temperate nature

It has been a most wonderful old-fashioned spring, the way I remember from my childhood, when spring was a definite season, separating the hoar of winter from the heat of summer.

Wally finally found time for his beloved garden, weeding in the midst of mowing the lawn.

He'd spent the morning trying to bring the back hedge down to a more manageable height,

but he couldn't span its breadth, it has grown so deep. You can see the errant branches that fan out from the middle.

Coming back in, I settled in my chair and found Babu in a playful mood 

with the catnip toy I recently found behind a dresser.

He tossed it about the room, teasing it

waiting for it to respond

provoking it again

and then suddenly he was behind me, laying on his back, reaching for where...

he'd tossed it behind the door to the vestibule

Here he's changed the game to trying to reach it under the door

and back again.

Later that afternoon I checked in on the garden. The large leafed hollyhocks are coming along,

as are the finer vined clematis.

I can see now, by this closer look, that the deer did, indeed, eat my pink tulip's leaves,

but fortunately it was a late bloomer and the deer were discouraged by Wally's adept placement of the pallette out back (see last post), so it could bloom undisturbed.

Looking out towards our parking area, and beyond the hedge to the road, the sun is setting.

Wally re-bandaged the Japanese Maple's branch when it came undone and it continues to do well.

The chives are blooming between the lemon thyme and the sage.

Looking east across the hayfield

At my feet some lupins about to bloom

A new patch dug in Wally's garden

Preparing quinoa tabbouleh for supper.in a bowl I made back in 1981

I've had to go vegetarian and amp up the Budwig muesli to an evening serving as well, to keep my one eye from clouding over. It is working.(Still no progress on the other.) The beginning of last week was so discouraging as my so-called "good" eye got worse, but I am encouraged now.

 Adding one more element to the program, i.e. cooking a separate meal from Wally's, keeps me on my toes as we continue to figure out what's going on with the cat's diet. We are still trying to keep up with the cilantro and vegetable juicing as well to quell Wally's possible heavy metal poisoning as he showed tremor's late last summer. Then there is the new focus on keeping his blood reading for pre-diabetes at bay. All these protocols are so healthy. I have had a few exciting side benefits that encourage me immensely and show that the extra effort pays off.

The biggest trick is to have a temperate nature of my own. The emotional ups and downs add an unnecessary layer to the extra work. I've known for years about the benefits of meditation, but rarely make a daily practice of it. The "freeze frame" that someone described this week is more what I do as the occasion requires. Still the intentional "sitting" with one's breath for 45 minutes, observing thoughts without judgement, releasing them back to the breath, is the most useful exercise I know.

I have 3 quotes I' like to share with you:

Aldous Huxley said, "Facts do not disappear just because they are ignored."

"I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves."

                                                                                                   Louise Hay

"We're all just walking each other home."

                                                  Ram Dass

My interpretation:

We cannot pretend that the stressors in our life are not real and important. But to identify them as thoughts changes their status from fact to opinion. That is how we change their relevance to our emotional well-being.

 Home is a state of mind. 

Stately Wolfville House

On Sunday I was invited to see a beautiful old house in Wolfville, just 20 minutes down the road.
I was encouraged to bring my camera.

This is the view from the side of the house. It's around 4 in the afternoon.

I drove up a long hill of a driveway that you can see leans down to the right.

The bright sun overexposed many of my pictures of the yard.

Here is a beautiful hosta in bloom, loving the shade.

We're in the midst of cherry season here in the Annapolis Valley,

so I don't know what kind of fruit this tree bears.

A wonderful overgrown rose arbour.

We come into the kitchen from a shaded back porch.

such a simple, elegant window treatment

The door to the basement

an early 19th century English sideboard sits in the dining room

with its handcarved detail

Looking from the dining room into the parlour. 

In the hall just beyond you can see the profile of an old clock.

From the hall you can see into the library. This is the full width of the house.

Now we are in the parlour looking back into the dining room.

Now the front door that is probably rarely used .

Here is that clock that stands in the hallway.

It is late 1700's, English in origin.

carved from top to bottom with a handpainted clockface

The top half of the clock's closet bears a carving of the Bible scene,

Jacob and Esau with the Angel

Below another biblical scen

And the ornate base, a wonderful family relic

Around the corner is the library

It is a pleasant room

The old couch is reupholstered in a plum fabric with brocade of ceramic ware

a small Middle Eastern carpet at my feet

The grandmother of my host, a nurse in the British Army

more lovely old family photos

 What a fabulous family photo

 The glamorous woman on the right is Anne who reminds me of the great opera singer Maria Callas

Here's a jolly life of the party

Everybody has an uncle in the family like this, don't they?

Off of the library is an enclosed porch made into an office. 

Note the wonderfully simple mechanism to lift and lower the back of this chair

 on the bottom right.

A drafting table becomes a desk, a deco stool accompanies it.

an antique ceramic figurine made into a lamp with a paper shade

up close we see he holds an axe

Out the window we see the companion porch still open

This is how it looks and what it looks upon

We go upstairs to a very generous hall.

One of the three bathrooms, I think the simplicity of this one is my favourite

a lovely old chair in one of the other bathrooms

and an old captain's chair in one of the bedrooms

Another old carpet outside the master bedroom

my host's grandfather's army trunk at the foot of the bed

A most impressive view of Bomidon from the master bedroom's window.

Oh, I see some of the spectator's for the baseball game across the street.

The little girl's room 

and finally a picture of the little girl who once slept there.

And so closes this tour of a grand old house in Wolfville that is now on the market.

Once an opthamoligist's home, and later a B&B, this is a home with pedigree.

Hopefully someone who buys it will honour it's historical features and care for it in it's old age.

honouring the past

living the present