A Winter’s Night Toast

“Brew me a cup for a winter’s night.
For the wind howls loud, and the furies fight;
Spice it with love and stir it with care,
And I’ll toast your bright eyes, my sweetheart fair.”

~Minna Thomas Antrim, “A Night Cap,” A Book of Toasts, 1902

winter night

I know. I know, you read this twice already, go ahead and skip to the end to find today’s blogger!

Sky Blue Daze suggested I participate in the 3 Day Quote challenge. I thought it sounded good, but then I found out, there were rules.

  • Post on 3 consecutive days
  • Post one to three quotes per day
  • Challenge three different bloggers each day

Rules…

I’m not so good with arbitrary rules, but I’m pretty good at making up new ones!

So, instead of nominating three new bloggers to participate every day I’m instead going to introduce you to one a day. Partially because I’m contrary like that but mostly because I sincerely hope that you will all follow my link and find a new fantastic blogger on the other end. And, if said fantastic blogger wants to share some quotes in the next few days that’s just a bonus.

 My last blogger introduction is one who is fairly new to me. I’m not sure how I found Melissa and her Ever Growing Farm. But if I had to guess I’d say it’s the goats. The goats may have drawn me in but I’ve stuck around because she loves her chickens’ eggs in a way I can relate to and she’s one of my favorite people to sit down with over a virtual cup of tea. And, of course, the gorgeous pictures. (Speaking of pictures you should probably look her up on Instagram.  Just today she shared glimpses of a gorgeous frosty sunrise, a goat and a baby chick!)

Stop by her farm, share a hot beverage, meet the goats and say hello!

Use What Talent You Possess…

piano

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.

~Author unknown, quoted in The Ladies Repository: A Monthly Periodical, Devoted to Literature, Arts, and Religion, September 1874, commonly miss-attributed to Henry Van Dyke and Henry David Thoreau

Sky Blue Daze suggested I participate in the 3 Day Quote challenge. I thought it sounded good, but then I found out, there were rules.

  • Post on 3 consecutive days
  • Post one to three quotes per day
  • Challenge three different bloggers each day

Rules…

I’m not so good with arbitrary rules, but I’m pretty good at making up new ones!

So, instead of nominating three new bloggers to participate every day I’m instead going to introduce you to one a day. Partially because I’m contrary like that but mostly because I sincerely hope that you will all follow my link and find a new fantastic blogger on the other end. And, if said fantastic blogger wants to share some quotes in the next few days that’s just a bonus.

Today’s blogger needs no incentive to share quotes, Diane always has just the perfect one, or two, or three in her posts. The quotes always accompany beautiful photos in her online journal, which she calls simple but is always a beautiful, calming, breath of sea air.  Head on over to visit and hear about how she was finally able to fulfill a life long dream and started taking piano lessons once she retired. Check out her latest knitting projectfavorite book of the moment and look at a few dozen beautiful photographs.

Diane’s a fabulous hostess and she wouldn’t want you sneaking in and out the back door without being able to exchange a kind word before you leave.  So be sure you leave a comment so she knows who’s been traipsing through her garden!

Winter Birding

Junco

“There is an unreasonable joy to be had from the observation of small birds going about their bright, oblivious business”
― Grant Hutchison, The Complete Lachlan

nuthatch

Sky Blue Daze suggested I participate in the 3 Day Quote challenge. I thought it sounded good, but then I found out, there were rules.

  • Post on 3 consecutive days
  • Post one to three quotes per day
  • Challenge three different bloggers each day

Rules…

I’m not so good with arbitrary rules, but I’m pretty good at making up new ones!

So, instead of nominating three new bloggers to participate every day I’m instead going to introduce you to one a day. Partially because I’m contrary like that but mostly because I sincerely hope that you will all follow my link and find a new fantastic blogger on the other end. And, if said fantastic blogger wants to share some quotes in the next few days that’s just a bonus.

Today I highly recommend you visit Summer Crow Photos.  Her photos of rural Pennsylvania are amazing. The line of cows in Keeping Warm are my current favorite but I love them all from the activity in Harvesting to the still life in Cherries. And, as if that’s not enough, she sometimes post photos of her visits to Assateague Island. Yes Marguerite Henry fans, that Assateague Island!

Please, go check her photos out and say hello while you are at it, all us bloggers love comments!

Merry Christmas

The Bee Carol

by Carol Ann Duffyblack and white bee hives

Silently on Christmas Eve,
the turn of midnight’s key;
all the garden locked in ice —
a silver frieze —
except the winter cluster of the bees.

Flightless now and shivering,
around their Queen they cling;
every bee a gift of heat;
she will not freeze
within the winter cluster of the bees.

Bring me for my Christmas gift
a single golden jar;
let me taste the sweetness there,
but honey leave
to feed the winter cluster of the bees.

Come with me on Christmas Eve
to see the silent hive —
trembling stars cloistered above —
and then believe,
bless the winter cluster of the bees.black and white bee hives

Merry Christmas and a special thank you to Annette for sending us this poem!