My Favorite Things

When I die I want flowers.......lots of flowers.  But not those funeral wreaths or tightly arranged vases of hot house roses.  No, I want baskets of flowers tumbling around and joyfully reaching out into the space they inhabit.  

Although Mary didn't make the party, she got it right when she sent flowers, two large bunches of color which I have enjoyed on the table in the foyer every time I pass through the house.  We know that Mary was involved in her favorite thing, remodeling houses, that afternoon.  Finding herself covered in paint and dust she realized the party was going on without her and this was a problem.  You see, Mary is a party girl as well as a talented designer who has rehabbed two of the most dilapidated houses in our neighborhood. She loves our neighborhood, throws parties so we can all get together, and always checks before renting to a new tenant to see if they will fit in with the neighbors.  We missed you, Mary but the flowers were wonderful! Thank you.

Hard Cider is In

The sale of hard cider is up 65%.  After hearing this on Public Radio I cracked open the first bottle of the Foggy Ridge Cider that Ed and Cindy gave me.  Wonderful!  Not only was it cool and refreshing but that little tangy bite was perfect.  I remember drinking cider as a child that was a bit fermented and then with health laws in place we couldn't get hard cider any more.  Now I find it in all the stores sometimes replacing beer.  

Ed told me about their tour of the Foggy Ridge bottling facility in Dugspur, VA where this gift was purchased.  It's always exciting to find good local items and businesses that are flourishing.  David and Carol had come for dinner and we shared this first bottle which made a good addition to the talapia and salad greens from the backyard winter garden. I felt quite included with the "in" crowd now taking up the joys of hard cider.

Thank you, Cindy and Ed!

When You Know How it Was Made and Share the Appreciation It's Even More a Miracle.

My cousin, David, was older than I and as a result we didn't get really acquainted until he and I both returned to Roanoke some six years ago.  One of our common joys is shopping for original hand-built pottery so we try to take in the Pottery Show every year.  Admiring the raku pottery by David Overshire I told David he should purchase it.  I had one of Overshire's pieces from two years ago and appreciate the the smooth texture and subtle glazing of his work. David purchased it. Unknown to me he was buying it for me. 

I have taken many pottery classes over the years.  The poem above is one that was written by a fellow student in 1971, Virginia Downes, a doctor.  I don't remember much about Virginia but have kept her poem and often contemplated her description of making a pot as a symbol of birth and God as the potter "giving birth", "delivering a pot" and "working miracles'.  

When thinking of how to thank you, David, I remembered the poem and pulled it off the shelf to once again consider the significance.  This pot I will treasure.  Thank you!

Peace, There is Always Hope 

Some may wonder what will happen to our children.  Will they be embroiled in wars and violence as they grow into adulthood?

Hannah loves peace signs and she picked out this peace sculpture which is made of folded paper magazines.  It was also made in the USA.  Today it sits in my dining room reminding me that there is hope just as Hannah brings hope to my life.  In her I see a sweet peacefulness and joy that will influence not only her life but extend to all she meets in this world.  Thank you, Hannah, for reminding me and for being a special person who brings me hope for peace.  Love, SuSue.

Sisters Jackie, Frankie, and Clare

Logos

 

Why wonder about the loaves and the fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and the felt ferocity of that love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into the many.
Imagine him, speaking,
and don't worry about what is reality,
or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
If you can imagine it, it was all those things.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
spoken with love.

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

(Why I Wake Early)

Synchronicity, when found is effervescent.  Like the carbonation of a soda drink a synchronistic moment bubbles up joy because in that moment we know that somehow we are all connected.  And this is truly magnificent!

Jackie read the poem (above) from Mary Oliver as her gift.  Only moments later as I opened Clare's gift and found a portion of that same poem I am once again reminded that SW Virginia is a blessed place, a thin, sacred place where connections are easy to find whether they be friends, animals or the earth.  This I have learned.

The Grand Marnier will expand as we open it on Tuesday and watch the election returns.  Thank you, Clare, for the gift and for coming to my party. Thank you for being my friend!

Unfinished Projects

It was a visceral reaction that I had when opening my gift from Jackie.  There it was; a beautiful crewel embroidery of yellow finches resting on intricate branches.  But it was a kit; yet to be stitched.  Anything cloth, or string, or yarn with the potential of becoming something more excites me to the max.  Just touching it; feeling the texture and almost feeling the colors sends my senses over the edge.

It was my Mother who taught me to embroider when I was a young girl making tea towels (now that is what I buy and collect from second hand shops) and later a cross stitch border on a full skirt.  Later she showed me the counted cross stitch, popular in the 70's.  Trying it I decided there would never be enough patience in me for such intricate work but did a second small piece and was hooked.  As I focused on my stitching evening after evening Dennis used to say it did something for my brain.  But this kit was crewel embroidery.  I have done some crewel but it was Mother who excelled at it and expanded it into some heirloom pieces using many more techniques along with gold and silver threads. She was an artist!

The first thing I thought of when opening the gift was, "Wonderful, I will love doing this.  When can I start?"  Then the harsh reality hit; what is it that I need to complete before beginning a new project?"  No one knows the number of unfinished projects that are in my closet.  Considering just the embroidery ones is daunting.  What about the counted cross stitch, "Taking Turns" a P. Buckley Moss design which was intended for my sister as a gift at least 20 years ago, or the small Christmas stockings and the placemats?

These days it's weaving and art quilting that draws me.  In an effort to be more sustainable and not use up the earth's resources I am trying to reduce and reuse. And it's here the creativity kicks in.  Why not take all these unfinished projects and put them together into an art quilt?  It will be named, "Unfinished Projects."

Your gift, Jackie, is turning out to be more than you realized. It's the incubator for a whole new way of creating.  We'll see just when it gets finished. Thank you.

My Bread

There must be something about baking when the winds begin to blow; one worries about the electricity going off; rain is falling and there is even a possibility of SNOW!  I asked my friend, Marilyn, how her daughter, Kristi, was getting along in Pennsylvania.  "Oh, she's getting ready for the hurricane.  She is baking cookies and corn bread, heating up the kitchen so when the electricity goes out the kitchen will be warm."  Sounds logical!  We have always laughed that Kristi and I have the same kind of brain.   I was baking bread in Virginia!

My Bread by Jim Lahey has recipes and directions for NO KNEAD BREAD.  This fasinated me two years ago when I hear him interviewed about his method and his new book.  Thank you, Martha, for giving me this book!  I love it!  Not only does it have great recipes, but it has pictures that make you salivate.  There is no resisting the plunge into the dough after spending just a few minutes looking at it.  We've talked about this method over the last two years.  I found wonderful discounted clay bread bakers at the seconds store of  Emerson Creek Pottery in Bedford, VA for King Author Flour Co. and gave one to my sister, Martha, for Christmas.  Unfortunately it broke in the mail so I went back this year and got another.  I am here to tell you that it works beautifully, the clay baker and the basic recipe from the book.

Now that I have taken the picture, I am off to taste the bread.