This & That

Portree Harbour, Isle of Skye

Just a quick post today, since I am working on our NEW COMPUTER for the first time! Posting is actually taking a bit longer, because not everything is loaded onto our new computer (yea!) yet, so I'm using the old computer for loading my photos and the new computer (yea!) for everything else.

First, I'd like to thank Sophia (aka Purest Green) at where there are no chickadees and Scotland for the Senses for the beautiful postcard from Portree Harbour (Isle of Skye). She had a fun little "mad scheme" on her blog where she offered to send a postcard from her vast collection to anyone who wished to receive one. I shouted, "Me me me!" and she sent me one, with a sweet personal message on the back. Thanks, Sophia!
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Someday I hope to visit Scotland and the Isle of Skye. Maybe I'll stay at The Witchery by the Castle in Edinburgh for a few days.

Edinburgh

Followed by a trip to the village of Dirleton, said to be one of the prettiest villages in Scotland, with a castle and gardens and all the Old World charm I enjoy so much when I travel.

Dirleton

Ahhhh, well, until then I'll show you a few more of the flowers in our garden. Like the poppy, that grew almost 5 feet tall this year, reaching for the sun.

Can you see the little white bug on the right side of this bottom photo?

It never fails to rain buckets when the peonies are blooming, but I took this shot before it rained this weekend because I like the way the more mature bloom and the half-opened bloom looked side-by-side.

The way I look at it, these two flowers are like women. Whether you're still a young blossom or in full bloom, you are beautiful and unique and worthy of admiration.

A good egg

Yesterday I took a little road trip to visit a dear friend. We've been friends since the mid 1980s, back when we both wore suits and were scrambling to climb that corporate ladder everyone told us we had to climb. We've both been through tremendous personal and professional changes since then, but we've remained close friends through all those changes. Even though we are alike in many way, we are different in even more. It keeps things interesting.

Like, for example, the egg in the picture above. It's one of a dozen eggs my friend gave me yesterday - fresh eggs that her own little hens laid. She decided a while back that she wanted to have her own chickens and her own eggs - so she just went ahead and did it. Me, on the other hand, I might think about it (briefly) and just keep buying them instead.

I've been noticing recently how some people, friends, former co-workers and in-laws, who have know me for decades, still often expect me to be exactly as I was decades ago. I've been thinking lately of how important all friends, old and new, are. And about how rare it is to find true friends who really accept you for who you are.

"A true friend

is someone who thinks that you are a good egg,

even though (s)he knows

that you are slightly cracked."

~ Bernard Meltzer

Several years ago,when this friend of mine was going through a difficult time, she sent me an e-mail where she called me her Anam Cara. I though, Anam Cara,what's that? I soon found out.

According to the late John O'Donohue's book, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom:

"The Celtic understanding of friendship finds its inspiration and culmination in the sublime notion of the anam cara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul, cara is the word for friend. So anam cara means soul friend. The anam cara was a person to whom you could reveal the hidden intimacies of your life. This friendship was an act of recognition and belonging. When you had an anam cara, your friendship cut across all convention and category. You were joined in an ancient and eternal way with the friend of your soul."

It's a beautiful way to describe a close friendship, isn't it? This has become one of my favorite books.

Personally, I'm always drawn to people who are bit out of the ordinary. Individuals who aren't afraid to live their lives on on their own terms.

"Certain flaws are necessary for the whole.

It would seem strange

if old friends lacked certain quirks."

~ Goethe



"How rare and wonderful

is that flash of a moment when we realize

we have discovered a friend."

~ William Rotsler

Whether we find friends in our real-world lives, or here on the internet, it's always a special thing, and should never be taken for granted, in my opinion. True friendship is rare and wonderful thing, don't you think?

"A mere friend will agree with you,

but a real friend will argue."

~ Russian proverb

Friendship should be cherished and nurtured, and treated like the precious thing it is.

"Friendship is a plant which must often be watered."

~ German proverb

When friendship is at its best, amazing things can happen.

"A friend is one who makes me do my best."

~ Oswald Chambers

I wish you all a good egg, an anam cara, a true friend (or two or three or more, if you're really blessed).

The slow life

Over the weekend Mr. C and I spent a few hours in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, a little town that's retained its town center's charm, with turreted Victorian homes, cute boutiques and antique shops, a thriving artists' community and a wonderful selection of restaurants. Whenever I visit Cedarburg, I realize again how much I enjoy many of the simpler, slower things in life.

Like front porches. In my opinion there's something about a front porch that no modern patio or deck can match for cozy comfort.

I like the walkable neighborhoods, with sidewalks, and friendly neighbors, and shops, and a library and restaurants all within walking distance.

There once was a time when I thought I'd like to own and run a bed and breakfast. I don't think that will ever happen, but I do enjoy staying at them. I love everything about the creaky old houses and the delicious breakfasts that are served in many of them.

Cedarburg also didn't tear down its old Texaco gas station. Do you remember the distinctive pagoda-style buildings that once dotted the landscape? Most have been torn down, but in Cedarburg they've turned it into a jewelery store.

Even the ducks are more relaxed in Cedarburg. This one decided to build her nest right in front of a busy little Cafe on the main street. She did start to object when I stopped to take this photo, so we obliged her and quickly moved on.

Cedarburg also has lovely gardens and garden shops with outdoor sculptures and furniture of all kinds for sale.

A stroll through Cedarburg always reminds me how I'm drawn to the simple, dependable flowers our mothers and grandmothers probably enjoyed, too, like geraniums.

In our own garden, one clematis is an early bloomer this year, and its plant is stunted. The other clematis is at least three times as tall, but doesn't even have any flower buds yet. Kind of like people, some are early bloomers - I've never been one myself. I seem to come late to many things, and I like it that way, most of the time.

I also recently discovered a real appreciation for an old garden stand-by. I never really realized how many colors and types of pansies there are.

And petunias. This year I found some interesting new colors that I had to incorporate in my pots and hanging baskets.

If you click on the photo of the petunia above, you can see the dew drops and tiny little hairs along the stem of the unopened flowers. I can't believe my simple little camera caught that. I was very excited when I saw this shot!

And speaking of the slow life, here's a photo I took earlier today of our old 1998 Compaq Presario. A few years ago, Mr. C who knows about computers, upgraded it from the original Windows 98 to XP. It's the only computer I've used since 1998, and even I can tell it's gotten very slow and tired. But it still works, so we have held onto it because we don't want to add usable things to the landfill.

This weekend my daughter received her own laptop, which is super fast. Mr. C has two computers in his office at work, both of which are the newest and fastest. I have a feeling we'll be getting a new computer for our home office within the next few weeks, since we're starting to have more and more problems with this old fella. This computer likes to randomly kick us off the internet and shut down in the middle of things. (I always say it's having a nervous breakdown because it can't handle the fast pace of modern life.)

I'm glad Mr. C knows about computers and technology. Without him, I might still be using pen and paper and a typewriter! Maybe with a new computer it won't take me all day to get one post together.

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"The little things?

The little moments?

They aren't little."

~ John Kabat-Zinn

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I would like to thank the wonderful and generous Delwyn at a hazy moon for her advice on editing and reducing my photos so they take less time to load, but look even better! If you haven't visited her blog yet, you really owe it to yourself to take a look. Her blog is fabulous! Thanks Delwyn!

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