Shelter from the Storm

This blog is inspired by the loss of my grandma..My "Ma" who taught me everything I know about love life and laughter..this is my journey with loss love life and laughter................ "Most of the time I'm clear focused all around, Most of the time I can keep both feet on the ground, I can follow the path, I can read the signs, Stay right with it when the road unwinds, I can handle whatever I stumble upon. I don't even notice she's gone, Most of the time...."

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice !!

It is officially the longest day of the year and the start to days of sunshine,lemonade and bare feet which reminds me of one of my favorite stories :

I Would Pick More Daisies
Don Herold (Adapted)

When the late Nadine Stair of Louisville, Kentucky, was 85 years old, she was asked what she would do if she had her life to live over again.

"I'd make more mistakes next time," she said. "I'd relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been on this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

"You see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it over again, I'd have more of them. In fact, I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, and a raincoat. If I had to do it over again, I would travel lighter than I have.

"If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds and I would pick more daisies."

Summer is the season of Wonder,the time of the year that evokes the spirit of play and imagination with a carefree aura to its days.Wildflowers await bare feet ,fireflies dance in symphony amidst overflowing gardens of the earths bounty. I plan to take Nadine Stair's advice and pick more daisies than I ever have before and not wear shoes (unless i have to) until Fall.

Here is a recipe for Old Fashioned Lemonade

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/old-fashioned-lemonade/7ec9a486-f657-4a36-81cd-71e3a2224866

It looks divine,I plan to add some strawberries !

Happy Daisy Picking !!!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Moon in Tuscany

I have never been to Tuscany but it is one of my dream destinations.
This weeks full moon with its crimson golden aura transports my soul to a cafe in Tuscany under a sky of twinkling stars that dance sweetly with the full Strawberry moon.

I adore strawberries and according to "The Farmers Almanac"..

June's Full Moon is called the Full Strawberry Moon

Full Moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States. The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full Moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred. There was some variation in the Moon names, but in general, the same ones were current throughout the Algonquin tribes from New England to Lake Superior. European settlers followed that custom and created some of their own names. Since the lunar month is only 29 days long on the average, the full Moon dates shift from year to year.

• Full Strawberry Moon – June. This name was universal to every Algonquin tribe. However, in Europe they called it the Rose Moon. Also because the relatively short season for harvesting strawberries comes each year during the month of June . . . so the full Moon that occurs during that month was christened for the strawberry!

So this is why the air in June smells so sweet :)

As I gaze at what remains of the June Full Moon,I am reminded that magic is everywhere if we only believe in it ..Sweet Dreams !

Here is a picture that was taken of the Eclipse from Sicily.

http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Daniel-Gustav-Indelicato-1_1308169918.jpg

http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names/

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Watch the total lunar eclipse online

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Strawberry Season...The Season for... Love

Henry David Thoreau once said, “Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each”. In the month of June, I resign myself to the sweet flavor of strawberries. As May leaves us with a brilliant display of wildflowers and June begins to scatter sunshine on gardens everywhere, I am delighted with the anticipation of strawberry season. Native Americans had a different name for strawberries. They called them "heart-seed berries" and added them to traditional corn-meal bread. The strawberry was a symbol for Venus, the Goddess of Love, because of its heart shapes and red color.

Legend has it that if you break a double strawberry in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will fall in love with each other.

The strawberry, a member of the rose family, is unique in that it is the only fruit with seeds on the outside rather than the inside. Many medicinal uses were claimed for the wild strawberry, its leaves and root. I adore this sweet berry and its romantic aura that fills the air each June. An abundance of recipes exist to turn this legendary fruit into shortcakes, pies and chocolate covered aphrodisiacs but my favorite is good old fashioned strawberry jam. I am transported to a simpler life when I pour bubbly chunks of strawberries into glass canning jars and seal them for future enjoyment.

Below is a recipe that was posted by "The Pioneer Woman" on her blog.

It is a very easy recipe to follow and her blog is one of my favorites so check it out and fall in love with Strawberry Jam !!!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/canning-101-and-strawberry-jam-part-1/

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/08/strawberry-jam-part-ii/

http://youtu.be/dEOwULUB6T4

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Its been a year

Memorial day loomed in my mind for weeks,I did not want this day to arrive because it marked One Year since she left us.I knew their was no way to avoid it but in my daydreams,I hoped I would somehow sleep through it or at least dodge that impending feeling of doom that gripped me each time I saw any mention of this day.I wanted it to rain,I felt like if it didnt I would feel guilty for laying in bed all day as I planned.

I didnt sleep through it,it didnt rain like I had wished it would and I didnt lay in bed all day gripped in gloom,rather it was a beautiful day filled with sunshine and love,just as she would have wanted it to be.

I miss her terribly,a light went out in my heart when she left us and I often feel the darkness but in that darkness I have found a different life,maybe not the one I would choose but one that honors all she taught me.

Memorial Day is a holiday that celebrates Our Heroes,She is and was my Hero and I carry her heart in my heart.

http://youtu.be/gVAnlke_xUY

i carry your heart with me by E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)

i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows(here is the root of the root and the bud of the budand the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which growshigher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

"My darling girl, when will you understand that 'normal' isn't necessarily a virtue. It rather denotes a lack of courage."

Practical Magic

But while the earth has slumbered,
all the air has been alive with feathery flakes descending.

- Henry David Thoreau

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of the buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and looses itself in the sunset.

- Crow Foot

Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her–
Incapable of escaping and incapable of delving deeper into her.
Without invitation or warning, she brings us into the rhythm of
her dance and sweeps onward with us, until we are exhausted
and fall from her arms.
- J.W.Goethe

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each..."

Henry David Thoreau

"Leave it to me as I find a way to be...Consider me a satellite, forever orbiting...I knew all the rules, but the rules did not know me...Guaranteed..."

Eddie Vedder

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns..."

George Eliot

"Sometimes when you're most alone... you're not alone at all"

Rob Machado, The Drifter

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."

Chris McCandless

Hold on to what is good,Even if it's a handful of earth.

Hold on to what you believe,Even if it's a tree that stands by itself.

Hold on to what you must do,Even if it's a long way from here.

Hold on to your life,Even if it's easier to let go.

Hold on to my hand,Even if someday I'll be gone away from you.

" Hold On," ....A Pueblo Indian Prayer