The Blessing of Solitude

"THE BLESSING OF SOLITUDE under the tall pines, in the cool of early morning.

The blessing of sawing wood, cutting grass, cleaning house, washing dishes.

The blessing of a quiet, alert, concentrated, fully present meditation.

The blessing of God's presence and guidance.

I am very aware of the meaning of faith and fidelity, and of the implications of the relationship they establish. This place is marked with the blessed sign of my covenant with Him Who has redeemed me.

May I never fail this goodness, this mercy!"

Thomas Merton



Seasonal change..




looking through the side gate to the front yard

 

sunlight bathing the yellow maple leaves



 



dark shadows on the fence and maple trunk



dogwood leaves carpeting the lawn





the liquidamber displaying paler late-autumn foliage



Seasons..

forever changing and moving on.

We are at the tail-end of Autumn in our part of the world.

The gardening has slowed down quite a lot around here,

as plants and people prepare for the coming cold and snow.

While many folk are enjoying their vibrant Spring blossoms in the northern hemisphere,

we are gathering firewood and and donning woollen coats to keep warm!

The Woodman and I are still making changes in our environment,

and trying to implement more frugal ways of living.

We are learning that change takes time!

But that's ok..

as long as we keep moving forward with small 'simple-living' goals on our wish list,

we will be sure to see a big difference in the end.

We are just taking things at our own pace and still finding out where we should make adjustments.

One thing we do know- we can't wait to re-plant our vegie patch now that we understand how to modify it to better suit our needs!

But that will have to wait for some slightly warmer days :-)

Hope you are all having a blessed week...Trish xx



All creation praises Him..

All creation praises Him

Who clothes the grass and feeds the fowls of the air

saying to one another

"Who is like our God?"

"And Who have we to praise, besides Him?"

"For He looks upon our lowliness and covers us with His glory - selah!"

Some "found" treasures..

Hello friends, I hope you all had a very blessed Easter!

I thought I'd show you a couple of things which my hubby found recently.

This is a very rough wooden box which he brought home 3 weeks ago.
It's just an old home-made thing which is a bit warped and worn and rusty.

Someone had simply thrown it out onto the side of the road and probably left it for rubbish removal.

But it came home with The Woodman instead, and now sits on my kitchen bench to help hide the phone cables and other electrical connections.

We just cleaned it up and left the peeling paint finish alone for the time being.
We think it adds to it's rustic charm :-)

Less than a week later, he went to check on his wood-working shed in town, and found a large stoneware crock sitting in front of the door.
I'm really happy that it has a well-fitted lid which will be very useful for storage.

We have no idea who left it for us.

Fun things like that happen all the time around here!

We've been "gifted" anonymously several times like this.

People often leave us the odd chair or wooden furniture items or other small things that they think we might like and find a good home for.

It's no secret - everyone around here knows that we love "old things" lol!