Category: enchanting

enchanting · son

A day spent back in time

Joanne8 Comments

the mantlepiece

“When was the last time you spent a quiet moment just doing nothing, just sitting and looking at the sea, or watching the wind blowing the tree limbs, or waves rippling on a pond, a flickering candle or children playing in the park?” ~ Ralph Marston.

Monday, 28th January, 2013.

The interesting weather conditions have not let up today, if anything they have worsened. It appears that we are surrounded by a cyclone, high pressure systems, troughs and fronts, if that means anything at all to any of you. It means nothing to me, I just look out the window and see the trees blowing willy-nilly, branches flying off the trees, rain overfilling the bird bath and the birds huddling together in the shelter of our veranda.

"I dropped some!" This young kookaburra came onto the veranda today, out of the wind, and enjoyed a morsel of food.
“I dropped some!” This young kookaburra came onto the veranda today, out of the wind, and enjoyed a morsel of food.

We lost power last night at around 7.30 pm I think. After reading by torch-light for some time I decided to take advantage of the darkness and have an early night.

The power returned at some time overnight, I have no idea when, but it was back this morning. I planned a day of washing, ironing and vacuuming (all the fun stuff!) seeing as the great outdoors was fit for neither man nor beast.

Well, the Gods of the Power Plant had other ideas. By 10.30 am, the power had disappeared yet again.

All day we waited. I filled the washing machine with dirty clothes, all set to press the start button when the power returned.

I waited some more.

All set for a new year at school.
All set for a new year at school.

My son returns to school tomorrow, so we covered his books and put his name on all of his belongings. I’m not sure why I bother putting his name on things, he loses them anyway.

We ate lunch. We made drinks of tea, boiling the water on the gas burners. We hand washed the dishes that had been stacked into the dishwasher. The house remained dark, due to the inclement weather.

My husband went to the supermarket to buy kerosene for the old kerosene lamp. We may be in for another long, dark night.

I read a few pages of a new book I have. Then took a nap.

I never, ever even so much as feel drowsy during the day, but today, I did.

Can you see the dolphin leadlight-look design in this lantern?
Can you see the dolphin leadlight-look design in this lantern?

When I woke up, the night had arrived, still there was no electricity and the candles were alight.

And here is a seahorse.
And here is a seahorse.

Tuesday, 29th January, 2013.

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” ~ Buddha.

As you can see by the date, a new day has dawned and this post didn’t reach the point where I could hit the publish button. Thank you WordPress for auto-saving drafts! I had been saving as I wrote, but this morning I discovered that my writing had been saved mid-word, which I didn’t do manually.

This bumble bee looks far happier in my lantern than it would be outdoors right now.
This bumble bee looks far happier in my lantern than it would be outdoors right now.

Our evening meal was cooked last night by candlelight, using the gas burners of our stove top. As we began eating, the power returned.

My son had cheered, after declaring that he had never in his entire life spent such a boring day; with the return of the electricity to the house he could now watch the cricket on television and charge his mobile phone.

I had mixed emotions. Having paced around the house all day, wondering what to do next in our home which had been converted to pre-power days, it had given me the opportunity to contemplate how people back in those day filled their days, as yes, I too had spent the day feeling bored.

Mr. Frog, all aglow in the candlelight.
Mr. Frog, all aglow in the candlelight.

Life would have been so different, back in the days when life had to be planned around the natural light of day. I know I wouldn’t have been bored at all. I would take the lack of electricity for granted and plan my days accordingly.

As it turned out, when the lights came back on in our house and the candle light was no longer necessary, I felt quite sad. My eyes had become accustomed to the gentle light from the flickering flames. I had also enjoyed the silence in our home, hearing only the sounds of my families voices, the piano being played and the heavy breathing of my sleeping dog.

It had been magical, listening to the sounds of my son playing the most beautiful tune on the piano, one which he had taught himself during the school holidays. I had enjoyed the softness of the candlelight and the kerosene lamp.

I discovered that listening to the piano being played by candlelight is simply enchanting.

The gentle golden aura of the kerosene lamp was a welcome change to harsh, electric lighting.
The gentle golden aura of the kerosene lamp was a welcome change to harsh, electric lighting.

The only real gladness I had felt was in knowing that I could return to the computer, to write again, and to see the photos I had taken throughout the day.

I’m quite sure those people who lived back in the days before power would have rather enjoyed the internet too. 🙂

blessings · Changes · enchanting · happiness

Summer’s Enchanting Changes

Joanne13 Comments

flowering pony tails

“And meanwhile the beautiful golden days were dropping gently from the second week one by one, equal in beauty with those of the first, and the scent of beanfields in flower on the hillside beyond the village came across to San Salvatore whenever the air moved.” ~ The Enchanted April.

The year is a whole two weeks old and summer, although slow to start in my corner of the sub-tropics, has made up for the previous lack of hot summer’s days during the past week.

The highest temperature we have reached has only been around 34 degrees Celsius, which is easy to cope with, if it wasn’t for the humidity. During days of humidity there is nothing else to do other than to lazy around, drinking cold glasses of water, windows opened wide, trying to catch just a hint of a breeze wafting through, even if only for a moment or two.

Change can be such a fickle little creature though. Never become resolved to expecting almost intolerable heat for the next few weeks, once it seems to have set in. You may be surprised by the cool winds of change, gentle rain, cool breezes, and temperatures dropping by ten degrees within a few hours….

wet web

Ahhhhh, the relief the cooler air, the ever so slight chill on my arms and promises of a night of sweet dreams, unhindered by the heat, after I have finished reading the last chapter of “The Enchanted April”.

Oh how I have enjoyed reading this book, taking virtual walks through the gardens of the Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean Ocean, with Rose, Lotty, Lady Caroline and old Mrs Fisher, each in their own time experiencing the bewitching spell which is cast over them by the beauty and magic surrounding the castle by the sea.

This place, this time, has changed all of their lives, forever.

purple

I am completely and thoroughly besotted by this book. It has touched my heart with its simplicity. The old world charm of the text is simply delightful. Moments of dry humour are dotted throughout the story. Each chapter holds within its pages the promise of magic and love, happiness and wonder, and gardens filled with the fragrances and colours of the season.

“In the garden that second week the poet’s eyed narcissus disappeared out of the long grass at the edge of the zigzag path, and wild gladiolus, slender and rose-coloured, came in their stead, white pinks bloomed in the borders, filling the whole place with their smoky-sweet smell, and a bush nobody had noticed burst into glory and fragrance, and it was a purple lilac bush.”

Simply enchanting….

enchanting · happiness · new beginnings · photography

A year in which I shall remain enchanted.

Joanne14 Comments

down to the sea

“They left the path, and clambered down the olive terraces, down and down, to where at the bottom the warm, sleepy sea heaved gently among the rocks. There a pine tree grew close to the water, and they sat under it, and a few yards away was a fishing boat lying motionless and green-bellied on the water. The ripples of the sea made little gurgling noises at their feet.” ~ From the book “The Enchanted April”.

A whole week has passed by and here we are, already ensconced in another new year.

I began contemplating my new year’s resolutions during the first couple of days of this year but my thoughts were short lived. New Year’s resolutions are a habit, I have resolved, a habit which I wish to break. Every year, without fail, I plan. Plans for blogging, plans for being organised, plans for healthy eating, plans for my garden, plans to alter the fact that my work takes over my life, that family takes over my life, chores take over my life. Why must we fill our brains with such negative thoughts, concentrating on everything that is wrong, planning ways in which we can change these wrongs into rights? (As I am writing, both of the two telephones I have at home have rung…another “non New Year’s resolution” springs to mind….why must I always be the person who my family have to ring when they have a question? I shouldn’t be so accessable. I’m writing, family!!)

dandelions

So here we are, a whole week into the New Year, and I haven’t written one single blog post. “Why not?” I hear you ask, when all of my blogging friends have surged on into the New Year with the same writing momentum as they had during last year.

Here, I can correct the error of my ways. I have had, perhaps, between five and ten blog posts running around in my brain during the last week, none of which have ever made it to actual, physical, on-the-computer words. I do that often, you know. All of my posts, to my mind, have to have some form and structure, they need to be heading somewhere, have a point to them, and a tangible point at that. Well, that is one aspect of this year which is about to change! Why must every blog post have a point to it? A definite point or a message?

I don’t believe it has to! If it is a simple shared pleasantry, a special moment to be remembered, photos I have taken that I am pleased with, I can share them all here.

Sometimes, (make that often) my mind simply wanders around in a very orderly circle, with words that I should be writing down. If I were to write down those thoughts and read those thoughts back at a later hour, I may just find out that I have written something brilliantly profound.

Or perhaps not. But my words have been drifting off into the earth’s atmosphere, unanchored, never having been written, never having been read, never knowing whether they held any kind of significance to anyone. Forgotten words; forgotten moments.

frangipanis

Every single day of every year I have a book that I am reading, and there are many times when I read a passage in a book and think to myself, “I really should share those words”, yet I rarely do so. And when I do share the magical words with someone who is physically here with me, they usually do not understand the magic in the words, so the moment somehow seems lost. My reasoning for not sharing a few meaningful words from a book here, where my blogging friends “feel” words that my family somehow miss, is that no one would understand the significance of what I have written, unless they had already read the book.

I ask you, do the words have to have total and absolute significance, for another person to feel the joy of reading those few words? I don’t believe they do, so I will share a beautiful moment, a moment which made my heart sing, as I lost myself within the pages of imagination…

Yesterday, I read these words in my latest book that I started to read just this last week. I re-read those words, then re-read them again, for to me, the words held so much joy and the promise of happy, mindless days ahead. The book I am reading is “The Enchanted April”, written by Elizabeth Von Arnim and first published in 1922. I have seen the movie, but can barely remember it as it was so many years ago. Books tell the story so much more completely than a movie does though, don’t you think?

white

To set the scene, Mrs Wilkins and Mrs Arbuthnot have escaped England and their husbands, each with a different reason for wishing to escape, and have finally arrived, after an extremely harrowing journey (during which they had thought they were about to be murdered)  at the small, medieval castle in Italy, which they have leased for the month of April.

“And there they were, arrived; and it was San Salvatore; and their suitcases were waiting for them; and they had not been murdered. They looked at each other’s white faces and blinking eyes very solemnly. It was a great, a wonderful moment. Here they were, in their medieval castle at last. Their feet touched its stones. Mrs Wilkins put her arm round Mrs Arbuthnot’s neck and kissed her. “The first thing to happen in this house”, she said softly, solemnly, shall be a kiss.” “Dear Lotty,” said Mrs Arbuthnot. “Dear Rose,” said Mrs Wilkins, her eyes brimming with gladness. “

As I read this passage of words, the whole scene to me was brimming with gladness. Such a simple story, such a simple speech, yet so profoundly beautiful. So I share it with you today, in the hope that you too can feel the anticipation felt by Rose and Lotty, as the friends begin their enchanted April in Italy.

Just as I begin my “Enchanted 2013”.

ocean

As 2013 opens its doors even wider, and I travel along the path of the days, wishing for change, yet not sure yet what those changes will be, wishing for a “word of the year” yet no word seems to encompass the entirety of the changes that I do know I wish to take place, I will write down my random thoughts, publish random photos I take, and not expect excellence and total clarity of mind before I write these thoughts down and click on the “publish” button, sending my thoughts out for the world to read.

If I have just a few words, simply to accompany a photo I have taken, I will add those. If I seem to be overflowing with words, as I seem to be today, I will write for a longer time.

I will try not to edit my words as I write, wishing always for my words to come straight from my heart.

And as 2013 draws to a close and I reflect back on the year that has been, if I have made some progress through the year and I can see an advancement, some change that has taken place, then it will have been an enchanting year.