracts of sorrow. Praise the soaring, disabling dawns that reach for eternity, last a second, leave a scar of joy.

Stephen Berg

https://growmercy.org/

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Image by Joshua Woroniecki from Pixabay

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Curiously, I haven’t been able to land on only one piece of music to share with you today. So, I’m sharing all three of the songs I couldn’t decide between. If you don’t have time to listen to all three, I believe you will be drawn to the one your soul needs.

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Thank you so much for stopping in today; it’s been wonderful to have this front porch visit. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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A night can never defeat the sunrise.

Sumit Sharma

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Feature blossom Image by Екатерина Гусева from Pixabay

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©Joy Bailey scrapsofjoy.com

Living the Moment

Flourish

Posted on by Joy / 6 Comments

May all the happenings of my life prove useful and beneficial to me. May all things instruct me and afford me an opportunity of exercising some virtue and daily learning and growing toward Thy likeness, and let the world go which way it will.

Susanna Wesley (from The Prayers of Susanna Wesley)

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Hello Friend,

You are a brave one to be out in this cold! Come in, come in! What a treat to have a visit from you on a day like this. Please have a seat by the fire, and feel free to cozy up under the comfy quilt draped over the wing chair.

We had a delightful six-day visit from our youngest grandson, Little Munch. Now that he has returned home and the house has reshuffled its feathers, The Cowboy is back out in his shop working on his antique tractor, refurbishing it so it’ll be ready for work in the spring. And I’ve been sitting at my desk reading and writing, with gentle acoustic guitar playing in the background, and a glorious winter vista out my windows.

I’ve made chamomile tea. Among its many benefits, it helps to reduce stress and anxiety. And we all need a little bit of that in our lives these days. Will you have some with a piece of coffee cake? I made some for Little Munch while he was here (he does love his coffee cake), and there are a few pieces left.

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Image by Erika from Pixabay

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Somehow, January has gone and I don’t know where it has gone. I usually like to spend January reflecting on the year past and thinking about the year ahead, but this year life was unusually busy. And here we are halfway through February!

We’ve had a very cold snap recently, but there is magic yet to be found in -32º weather. The chickadees still call, “Hey Sweetie,” while the frost on twig and branch and ground sparkles in a myriad of diamonds. It looks like everything is charged with tiny twinkling snow fairies. Look! Isn’t it enchanting?

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Image by Anja from Pixabay

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The voice of Nature loudly cries,

And many a message from the skies,

That something in us never dies.

Robert Burns

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Image by Nicky from Pixabay

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I wonder if you’ve been feeling the heaviness that seems to permeate the world lately. There’s tension and combativeness in the air; people are quick to lash out at the smallest idea or action or opinion. So many think their way is the right way; there is no sense of compromise, of love, of kindness. It makes one want to hide away until the universe resolves itself.

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The world’s more full of weeping than you can understand. — W.B. Yeats

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Hiding away may serve your mental health for a time, but hiding away is not the answer. If the pandemic taught me anything it was that, as the world felt crazier, bigger, and more out of control, I had to look closer at the happenings in my own sphere, and those beings within my realm of influence. I looked for scraps of joy that revealed themselves the more I looked for them. They are there; you just need to look on purpose.

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In a world gone mad, small things turn big bad wheels.

In my little corner, gargantuan things happen:

The hollyhocks are blooming.

Joy Bailey

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There are ways to flourish in times like these. Kindness, for instance. Kindness is so remarkably rare that people are surprised by it when it happens to them. They’re so conditioned to the current atmosphere of teeth-clenching and fighting back, that kindness takes them off guard. In a world gone mad, where we want to do something that makes sense, kindness is something we can DO.

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Life is short, And we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who make the journey with us. So … be swift to love, and make haste to be kind. And the blessing of God, who made us, who loves us, and who travels with us be with you now and forever. Amen

Henri Frédéric Amiel

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Image by Karl Egger from Pixabay

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I’m so very glad you stopped in on this wintry day. I hope it’s a little warmer for our next visit. Stay safe out there, and see you next time.

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Feature Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay