Through the garden gate

Like light peeping through the clouds, looking at photographs of beautiful gardens—on wintry days like these—brightens the outlook of my barren garden. If you’re like me, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the garden I’m about to show you.

There is nothing more delightful than going by a beautiful garden and be able to sneak a peek at what lies beyond the garden gates. For those who yearn to peer beyond the garden gate of this glorious garden, here is your chance! Click here to experience the serene aura of these gardens and see every treasure that is normally off limits...

Our Enchanted Garden gates are now open!

I'm also participating in "Outdoor Wednesday". Please visit Susan for more garden delights.

Tablescape Thursday

I love to decorate our dinner table—every season a different look, a different feel, but I also keep it pretty every day. It's such a joy to come into the house after a busy day and see the table looking nice, ready for our evening meal. The simplest meal takes on the feeling of a festive occasion if the table is nicely set, right down to a centerpiece. Think this is rather an expensive proposition? Not in the least when the things you gather are items from around the house... and in many instances cheap everyday gorgeous thrift store treasures.... like some of what you see here!

Don't forget to visit Susan at Between naps on the porch for more lovely tables.

Regrets or no regrets?

Have you ever let an ingenious moment make you do something that you knew was stupid?

Oh yes, I tend to do that very often. “Live life with no regrets”--I keep reminding myself, but sometimes, that doesn’t work... You see, wanting to transform that which is already perfect, is simply stupid... like what I did to this chair I bought a while ago...

It only cost me $5.00, and yes, it was tattered, and weather worn, and yes, it was imperfect... but so lovely just the way it was. Unfortunately, I thought I could make it look prettier than it already was...

And the transformation kept going... 

And going...

I try so hard for perfection that I usually tend to forget that imperfection is happiness... Yes, some things are better left untouched... don’t you think so? I sure do! A diamond with a flaw is worth more than a pebble without imperfections.

Which is more like you? Do you usually regret the things that you have done, or do you usually regret the things that you have not? Perhaps, it’d do me some good if I stick to the wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore: “I leave no trace of wings in the air, but I am glad I have had my flight.”

I'm participating in "I made it without my hubby"

Rain

A northwestern wind must have escaped its frontiers, because last night I heard it whistling along the roofs and chimneys, swirling and spouting... It was the wolf in the fairy story who said he'd huff and he'd puff, and he'd blow in the house where the little pig lived; yet last night his humor was less savage—almost comforting.

Then this morning we are lashed by wind and an almost warm rain.... going for coffee before coming to work with the rain blowing in our face and slashing on us, was another fairytale; a romantic fairytale... down below the darkened street I could hear the rain gnomes, fairies and goblins laughing, as they danced under the rain. Apparently, they’d decided to join the wind out already with his mischief.

When the wind rattles at this season, it’s the paffs and puffs of his mischievous mouth trying to blow us away. If a tree is overthrown, it is his jest. Tomorrow we shall find the sun shining once again, but today it’s a rainy day.... rain, and its lovely promise.... Oh how I love rainy days!

Tablescape Thursday

February is yet another month for snow and winter storms and cloudy days, it is still the beginning of a new year and, along with January, the quietest month in the garden. But just because it looks quiet out there doesn't mean that I can’t enjoy a colorful view, or have flowers on my table, and just because Thanksgivings is either in memories past, or still ahead in the future, doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy a yummy piece of pumpkin pie.

So because it’s still a long way before we enter the merry months of April and May, I’m going to ooh and aah over my colorful flowery table and my yummy piece of pie....

Pink floral fabrics are the perfect compliment for a wintry day. Placed on my table, pink and flowers welcome family and friends and give me hope with the empowering vision of a soon-to-be-here spring.

Enjoy the comfort of your home and make it a merry refuge for you and your family!

And don't forget to visit Susan at Between naps on the porch for more lovely tables.

The world through my eyes

7:00am... a magical glow breaks through the darkened window, and although it has taken me by surprise, I know what it is...

Snow! Our world has been awoken to yet another white morning. It’s dark outside, but the garden is magically wrapped in this amazing ice-blue glow that only snow can cast...

Tiny snowflakes are fluttering lazily from the sky, like exquisite frozen butterflies. If one thing amazes me about winter and a winter’s morning is the silence and sacredness that seems to blanketed the land... it isn’t unusual this binding, metaphysical and ubiquitous power of Nature in me... I hear it calling me.... a force beyond my power urging me to be one with the earth, as a bride becomes one in unity with her groom. And so I set out to the garden again... to the treasures hidden in the ice....

This wonderful world of mine has become a beautiful and desolate island... there is something almost mystical lingering in the chilled air... no lullaby fairy or imaginary creature this time... peace abide in a real garden, in the heart of a real woman in a real world forever immersed in a magic whose secret will always elude us... 

Oh the hallowed sound of silence... and this white vastness filling every corner inside... nothing moves, nothing to disturb the sacredness that has descended upon the land...

I see angels dancing down the path, white sea-foam clumps in wind-tossed tree branches, and then, behind my back a soft fluttering of wings.... something takes flight behind me; perhaps an intruder myself in this wonderful wonderland of silence... a winged friend.

It’s wonderful... the leaping free spirits of birds, the dream of a snowy land, and to sense the miracle of life in everything which is natural...

And behind my back, though it is a cold dreary time of year, a safe and warm nest to call my own. Home! The place where my imagination can always metamorph and fly as a bird. 

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in. ~George Washington Carver