Sunday, April 28, 2013

The Garden Of My Heart

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There’s a sacred and hallowed retreat,
Where my soul finds a fellowship sweet,
Where the Lord of my life I may meet,
In the garden of my heart.
 
There the dove of sweet peace always sings,
And my faith ever trustingly clings;
And the chime of sweet happiness rings
In the garden of my heart.
 
In the cool of the day
He walks with me,
In the rose bordered way
He talks with me;
In love’s holy union,
And sacred communion,
In the garden of my heart.
 

Song: ‘In The Garden Of My Heart’
Words and music by Hal­dor Lil­le­nas


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Spring Sunshine

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain
and the rain falling on the sunshine...”

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
 
Spring has arrived in the Pacific Northwest and I love it.  We’ve been out and about over the past few days.  Here’s a sneak peek at what we’ve seen.  The past week has been absolutely gorgeous here in our part of the world – and we’ve enjoyed every minute of it!  On our agenda - a visit to a local tulip festival. . .
P4246783And a wonderful historic lilac garden and Victorian farmhouse not too far from our home.
P4266913Work continues on my little vintage trailer, Miss Daffodil.
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In other news, my foot is out of the walking cast boot and I am wearing two shoes again!  The problems with my foot and ankle have not been resolved so I've decided to get a second opinion from a specialist my sweetheart and I both saw several years ago.  I hope there will be some answers but – for the moment – I’m walking and doing things in a ‘normal’ way again!  I’ve been able to put on my walking shoes and walk all over two absolutely gorgeous gardens lately.  I'll share more of that soon (after I finish editing photos of the inside of the wonderful, historic lodge on Mount Hood).  Thank you for your comments and emails and kind thoughts while I was hobbling around in that big boot!  For now – I’m off to the races!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Once In A While. . .

Life gets crazy!  That’s what’s been happening around here over the past couple of weeks.  I know I told you about the day my sweetheart and I ran away to The Mountain – and I promised to return the next day and share photos inside the lodge.  I didn’t do it!  No, I didn’t – but I will share the lodge with you soon.  I don’t want to give The Grand Lodge second place to other things so I thought I would fill you in with tidbits of what’s been happening around here while I was ‘away’.  Then I hope to be more present in future days.

First of all, this is what I’ve been doing since you last heard from me.  A lot of sitting – and a lot of hoping this is going to help!  I can walk and I can drive (because my car is automatic and this is my left foot!)
FootThe specialist thinks I have severe tendonitis near my ankle.  I don’t think that’s the real problem because it’s not getting better, except that the swelling in the tendon is gone.  There are other issues that seem to have presented themselves and I think when I see him next week he may be able to find the ‘real’ cause of the pain and swelling now that the tendon isn't swollen any more.  He said this is the 'conservative' treatment.  I'm almost afraid I'm about to find out what the no-so-conservative treatment may be.  Now don’t look at my other foot!  No – no – no!  It needs a pedicure but how does a girl get a pedicure on one foot?  Or, maybe I could get it at half price!  And the sock that’s inside my walking cast boot?  I don’t even ‘do’ that anymore!  I’ve graduated from my sweetheart’s wool hunting sock to my own wonderful black Dollar Store knee-highs that fit my foot and work perfectly.  What a deal - two socks for a dollar - and I only need one at a time!  That's fifty cents a sock.  And it doesn't seem to wear out!  The wool sock was what we used when I first got home with the boot.  It was the only thing we had that kept the boot from bruising and hurting my shin bone and the sides of my calf!  (I do have bruises to prove it.)

In other news, Miss Daffodil – my vintage trailer – is finally undergoing a transformation!  Well, she’s been transformed alright!  Her interior is being demolished.  We started out to make only cosmetic changes on the interior and, a few days ago, my sweetheart found some major issues that will require removing her roof (sheeting), redoing at least one roof joist and putting the sheet back with a different kind of 'putty'.  We knew the paneling in the closet needed to be replaced but my sweetheart hoped he would be able to remove the old and install the new.  Until he began to peel away a bit of the old he couldn’t see what was causing some problems that puzzled us in other parts of my little trailer.  He's so smart!  He knew he had to remove all the inside cabinets and pieces before he could evaluate what needed to be done.  We debated modifying and painting the existing paneling - even though my heart really longed to do something different.  I was willing to do the quicker, more economical changes that would still make her a wonderful little trailer.  In the end, we will be making the changes my heart had hoped for.  And we've already begun to find some great bargains on new paneling and bits and pieces of things to put her back together.  So, Miss Daffodil is not going to be going anywhere soon – as hoped and planned.  She is in the process of surgery!  She was just going to have a facelift - now she's about to undergo major reconstructive surgery.  I’ll share pictures and progress on Daffodil's blog here as we go.
P3216463Here's a sneak peek at my sweetheart when he started to remove Daffodil’s kitchen range.  Yes, I'm going to leave it avocado green.  I'll tell you why another time.  Isn’t the piece of old vinyl flooring beside the sink quite lovely?  And the old, yellowed plastic in the bottom window pane above the sink?  Wait till you see what we’ve got planned!  She will be gorgeous when the transformation is complete but we have a long ways to go – and a lot of work to do before we get there.  Oh, and here’s our Sidewalk Superintendent checking to make sure it’s all done right.  He’s never far away – often inside checking it all - watching to make sure we know what we’re doing!  He ‘sniffs out’ all kinds of things in the process.P3216480