One Part Inspiration...

Early in January, my daughter and I were talking back and forth on our phones.  She told me that she was planning to take a cake decorating course.  I said "Oh fun!" and her next message changed the course of my winter evenings.  "Do you want to take it with me?" I thought about it for a couple of minutes and then spontaneously said yes. It has been a blast.  I have learned a lot.   This particular lesson was how to transfer a shape onto the cake and decorate in the middle of it.  It involves parchment and tracing a shape with gel.  If you look close you will see that I was trying to make a cupcake shape on the cake.  You don't see it?  Don't worry.  It's not there.  I started trying to freehand it and realized that it looked nothing like the transfer would have if I had actually used the gel to trace the cupcake shape.  So I smoothed it all over and practiced using the star tip instead.  Goodbye cupcake. Hello avan...

I started this post a year ago.   And here we are a few days away from the 'spring ahead' time change. What did I want to say about Time Change a year ago?  I have no idea.  But tonight, I have a few things that occur to me. I look forward to the evening light.  It will be nice to come home in the late afternoon and know that I don't have to scurry inside and cozy down for the night, but can hang out and enjoy the sunset or take a longer walk with the dog. I look forward to stretching out my winter muscles. I look forward to bringing out the BBQ.  And putting away the soup tureen. Here's to burgers and fresh salads! I look forward to leaving the long winter nights behind and getting out into the garden and coaxing the bulbs and blooms into action. I am going to enjoy making an appointment to get my toes done.  Nothing says summer like pretty toes. I also will enjoy taking the flowers from the garden and practicing my floral des...

I don't know about you, dear cyber-reader, but I have very vivid dreams.  It is not unusual for me to wake up from dreams with tears in my eyes, or a smile on my face. I often tell my husband about my dreams and he looks at me kindly, but I can tell he thinks I am a little bit crazy. Not too long ago, I was having a dream that he was ruffling my hair.  Usually I like it when he ruffles my hair, but in my dream, it was causing me much consternation.  Every time he ruffled,  a part of my body became paralyzed.  It started with my feet.  I couldn't move them.  Then it moved up my legs.  Soon, all my appendages were paralyzed. I. Could. Not. Move. [I don't know what was really happening as I was sleeping.  Perhaps, I was getting embroiled in my bed covers.  Maybe I had myself wrapped up in a roll and that's why I couldn't move.] Panic set in.  I was desperately trying to feel my feet. My arms.  Anything! Nothing. My ar...

"Morning by morning, new mercies I see....." What does this line mean?  I have been pondering this for months.   Some days, seeing mercies takes effort.  Life has a way of beating you up.     Those are the times when a deliberate choice has to be made  to see the mercies and appreciate them.   Any time that I feel sorry for myself, I only have to look around a little bit and see  that I have many measures of mercies.  There is also merit in looking at mercies you have been served in times past.  A favourite trip.  A quiet sunny afternoon sipping lemonade in the playground. Sitting on a swing, talking about everything under the sun. Mercies of nature are never far away.  Even in the colder seasons, there is beauty.   Sometimes it is the unexpected  message of mercy that makes me stop in my tracks.  Like the day I saw this leaf hanging from a spider's web.  One th...

 M.A.D.D.:  Mothers. Against.  Dumb. Dogs. Maybe he was bored.    Perhaps he was lonely. Could have been hungry. Or Maybe He was just being himself. But really??? My     Christmas-gift-from-my-sister sweater? That I'd only worn ONCE? I was so M.A.D.D. I put him outside and told him I hoped he never came back. [But he did. .....Although he knew he was in still in trouble when I let him back in.] By the next day, he'd forgotten what he'd done,  but he could tell I was still M.A.D.D. He was very quiet for two straight days. And when the 3-day windstorm hit us on the weekend, and the garbage bags got thrown all over the lawn, he didn't get into them, like he usually does. So I thought he might have learned his lesson. Until this afternoon when I found a wool sock on his mat. M.A.D.D. (Mothers. Against. Deconstructing. Dogs.)

One day in November, at our weekly Pancake Breakfast, I said "I want a kitten for Christmas".  It just seemed the right time to get a kitten.  We no longer had the care of Cheer Bear, who was my daughter's cat. We are no longer responsible for little kids.  In fact, we actually enjoy the 'long winter's evenings', but it can be quite quiet.  And it's been a long time since we had any cats.  Our best cat was Burger, who was what I called a "man's cat".  He didn't like to cuddle but he would come and sit with you on his own terms.  He had a crooked tail, which he would swish at you when you got after him for getting into something he shouldn't be in.  He was incredibly smart, and fast and caught many a mouse for us.  My husband, upon hearing a mouse, would go get Burger and put him in the offending cupboard, and within several seconds, Burger would catch the mouse and dispose of it quite happily for us. Burger also liked to watch me ...

The year that was to become, is now, the year that was.  And what a year it was!  I don't believe that any other year that I will live, will comprise so many big events.  2013 seemed to have had one of everything: births, death, (no resurrections - unless you count some of the meals I rescued), weddings, anniversaries, visits from far and near, retirements, big birthdays, additions, subtractions..and everything else in between.  As I look back, I realize that even though there were a lot of big events,  the 'in-between's' actually comprised most of the days, and this is what I share with you now: Days of Mercy At the beginning of the year, I saw this sunrise and made a picture of it - wondering if this was a sign about how the year would turn out.  I hoped it was because I had just come through a season of darkness. Rainbow Days  More harbingers appeared.  Each time I saw a rainbow, I was reminded again, that no matter what wa...