I feel blessed

 

Good morning Friends ~ It’s a new day another gift to enjoy, to learn in. We are having partly cloudy skies, some rain is predicted, but it has been predicted for days and most of those days nothing happened. So, I just started a load of laundry because I really needed to and will hang it up on the lines to dry and hope for the best. It is very warm and humid out, our cool weather disappeared and it almost feels like summer once again.

Autumn came to my little cottage from a dear friend Val.  I have known this young lady for years, we met in a forum either about gardening or about country living,  probably 13 years ago. She inspired me way back then with her love of life and her happy spirit. You can visit her at her blog Pretty Little Rough Patches. I wondered how I could display these and saw the little brads I have nailed into the strip of wood under plates for hanging Christmas decorations on beam between kitchen and scullery. Ah ha, that will work.  I just attached a paper clip to each leaf and hung them that way. Thank you dear Val for thinking of FlowerLady down here in the sub-tropics.  I really appreciate you thoughtfulness, these are little jewels.

Here is my latest little felt heart.

Complete with a funky little butterfly.

The next two photos are of the same rose, an unknown I bought earlier this year, cheap.

It smells wonderful.

This is another unknown rose, also bought cheap.

Next is a whole passel of photos of the sweet little hybrid musk rose named ‘Kathleen’.

I love this rose and it always brings a smile to my face

and joy to my heart when it’s blooming.

I really need to try to get some cuttings rooted of this rose.

I’ve had it for many, many years now.

***

I’ve been working on emptying out things from the bedroom for this weekend so that my brother-in-law and my nephew can work on plumbing. I am excited about having this done, especially the leaking pipe under the cottage. Whatever else they can accomplish will be icing on the cake.

I look forward to helping them both and fixing barbecued beef brisket in the crockpot for sandwiches. I am so thankful for the time and help these two are giving me.  It blesses my heart so much.  I’ll keep you posted and plan to take photos during the day Saturday.

Sunday was church, early service 9:30, then afterward was brunch with a small group of ladies for a Bible study.  We have such a good time together.  Our next time together will be for our Christmas party on the 22nd.  The hostess goes all out for decorating for Christmas each year and we are all bringing a dish.  I am taking my Pumpkin Mincemeat Pie. We also exchange gifts and I will be creating a heart especially for the lady whose name I chose.

Yesterday morning was the Friends Needing Friends, FNF, widow’s group meeting and luncheon and it was wonderful! It was one of the best I’ve been too.  Everyone was happy and thankful for so much in our lives. You can visit the post I did about it here.

I had two different ladies, one on Sunday and then one yesterday tell me how much better I looked, like healing was taking place and it is. My broken heart is being restored by the Great Restorer of all things. Mark would love that, as he was a restorer of broken things himself. There is something wonderful and oh so satisfying in restoring things. God Almighty loves to restore us with His love, grace and tender mercies. Widows are very special to Him and He cares deeply for us.

I saw a wonderful story online last week that really touched my heart.  A young photographer went around NYC photographing thousands of real people and asked them what piece of advice they would have for a large audience.  One lady he came up to in pouring down rain was a widow in her 80’s, standing under a colorful umbrella. Her piece of advice was this. “I’ll tell you what my dying husband told me when I asked him what will I do without you in my life.  He told her, “Take that love you would have given me and spread it around.”

That still gets to me as I write and read the words again.  I loved my husband deeply, he was my life, and seeing this story was a gift from him and from God for me to carry on and ‘spread the love’.

Thank you all for reading my posts, for your loving, kind, encouraging comments.  Thank you for your own blogs which inspire me to keep living and enjoying life.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

06-06 ~ Rainy day

Good morning everyone ~ It is a very wet and gray day here today.  This is the third week of rain. Tropical Storm Andrea is to the south west of us bringing us even more rain. I was able to get out and mow a couple of days ago and that’s a good thing.  This place is quickly becoming overgrown though, and I hate to go out and look into the ‘back 40’.

Here are a couple of pics looking out the windows this morning.

It will be another indoor day.  Yesterday I moved around a couple of bookcases, went through books making a pile to give away, threw away a few, and more to go through today. I also cooked up a nice pot of black-eyed peas with ham.

This week I’ve also been working on another blog.  This one is for the widow’s group I belong to Friends Needing Friends.

The founder and creator of this group, Dotti Ackerman, called me last week to see how I was doing.  We had a nice chat and then she asked me if I would like to interview the ladies so that we can get to know each other. It will be a 3 column page for our monthly newsletter, with the interview and a picture at the top of each column of the lady being interviewed.  I was thrilled that she asked me and told her, YES!

So, I worked on setting up a template for the newsletter in Open Office and then on a whim, and unbeknownst to Dotti, I started a blog.  I used yellow roses as the background because they are special to her, and I sent her an email telling her I had started a blog and hoped she liked it.  Well, she loves it and says it is an answer to prayer as she has been praying about a blog, but didn’t know how to go about it.  We’ve been talking on the phone daily, laughing, with some tears on my part, as we look at the blog together and talk about ideas, etc.  She has lots of material to get up on the blog and I am enjoying doing this and adding some of my own bits as well.  This group has been an answer to prayer to me and I am so thankful God led me to it.

If you have a spare minute you might want to stop by and check it out.  Or tell a widow friend about it.  Thank you.

It is raining pretty heavily right now. I hope this passes over us rather quickly instead of lingering around.  Andrea definitely has a lot of rain in her, and the east coast is going to get it as she moves upward.

Here are some blooms taken from the past few days when it wasn’t raining.

Blanket flower

 

Bush daisy

Cosmos

Rose-leaf sage

Sunflower

Granada

Maman cochet climber

The McCartney Rose

Unknown

Zebra with hamelia paten blooms.  A favorite of butterflies and hummingbirds.

Zebra on purple top verbena.

Hope you all feel God’s love and peace surrounding you.

Look for the beauty in each day,

count your blessings.

FlowerLady