February Five on Friday

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.

Albert Einstein

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Hello Friend,

Come in, come in. What a treat to have you stop in! Thank you for braving the cold for this visit.

The last several weeks, those of us who live in these parts have been lured into thinking that Lady Spring is just around the corner when in fact, we’ll be hunkered down with Grandpa Winter for a couple more months at least. Today, like yesterday, it’s bitterly cold out there, but the new snow is making everything look fresh and white, isn’t it?

Come, sit in my favourite chair by the fireplace and I’ll pour the tea. Cream, sugar, and soothing honey are just there on the little table, and please try one or two of the Chocolate Crunchies I made yesterday. They’re a chocolate cookie dipped in sugar, although they didn’t turn out quite like I remember my mom making them. After rolling the dough into balls, you’re supposed to dip one side into sugar. But I wonder if, after rolling the dough into balls, Mom first dipped one side in water and then sugar. That would make it more of a coating than a sprinkle. Either way, they’re a taste of chocolatey goodness with our tea.

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Will you have another cookie? Go ahead and get cozy, and you’re welcome to wrap up in this fleecy blanket. I wanted to share with you five things that have brought me sparks of joy this week.

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ONE

I’ve been contemplating how our windows are perfectly positioned for sunrises, which gently sweep across my bookshelves and tiptoe across the floor out the double doors of my library. In the living room they touch Grandpa’s old secretary desk, turning it a warm golden brown.

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TWO

The Cowboy and I recently got home from one week looking after three grandsons, two provinces away. They are busy boys and we loved being with them. Such a contrast to our quiet lives at home. It’s delightful to be swept up in the doings and shenanigans of young boys, and then satisfying to return home again. I have to admit that the first thing I did upon walking in our door was to sit down in my library and smile at my bookshelves. I could swear they smiled back, as if to say where have you been? We missed you.

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In a good bookroom you feel that in some mysterious way you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin without even opening them.

Mark Twain

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THREE

I’ve joined the local quilting club. I can’t always make it, but once a week almost two dozen quilters meet in the village hall. We each bring our own sewing machines and current projects. We set up a network of long tables end to end and face to face, and space ourselves out next to and across from each other, sharing extension cords that snake their way to the nearest outlet. It’s a comfortable time of sharing lives and ideas; spending the day learning from each other while doing something we all love to do. Once a month we collectively work on a Comfort Quilt, which is eventually given to someone in the community who is hurting. Last month 13 Comfort Quilts were given away and, according to the most recent club minutes, there are 30 in inventory.

I’m working on a baby-girl quilt that I started years ago. It’s for nobody in particular. I only wanted to work on something girly after all the boys’ quilts I’ve made recently.

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FOUR

We live near a little village on the lake. Many people live there year round, but in the summer it swells with cottagers and campers. It was pretty deserted when I drove through it on my way to Quilt Club this week, and I couldn’t resist stopping for a photo of the ice-cream shop and boat rental. Closed for the season, of course, but charming nonetheless. I think the reason I stopped may have had something to do with the light.

There is a beauty in the depth of winter. The light in February is like no other light I can think of during the rest of the year. Some days it is bright, cheerful, encouraging me with its happiness despite the cold. Other times it is airy and delicate, as though emanating through a filmy sheer fabric.

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What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

Crowfoot

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FIVE

Without musicians there is no magic.

Jan Willem de With

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This piece of music is so soothing for a February day. I find it is best appreciated with eyes closed. Listen to each piano note as though it were a perfect pearl, strung on the four interwoven silky threads of the string music.

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Wasn’t that enchanting? Thank you so much for the visit today, it was lovely to have your company. Stay safe out there and see you next time.

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Feature Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay