Here and There: Favorite Christmas Songs

When we're talking Christmas, and the background for wrapping or cookie baking or decorating the Christmas tree, for me it doesn't get much better than Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song.




But like you I have a fondness for Christian hymns and sweet songs.  My favorite being this one.  I love Enya's voice as well, it lends itself well to Christmas hymns.




My other favorite is "Silent Night", again another beautiful voice.  I grew up in the Episcopal church, going to midnight services on Christmas Eve.  My favorite moment was at the end of the service when the organ quit playing, the lights were lowered and it was just the voices of the people inside the church singing this song as midnight came.  It brings tears to my eyes even now when I think of it, such a feeling of peace.




Then there's The Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker.  This I think will be the first year I haven't taken the girls to see it. I almost tried to get it to watch on video but figured it wouldn't be as great as seeing the live ballet. The first time I took Emily to see it at about age four or five, she sat on my Dad's lap and said "oooooh, she's beautiful" so loud when the Sugar Plum Fairy danced out that everyone around us got a chuckle.




And I cannot forget my favorite singer. The little hippie in me cannot resist the lovely ending to this classic, listen through...





And last but not least, bet you didn't know there's Harry Potter Christmas music?  Oh yes, this Harry Potter freak of course owns Jingle Spells.




How about that?

You were right, there were way too many to narrow down!!

Making me happy today

A pile of library books, some gorgeous new moisturiser that is making my skin feel wonderful, and a cheery postcard which arrived this morning and made me laugh out loud. 

Here and There: groceries

The Top Ten Grocery List

Bananas-Emily would die without them

Blueberries-I have been known to spend insane amounts of money on them out of season because I love them soooo much.

Loose Carrots-My dad says they are no different, but I swear they are and the rabbit loves the greens on top.

Potatoes-any which way you make them they are like a little bit of heaven, I think we share the same feeling on them.

Lactose Free Milk- Emily is lactose intolerant so she needs it to drink and I use it in all my cooking.

Cabot Creamery Aged Cheddar-oh my gosh, as much as Emily can't have dairy, I love it, add to this usually a variety of other cheeses

Eggs-we would have to have a lot of chickens if we ever wanted our own fresh, we usually go through two dozen a week.  We don't eat a lot of meat but we eat a lot of eggs.

Frozen Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches-  I know right but they're the only pb&j's I'll eat and they are so easy to just throw in the girls lunch boxes on a hurried morning.

Honey- you've got sugar, I've got honey, in the teacup and over my oatmeal, thank you busy bees!!

Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips-  I started getting them to put in my chocolate chip cookies, they are more bitter chocolate and bigger chips, but now the girls put them in their cereal in the morning and I eat them as a snack at night with a cup of tea, so really now we can't live without them.

And usually a magazine, there's a reason they put all those glossy things at the check out counter, if I don't succumb to that then it's usually iced mocha coffee on the way out, but last week I put it in my seat while I unloaded the cart and ended up forgetting and sitting on it.  It was not pretty and I ended up driving home with a sticky bum!!

right now: 9.28.11

jennifer - a good start

Here and There: My Favorite Place To Think

(the leaves haven't changed yet, i took this last year)

This is the back part of my yard.  There is a patch of what I call "starry night moss" there off the right where sometimes I walk barefoot and sink my feet into like a lush natural carpet.  Sometimes when I am frustrated or need to work something out I settle in there with my thoughts or a journal.  This year there is a stack of wood directly behind where I was standing taking this photo and sometimes I put myself in time out there.  When I start to blow my temper at the girls I will march out and sit my behind on those logs, close my eyes and count to ten.  Then there is the back path.  You've heard me write about the "back path" on my blog.  It starts off to the right just inside the woods and loops up behind my grandmother's house next door.  Close enough to hear the girls but trees on either side.  I take the dog out there to walk in the morning and sometimes I just walk out there to meditate with the trees. 

When I was little I spent a lot of time with my grandparents.  They watched me while my mother worked when I was real young and I spent many summers and weekends there growing up.  When I was little that woods seemed to stretch on forever and it felt like you could really get lost in there.  My cousins and I would pull logs together and outline houses and sweep out all the leaves and make rooms and play house.  Now when I look out I can actually see the houses peeking through from the other side and it seems so much smaller.   Funny how your perspective changes.

I feel amazingly lucky to have this place.  I have always found myself at my worst moments reaching for the trees and feel lucky that I have so many beauties to surround myself with.  Something about their age, their strong roots and the way the wind whispers to them, makes me feel like they are wise and have an easy ear.  

8.25.11

jennifer-current mood

8.17.11

Jennifer- Mama Stray Cat

**I cannot resist a comment. This is one of the stray barn cats that makes it's way across the road and my Grandfather feeds. She had four kittens this past summer and is an excellent mother.  She's beautiful and gray and she's never given me the chance to get close enough to photograph her.  Luckily, I got a longer lens and she was just patient enough to let me sneak up and around her, but you can still see the serious way she is watching me here.

8.15.11

Jennifer-A Rainy Weekend

the tastes and sounds of summer.

I have just officially posted the same photo on two blogs.  Oh well, it's not that I don't have other photos it's just that I like this one very much.  This morning's breakfast, that's banana there in the middle and fresh blueberries, all the farms are touting their blueberries right now.  Strawberries are gone until next year (boohoo) and blackberries are just coming on, we had some of those also, not shown.  This is the time of year that I am happy to live in the country.  Not so much in the winter when I'm sliding and weaving my way down the  back roads, white knuckled in the snow and ice home from work, but this time of year is lovely.  The crickets and the cicadas are kicking up some beautiful music at night.  I know you detest flying bugs so I'm guessing jumping crickets and giant cicada's aren't high on your list either?

But I love them.  My ex-husband hated crickets.  He grew up in the outskirts of the city.  If we got one in the house the sound made him crazy, not me.  I grew up surrounded by ten acres of woods so that is summer song to me.  We had no air conditioning and the upstairs was always sweltering and we always had the windows wide open to get any sort of breeze you could in.  Hearing those babies is like being home to me.  Add the call of a whippoorwill and I'm twelve years old again.

Last night I stood in the window about midnight, getting ready for bed and just listened and listened.  Time is going by so fast.  One season seems to roll right in to the next and then all this will be gone.  Soon though we get fall, perhaps my favorite season.  Crisp air, falling acorns, the smell of woodsmoke again, apples and pumpkins, colored leaves.

Aah, I'm in a good place this weekend, a complete opposite to earlier in the week.  Another reminder that letting go is the best medicine.  And those twelve thousand things that were waiting to be done here this weekend; they are still waiting.  I know you know how that goes.  Life is too important to let the petty stuff get in the way.  The layers of dust on my surfaces will still be here this fall and winter but a moment standing in the peace of a summer evening, that goes all too quickly.

To Be Read

Hi there. I am sorry you had such a rotten day. I just read your blog and I just love 'I know it could be worse but I don't have to like it'. I certainly know that feeling.

It would be nice wouldn't it, to move somewhere away from all the cares and troubles? When the Prof and I first got together we spent a lot of weekends at his house in Kent. I always felt really carefree and relaxed when we were there. These days I regularly run away, I guess that's what the country drives are all about.

Mrs Biddlebox sounds funny, though I am not sure my cake baking skills are up to the task. I last baked a cake in 1994!  Mopping skills not that great either, sadly...

I have just finished Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger, who also wrote the Time Traveller's Wife. I found it interesting, moving, unbelievable and predictable by turns, but I enjoyed it. Next on my pile from the library is Glasshopper, but I feel like rereading One Day so I might start that this evening as the film goes on release soon and I'd like to read it again first.  A trip to the library is in order soon, I think, maybe this weekend. I am reading so fast lately, often a book every couple of days, so I like to keep myself stocked up.

Truth be told I have books on my bookcase I have had for a long time that I have still to read - I think we talked before about how one has to be in the right frame of mind for a particular book. I will get to them all eventually! I put the book you picked up at the library on my list, it sounds interesting. I loved the Secret Garden when I was young, too. Do young people still read those old books? I know I could never interest the Young Philosopher in anything he called 'old fashioned', although he loves books.

I think I am coming out of the relapse I seem to have had, fingers crossed, I am feeling a little better today. I have decided against the few days away I was thinking about, I couldn't really find anywhere suitable to stay without a car. I think instead I will plan a few treats for that week as the Prof will be away. Seems like a good idea to me.

I hope you are having a good day today. Almost the weekend!

I'm so sorry you are having a rough spell.  There is a book both I and my girls read called Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day; he resolves to move to Australia.  After my terrible, horrible, no good very bad day yesterday I resolved to move to an island off the coast of Maine or Florida.  Anywhere far from everyday life.

Everyday life can get you down sometimes can't it.  Last night I just couldn't take the responsibilities of work and having a home and family anymore.  It sounds childish and selfish, but I just wanted to be a child again.  Or in the case of another favorite children's book of mine, Mrs. Biddlebox, (you would like her) she takes her bad day and mops it up and bakes it into a cake.

If only we could do such things, what say you?

I didn't write this last night, like I usually do.   I was spent.  So I am writing this morning before I go to work today (please let it be better, or as my co-workers might say, please let her be better).  I'm sitting here early with a bowl of oatmeal and fresh blueberries and a warm cup of tea.  I'm hoping to have a better day today, mind shift please. 

I hope you will upswing soon.

I took my very bad mood to the library last night.  Moved up and down the stacks with no book in mind, just seeing a title or a photo and pulled it down off the shelf to peruse.  I spent about an hour there, winding back and forth.  There was an odd woman in the next aisle talking and laughing to herself which made me feel a little better about myself as cranky as I was. The library and all those books made me start to feel better and so I picked and took home this one, about an American woman who goes to care for her 8-year old Goddaughter after her best friend dies in  London.  I'm about forty pages in and really liking it.  It's a lighter style of writing given the situation compared to the book I just read and it references another book I loved growing up The Secret Garden. 

I promised to put a book page here, I will no doubt eventually get to it.

So what are you reading?

Be well, my friend.

a moment this week: in my garden

Debbie: rain on the ceonothus 

Fourth Of July and Furniture

Well, here I am on Monday, it's the 4th of July here which means Independence Day, or the day we declared our Independence from you Brits.  I guess I may be unpatriotic because my Grandfather asked this morning why I didn't have my flag out and I thought that the only flag I do have is a Canadian one the girls brought back from vacation last year.  So what of the 4th of July?  I am escaping the madness of heading to the beach or smooshing in for the fireworks and enjoying a bonus day.  I don't have to go to work and the children are still away at the ocean so for me it means I get to sit here in the back corner at the bakery and write this with a toasted bagel and a fresh orange juice.

You asked if I got my desk?  I did though it's not visible in this photo, it's actually behind me.  Nothing more than a table with a drawer really, but at least I am not crumpled up anymore at the computer on a stand with nowhere for my feet.   But you can see what else I did.  I hadn't expected to go furniture shopping and rearrange my living room this three day weekend, but I had a little bit of a windfall and decided it was about time I put together my living space and stop looking like I was living in a university dorm room. 

When I first moved into this house after my divorce I had the this and that's leftover from the marriage.  It looked fine and I've added and updated along the way.  In fact, perhaps the openness, the white and the sparse and the simple was what I needed at that time.  My old home, like the marriage was a mess.  The house was falling down (literally) around us.  I am lucky to have found this place to rest and be welcomed.

Like I said there was nothing wrong with the place before, but the mismatched dregs of furniture have been an annoyance to me.  So this weekend, I bought some actual matching furniture, mind you from the department store and we had to put it all together (my father and I), but it matches.  It brings a certain continuity and homeliness to this place.  I'm sure the neatness won't last much once the girls get home, but for now I will enjoy it.

So for the last two days it's been loading, unloading, assembling and taking out the old dilapidated bookshelf and piling books and toys and everything else up in the hallway.  Truly as of yesterday it looked as if a tornado had blown through and still this morning some of that remains.  Today after I leave here I will pop back to get a second bookcase to mirror the one you see here.

It's been a lot of work, and not much of anything else has happened, but it makes me happy.  It makes me contented and when I walk in I smile.  Saturday night I turned on that lamp and sat down with my book and a cup of tea and read by lamplight.  We only had the overhead before, no place for a lamp, so that in itself was a delight.

It hasn't been all work, I have taken your advice and read and I watched a movie every night this weekend before bed. And right now I am taking the time to write this from the bakery.

So I have been off the grid and I hope you haven't thought I have disappeared altogether.  It's almost 11:30 am here which means you are headed to evening before I even get this post up.  I panicked when I woke up and realized it was Monday and I hadn't written my post yet, but then I gave myself a thump on the head and realized it's your own blog, just take your time.  This is supposed to be the week to slow down and take things easy (HA!)  Perhaps I just don't know how to do that.

Look forward to hearing back from you.  Reading your posts is the first thing I do in the morning before I even get out of bed and start the chaos of the day.

And in the spirit of indulgence, I have gone back for a pumpkin muffin and a cafe mocha before I head out.

Right Now

Jennifer--Enjoying, Fresh Summer Fruit

a weekend tale {in photos}

Right Now: 6.21.11

Jennifer--Trying To Smile Through Chaos

a moment this week: Beauty, borrowed

Debbie: neighbour's roses peeking through the fence

My weekend: chasing rainbows and chilling out

rainbow: just before it disappeared 

There was no country drive for us this weekend, as Saturday was one long round of torrential downpours, not really the weather that makes me feel like heading into the country. We spent an entertaining twenty minutes or so chasing a rainbow on Saturday, though. We were just driving home from shopping locally and a lovely rainbow appeared, but we couldn't park the car on the road we were on. We drove around for a while, trying to find somewhere we could park where there was a good view of it. It was disappearing by the time we were able to stop, as you can see from the photo. Something similar happened last Thursday, when we drove to the river in the hope of finding a break in the heavy clouds that would be large enough to catch a glimpse of the lunar eclipse, with its blood red moon. Sadly, we had no such luck. Next time.

On Sunday we spent the afternoon and evening at my parents' house, with it being Fathers' day. We have a tradition of having a meal together on our birthdays and other special occasions, this time we had a barbecue. It was really nice to be all together - my parents, me and the Prof, the Young Philosopher and his girlfriend and my brother. 

I look forward to the weekends, when the Prof is home from work. During the week I am mostly on my own and often don't go out, so the weekends are when I tend to do more, or go out and about. This past weekend was a quiet one, though. It was nice. I did lots of reading, and finally got around to writing our wedding thank you letters, which was a job that was seeming bigger and bigger the longer I thought about it. Does that happen to you? For the rest of the week I am planning more reading, some writing, and plenty of rest as I have a few things coming up that I need the energy for. What plans do you have for this week?