Monday This and That

The world of reality has its limits;

the world of imagination is boundless.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I had a quiet weekend.  On Saturday, I slept late for a change and later took a walk to the fruit stand.  I was hoping to find some more dinosaur plums; I fell in love with them, but it seems that every week they have different deliveries.  Donut peaches seem to be on their way out and there have been no more cherry plums, but I did find some nice red velvet avocados.  Also bought salad ingredients, some gorgeous tomatoes on the vine, some carrots, red, green, and orange peppers, and some brocolli rabe.

Spent the afternoon cooking some toppings for my foods, hoping to add some taste.  Tried one on Saturday's chicken, and it did make my food more interesting.  It was simple to do.  I chopped up the peppers, an onion, and two tomatoes and sauteed half in one pot and half in another in a little olive oil. I added some garlic powder in both, and in one I added some Mrs. Dash's Extra Spicy and in the other, some garlic and herb. Added a wee bit of water and let everything simmer for a few.

Bought a new Kindle book...."Believing in Fairies, A Manual for Grownups" by Marcia Zina Mager.  As children, we believe in magic, but as we grow older the adults laugh, or chide us for our silly beliefs,  and we begin to believe that there is no such thing as fairies or nature spirits.  And, by the time we are adults, we find ourselves trapped in the world of reality, unable to get back to that magical world we once knew. The following is part of the review: "This book is uniquely different. It is a modern day instruction manual directly from the mystical realm itself; a 'Celestine Prophecy' brought back from the natural world. It takes the reader on a rare journey into a kingdom governed by ancient principles and powerful truths that can change our planet. Believing in Faeries promises to alter the way we view the world."

Needless to say, I  had a hard time putting the book down, but I did want to spend some what I call 'dark time'.  This is that time that the television goes off, the Kindle put aside, and the lights turned off.  Only a candle remains lit.  The curtains are pulled aside, and it is only me and the darkness of night.  This is 'my' time, my very special time when the cares and worries of the day are brushed aside as the darkness surrounds me and protects me. The world about me is sleeping, quiet, and I sit alone, gazing up at the beauty of the night sky and feeling a sense of peace and wholeness and connection with the universe.

Sunday was rather uneventful, quiet time, getting ready for work...nails, laying out clothes for the week, cleaning out purse, etc...all those little things that have to be accomplished.  I look for little ways to avoid that morning rush to get ready.  There is nothing more frustrating in the morning than taking out a blouse and finding it needs ironing, or searching for an essential accessory such as a scarf or necklace.  It seems that the older I get, the more organized my life becomes.  Perhaps that is because the effects of the passage of time such as back aches and knee pain forces us to slow down, or perhaps it is because we finally realize that life passes by far too fast, and if we don't slow down we will miss it.

Wishing you all a great Monday and a sensational week.

The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse:

Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse,

Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock,

And the Lady Hollyhock.

Fairy places, fairy things,

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings,

Tiny trees for tiny dames--

These must all be fairy names!

Tiny woods below whose boughs

Shady fairies weave a house;

Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme,

Where the braver fairies climb!

Fair are grown-up people's trees,

But the fairest woods are these;

Where, if I were not so tall,

I should live for good and all.

Robert Louis Stevenson