Being Home on A Rainy Night



I suppose the rain has done something to me...almost like going to a tent revival meeting in the old days and hearing some preacher put you back on the right road. "Simple is best", is the message for me.
Tonight felt special. The cooler temperature. The ground wet and refreshed. The bark on the trees dark with rain. The leaves suddenly look greener. The old farm place looks more homestead like tonight, and that feels good to me.
The aroma of earth, damp with that subtle rotting leave smell that isn't a bad smell at all. Walking out the back door with the screen door banging behind me, everything is perfect.
I gathered eggs in a little red basket rather than my apron tonight. Seemed more romantic, more young girl like instead of old farm wife. Not even sure why that seemed important, but it did .
After coming inside, I lit the candle and put it on the welsh cupboard next to the basket of eggs. Their green and brown shells made it look a bit like an Easter basket.
Eggs put away, it was time to settle down for the night. But first I made some beet salad as Melanie will be over soon and that's one of her favorite treats. Some mayonnaise mixed with some relish, tonight the sweet kind, but I have used dill. Made like a tarter sauce. Add cut up sliced beats, I cut them like shoestring potatoes, mix gently and chill. Sounds strange but its really good, especially if you are a big fan of beets. Its comes out a pretty color too.
I tidied up the kitchen as best I could. There are still paint pails and the many implements of a "do over" in the room. It gives it an untidy look to me. Its just a temporary thing, so no use to fret over it.
In the living room I convince myself that we are having a real honest break from summer. I light the lamp and cozy up with a winter book. Maybe I am trying to trick myself into thinking that it's not August.

The Children's Blizzard is the book I pull from the shelf. A woman sitting next to me on the plane from Boston was reading it and it sounded like a book that would teach me something about the human spirit in the face of tragedy. January 13, 1888, more than one hundred children lay dead on the Dakota-Nebraska prairie. A horrible winter storm that seems forgotten except for the telling of this story by David Laskin. Its a book filled with heartbreak and peoples ability to move on. What a story about the lives of the early settlers in America.
I count my blessings tonight sitting in a comfortable home, filled with love.

Comments

wendybirde said…
If anything reclaims something precious from your mennonite past, I think maybe it is this picture of the eggs by candlelight. Something really moves me there. So much so that I can't resist using it in one of my posts (if you are willing). It so captures for me this elusive feeling of "following the heartbeat".

In the same vien, I love your new about me phrase "Just wanting to live simply in a complex world." I feel a subtle shift in your blog, an opening and yet also a reclaiming of what is precious about your past...a very powerful thing...
Patty said…
Through the history of my blog you will see more than one picture of my eggs in a basket.
We have had chickens for so long I have no idea what it would be like to live without them.
Not a shifting so much as a recognition of whats really important and what isn't.
Not a new phrase, an old one about just wanting to live simply in a complex world.
Patty said…
Hi Wendy,
Just put in a call to my publisher guy and he would like it if you would not use any of my photos until after we have chosen the ones to be used for the book.
Thanks for understanding !
Patty
wendybirde said…
Whoops. I just assumed it was probably okay since you never had a problem with it before, and I already started writing the post and its been commented on too. Should I take it down then? It's at http://thebluebirdofhappinesscomestotea.blogspot.com/2006/08/following-heartbeat.html. And what about the other post from before at Whispering Roses, the one at http://whisperingroses.blogspot.com/2006/07/on-contentment-and-candlewax.html. I think that's all the posts with your photos. Do you actually need those posts taken down then? It's just that the images i choose/put with a post are really key to it, the words written in the post and images really work around each other. Or did you just mean not to use future images till you get the book planned? In that case I could just know not to choose them and therefore not end up writing around them...
Patty said…
Hi Wendy,
The ones you have used are ok, just for the future. Thanks
Patty said…
Hi Again Wendy,
I solved the problem regarding the use of my pictures so you will be able to use them. They will just have some nifty little copyright sign on them. I didn't want to seem unkind or selfish so we worked out something so pictures from my blog could be used. Life is indeed complicated at times
wendybirde said…
Of course you're neither unkind or selfish Patty: )
But I must admit I can get quite inspired by your lovely images, so I'm really glad you thought of the little copyright sign idea. And so many people post images from people's blogs w/o saying where they found them, so I think your idea of a stamp on the image could be a real blessing.

I actually like when folks do that. Because I have a ton of images in my pictures folder that I can't remember where I found them, and so it really helps me when there is the artist's name or site at the image bottom.

Good luck with your book by the way. I think that's a wonderful idea : )

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