Maryland House & Garden Pilgrimage - Baltimore County

When a garden tour includes a house tour it makes for a much more interesting time.  When you get to meet the owner it is even more interesting!  Last weekend we went on such a tour in the Worthington Valley area of Baltimore County.  The day was overcast with misting rain but after the first house I was able to put my umbrella away.  I've included the write-up from the Tour pamphlet:

Secret Gardens

Welcome to my garden!  Please enter through the garden gate and find solace for your soul......

View from My Window

🎶Rainy Spring Day🎶

In 2015 Morning Musings featured a monthly post called View From My Window.  It was my idea of a Discussion Group where I'd ask a question and my readers would leave a comment.  By November I realized we should introduce ourselves, so I did a Getting to Know You post.  In 2016 I changed the title to More or Less because I'd shown you every view from my windows by then.  By 2017 I was writing less and less.  Last year I only wrote five posts as compared to 48 in 2016.

Since the beginning of the year I've been rereading my Morning Musings posts and all the comments and realize how much I've missed all of you!  So I hope to gather us all together again.  I'll start with this view....

View from my kitchen window

Ta-Dah! Redux

 "Relax--You May Only Have a Few Minutes Left" --Loretta LaRoche

Hank Ketcham's Dennis the Menace Wise Guy

Mr. Wilson has some good advice above.  With the Pandemic dragging on we may not be in the fast lane so much, but we certainly are all having to deal with the stress of negotiating life with all the changes COVID is forcing us to make.  Slowing down our run-away thoughts and gaining a new perspective is what we need now.

If All I Have is Now

 "If all I have is NOW, where will I look for joy?'  

-- Mark Nepo, "Book of Awakening"

This year, 2021, I've been rereading Mark Nepo's  "Book of Awakening" along with Gay Hendricks' "A Year of Living Consciously."  I think 2021 has been tougher than 2020 because we entered the year with great hope that the pandemic would end soon.  The vaccine was becoming available.  All would be well! 

Home for Christmas

🎶I'll Be Home for Christmas🎶 

Christmas is nearly upon us.  Is anyone else having a different sort of Christmas this year.....again?  I gave leave to my three sons several years ago to stay in their own homes now that they were married and two had children.  It was only right because after I left home I never went home at all at Christmas.  My parents lived a day's drive away as did Ken's parents, but even if they'd lived closer I wanted to make my own Christmas traditions.  

It was ten Christmases before we had a child to celebrate with us so our tradition was to go out to eat at a lovely restaurant in an old mansion that we only dined at on Christmas Day.  Then we'd drive into Washington, DC to view the National Christmas Tree and all the beautiful decorations.  Sometimes we'd go to see a heartwarming movie.

After we had children Santa Claus took center stage after all the church activities leading up to Christmas had taken place.  I'd be up late Christmas Eve writing a poem with clues for each child's presents that I'd hid about the house.  

With the boys celebrating in their own homes now, we're gathering as a family earlier in December to celebrate together.  Because of the Pandemic, we are once again celebrating individually with each son and his family.  It certainly is less hectic!  But there is something about being all together that makes Christmas for me. 

                      ❤️Home is where the Heart is❤️

Ultimately, Home IS where the heart is.  Today with FaceTime and Zoom we can not only hear but see our loved ones when we can't be with them.  And those that have gone on before us never leave our hearts, so they, too, are with us, only in a different way.

I'm wishing each of you a special time of your own making this year.  Whether it's being with family and friends, writing Christmas newsletters and cards, baking cookies, reading special Christmas stories (I'm enjoying Louisa May Alcott's Christmas Treasury), binging on holiday movies (Loved A Boy Called Christmas on Netflix), watching YouTube vloggers share how they prepare for Christmas (here's one I loved: Girl in Calico), participating in church activities or community get-togethers (hopefully, masked), or helping the less fortunate, may your endeavors bring Joy and Peace within and to all those you encounter.

If you have time to spare, I'd love to hear what you're doing this year to make Christmas special for you and your loved ones.

Take Joy!

Little Women Christmas Celebration

🎶Christmas Music🎶 

November 29th was Louisa May Alcott's birthday* and since she shares her birthday with me it was a perfect day for an overnight in Odessa, Delaware, to view Historic Odessa Foundation's recreation of Alcott's Little Women!  The last time we had been there was in 2011 when they recreated Tasha Tudor's Christmas.  You can read about it on this blog HERE.  The Wilson-Warner House each year is turned into a classic children's story Christmas celebration.  Other years have been Beatrix Potter, Madeline, Snow White, Secret Garden, Alice in Wonderland. I missed all of these!  So I'm signing up to receive their newsletters.

Email Notification Ending

In September 2019 I wrote a post called Now What? concerning whether to continue blogging or not.  I had a wonderful response that encouraged me to keep at it.  But those who follow this blog know that I made an attempt, then petered out.  

Perfect Moments

IDEALISM:  The practice of forming or pursuing ideals, especially unrealistically

This pretty much describes me.  The Pandemic is helping me give up my idealist ways because it has limited my pursuit of the ideal life in many ways.  It has also forced me to re-evaluate many of my ideals.   Just this morning, through reading inspiring messages by others further along the way than me and then writing about it in my Morning Pages I've decided to change my whole view of life!  Instead of seeing my life as a whole-----and judging whether it was a success or not------I'm going to start looking for, and creating whenever I can, my own "Perfect Moments"  such as this one.....

The view from the swing in my woods on a winter's day