Five on Friday: Flowers, Books, Surprises

 Clematis 'Polish Spirit'

"...to withdraw from the world ever deeper

into his own private consolations of the spirit."

from Brother Cadfael's Penance by ELLIS PETERS

Happy Friday! As you read this, I'm away on a short road trip to the southern part of our province. As I won't have access to my blog, I hope the post goes up properly today. We didn't do as many day trips as we first planned for the summer, but it's also been lovely to be at home, enjoying the quiet in our own backyard. On these languid August days, it's so easy to zone out into one's own mind space... "into (the) private consolations of the spirit"... meandering amongst the flowers, feeling the breeze brush our faces, letting the mind wander or read a riveting story, meeting friends for an iced coffee, taking short naps on a lazy afternoon. For a little while we forget about the cares of the world, returning then to normal routines—the fray of life—refreshed and energized.

I offer today's edition of Five on Friday. Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by. 

One. Outside my window

A person doesn't have to look at the calendar to know that we're well into August. The slant of the sun in the early morning indicates September fast approaches. We hope for many days yet where they remain languid and calm. Thankfully, the heat wave has passed, and as I write this there is no wildfire smoke in the area, so we're enjoying summery days that don't melt us into puddles on the sidewalk.

The bees are busy amongst the flowers. We haven't seen so many golden souls around as we have had this summer - this is a trend that makes us happy. I must also mention that we're watching the growth of a single sunflower which volunteered, seeds off the bird feeders, and is now towering about six feet—its greenery huge like rhubarb leaves. All energy goes into forming the seed head which is still small, maybe the size of a saucer, petals in sunflower yellow. On rainy days, the petals are tightly closed, but how I enjoy watching them open, turning face towards the sun on sunny days.

Two. On my mind

Looking through an old journal, I found something I once wrote down by John Cleese: "By creativity, I simply mean new ways of thinking about things." In light of his definition, it brings creative endeavours into the common realm where every single person can be, and is, creative in his or her daily life. There isn't one among us, I venture to say, who isn't looking for better ways to think about things, e.g., How can I do this? How can I do it with better results? More beautifully? Simpler? Creative work is what we do in life. Thankfully, it's not just artists or writers or musicians who have the gift. It's all of us, doing the work we do best... hopefully for our own good and for the good of others.

Three. Current reading pile

This pile includes recent purchases from the thrift store, something borrowed from the library, and several resident books from my own shelves. I seem to be mostly into novels this summer, although "Dear Theo" is a collection of Vincent Van Gogh's published letters to his brother, Theo. I earlier read the historical novel Mrs. Van Gogh (not shown) by Caroline Cauchi, the story of Vincent's sister-in-law who eventually came to be the caretaker of his art and letters after his death—she believed so much in his art and wanted to ensure it would be there for future generations. Reading Caroline's novel first has given me a lovely backdrop for my leisurely reading of the letters.

Four. Sweet surprise in the mailbox

A visit to the mailbox revealed a wee package from my lovely writing buddy, Joy. I love surprises especially when they're as pretty as this one. With floral stickers decorating the envelope, the floral theme continued on the inside—a gorgeous notecard of Monet's garden by artist Zoé Elizabeth Norman with the cutest pocket-size notebook tucked inside. Which a person could use from front to back or from back to front, because the pages worked either way. A person could write about one topic on one side, turn it around and write something else on the other. This little surprise from Joy boosted my spirits considerably and made me feel almost as if I were floating with the puffy white clouds in the summer sky.

Five. New anthology coming out soon

I have had the great joy—and fun—of being on the editorial team of the new anthology being published by InScribe Press. I now know how much collaborative effort goes into producing such a work and am excited about the upcoming release of Creativity & Chaos: Artistic Endeavours for Trying Times. It's an inspiring collection of stories, poems, essays, and crafts from writers who "share their experiences and the often surprising ways in which they learned to cope with their chaos through creativity".* The book launches on September 9th, and I will host a Giveaway on my blog at that time. Right now you can pre-order the Kindle version on Amazon for only 99 cents. Find the link HERE. *excerpt from the Foreword by Marcia Lee Laycock

I am also delighted to tell you that I have my own work—a personal essay—included in this volume. In a recent interview, I shared what inspired me to write the piece and a little of my writing journey in general. If you're interested, check out the YouTube video HERE. It's about 20 minutes in length.

On that note, I'm off. Our regular blogging schedule returns to normal next week, if things work out as planned. In the meantime...

"Do not postpone joy."

as seen on CAITLYNNEGRACE'S blog

❦

Heart hugs to everyone,

Brenda

All Photo credits:

Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Summer blog schedule:

I post on Fridays

A Coolish Friday

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather,

always bring your own sunshine."

ANTHONY J. D'ANGELO

The hot weather has now turned cold and windy on this Friday morning. Smoke hangs in the air from wildfires burning in our province. Our beautiful Jasper National Park and the town itself is burning. It's so awful! Our Emergency Alert app works overtime buzzing when yet another alert goes out, evacuations, warnings of extreme heat or bad storms or tornados brewing somewhere in the province. It begins to feel surreal. It doesn't seem right to carry on with our normal things when so many people and wildlife are impacted by these destroying events. But we do carry on, what else shall we do? Wring our hands and weep? Well, we can do that, but groceries must be bought, stomachs must be fed, and laundry needs doing. And we have loved ones to hug, books to read, neighbours to visit.  

We are safe where we are. Mostly, my own days are quiet and pleasant; even so, they do feel prickly and tilted sideways. Somehow it's not a day for dreaming up a beautiful blog post. But I did find this gorgeous dahlia photo I had taken a couple of summers ago. It lifts my heart.

And I've been indulging this week in a few Mrs. Pollifax spy mysteries by Dorothy Gilman. She wrote the first in the series The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax back in 1966. I was just a girl then, and it's only recently that I came across these delightful novels at the thrift store all these years later. Already I love her. Emily Pollifax is a 60-something widowed woman with grown children, and she's a tiny bit bored with her life. She somehow gets involved with the CIA and goes on what are supposed to be quiet undercover assignments. They always end up being much more adventuresome and thrilling, even a bit nail biting, but Mrs. Pollifax cleverly rides them out. For some reason, the stories make me think of the old movie Romancing the Stone with Michael Douglas and Kathryn Turner, in which they are involved in car chases, shoot 'em up scenes, and getting tied up by the bad guys with threats of death... concluding with the amazing escape at the end as you sigh with relief. Mrs Pollifax novels are perfect summer reads—a few hours entertainment, and then you can turn off the light and go right to sleep because there isn't anything in the stories to turn your sweet dreams into nightmares.

I want to mention that I'm taking a wee break from the blog. Rick and I are thinking of taking a little road trip, hopefully visit spots that aren't under threat of fire. So I won't be around for the next week or two...or three.

When the world gets too noisy and ugly, I go quiet. I read.

I wait. I listen. I watch the birds and enjoy my garden in bloom. I pray. 

❦

Wishing you pleasant days ahead,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Summer blog schedule:

I post on Fridays

Blooms and Current Favourite Quotes

"God spoke today in flowers,

and I, who was waiting on words,

almost missed the conversation."

Attributed to INGRID GOFF-MEIDOFF

Happy Friday! I'm a little later getting this up as it was just too hot yesterday to work on a blog post. This morning, thankfully, the air is fresh and cool. I was out taking a few photos of what's blooming in the garden, and I bent my ear to listen... I didn't want to miss the conversation. 

Here are a few photos to go with the quotations that have been speaking to me of late. Hope you enjoy!

"Be fearless in the pursuit

of what sets your soul on fire."

JENNIFER LEE

"We cup our hands to gather

pieces of heaven... we open our

hearts and scatter love." 

from COMMON PRAYER, p 243

"I want to see what happens

if I don't give up."

TERRIE TODD, as seen on Facebook

The real luxuries of life

- slow mornings

- freedom to choose

- good night's sleep

- peace of mind

- calm and boring days

- being present

- people you love

- people who love you

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

"I love the Lord because he has heard my

voice and my pleas for mercy. Because

he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will

call on him as long as I live."

Psalm 116:1-2 NLT

"Become the person you want to be—decent,

honorable, kind, good and good at what you do."

ALEXANDRA STODDARD, July Newsletter

"It was her habit to build laughter

out of inadequate materials."

JOHN STEINBACK, Grapes of Wrath

These Johnny-Jump-Ups are my heart's delight this summer. I planted them years ago, and each year I find new patches showing up in the spring. But this summer... they've outdone themselves. They are a perfect example of what Terrie Todd said in her quote earlier, "I want to see what happens if I don't give up." Little by little, seed by seed, word by word, day by day... a garden is created, a blog post is written, a life is lived.

❦

Wishing you a beautiful, beautiful day,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Summer blog schedule:

I post on Fridays

Oh, Sweet Summertime!

"If spring is all about looking forward, and

autumn about dying back, summer surely

is the present moment: a long, hot now that

marks the sultry climax of the year . . . and a

stillness settles over the land."

MELISSA HARRISON, Summer Anthology, "Introduction"

What floats up from the Tickle Trunk of childhood memories on this sweltering day is remembering how exciting it was, as a girl, when the temperature climbed as high as 80F (we didn't use Celsius in those days). My little sister and I would study the thermometer, peering up to where it was securely attached to the kitchen window sill. We were much more used to temperatures being in the high 60s to mid 70s. But on a day when it actually hit 80 degrees, well, we knew we were in for a treat. Running through the sprinkler would be a lot more fun and not quite the shock when the cold water hit already slightly shivering skin. Watermelon definitely tasted better when it was really, really hot out. And, of course, there was the exciting challenge of licking Popsicles fast enough to keep them from dripping a syrupy trail through your fingers onto your fresh, clean shorts. You could smell the fresh cut hay in the fields as the warm air moved.

 

I smile because it's all part of that sweet summertime feeling. Here are a few other little things that added to that feeling this week.

Summer Reading

I've got Madeleine L'Engle's children novel A Wrinkle in Time on the go. And I just purchased Kate Quinn's newest novel The Briar Club. Hot off the press, it's a "haunting and powerful story of female friendships and secrets in a Washington, D.C., boarding house in the McCarthy era (1950)". Looking forward to it. I still hope to reread Kate's wonderful WWII novel The Rose Code which is a firm favourite of mine. And I think I'm going to tackle Homer's ancient Greek tale The Odyssey. I don't think I've ever read, except maybe in a children's collection decades ago. I won't be reading it in Greek, although I should ask my niece and brother if they could read it, since they studied the language in college.)

A Summer Meal

Smash burgers are new to me. Until I started seeing reels about them on social media, I'd never heard of them, so I chased down some recipes to have for supper one of these sweltering days. The recipe I found is called Smash Taco Burgers. It uses soft flour tortillas instead of buns with a simple but delicious sounding burger sauce (all your favourite condiments mixed into one tasty sauce). The trick is to take a mound of seasoned ground beef and squish it flat-flat on the grill or pan with a large spatula so it spreads out about the same size as a 6" tortilla. For the recipe click HERE. Our first attempt was fine but we need a little practice before showing any pics. It was delish.

Summer Evenings

One of the nice things about hot summer evenings is watching the neighbourhood come alive as the day begins to cool. Some people are out watering their plants or washing their vehicle by hand; others stand on the sidewalk chatting with people walking by. Dogs are definitely happier to be out at this time of day. There's a gentle buzz in the air that is just so right. Makes me feel 'ah, now this is the life'. We sit out with a book; we read a few pages, stop to gaze into the blue skies, listen to the bees in the flowers, watch the fellow now polishing his car with great TLC. We track the gulls climbing higher and higher on the thermals until they are a tiny speck way, way up. Our little neighbours who are up way past their bedtime come for cookies and a visit. But hey, it's summertime and the livin' is easy. It feels good.

As I type this closing paragraph, it's now Friday morning. The air is cooler and the breeze wafts through the window, bringing with it the scent of mock orange. It promises to be a beautiful day. And that's what I wish for you, too. A beautiful day and a pleasant weekend ahead.

❦

Heart hugs,

Brenda

Photo credits:

"Last of the Peonies"

Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Summer blog schedule:

I post on Fridays

Friday Five: Favourites This Week

"Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small

it takes time—we haven't time—and to see takes time,

like to have a friend takes time."

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

I only have to walk into the room to catch the scent of freshly picked peonies sitting on the dining table. Although the deep magenta blossoms make quite a show, it's the soft pink ones (name escapes in the moment) that fill the room with their unforgettable fragrance.

Summertime, summertime... oh the joy of garden delights in the summertime.

Here is a mix of favourite moments from my week, mostly in the shape of flowers... either from my own garden or from the small but delightful botanic garden at Greenland, a local garden centre.

One

"Peonies are always fully themselves. We never

mistake them for some other flower. No one ever says,

"Oh, that peony looks just like a double-flowering tulip!""

CHRISTIE PURIFOY, Garden Maker  

Two

"I am excessively diverted."

JANE AUSTEN, Pride and Prejudice

Three

"At some point in life the world's

beauty becomes enough."

TONI MORRISON, Tar Baby

Four

"We might think we are nurturing

our garden, but of course it's really our

garden that's nurturing us."

JENNY UGLOW

Five

And outside my study window wafts the fragrance of hundreds and hundreds of blossoms on the mock orange shrubs blooming beneath it. Planted four summers ago, they now nearly reach the second story of our house. And if I lean out my window, if I dared, I could almost pluck a few sprigs for my desk. We planted a mock orange about 20 years ago, which is almost as tall as our house. A gift that keeps on giving, it's the most successful plant in our garden and continues to thrive.

"And because the breath of flowers is far

sweeter in the air..."

FRANCIS BACON

Bonus

Ever beguiled by the next new book that crosses my path, I must tell you about one that arrived on my doorstep this week. I first heard of it from Lorrie who blogs at Fabric Paper Thread. It's called Dear Paris, The Paris Letters Collection. Oh my, I can already tell this is going to be a summer favourite. The author, Janice MacLeod, is a fellow Canadian who lives part of the year in Paris. Her book is a collection of illustrated letters that celebrates her life while living in that beautiful city.

Before I sign off, I want to extend to you an invitation to visit me where I am also guest blogging today. My piece is titled In the Shape of My Words in which I reflect about shaping our words into beautiful thoughts for good.

❦

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Brenda

Photo credits:

Photos by Brenda Leyland @ It's A Beautiful Life

My Summer blog schedule:

I post on Fridays