troubled waters

If we do a search on bridges we find a lot about burning bridges,

bridges rather than walls, and of course

 that bridge over troubled waters. 

…"when you're weary and feeling small …"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

I wish I had a dime for every time I heard my father say that when I was growing up.

That distant hypothetical bridge--did we ever really come to it and cross over?

Bridges have always fascinated me.

Their variety.

Their strength and structure.

The beauty (usually) of what they cross over.

The step of faith it takes to go across them.

"Faith is the bridge between where I am and the place God is taking me."
(author unknown)

the musings of early morning

Wouldn't a blog road map be interesting to see how we get to the blogs we read? It's certainly a bit of "one leading to another."

I have no idea how I got to a blog written by Cathy and called Morning Musings, (http://cathy-morningmusings.blogspot.com) but I'm so glad I did. I still remember my first visit. I was drawn in by a photo of a beautiful stone house that the blog author's family had rented for a weekend. It reminded me of the Pennsylvania stone that my grandfather used in the houses he built.

Next I remember noticing Cathy's doll rooms, I guess I'd call them. Sweet miniature rooms in a cabinet. And her own house filled with gracious antiques.

I recently won a "give away"on her blog. What a surprise and how much I'm enjoying The Country Diary Christmas Book (especially after reading her posts about it on her blog.) Thank you Cathy. I love how she included one of her hand painted gift tags.

I appreciate how Cathy shows vulnerability as she works on sketches and watercolors and shows her progress. She is persistent and her diligence is paying off.

Cathy's blogs (she has several) always provide interesting information. I follow with interest her meetings of the Maryland Chapter of the Tasha Tudor Museum Society that met in her home, her travels to interesting places, her art, her beautiful attention to detail in her blog I Come in the Little Things, and now her posts about Beatrice Potter and her books.

On the subject of beauty, there are signs of spring around our house. 

Winter may not be over, but for now spring is visiting.

Bluebells from a trip to England a few years back.

yellow rose

 Left over roses at A*di's for 1.49 the other day.

Worth bringing home.

Since their life with me may be short I carry them from room to room 

and they keep me company with their beauty.

(The first rose the Gardener gave me was yellow.)

They begged for a photo shoot.

Can you guess which is my favorite pose?

Linking with Mosaic Monday.

to mend or not to

Today is Thursday and when I was a girl, my mother

and one of her "besties" would get together

Thursday afternoons.

That they had a cup of tea sounds cozy, but I rarely

remember my mom drinking tea or coffee.

What they did do was gather up their mending baskets

and darn socks and sew on buttons while they chatted.

I've tried mending socks in recent years but 

it seems they are made so cheaply and are so thin

that darning them actually causes a new hole.

I have a favorite blouse that has a tear in it.

It will be hard to mend but I'm going to try.

How about you…do you have a basket

with mending waiting patiently for you?

swiveling the globe

 It was the little metal circle at the top of our globe that

fascinated me as a child. I'd set the time for our

country, hold it tight with my little finger while I swiveled the globe

to another country and noted the time it was there.

My father would suggest I do the math and see what the time difference was.

I've always been fascinated by globes and maps.

Studying them takes me to places far away.

A map of the world hung on the wall by our kitchen table with pictures

pasted on it of global workers our family prayed for at dinner time.

I've been privileged to travel to many countries throughout my life.

I'm usually reluctant to leave on a journey, enjoy it 

immensely while there, but am ever so happy to get home.

There is no place quite as good as home in my opinion.

Joining Monday Mosaics

buttons and more

 Buttons fascinate me too.

 We're into "reading" books aloud. 

Especially small sized books, like these by

Beatrice Potter.

 These did not turn out quite as pretty as the recipe,

but I'm just so pleased I made them and took them to a dinner gathering,

even with the spastic icing.

There was a time when I would have practiced first.

"Baby it's cold outside" and I'm loving

a taste of winter.

And the tulips.

All photos have been "altered."

love multiplied

"Then I remember--love, not cramped in where it goes,

May be reversed, enlarged by love's complicity,

Its give and take. The sumptuous fragrance of a rose

Accepts no close confinement or captivity.

The tide that outward ebbs, turns then and inward flows.

And what I offer you, you'll multiply to me."

by poet Luci Shaw, from The Returns of Love after George Herbert

Joining Mosaic Mondays

cookie time

It might be time to make some heart cookies.

Joining Mosaic Monday