This and that and another birthday celebrated

I want a Cheshire cat to live in my garden forever.  I want to hide a star in a Byzantine jewelry box decorated in jade and black velvet, and hold it on the palm on my hand whenever I want.  I want to open my magical jewelry casket every time my soul's light is weak and see my star erasing all darkness away.  I want a magical orange tree in the heart of my garden with fruits that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them, and I want to be a famous girl drummer.  A bohemian-style wild hair kind of a girl drummer, dressed in crystal embellished frocks, over-the-knee boots, fringe-adorned dresses, and velvety shawls.  In another dream, I see myself in a totally different light.  I'm holding a shinny violoncello between my knees. The body of the cello gently resting against my chest, whilst I balance it between my knees; eyes closed, head turning towards where the music leads... same Stevie Nick's knee-high boots and bohemian layers style, but instead of the wild girl drummer, I'm a passionate melodious, gentle cello girl.  Oh yes, I'm pretty sure I am two women in one...   

The Fisherman is having another birthday today, so we celebrate his day and Valentine's Day in one day, which it really is the same to me in representation of love, and what love really means.  It's pointless to decorate the little white cottage for Valentine's Day.  I find this practice tacky in every way, and instead try to gather all these meaningful thoughts in my heart and keep them there for the rest of the year... endurance, friendship, acceptance, forgiveness, romance, passion, and partnership—this should be an everyday thing, don't you think so?  The initial intensity of love may lessens with time and age, but what grows up around it is a huge amount of shared experience and fulfillment that can seem to eclipse that intensity.  Love then becomes more exciting, passionate, hilarious, fulfilling, etc., all the time.  It is not magic.  But it is!

I love when in the morning the sun slides this way and this other way on the horizon until it finally rests upon this corner of our little white cottage... the light streaming through the windows on this part of the house has the power to create something beautiful, and magical in me.

  

Mornings are still cold around here, and for more that I want to get outside and start working the soil, I must wait.  If it gets a little warmer this afternoon, I will start removing dead leaves and debris from the flowerbeds.  In the mean time, I will continue drawing beauty and strength from my little jungle inside the house... all those houseplants and potted plants winterizing inside the house; which I should say, are doing wonderful, and growing greener and suppler everyday. 

  

The Fisherman got me some little lights the other day... I'm lighting up the inside of the kitchen shelves.  I need more lights for the upper shelving, but I'm already loving all that aqua coming to life and pretty dishes that now I can see.

A few weeks ago I bought a bunch of bulbs that I should be planting anytime soon.  It may be a little early in the year for this, but every store I go to are already packing shelves with perennials and bulbs, and it's hard to contain oneself when you are a gardener or a garden lover and winter becomes too long... 

I've been working on a few projects inside the house.  Last months I found these large lamps at our local thrift store and brought them home.  I had big plans for them.  

And thus, they got glamorized a bit...

To match with my living room decor...

Perfection!

I hope you're enjoying each moment with a joyful heart.  Don't think that everything is peachy-happy in my life, because it isn't.  Having to deal with chronic pain and discomfort seems to be my everyday cup of tea lately, but I still believe that positive emotions, faith in an ever-powerful everlasting God, love, purpose, determination, and humor boosts disease fighting immune cells... and there's joy.

See you soon!

Mrs. Whaley's Charleston Garden

Yesterday while the Fisherman was at meetings all morning I decided to go out for myself and lose my soul in the old cobblestone streets of Charleston.  I cannot love this city anymore I already do, for I have been forevermore enchanted, and my heart sits under the spells of courtyard gardens, historical churches and haunted cemeteries.  Detailed iron ornamentation wrought by hand or cast graces each home and gate, grilles, shutter guards and foot scrapes and window boxes and potted plants graces each entrance, each window, each wall.  I needed to go back to Mrs. Whaley's old house on Church St.  And so I did, and this time I was graciously invited to go into the walled garden where Mrs. Emily Whaley spent so many hours of her days embellishing the world for whoever wanted to see... Even in winter time, the garden holds an enchantment to it that draws you to God and Nature inevitably.  Azaleas carpeting mossy walls are already putting up buds, and camellias bushes as tall as trees bend with flowers in beauty I had never seen.  Green, wet mossy charm encompasses every spot, every statuary coming to life under a perpetual sleepiness and peaceful quietness that make you walk as if soaring low.   Here are some images I hope you'll enjoy!  Come on... let's go in!

If you are intrigued enough to look this book up on Amazon, here is the link.

 

I only had to read a couple of sentences about it before I put it in my basket.  I can only tell you what an absolute delight it is.  Yes, it is mostly about the garden, but it is also full of anecdotes and recipes and general advice.  It is a small book and would make the most excellent gift to any person who enjoys anything to do with gardens.

I'll talk about the most eccentric, yet beautiful cemetery I discovered while on my walk in another post... See you soon!