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.
A note about email alerts. If you have signed up to receive email alerts when I post (using the sign-up form on the right side of this blog), you may be finding them in your spam file. At least, I was finding it in mine! Be sure to make it as a legitimate email! As most of you know, I tend to post twice a week, maybe three times if there is something to say! So, if you don't hear from me for a bit, check it out! (If you are getting two and only signed up once or were previously receiving alerts, please let me know with your email address so I can be sure you aren't getting a duplicate!)
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.
Sharing with: Pink Saturday / Saturday's Critters / Let's Keep in Touch
57 comments:
I love the plates and how you've displayed them.
That's a bummer about the email alerts ending up in your spam folder. Mine have been moved from Feedburner to MailChimp too.
Cute first pic - crazy weather here, also!
My Brother does the same, plant our parent´s grave (I don´t live nearby).
Yay for happy mail.
Why would the ladies laugh at you? Here it´s common to sit on a bench and eat.
War, yes, my post today, also. Sad.
See. I have an online friend in the Netherlands. She´s on Citalopram - as docs pushed me on to, also. I asked her to overthink and never heard anything. Mental health can be put on you (I never was "depressive", just had a burn out, which is different).
Like your last pic. My Nieces do the same. Sit on my parent´s grave. They don´t remember/never met "Omi and Opi" but they have an idea of them. My Brother sends me pics...
Wonderful post! Birds are such a delight to see and hear. The plates are beautiful! Enjoy! Have a great weekend, take care, hugs, Valerie
It's uncanny how similar our wren is to your wren! Normally, birds with the same name are very different looking Across the Pond. Just look at our robins. Pretty plates indeed, you have a good friend, and did I spy some of my favourite tea? So hard to come by here, and when I find it, it's cost prohibitive.
Good. Or ing..love your birdhouse.
Ours are filled also..
I love that.
How sweet and thoughtful of Sarah..those are 2 of her middle names💞And they look great there!!!
Bon weekend!
I saw a recent study of Americans shows that during the pandemic about half of adults say they have suffered from depression or anxiety.
How lovely that you were able to turn stories your mother told into a collection for your family.
A post full of lovely things!
Our weather is much the same...from 30C and sunny to 8C and raining yesterday....grudgingly, I've had to put the furnace back on lol.
I love the birdy B&B....I should think they'd be delighted to set up house here.
And thank you for the words about mental health awareness....our family has been hit hard by mental illness and it's a frightening thing..it's encouraging to see people starting to normalize talking about it. xo
Those Quimper plates are really terrific and very worthy of display. It's interesting that you just acquired these on the heels of a conversation we had a few days ago with Miriam's second oldest sister. She and her husband moved from their house to a condo several years ago, and now they are faced with moving to an assisted living facility, where their space will be severely reduced. She has so much stuff to get rid of and no one to take it! When I look at everything we have accumulated, especially having combined the "treasures" of two households, I fear we will be faced with similar decisions one day! We should start to rid ourselves of much of it now, but I know we won't!
Those are gorgeous plates Jeanie. What a wonderful gift. They look great out on display too. We have had the same weather. Wednesday it was 92 and today barely 50. So dark. Home chores sound good. Better than driving to the lake and then it being so cold and wet. Did Rick get everything taken care of in the mess he found? Your wren is adorable. I've never had one at my house. Too wooded perhaps. Have a wonderful weekend my friend. Hugs-Erika
Wonderful post and generous gift from Sarah! Enjoy your weekend at home.
Watching the birds around the garden in their various nest it's obvious how important they are and how each one is unique! My favorite this year is the black and white pie that has a nest in the top of a pine tree - exposed kind of like a crows-nest on a boat - doesn't seem very secure but they sure are happy.
I love those plates! They are simply adorable. So many graves are not cared for these days.
Love the plates you were gifted. The wrens look like they are doing a fine job creating their nest. Enjoy your weekend.
So glad Wrennie and Ben Wren have returned to the B&B. I hope you will get to see babies this year. The plates sure are beautiful, how nice of your friend Sarah. Exchanging books sounds like fun too! Enjoy Memorial Day weekend. :)
I Loved Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, so I’m placing The Summer Before the War on reserve. Love the little wrens and their B&B. We’ve been feeding two cardinal couples this spring.
Hello Jeanie,
Cute captures of your Wren, they are busy here building their nest. The Quimper plates are beautiful, what a nice gift from your friend. The flowers are lovely, nice shot of Rick planting. We are having a chilly and rainy Memorial Day weekend. Take care, enjoy your day and weekend!
Beautiful blog
The plates are a lovely gift. Hope your weather clears up for Memorial Day.I'll be back in Michigan in a week.
love your bird house - bed/breakfast! adorable! Happy Memorial Day!
We're gloomy here, too, with damp overcast and temps 20 degrees cooler than average. Brrr! I'm hoping for warmer, sunnier weather next week. Wrens are a delight to watch -such perky little birds.
I have similar memories of cemetery visits with my mother. Sweet. The plates are pretty. Great design and color. They'll make a great addition to a Summer display.
Happy Memorial Day, Jeanie and Rick: I am so glad your little wrens are returning to the lovely Bed and Breakfast each year. Ours built their nest two years ago and raised 4 little babes and we got to see the mama stay outside the door calling to them and then one by one they all flew away. They seemed to be building last year but then never returned and we haven't heard them this year yet even in the distance. I guess our accommodations aren't as sweet! Our kids are coming up tomorrow so we will be eating and visiting unmasked. Oh what a sweet day that will be..xxoJudy
Your Quimper plates are astonishing, dear. You received a fabulous gift. What a fun take on a bird B & B. Beautiful photo, too. Summer Before the War sounds great, too. Beautiful church and I enjoyed reading about the French ladies laughing at you.
I actually stopped by to let you know your envelope has arrived. I haven't opened it yet, because I wanted to let you know it was here. Thank you in advance.
It has been indeed a topsy-turvy year and I agree so many are feeling the stress of it all. Getting out for me small adventures and walks helps me a bit.
Love seeing your wren nesting in the B&B house.
The plates are beautiful, what a lovely treasure.
Laughing that you wished you had take the ladies pictures in France. There are those pictures I wish I had snapped too, but then I remind myself that they are still there in my mind and I am enjoying them.
Happy Memorial weekend. Enjoy the small moments.
In deed, Jeanie, so many good things happening in this post, the return of the wrens to the B&B and the wonderful gift from Sarah of the Quimper plates and nice that you already have a display area set aside.I plan to see if the Summer Before the War is available as a library ebook and will add to my reading wish list. I just finished the latest book by Charles Finch, An Extravagant Death, and even though I have not read all his Charles Lennox adventures, this one was an enjoyable audiobook listen. The setting is mostly Newport, RI, and the narrator, James Langton is excellent and one of my favorites. The holiday weekend weather here is much the same as in your state. It's windy, cold, rainy so we are at home and that's a good place to be now.
It's beautiful here, but I'm spending today trying to get caught up with blog comments and a little housekeeping. I'm hoping that tomorrow the traffic won't be so bad, and I might make a run at a farther away spot with the camera. For a variety of reasons, including days and weeks of rain and a messed up work schedule I've not been out for a day in too long. Here's to your picnic, and new flowers, and remembering!
I love your third picture with the bird house and the brown little bird. Strange, I get very attached to brown tiny birds and their songs.Less to birds of other colors. I also remember brown was my favorite color in clothing during my adolescence. It's considered a color for the older people, so here again, it's rather strange.
Enjoy the weekend
Here we have cool temperatures at present, and we could use rain.
What a cue little wren - it must be so lovely to have them around. I envy you for the rain and wish we would get some. Although it would have to be a whole lot of it (an "atmospheric river" at least) to get us even close to being out of our drought.
The B&B is beautiful. I hope they decide to stay. Visiting the cemetery was part of my family life as well. It is comforting to be there, adds continuity to life.
Memorial day is a nice idea. We don't have it here. I always thought it was about remembering the fallen actually. I wonder if the church you visited could have been Honfleur.i seem to remember it was beautiful with a ship hanging from a high ceiling.
The plates are so charming. The will certainly bring up those fond memories of your visit to Quimper each time you catch a glimpse of them. The weather is not great here either. Hopefully next week sees a turn around for us all. Wrens are so cute. The Carolina wren is our state bird. They are so energetic and talkative!
Those Quimper plates look so cute. I never heard of them before. And I like that hanging piece in the church. Happy Memorial Day!
It's so sweet that your little wrens return year after year! Their little house does look very inviting :) Love your Quimper plates. My Mom gifted me with one little piece years ago - a honey pot. I love it. So nice that you have the memories of your trip to go along with them. Yes, mental health is so important and depression can seep in on little cat feet before you know it. So glad this year is over. I do love your description of it. Enjoy your weekend, I think it is wonderful that you attend to the family grave-site so lovingly. xx K
Quimper!
What lovely plates to treasure!
And do you recall Quimper being mentioned several times in the Poldark stories?
I'm now reading Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (Simsonson's first book) and it's a major delight. Can't send it to you, because the Roanoke Valley Library system would miss it (LOL...) but I do recommend it to you. Totally different from Summer Before the War, but just as expertly written.
Wishing you a home-ly, peace-filled Memorial Day weekend!
XOXO
B&B looks cozy to live in, they love it!
The two plates are beautiful, the rooster looks so handsome!
Exchange books sound interesting.
Jeanie,
Thanks so much for ALL your visits!! I have been busy lately with planting and I did a lot of cleaning because we too have been getting rain..It has been raining here since Friday afternoon and we are at about 2 inches total right now....We did need the rain but not all at once. And it is rather cool..Only about 50! They say tomorrow which is Memorial Day will be better with no rain and near 70 degrees which sounds about perfect to me!! I also started to get some reading in..I finished one Sue Grafton book that I started last Summer and I am almost finished with another...I hope I can keep this momentum going!! I hope you have a lovely Memorial Day weekend!! The kids are coming over for dinner tomorrow...Stay safe, healthy and happy!!
Hugs,
Deb
The cemetery where my late husband is interred does not allow any flowers or personal touches. At one time we could put "stone cradles" on top, but they arbitrarily decided these weren't allowed anymore with no notice. Surprisingly, the tiny teddy bear I put on his grave the day his monument was place is STILL there fifteen years later. It's all faded and shriveled up, but the grounds crew have left it!
I love the song of my wrens. The weather sure has been a rollercoaster. At least we are having a nice weekend. Janice
Those plates are so cute! What a fun thing to receive in the mail!
It’s been very cool here, too. I am trying to not complain and savor it because it’s going to be hot and steamy here this week!! We also got a lot of rain but needed it!
We used to go to the make for Memorial Day but haven’t since having kids. It’s usually busy up at my parents and it’s tough to be up there when it’s so busy since our kids are up early and both are still in cribs so we need a couple of bedrooms! I like being home on these long weekends, though. We got together with friends on Saturday and Phil took Paul out to his mom’s yesterday. Today will be a quiet day at home!
I have that same bird house but with a reddish roof. Bought in Michigan by my parents many years ago. Stay warm and safe.
Hope all is well friend
Glad you mentioned the Spam file. I thought of you and googled your blog. I will check the spam folder. My alert for my own blog went to trash but others got the notice. Isn't that odd?
I'm sorry your weather changed your lake plans but I understand how staying home is nice too.
We drove the long drive to Texas for the holiday to see our son and his family. So good to be with them.
I am so grateful for our freedoms in America. It is good to remember those that sacrificed for these freedoms.
That's a delightful pottery design, Jeanie. I love blue in the home, and it looks like there is a lot of blue in the plates. I think they look so nice on your little table. It's fun to see your decorating ideas. I've been doing some decorating lately too. I will miss going to the cemetery today in my old town and seeing all my loved ones. I got sentimental reading about how you visited the cemetery with your Mom and how she used to care for the graves of her family. Yes, your last words are perfect.....be kind. Thank you, dear Jeanie.
~Sheri
Good morning, Jeanie. I also love Quimper Ware. Every now and again I will find a piece on Etsy or eBay. We have had crazy weather, although we finally received some much-needed rain. We went from almost 90 degrees to 40 with the heat back on.
Enjoy your Memorial Day at home - I will be anxiously waiting for lake photos.
I hadn't heard of Quimper Ware.. happy you finally got some for yourself.
Today is our first sunny day after many rainy cloudy ones.
Hope you can make it to plant your flowers at the cemetery soon.
Sounds like there are pplenty of Springtime things for you to enjoy right now, regardless of what the weather is doing.
We got some stormy weather too. We're back to nice weather now, but it got bad enough that there were a few times we briefly lost power, a couple of which lasted a bit (the longest was about two hours).
I agree about the mental health thing: you never can tell what's going on inside a person.
Sounds like we had the same weather but this morning is another nice day and the Cicadas are back to singing :) Enjoyable photos and the wren and the birdhouse is darling. I never knew about them building several nests and only choosing one. Very interesting and she is a beauty! Wonderful that you take care of your family grave. I find solace in visiting the cemetery. I have never heard of Quimper pottery. One reason I enjoy blogging so much are the new things I learn. A lovely gift from Sarah and looks lovely on your sideboard. I also loved the look of the church and how interesting to see the boat hanging from the ceiling. I remember our trip to Brittany years ago and this looks very much like a town we visited. If it had a statue of a WWI solder on the grounds of the church, then who knows? :) I do like the sound of the book you bought. Thank you also for the reminder on mental health. We all need to reach out and be kind. A very interesting post Jeanie, thank you.
The plates are so lovely, I like them a lot. I also like the last picture, is so poignant.
I love birds, I love to watch them at the feeder. Love watching the cats with the birds. Your plates are so cute.
Jeanie, what a sweet and special gift from Sarah. I love Quimper and those plates will be beautiful wherever they land. Your quiet weekend sounds perfect and keeping up the gravesites of your dear family is a loving and caring act.Thanks for your reminder about mental health, so many people need our help and understanding. Loved this post!
Love the wrens and the sweet little B&B. Like you, we have bluebirds we watch building their nest in a little house Jim put on a tree next to the fence. We kept watching for the babies but never saw them We opened up the bird house after they left and found one little egg that didn't hatch. It was sad! Our weather has been amazing, so nice and cool. I'm sure hot will be here any day. What lovely Quimper plates from dear Sarah. I know you will enjoy them and be reminded of visiting in France every time you see them. We are still not finished with our gardening but are so exhausted. I'm thinking a lot of what I had planned may have to wait for fall. Happy June Jeanie..........
A lovely post.
I do like the birds B&B!
Birds are amazing aren't they, I always enjoy seeing them and hearing their birdsong.
Those Quimper plates look so lovely and make a wonderful display.
Hard to believe that the month of May has gone and we are now in June.
Have a happy new month.
All the best Jan
Hello Jeanie,
Love those cute Wrens, they are so busy filling up all the birdhouses. They can be the loudest bird in the yard too. Hopefully your weather will be perfect for visiting the lake house soon. The plates are a lovely gift. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Have a great day and a happy weekend. PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.
I thought when Rick was sitting on the bench, he was seeing someone go by on a bike and wishing he was bike riding! heehee! But it's so nice that you got to do things together on the holiday weekend. Sweet hugs to you both!
I love the little Wren.
Oh, that bird box is the cutest! When we went back to our Bangkok apartment we found a massive nest on our balcony since we had been away. There is nothing nicer than a visit from the little birds is there?
Have a great week
Wren x
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