Saturday Goodness

Lampada light.

Anna graciously showed me a
Dutch artist who specialises
in the flowers that are past their prime.
Lots of emotions in these pictures.

Mr. Husband asked
why I am taking pictures of
'dead flowers'
and then said
everything beautiful dies.
Very cheery, hey?
*
Reminded me of this poem by Frost:


Nature's first green is gold, 
Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

~Robert Frost

Oh dear,
and this post is supposed to be a cheery one,
so I thought when I set out to write it....
Well the tulips above,
my favourite yellow,
are still holding their heads high.

I do rather like them,
even if they are slowly fading.

Mr. Husband brought me a new
long stemmed rose
last night.

Cleo found a new
slightly cat-nipped toy
and has been enjoying this.

We've decided,
given my health at the moment,
that we are not going to go
to the not-local-church for
liturgy.
It will be sad to miss forgiveness vespers,
but as Mr. Husband says,
I just want you better.

I mailed some sympathy cards.
*
Mr. Husband,
though he has many time pressures,
went and mailed my cards and got
some great stamps.
*
First ones that would make
little boys happy
(we have nephews):

And this one makes me think of
my time in Vancouver:
I once celebrated Chinese New Year
with my closest Chinese friends there,
it was very nice.

I will have to mail some more cards...
 

Mr. Husband is a very kind man.
I am very blessed.
I hope for the strength to make him some fried
potatoes today,
he does love them.

Today: the joyful, the good and the death of Google Reader

Last night I was
using my ever present Google Reader
only to read that
Google Reader is going to die this summer.
Much consternation is ensuing.
Thanks to my wonderful Orthoblog and FB friends,
and Mr. Husband quickly finding this
link to save the day
I and another good blog friend are
trying out this Reader, called Feedly.
It is easy to do and all my feeds from
Google Reader went
into this very simply
and I like the look/feel of it.
So far so good,
Whew.

Sadly bad dream last night led to much insomnia.
I lit the new lampada to the Guardian Angel.
And I knit...
another post forth coming on my progress...

So many of us are feeling the
beginning throes of Lent.
Sickness for many and other very real
challenges.
I find this Akathist to the
Protection of the Mother of God to be
of great encouragement.
Even if only a little is read at a time,
it can be a real support and comfort...

LOOK!!! Do you see?
Buds are on the tree outside my kitchen window!
Good Heavens, how wonderful.
My friends in Ottawa are facing more winter,
so I take this with gratefulness...

I changed out the lampada floating wick holder
for this one.

I had to really curve the wick holder so that
at night when the lamp is not lit
it can be covered.
We don't want Cleo discovering the oil,
like she did on a votive I used to have in
Ottawa that was near her favourite tree :)

I am still loving the tulips,
especially the yellow...

 

This book of Anna Akhmatova's poems
is from 8th Day Books
and is a gift to me from Mr. Husband.
I am slowly reading at random from it
and enjoying it.
*
I am slowly regaining some strength,
even with the insomnia and
am really hoping that I will be able to
take on more of my normal tasks
as the days go by.