The Joy Of Home: Wintry Evening Reflections

There's a method to this madness - I start w/books that stick out more than others from left to right!

As the snow began to fall at sunset, blanketing us in sparkling white, my first loaf of banana bread from scratch went into the oven, bringing warmth and comforting scents to our home.

For nearly a week now, we've been in a deep freeze, with frigid temps from the single digits to the teens and 20s without the wind chill. Our first normal Winter temps in at least a couple of years! When the wind hasn't been gusting, I've enjoyed the crisp, brilliantly clear weather.

Today though, I haven't been able to shake the chill and desperately did not want to go out into the cold, snowy night with Hubbs for dinner at the VFW.

It's a mostly weekly ritual that I sometimes need a break from. He had to go regardless, needing to take care of some American Legion business. (For those who don't know, he's Commander of a local AL Post).

I normally love being out in the snow! Nothing soothes my soul more than falling snow. (Not even gardening!) But, aside from stepping out onto the porches to take a few photos, I wanted nothing more than to watch the snow from inside while drinking copious amounts of hot tea and getting those overly ripe bananas made into bread!

A 'me' evening.

While the bread baked, I flipped channels and settled on the (awful!) 80s movie, "Valley Girl" and finally finished organizing 5 of the many bookshelves in our livingroom that have been in half disarray since I purged them last week.

Purging and re-organizing my bookshelves also soothes my soul!

Waiting for that banana bread to cool once I took it out of the oven seemed to take all evening! For a first try, it's not bad. I see many more loaves from scratch in my near future as I try to bake the 'perfect' for me loaf!

Yes, I stayed home on a Friday evening to bake banana bread, watch a bad 80s movie (followed by an episode of the old tv series Rosemary & Thyme) and re-organize my bookshelves! :-)

I needed the quiet.

It has been a week filled with many "ah ha" moments. On Monday, I realized with clarity and conviction that when I was younger, I was intent on being all that I am *not* and now I'm intent on being all that I indeed am. On Tuesday, I also realized with clarity and conviction that I have spent much of my life stifling myself so as not to offend my mother. Two "ah ha" moments within 24 hours had me barreling through the patio door out into the frigid air, practically gasping for air!

But, it's all okay. I'm feeling better about certain things than I have in years and my outlook is Good!

As I type this, the snow has stopped falling, the sky has cleared and the Moon is shining.
How do you spend a cold, wintry evening at home? What do you do during your 'me' time?

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Snapdragons In January

For the latest edition of my gardening memoir column, Adventures In Gardening, now on Connect*Share*Grow, please click here.

Wordless Wednesday

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Off The Shelf: First Read Of 2013!

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Spoilers Possible!

From the 2011 Ballantine Books Trade Paperback:
"Acacia for secret love, daffodil for new beginnings, wisteria for welcome and camellia for my destiny is in your hands. In Victorian times, the language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions.  But for Victoria Jones, it's been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system and nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them.  But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what's been missing in her life. And when she's forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it's worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness."

Unexpected!

This started out as a Christmas gift from one of my best friends, which I began reading the evening of our annual Christmas visit on December 29th. I was immediately surprised at how I was swept up by the writing, the story. I'm not usually one for first person point of view or alternating time frames, but neither distracted me as often happens. What an incredible journey! I didn't want to stop reading and only did so to prolong the experience of reading it. I 'had to' see how it unfolded, how it would end. Gripping. Emotional. Vivid. And if you have any connection with flowers/gardening/growing? Fascinating. That's why my best friend thought I would enjoy it and while piqued my interest in the novel to begin with, the entire story was intriguing to me.

Favorite passage: "The sight of the flowers eclipsed my contemplation. I jumped out of the car and dropped to my knees at the side of the road... I held fistfuls of the small yellow flowers to my face as if discovering water after many days in the desert. Pollen clung to my cheeks, and petals rained down on my chest and stomach and thighs."

Favorite quote: "Do you really think you're the only human being alive who is unforgivably flawed? Who's been hurt almost to the point of breaking?"

Great book to begin a new year of reading with!

View all my reviews

Wordless Wednesday

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Beginnings Start With Endings: Part 2

As many of you know, I have a second blog, a photography blog, which I originally began as New Jersey Through My Eyes in 2010.  I started off with gusto, but lost steam and reached an impasse with the blog quite some time ago.  But, (there's always a but), I haven't wanted to let the blog go.

I recently started toying around with the idea of changing the name, hoping it would re-inspire me and open up my possibilities for the blog.  This morning, while journaling after breakfast, I started jotting down different possibilities for the new name keeping "Through My Eyes" part of it to tie the original focus of the blog with the new.

Through My Eyes From My Camera?
Through My Eyes From My Heart?
Through My Camera?
From My Camera?
**Through My Eyes 360**

As soon as I looked at Through My Eyes 360 on my journal page, I had a Charlie Brown "That's It!" moment and immediately I left the table for the computer!

NJTME is now Through My Eyes 360 at http://throughmyeyes360.blogspot.com/

360 as in 360* (360 degrees) because I want to share from every angle.

I'm excited to get posting!

"New Jersey Through My Eyes" will now be a label/category over at Through My Eyes 360 as it's been here at Diggin' Around.

Funny, I've been wanting to change the name of Diggin' Around off & on for a couple of years and here I am changing the name of my other blog instead!  I did add a new, 3rd part to my byline here on Diggin' Around: Through The Muck To Find The Beauty ~ Turning Upheaval Into Revival ~ Bloomin' Where I'm Planted and I'm happy with that, so at least for now, Diggin' Around stays.

Where are you feeling stuck creatively?  Have you tried journaling about it to see if you can find a creative solution to get you moving forward again?

Favorite Moment Of The Day

Sunset view from I-78 in Pennsylvania earlier this evening.

What is your favorite moment from today?

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Beginnings Start With Endings

Happy New Year, friends! I hope 2013 is off to a good start for you and your holidays were lovely! 

On Saturday, December 29th, one of my dearest, longtime best friends G & I had our annual Christmas visit. I look forward to this every year! We exchanged gifts and along with a novel called The Language Of Flowers, she gave me two skeins of drool worthy yarn in brilliant shades of pink & green. I later set those skeins in my knitting basket and decided it was time to finishing an unfinished knitting project before I would even contemplate what to do with them.

That unfinished knitting was a piece I started back in 2010, sometime after I got home from the hospital in July to begin a very long road of recovery after a near-fatal infection damaged my muscle tissue, memory, heart function and put my left kidney in jeopardy. I was on bed rest for over three months, and in such emotional shock, I could barely do more than watch television most of the time.

Around the time I started slowly re-reading a favorite memoir, A Year By The Sea by Joan Anderson, I started knitting just to knit, for the comfort of repetition. Coincidentally or not, I picked this gorgeous, wool yarn from my stash, which reminds me of the beach: pink sunsets, sand & shells. My 'beach shell yarn' as I've always called it. Wool gives me a rash and I knew from the moment I touched this yarn when I found it (and a few other colors) on clearance, I'd never be able to wear it, but it was too pretty to pass up!

I knew one day it would be my "knitting is my yoga" yarn. My "my brain cannot handle doing anything else" yarn. And that it was during late 2010.

I can't remember why I didn't finish knitting out the skein, but I left it, unfinished on the needles, wrapped up and sitting on the back shelf of my nightstand. Why did I leave it all this time where I could see it? Why didn't I put it away? "Out of sight, out of mind." I don't know.

I do know that the beautiful gift of yarn from G, for whatever reason, compelled me to finish knitting out the beach shell yarn. I was finally ready to finish it and move forward. New Year's Day evening, I picked up where I left off and last night, I finished it!

One day, when I knit out the other equally gorgeous, albeit itchy skeins, I'll sew them together for a pillow.

I've already picked up another unfinished knitting project, a scarf in a soft, fluffy yarn the color of strawberry ice cream (not pictured). I'm feeling... Lighter. And, while others may already realize this, I'm coming to know that beginnings start with endings, but in a different way than I've known it before.  (If that makes any sense).

How does completing those unfinished projects of yours make you feel? What could you reasonably do to finish one of them this month?

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