Blossoms

The past several weeks are a blur it seems, and now here we are on the 2nd day of another month !

I missed posting a "Happy Birthday" to Taylor Cherrington Hatfield on January 23rd - wishes are every bit as sincere even now!  I left for Minnesota that very same day, and l spent the past week with my folks and family in New Ulm.  Very nice time!  I did think of Marshall on January 29 which would have been his and Liz's 63rd wedding anniversay.  I am sure it was a bittersweet day for him.

Today I started playing my Hawaiian CD's to get in the proper mood for our trip to Hawaii on the 22nd, as if I needed Hawaiian music to help me....haha!

This Sunday is the Super Bowl in Indianapolis - big festivities downtown all week.  Also, on Saturday is Delaney's first Winter Guards competition in Terre Haute.  We plan to attend, and it should be loads of fun!

Tonight I am hosting Conversation Club at our house, and that promises to be a fun time as well. 

And before I know it, we will be winging our way to Honolulu!  Yippee!

My joy for today - six pairs of glorious red cardinals (and a bonus visit of a rare white throated sparrow!) feasting on the fallen safflower seeds beneath the bird feeder!

How could anyone not smile at the sight of those lovely feathered friends?!

Steve has been up in Minnesota this past week, visiting his dad, and I have been left to my own devices!  I haven't been idle and in fact there has not been a dull moment!

I have filled my time with a ton of photo related activity, sorting and sifting through paperwork, housecleaning, laundry, a dental appointment, unclogging the kitchen sink drain, working in the church library, taking the Worth's to the airport, having lunch at a friend's house and seeing her new kitchen addition, tutoring my 1st grade student, having some phone visits, and even cutting back rose bushes (yes!).  All in all, a good week.  When I don't have to work around anyone's schedule but my own, I can cover alot of ground in 5 days.

The one thing I am happy that I did not have to deal with was shoveling snow - we received several inches yesterday, thankfully not enough to bother with!

Today I put away our Snow Village - each Christmas, that is the first decoration put up and the last decoration taken down.  We enjoy it so much, but there comes a time when it has stayed out long enough and we have to say farewell until the next Christmas rolls around.  I got the very first house in 1979 as a birthday gift from Liz and Marsh.  I treasured it so much - each season it had a place of honor on the buffet in the dining room. 

As the years went by we bought more houses, a church, a mill, a fishing house, and the crowning glory - the Winter Carnival Ice Palace.  We also acquired lots of accessory pieces and characters for this annual display.

It now takes me several hours to put the dislay together.  Two folding tables must be set in a corner in the living room, covered with white table cloths and then the houses and everything else put in place atop the tables.  The final step is to sprinkle the "real artificial snowflakes" over and amongst all of the buildings and accessories.  The overall effect is quite something.  It really does look like a "Snow Village".  All the family and lots of our friends look forward to seeing this each Christmas, and so the work involved is much appreciated and worth the effort.

So, until next Christmas our cozy village is now safely packed away and resting comfortably.  And I must say thanks ever so much to Liz for getting this wonderful tradition started! 

From Lord Alfred Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

The Old Year's gone away
     To nothingness and night:
We cannot find him all the day
     Nor hear him in the night:
He left no footstep, mark or place
     In either shade or sun:
The last year he'd a neighbour's face,
     In this he's known by none.

All nothing everywhere:
     Mists we on mornings see
Have more of substance when they're here
     And more of form than he.
He was a friend by every fire,
     In every cot and hall--
A guest to every heart's desire,
     And now he's nought at all.

Old papers thrown away,
     Old garments cast aside,
The talk of yesterday,
     Are things identified;
But time once torn away
     No voices can recall:
The eve of New Year's Day
     Left the Old Year lost to all.

 

John Clare, 1793-1864

 

Winter-Time

Late lies the wintry sun a-bed,
A frosty, fiery sleepy-head;
Blinks but an hour or two; and then,
A blood-red orange, sets again.

Before the stars have left the skies,
At morning in the dark I rise;
And shivering in my nakedness,
By the cold candle, bathe and dress.

Close by the jolly fire I sit
To warm my frozen bones a bit;
Or with a reindeer-sled, explore
The colder countries round the door.

When to go out, my nurse doth wrap
Me in my comforter and cap;
The cold wind burns my face, and blows
Its frosty pepper up my nose.

Black are my steps on silver sod;
Thick blows my frosty breath abroad;
And tree and house, and hill and lake,
Are frosted like a wedding-cake.

Happy Birthday to Marshall, turning 88 today!  Wishing you a grand December 26th, and many more returns of the day!

Noël: Christmas Eve 1913
by Robert Bridges

Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

A frosty Christmas Eve
   when the stars were shining
Fared I forth alone
   where westward falls the hill,
And from many a village
   in the water'd valley
Distant music reach'd me
   peals of bells aringing:
The constellated sounds
   ran sprinkling on earth's floor
As the dark vault above
   with stars was spangled o'er.
Then sped my thoughts to keep
   that first Christmas of all
When the shepherds watching
   by their folds ere the dawn
Heard music in the fields
   and marveling could not tell
Whether it were angels
   or the bright stars singing.

Now blessed be the tow'rs
   that crown England so fair
That stand up strong in prayer
   unto God for our souls
Blessed be their founders
   (said I) an' our country folk
Who are ringing for Christ
   in the belfries to-night
With arms lifted to clutch
   the rattling ropes that race
Into the dark above
   and the mad romping din.

But to me heard afar
   it was starry music
Angels' song, comforting
   as the comfort of Christ
When he spake tenderly
   to his sorrowful flock:
The old words came to me
   by the riches of time
Mellow'd and transfigured
   as I stood on the hill
Heark'ning in the aspect
   of th' eternal silence.

The girls are counting down the days till Christmas and it is too close for comfort!  Ella is at her final rehearsal for the Sunday School program at church tomorrow afternoon.  She has a solo to sing and is very excited about that.  Delaney, Matthew and I did a little last minute shopping after supper tonight.  Davie is wrapping some gifts.  Steve is watching a DVD of "Les Mis"  and soon Taylor will be here after collecting Ella at church, and will pick up Delaney and head back to Fishers.   Melissa put in a full day's work at her job.  I have been busy with a million and one things, and look forward to some time tonight to just sit in the living room and relax.

Tis the season...