My Season is Coming

There was a little gift for me on my car today when I left work. Dropped on my windshield by Gaia (Mother Earth).

(not my actual leaf though)

It was like when you get a small note on your car about a special this or that offer. In this case, I was being reminded that fall is coming, {like I would forget that}. I can already feel fall in the cooler mornings, there are crickets singing outside the window each night, and thunderstorms are beginning to gather.  Nature knows the signals of a season change, and all creatures, plants, animals, and earth, wind, and fire follow it right on schedule. I'm loving this anticipation of what awaits, grateful to be reminded that my season is coming.

Not Only Does God Create Daily Beauty, But So Can We

Even bookplates can be beautiful.

I read this quote today and it made me think of all the places and things that hold beauty in life.

 “I think everything in life is art. What you do. how you dress. The way you love someone and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea and how you decorate your home. Or party. Or grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. 

And the way you feel.” 

-Helena Bonham Carter

What else? A breath in winter, words brought together in a special and meaningful way, a meal presented with care, helping someone, an arrangement of flowers from the garden, plaited hair. Many things are beautiful and not only does God create daily beauty but so can we.

Their Beauty

I am loving these words from Mary Oliver and having fun creating some word art from them.
The trees outside are indeed thick and lush with green leaves, and they do flutter their beauty at you to call you over. Kind of like a kid showing you their tricks.

Put on Your Bonnets

Fantine

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a new Andrew Davies production coming to PBS in the future, (think Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth's Pride and Prejudice), that I have really high hopes for. It is after all my favorite book and it needs to be well done to erase the 2012 version from my mind (this could have been so amazing, but it fell short). Here are the latest publicity stills from the upcoming Les Miz.

Valjean

Javert

Looks to be a good season in the autumn of 2019, perhaps. PBS/BBC has also adapted Jane Austen's unfinished book, "Sandition," that is currently airing. So put your bonnets on and get ready for some serious period film watching.

Necessary

The offerings of summer are the little beauties we can only dream about in the mid-winter cold. Now they are abundant and everywhere you look. Summer begs us to rest, to see what's out there and not just pass it by.

To pick flowers and make bouquets.

To gaze at the warm-blue ceiling-sky.

To feel soft grass between bare toes.

None of it is wasted or idle,

In fact, it is necessary.

The Weeks of June

I am always thankful for the weeks of June.
They are peaceful and restful days.
Every last one of them.

And since all this loveliness can not be Heaven, I know in my heart it is June.     

Abba Woolson

What Is Nature?

What is nature but the intelligent and nurtured creativity by the hand of our God.

We crave it.
We need it.
It exists for our own nurturing and well being.
It's also the work of an intelligent being,
With an eye for detail and beauty.
It is for everyone and surrounds us,
Yet I think we often take it for granted.
It's a gift that we should ponder more often.

The Blooms Won't Last Long

This is the first spring in the new home and there is a brilliant surprise that I just discovered. Someone had planted white peonies in the backyard. I am loving this little surprise, I know the blooms won't last long, but they are so beautiful right now.
How can you go for nearly half of your life and never know these beauties? Then all of a sudden they are everywhere. Even in your own backyard.

Art by Viktorija Lapteva

Feather From A Crow

Today I found a crow feather. It is simple and beautiful. I read some Native American meanings of feathers that I share here.

A feather from a crow 

symbolizes balance~

The generalized meaning of feathers signified honor, and connected the owner with the Creator and the bird the feathers came from.

When a feather falls to earth, the Native Americans believe it carries all of the energy of its former attachment on a bird to 

a living being

 

Feathers are perceived as gifts from the sky, the sea, and the trees.

Feathers arrive unexpectedly, but not without purpose. 

 

  Art by Ann Faison

Roses On the Mind

Got roses on the mind after seeing this pretty new art ~

 

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"

Tulip Girl

Pretty much I love everything about this. The flow of the dress, the wind in her hair. The flowers. Stunningly beautiful. Also check out the running through tulips video here. For more loveliness, visit the instagram page here.

Lou & Scott

Does anyone else watch Heartland?
I have been waiting for these two, Lou and Scott, to get back together.
We now have a season 12 that is yet to be filmed. Do you think the writers will get it together enough to make this happen? I am hoping and watching and (still) waiting.

Jane Online

Join me and hundreds of others taking this free Jane Austen online course!

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

• Develop knowledge and understanding of the historical and literary contexts in which Jane Austen was writing
• Investigate virtually the important locations associated with Jane Austen and their impact on her writing
• Assess and discuss the impact of Austen’s society on the depiction of arts and reading in her novels
• Explore some of the myths surrounding women writers of the long eighteenth century
• Identify the challenges of adapting, translating and interpreting Jane Austen’s works and how this affects global understanding of her work
• Evaluate the marketing of Jane Austen in her own time and now

The Woman in White - BBC One

BBC One is currently filming/airing? a new production based on one of my favorite books by Wilkie Collins, "The Woman in White."
Article 1
Article 2

I've written about the 1997 film version before, which was okay, but did not do the book justice. I have high hopes for this one to be a better adaptation. It will take awhile for it to make it's way to the states, but I will be watching when it does. If you've never read the book before, I highly recommend it. Collins was a Victorian writer, and friend to Charles Dickens. He is often overlooked, so it's nice to see this being done. You can read the book online here.


Update: Look what I found

Stay

lovely rain
won't you stay,
linger on the branches
out my window all day