The magic of sunshine and warmth

The world woke up wrapped in fog this morning… fog that made ghosts and apparitions out of trees and shrubberies; fog that covered rooftops and neighborhood houses in layers of pale white sheets.  The garden, too, was a quieted miasma where birds, naked branches and dead leaves where one and the same thing; a place with no sun, where light shone in a polished hue; buffed, and dark… and perhaps... perhaps this was just how my heart felt, and how I perceive life around me.  But oh, how can one feel otherwise after having spent those past few magical days in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico where sunlight and warmth are the umbrella that heal its people and mend sad hearts?  

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise sometimes, but the magic resides in that it is not that we seize them, but rather that they seize us...

It was magic all around under the warmth of the December sun and sea breezes.  Oh sun, yours is the light by which my spirit's born.  Let us dance under your warmth, wearing wild flowers in our hair!

And thus, we are home to our northern ashen winter days again; home to our snow-covered mountains—always drained of color and ices blinding our horizon in pallid sheets, and sometimes I just have to wonder how a sun loving soul such as mine, always yearning for warmth and brilliant light was so blinded as to say ‘yes’ for a return here… and how was I even able to quieted all voices inside me screaming to just follow the sun and stay where we were?  I just have to wonder.  Oh, it must had been love the motive behind all.  For only love could had been able to moved me the way it did. 
  

Our home has been decorated for Christmas as much as my heart can bear to it concerning the usual Christmas décor; but lights—light are never enough around here, never as much as necessary. Thus, lights are everywhere in our home this year. Even the outside, which in years past for whatever reasons it had always been the darkest corner in the neighborhood, it now has been illuminated and embellished with lights, and a new Christmas tree it’s the lighthouse to our home behind the windows…

I’ve been thinking a lot about mom these days and it is hard to believe that tomorrow will be a year since she left us.  My heart keeps asking questions, and pondering; remembering and yearning... yearning upon a dream to come true one day.  Time moves so fast, people come and go out of our lives. We must never miss the opportunity to tell the people we love and care how much they mean to us.

On a snowy day...

On a day like this... 

What is there better to do than this...

And my little garden friends?

There's nothing quite like that first crunch in a fresh, untouched layer of snow, and it seems I’m not the only one who takes pleasure in a snowy day. Mourning doves, chickadees, nut hatches, juncos—they are everywhere, dashing from tree to tree; from snow clump to snow clump.

Mourning doves; those permanent dwellers of the garden came wearing new puffed-up exuberant coats of feathers

Filling the garden with their magic, and in their flight bringing wishes of peace and the beauty of life, the warmth of the sun, the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family and the triumph of love.

It is the flight of winter and its magical song...

And it is like a fantasy kingdom of ice out there... It is like going through a magical doorway to find yourself stumbling into this enchanting place where every tree branch is an icicle beaming magic under fair rays of light…

Squirrels have gone mad attacking the birdfeeders and quarrelling among each other.  Four of them were feeding from one same feeder at one point!

Of course, snowy days are perfect for cocooning yourself in your favorite room with piles of colorful pillows and favorite books!

A time to fill your room with pretty things too!

And I don't know about you, but when it snows I feel this magical desire in me to bake!

So I baked an apple tart and ate it too!

With my favorite cup of coffee and a book to read.

Bad or good, these are some of my favorite things to do on a snowy day...  Do you have a favorite pastime you like to do on a cold, snowy day?  Whatever you do, or like to do, make sure you enjoy each moment of it, for that's all we have in life; moments.  Everything else is uncertain.

See you soon Friends!

After the holidays

And where has time gone? A whole week without coming here is like an entire week sleeping. Or being without food, or water.  And all those dear people we looked forward to seeing and spend time with them, and all those things we planned to do and all that food I wanted to try and make, and all the places we wanted to visit—everything, is in the past now.  Time. Like a petal in the wind, flows softly, and yet it disappears so quickly.  Every life is but a minute in time, but each so important. And the garden—the garden is a myriad of leaves, and petals immutable in the rhythms of time.

Everything speaks of decay and death, yet there's so much beauty in it, so much life in all death, and I find my spirit soaring above all... in faith and hope and all good things.

I sit outside under the chilly morning, and wait for the Mourning doves to come...

...and they do! They'd always come and ignite the magic...

I find so much solace in my special place; my garden, my sanctuary... always an evidence of faith, linking us with all the misty figures of the past who also loved Nature and nurtured it and planted it and were nourished by the same emotions that sustain my soul today...

We got a new Christmas tree today and now, hundreds of miniscule lights light up our front windows and embellish our living room, filling it with magic and dainty delicate light… I love it so much!

Thanksgivings

Our heater decided to stop working the other evening… we tried turning on our gas fireplace to warm up the house, but strangely, it wasn’t working either… then, we closed the door to our bedroom, went to sleep under heated blankets, and spent the most wonderful, cozy night ever.  In the morning, outside our bedroom the rest of the house felt freezing, as if the doors to the outsides had been left opened throughout the night. 

The heating and cooling systems guys came by that following morning around 10, and had everything working again.  The house started warming up slowly, but steadily, while my favorite music filled each room with the peaceful tales and musical tones of the Native American flute.

I watered and fertilized all my plants after that, making sure those that require the more humidity got properly misted too.  They are all doing wonderful, but trying to keep these many plants alive during our dry cold winters is not easy, I can tell you that...

Then, I decided to bake something extra yummy! Spinach and artichoke Puff Pastry Pinwheels!

And of course, a cup of coffee in a sprinkle of cinnamon to go with it too! 

 

What is it about cold weather that makes you want to bake?  Do you feel that way too?  Later, after I finished my morning snack I went upstairs to ‘declutter’ my gypsy room a bit…

I am super excited these days, because our Florida family will be spending an entire week with us this Thanksgivings—a miracle, I’d have to say!  You see, on all those long and forgotten past years since we lived here in the house in the roses they had never visited during our cold weather seasons.  In fact, this will be the very first time ever my sister Lissette and her husband will visit our northern home... she has a serious problem flying you know, and had never set a foot on an airplane again since that day an eternity ago when our little family came to the US from Spain.  She might have to be drugged to get here, but hopefully she’ll be fine.  We need a lot of prayers I can tell you that much!

She and her husband will be sleeping in our main guest room, but Papi (dad) will have to stay in my gypsy room the poor guy! Lol  

We bought two top mattresses, and made a daybed out of an old couch.  It feels super comfortable, and I know that because I've already slept there!  So I hope he'll like it too!

It feels so comfy and homely here, and I love it!  I love my bed placed against the wall.  Our bed in our master bedroom is nothing like that, but ever since I was a little girl I've always felt more secured and sheltered when my bed is placed against the wall.  I tend to sleep better, and I don't know why that is.

I don’t know how dad is going to take it, but I have a feeling that sleeping under the watchful eye of Frida Kahlo all night long it isn't going to be of his liking… 

...neither would be having to live among so many plants... all that amount of plants I had winterizing there!  Thus, I felt obliged to take part of my dear geraniums out and just let them succumb to the merciless cold nights outside.  What pity, but I didn’t have any other place to put them.

Is your Christmas tree up yet?  Have you been decorating for the holidays already?  I'll be super busy coking and washing lots of dishes for the entire next week, and possibly more because some of our kids are coming too!  But how very blessed I feel.

Is a sacred, joyful time of the year, but also a time of bittersweet moments too, and I already know that there will be moments when all of the happiness, all of the magic of these blissful hours will flow together into these stirring, bittersweet memories and will flow away, becoming temporal and transitory once more.  I miss you so much mom.  Nothing will ever be the same without you anymore.