Springtime Rambles

"Caroline found it difficult to imagine a lovelier house than this one, or any room that she would love better than this kitchen-livingroom. It was the private property of the family, and the quests seldom came to it. There were two kitchens at The Herb of Grace, the inner one where they cooked and washed up, and this one where they lived and ate. It was a beautiful room, stone-floored with whitewashed walls. Besides the south window looking across the garden to the river, there was another looking on the stable yard, set open above the pots of geraniums on the sill, and through it came the cooing of doves. Oak beams crossed the ceiling, darkened by age to the same rich colour as the big oak table and the dresser with its willow-patterned china. There were bright rugs on the floor and gay chintz curtains at the windows. Nearly all the year round there was a log fire burning on the wide hearth, with the settle set at right angles to it. Beside the hearth the bread-oven was set in the thickness of the wall, and the spit for roasting the meat was still there, and the hook for the kettle."
~from The Heart of the Family by Elizabeth Goudge

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Thursday afternoon...had a wonderful time looking at decorating books with my dear sisters-in-law, Ana and Leah. We had the windows open, drank Darjeeling, laughed and copied things for our homemaking notebooks.

Friday...I saw my first Robins of the Spring!! One of my very favorite of all the sounds of nature is that "tweet, tweet, twitter, tweet" song that Robins sing on summer evenings. I am so glad to hear them singing again. (The picture is a little blurry because he wouldn't let me get very close with the camera. :))

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Spent Friday putting a new door in the garage of a family from church. It was much larger than the original, so we had to tear out the existing frame and cut the opening larger. It looks really nice now that it's done. :)

You can see the first little fuzzy green things coming up around the house. This is a little hollyhock leaf trying to crawl its way out of last year's leaves. It gives one hope that soon we'll be enjoying many more little plants. I saw a picture of blooming lilacs in a book this morning and it made me long for May! :)