Thanksgiving Blessings

There was no turkey, no stuffing, no squash or pumpkin pie...No table settings for 6...no high chair joining in with a little boy full of laughter.   This year we weren't even home..this year I really, really got the meaning of Thanksgiving and giving back...and being grateful for all that we have and especially for those that I love.  I learned that food and festivities do not define what Thanksgiving really means...and it was powerful and precious.

We spent the day at Boston Children's Hospital...my little family of 7..all together, squeezed into a tiny room...We played lego's, watch the Smurf video...colored and read books...we took short walks pushing a IV pole and watching two little brothers ride in plastic trucks all around the halls, laughing together as they raced...not a drop of food or drink was allowed in that room...because Little Liam had surgery last Sunday and he is still restricted...the surgery is what prompts this post but it is not what defines it...what defines it is how thankful I am for his life, for his smile, for his healing. I am thankful for a family that doesn't ask what we can do,  but we all just show up...day after day...until we are no longer needed...I will be forever grateful to his parents for their 24 hour concern and love and sleep-overs so he is never alone. My gratitude goes beyond anything I could have imagined for the skill of those fine doctor's at Children's, one of the finest hospitals in the country...and a basket full of thanks for the nurses who care for him with such joy in their hearts for these little patients...

Life doesn't always come in a neatly tied package...it sometimes throws us a curve that we could never even imagine..but riding on the waves of those curves are lessons learned...life lessons that sometimes make you stand up and take note of the real meaning of life...the real gifts we are given and it reminds us of the goodness of so many people...strangers until you meet and whose hearts touch yours in unexpected ways...

So for the first time that I ever remember we did not sit down at the dining room table with the fancy dishes and way to much food...what we did was gather in goodness and Grace...in gratitude and love..because when it was  time for me to leave the hospital I left taking Thanksgiving with me...it was always there...in my kids, my husband, friends who prayed and doctor's and nurses who in my mind perform tiny miracles everyday...it reminds me as I entered the season of Christmas..to keep Thanksgiving in my heart and pass the goodness along...and be so Grateful for the Blessings I've been given...

I hope all my family and friends found many reasons to be grateful and thankful today...

"I am grateful for what I am and have.  My thanksgiving is perpetual.  It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite....only a sense of existence."...Henry David Thoreau...

Welcome to Fall in Rockport

Rockport..a tiny fishing village thirty minutes from my house...Home of the famous and hugely photographed Motif #1.  A tourist town that all who visit Cape Ann just have to come and visit.  It's artsy and all the little shops are run by "creatives" just like all of us who see the world in our own unique way and the try to capture it through whatever medium we love...it sits on the sea, this beautiful village and about a month ago a friend of mine went on a little photo tour to see "the other side of the town"...the part where the real folks live and play.  I highly recommend this sweet tiny village if ever you are in New England...and the season does not matter...it carries it's beauty straight through the year.

First stop, no matter when I go is always the Motif...even though I have photographed it a bazillion times, the wharf still draws me...maybe a new angle, maybe different light...but always the Motif in the background.

Heading out of town...we headed for the rocky shore and the beach...it's a beautiful sight with the lighthouse in the background...rugged and welcoming at the same time.

This view shows you just how close to the water these residents live...fortunately the rocky shoreline protects them but with the way things are going you have to wonder how long that can last...the ocean can be vicious as well as beautiful..so much erosion has already happened along our shorelines.  But still, for a time, I love to dream about what it must be like here.

In the fall and winter you can walk this lovely beach so much easier than in the summer when the resident well, take up residence on the beach..like the name of the town indicates..it has a lot of rocks...they are really beautiful to view..and at the right time of day  the light hits them wonderfully.

Heading back up to town we exit the beach and make a loop around the neigborhood and see this view as we head in...the harbor view with the two church steeples in the background...so calm and quiet on this early morning visit.

My last find of the day...a doorway on a side street...It was a beautiful day, not only for all the beauty of the ocean and beach...but it was well spent with a good photography friend.  We all know that's a great find for any day.

Mindful of the Beauty

Mindful by Mary Oliver

Every day I see or hear something that more or less

kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle 

in a haystack of light.

It was what I was born for- to look, to listen,

to lose myself inside this soft world-

to instruct myself over and over

in joy, and acclamation.   Nor am I talking about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful, 

the very extravagant-

but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.

Oh, good scholar,

I say to myself,

how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these-

the untrimmable light of the world,

the ocean's shine, the prayers that are made 

out of grass?

Look What Liam Got For His Birthday

From Nana and Papa......O.K you can calm down now...no, we did not buy him this pony but what we are doing is giving him riding lessons.  Can I say Love right here...his love of horses is so evident and I'm living my love of horses through him...When he is at Myopia for his lesson, he has a smile a mile wide..I'm so proud of how he is doing and what he is learning..but what I really want to know is, how did this happen to my boy so fast...

Birthday's are a unique experience for me...any time one of my kids has a birthday I spend the day reflecting on their growth and accomplishments and particularly on how fast time moves.  Kids define the measure of time. With Liam, it seems I waited forever for him to come to us..I've been waiting longer than he had even been a thought to his parents..And then on November 13 in 2009 he arrived.  So much joy. So much thankfulness and most especially, so much love.  He was worth the wait.  Now I am pondering the miracle of four years passing..from this photo below..to that photo above..how did time move so quickly..No longer a baby but now a little boy.  He has ideas of his own and speaks freely about them..he knows what he likes and what he doesn't.  He is good and loving, although sometimes he finds this a bit difficult with his brother as he is becoming more mobile.  Four years old today...and he is still quite amazing to his Papa and Nana..

His love of horses began to appear last year when we were at a Halloween event...they had horses there that went around and around in a circle...tied to a moving pole..Liam marched right up, and got on the biggest one he could find and road around that circle for 4 trips.  We live in an area that is full of horses and we often stop to pet them and talk to them...This summer Liam and I went to our first Polo match together and that sealed the deal for him...I asked around and found out quite by accident that Myopia Hunt Club gave private lessons and so a seed was planted in my head...His Birthday Gift...I was so excited when they told me that they would take him at this young age...and I feel good to know that he is learning from the best and the safest.  And can I say clean, clean, clean stables...I had looked at many before this...not so good.

So Happy Birthday my little love bug...thanks for taking Nana on your journey these past four years...you have taught me so much...how to listen, how to learn, the importance of patience.  You've taught me how to play cars, and how to dress fur babies.  I've learned about bugs and poop and super hero's from you.  You make me laugh and walking with you in conversation is one of my greatest pleasures, holding hands is another gift you give..I especially love that you like to take photo's with my G-10, which you tell me now is yours. Tea time is always special with you, here and at the Wenham Tea House. You've also taught me the joy of giving beyond anything I had ever know...and the sweetest words I hear...that I carry with me each day, is when you spontaneously say..."I love you Nana"...how to win me over...So win me over you did with your love of horses...enjoy the ride Liam...just like I'm enjoying mine with you....

Before Liam can go riding he has to take care of his horse..Penny...First he gets his brush basket and he knows all the names of the brushes.  Then he has to brush Penny.  Penny loves this part.   

 Next comes cleaning Penny's feet...Liam likes doing this..He scapes out all the sawdust and his instructor told him it looks like a frog in there..He does a great job with the tool.

 

After all the brushing and cleaning of Penny's feet...next comes the blanket and then the saddle...Liam struggles with this...that saddle is pretty heavy, but he carries it to Penny and then gets help tossing it over the horses back...always with a smile.

 

He has to learn to keep the saddle on and so he gets some help with the buckles...he's pretty good at getting it done up and then of course there is an adjustment made for him.

Then comes Liam's favorite job of getting Penny ready to ride...putting in the bit.   He knows all the words and of the equipment and he knows where they all hang in the barn because when the ride is over he has to reverse all that he has done here and brush Penny again...before leading her back into her stall.

 The time that he most enjoys...riding.  Getting in the ring and learning how to tell Penny what he wants her to do..I am amazed that he is riding English instead of Western...so much harder to me but I think, in the end, he will be a better rider because of this...so here he goes...my Little Guy..riding like the wind...well not yet, but for sure someday.

It is a lot for a little boy to take in.  It is more work than riding at this point but he does love it so far..and at the end of the riding, it is time to take Penny back inside the stable and clean her up and put her away...Liam happily walks her back...

A beautiful day at the Stables...for Liam and Penny...becoming best friends.

THE RIDING SCHOOL -By Denise Clark

The smell of hay and the stable hound,
The clatter of hooves on the tarmac ground.
The creak of leather supple in the loft,
The neigh of contentment,
The whinning of fright,
The variety of weight, cob, heavy or light,
The colour of horses,
Chestnut , white, black, or bay,
The turning out of ponies after along hard day,
The munching of food, barely, bran, hay and oats,
The pricking ears and the shinning coats,
The sucking of water from the trough so cool,
All these things you find in a RIDING SCHOOL.

Summer Vacation Books 2013

Here it is the first of November and I'm finally getting to my summer reading pile...Life is moving fast these days...to fast actually.  I'm thinking ahead already to 2014 and hoping that I can somehow, someway get in more reading time and BLOGGING time...but for now, I'll give you what I've got...and I must say, it was a wonderful summer of reading for me..not as many books as I would have liked but I did like the books that I sunk myself into...I just love that books take me away, give me tons of information, help me to meet new people and escape into a world of appreciation for life and adventure and amazement.   Books give me a sense of how big and also how small our world is...big books, big adventures...small books, gifts of time and wonder...so here we go...

I saved the last book of my Tea Rose series for my first book of summer reading..with 614 pages to enjoy, I knew I would not only need the time but I wanted to be able to just sit and sink my teeth into this one...and just as I thought...I hated  when it ended...I wish they would make a Downton Abbey like series out of this group of books...so delicious...like the last two in the series it follows the trials and tribulations of many Londoners in the early 1900..World War one, but it is anything but a war story..The Finnegan family and all the twist and turns and thrilling cliff-hangers...over and over again...When it ended...I went right to Amazon to order two other books by this delightful and creative author...I'm saving and savoring them...This would be a good one to put on anyone's Christmas List.

City of Women was a bit different for me but I loved it...Setting is World War 11, but not your ordinary story..life for “ordinary” Berliners at a time that was anything but. Through Heroine Sigrid Schroder, a German wife drawn into an affair with a Jew, Gillham shows us a world in which not all Germans are bad,not all Jews victims, and loyalty is a fiction, the grimmest of fairy tales. Sara Nelson. Perhaps  this comment from a reader sums it up really well..."The writing is a great mix of the literary and commercial, page-turning and suspenseful, with a morally complex, intelligent heroine at its center. If you’re a fan of well-written historical novels in the vein of Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto, this one is for you."--Slate  I highly recommend this book.

You all know that I live by the ocean and just love any body of water...I find it healing and soothing..gentle and peaceful, so I am amazed that it took me so long to read Anne Morrow Lindbergh's, Gift From The Sea. Anne's elegant and wise meditations on youth and age, love and marriage, solitude, peace and contentment, as she sat down during a brief vacation by the sea...don't be fooled, this book is for everyone, whether you live by the sea or in the mountains or anywhere in between...this book will stay in my Maine house, in the guest room, for many years to come...take a chance...it's only 78 pages long...and the quotes are lovely...

I wish I had taken a photo of the back cover instead of the front cover on my next book...it is so telling and beautiful...it's a life style that I could never imagine as a young girl but one I think I would have liked to try on..The book is About Alice..by Calvin Trillin.  Calvin Trillin has been a staff writer for the New Yorker since 1963 and this 78 page gem is the story of his wife. Though it deals with a devastating loss, at it's core it is a love story.  It's also a tale of family life and Manhattan parties.  Five years after her death, Calvin wrote "this is for Alice, actually I wrote everything for Alice".  In that spirit Trillin has, with About Alice, created a gift for the wife he adored and for his readers...simply delightful.  I think we would all like to be loved like Alice was...sigh.

Have you ever wondered what life in a Woman's prison or any prison for that matter might be like...I have.  I have spent a fair number of years recovering from Agoraphobia and so confinement both scares the hell out of me and at the same time fascinates me. I  read with both amazement and wonder.  It was as much an eye opener of what we perceive as life on the inside and what actually transpires...A memoir by a Smith graduate, who spends fifteen months in the Danbury Connecticut woman's prison, Orange is the New Black with take you on a journey you will not forget.  This quote by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love hits the journey of Piper Kerman, like a nail on the head...“I loved this book. It’s a story rich with humor, pathos, and redemption. What I did not expect from this memoir was the affection, compassion, and even reverence that Piper Kerman demonstrates for all the women she encountered while she was locked away in jail. I will never forget it.” The day after I finished this book..it came out on Netflix as a mini series...I'm enjoying that but I do think the written pages are so much more telling..

Last but not least of my escape books....is by one of my very favorite authors, Elizabeth Berg...I eat her words up like candy...she absoluely never disappoints.  Woman's issures with a meaning..light and fast but the best literature and humor...but always, always a serious point. Tapestry of Fortunes is a story about four woman who reconnect to find themselves.  "In this beautifully written novel, leaving home brings revelations, reunions, and unexpected turns that affirm the inner truths of women’s lives. “Maybe Freud didn’t know the answer to what women want, but Elizabeth Berg certainly does,” said USA Today. Elizabeth Berg has crafted a novel rich in understanding of women’s longings, loves, and abiding friendships, which weave together into a tapestry of fortunes that connects us all.  I just love this woman so much...I follow her blog..I see a bit of Kim Klassen in her, as she if so genuine and honest, both about herself and her work.  Give her a try, if you haven't already.

Just for fun I added, The Art of Iphone Photography...a big book, stuffed with great ideas and processing tips and editing tools for using with the iphone...more and more of us are using the iphone as we travel through our days so this is a fun one for browsing through.

  

Now can we talk lovely here...my cookbook this time is the first edition of The Kinfolk Table ...not so much for the recipes but for the gorgeous photo's...I have shifted my interest in cooking books to more of the coffee table type...and this one is a real beauty..I have followed their magazine since it came out but the cook book is by far..the best of their publications. If ever I could get good enough.....I would love to be in this one book.  I know, I should at least read a few of the recipes as the book is a bit costly...but not just yet, I'm savoring the pages as my eye candy.

 And this my friends is the first page inside...gorgeous right...the little pumpkins and hydrangea are mine..and of course the lace tablecloth but the rest...pure loveliness from the book.

I have three magazines for you to enjoy...all from the fall seasons...they were so much fun to travel through on a day when time was limited but I had to have my reading fix...I read tons of magazines...but these were my three favorites this time around...

Fine Cooking Holiday has some great recipes...not so much on the photo's...but it was a great one to thumb through and turn down pages of recipes I'll probably never try because I won't have time...just a fun way to spend a hour or two...Autumn in the South was my hands down favorite, not only for the recipes but also for the photo's and most especially for the fall quotes...it's a keeper. Victoria magazine, I have a subscription for that one...so very English and brilliant colored photo's with lots of tea and sweet ideas..this magazine also offers a lot of quotes...just grab a cup of tea and pick up any one of these.

And although my book review post seem to be so long...could be that I'm as passionate about reading as I am about photography, I can't close without a little tiny statement of what the Boys are loving right now...we spend a lot of time with books, those boys and I, and once again I'm right back there with them...in years..so much fun to snuggle up with a good book and to hear their version of the story, which most often does not match the words...but that's ok...it's the gift of enjoyment that counts..it's the bonding and teaching and loving that quiet time, which is so fleeting...so here is what they are into..and trust me, they read these books over and over again until I'm dizzy with delight..

Liam's favorite book at the moment is, Diary of a Castle Adventure...he will be 4 soon so I bet you can tell by looking at the cover why this one keeps him entertained for hours...It's a wonderful pop up book that shows you where everything in the castle lives and hides...and of course knights with swords is just perfect for him..and yes, a Castle...you know, a real one, is on his Santa list.

Jaxson on the other hand is not so detailed...he loves to look at the colorful pictures and then flip the pages really fast...he has no time to wait for all those words to be read in any kind of order...but he does sit still and repeats the names of the animals in Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See...each animal is a full page and a different color so he's learning a lot from that one...his attention span is about 5 minutes.

When we are all three together on the couch then we read the Cat Who Lost His Meow...Liam just loves the title of that one and the pages are full of beautiful colors and big words and we sometimes improvise for Jaxson but when we read this special one we all have a treat..it is equally suited for both kids and adults...it was given to me by my lovely and wonderfully talented Flickr friend and yes, she is the author of this book, along with her husband...thank you Antoinette...I knew when I got it that Iwould love it and now it's twice as special as I enjoy it with my boys...

So yes it is a long list...I suggest some rainy day, you mak a lovely cup of tea, perhaps with real tea leaves, in a china cup. Grab a snuggly blanket and light a fire...then read.   It is a gift we can so easily give ourselves..it's a world we can travel to alone..and enjoy every moment..escape to another time or place..we all deserve that. If you stop by and leave a comment...I would love it if you would also leave a book title.  Perhaps one by your favorite author or one that you read recently that you found enjoyable or informative...until then...have a beautiful weekend.

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.” 
― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

“No one who can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot.” 
― Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend 

Charls Dickens...my all time favorite writer...I started reading him when I was 15 years old...but that's another story for another day...