So Many Good Things

The erratic weather patterns of spring that have gone from very warm and sunny to blustery and dark have kicked into their gloomy mode. We decided to skip a trip to the lake for the holiday weekend and instead concentrate on some projects around here. It is not really a hardship. I'm rather fond of nesting, no matter where we do it.

 

So is Wrennie. She and Ben Wren have returned to the B&B and have spent a good deal of time both taking things out from last year's nest and bringing new things into it. I have been told that wrens will build multiple nests and then choose one as their home. They've been coming to the B&B for three years now. I've yet to see the babies but it's possible I'm gone when they hatch.

Whether they choose the B&B as their final stop, it's just lovely to hear that beautiful birdsong. She's a very chatty soul and I will miss her when she goes!

We'll hit the cemetery on one of the "no rain" days (they can't all be rainy, though after our drought it is not unwelcome). Although I may stop by at other times of year, I always cherish the Memorial weekend planting when Rick comes along. I always used to accompany Mom as she cared for the graves of our family, listening to the stories that later inspired me to write our family history book. I suspect one day they will be become like so many of the other long-forgotten graves in the cemetery but as long as I can do it, I will. It's always geraniums and impatiens. Mom would like that.

I have received some lovely mail in recent days and I send shouts of love and joy to dear Sarah who shared with me two pieces from her Quimper collection. I have long loved this pottery, made in Quimper, France for more than 300 years, but have never had a single piece. The closest I ever came was a piece done in the style. Cute, but not Quimper.

Quimper is a small town in Brittany and seeing these two plates reminds me of a moment when traveling back in 2012 with Rick and our friend, Jerry. The area is closely aligned with shipping and the church in one town -- I wish I could remember which -- has an unusual hanging from its ceiling. The shipping boat reminds us of the many prayers made by the residents of the town for the boats to safely return.

 

We stopped to have take-out on a bench in town on a rather cold, windy day. Two ladies, dressed in a very slightly more contemporary version of the woman on the Quimper plate passed by. Our friend Jerry, who speaks French said, "They are laughing at us, eating on the bench!" I wish I'd taken their photo!

 

I may change out the mantel to "summer" this weekend and these will move over there. Thank you!

My friend Maryanne and I exchanged books (hers is hitting the mail this weekend) and now I'm enjoying "The Summer Before the War" by Helen Simonson. Set in 1914 Rye, UK, it is a delightful and upbeat change from the trials of Thomas Cromwell in "The Mirror and the Light," weighing -- and I do mean weighing -- in at close to 900 pages of Tudor history. It could have used some editing.

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While we will be creating every spinach dish we can find (the crop came in all at once!) and doing homely chores this weekend, hoping for a picnic at least one day, I want to remind you that May is National Mental  Health Month. After a year of topsy turvy lockdowns and Covid anxiety, along with the other mental health challenges having little, if anything to do with our "terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad year," it's important to be mindful of those issues in ourselves and others and do what we can to listen when needed and act when required. So many suffering with mental health issues are dealing with a hidden disease -- one can "look" just fine and yet inside is akin to a train wreck. 

Be kind.

 

And remember. 

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