These are a few of my favorite things

Brown paper
packages tied up with string
is how Julie Andrews sang it!
BUT in Northanger Abbey,
Catherine Morland's packages
were tied up with ribbons. She goes
shopping and comes out with boxes
tied up with colored ribbons. Emma
and I were awed by how fun that would
be to have our shopping wrapped up like
presents instead of in bags.





In reading over Masterpiece
Theater's wonderful site, I found this
about Felicity Jones who played Catherine:

. Jones will next appear in Brideshead Revisited alongside Emma Thompson.

Foggy morning

I drove across town in the fog
this morning , thinking about England's
weather and praying for a friend's
test at work for her job: a nurse.
I was meeting another friend for
coffee in a book store.
Christmas is still going on with
some of my dear friends ...sort of
Epiphany visits in the New Year!
Both friends ~~ sisters in the Lord,
lovers of the pen and paper ( letters)
and beauty of family, books, encouragers.
A letter from either would put a sparkle
in your day!
I have been blessed with many "friends
for the journey." Luci Shaw and Madeleine
L'Engle wrote a book with that title. This
is in the front:

Slowly , and slower, you have learned to let yourselves grow strong while weaving through each other in strong cloth.....how rare
it is to be able to get into that kind of conversation with a friend that goes on for years and years and just continues underneath everything..." Marge Piercy




Thankfully, my daughter can keep
her schoolwork going. We had a
conversation yesterday about what
prejudice means , using Mr. Darcy
as the person we were discerning that
trait in . Soon we included Elizabeth
Bennett! She's only 10 and a half, but
so grown up as the "baby" in our family!
We picked up Persuasion on audio at the
library to listen to after watching
Masterpiece Theater's newest version
on Sunday night. And I picked up Somerset
LIFE magazine at the book-coffee shop!
It features two favorites: Corey of Tongue
in Cheek ( blog) and Pam Garrison.

Measure

We got a measure of snow last night!

I journaled more today with the gift of
time with school canceled.
Even homeschooling, it was canceled!
I read in Ephesians 4:7 , "But to each
one of us grace was given according to
the MEASURE of Christ's gifts." In another
cross-reference , I read "God gives the Spirit
without MEASURE." ( John 3:34) Amy
Carmichael has taught me to PAY ATTENTION
to those words that God has given your ears in
ways you couldn't have orchestrated.
It's good to think upon
the measure of Christ's gifts. That was his life
given for me. That love overwhelmed me this
morning. As the day progressed, the measure
of all that I envisioned today holding , held
many other gems.

In the mail:



The fire is still going in the fireplace.
I may park myself and go to Sweden.

The Books at Julia's

Last summer's birthday coffee for a good friend.

She took this photo from Julia's Nest, which is
a loft overlooking the tables featured in this
photo. That summer day we sat UP in the
Nest. Monday we sat near the books.

Good food. Good books. Good friends. Good time.

Lunch at Julia's

The Habitat Restore has a
coffee shop called Julia's.
It is named after a founder
who gave much to others.
Today was lunch with the two
lovely ladies I teach with. ( high school
group) It was one's birthday!
The coffee is from South America
and the proceeds go down to that
store! Chicken salad and the most
delicious scone which we asked
to be topped with whipped cream
to celebrate , sort of an English birthday
cake! And the best cinnamon lattes!
Sure beats the chain coffee places to have
something homemade!

What was lovely was a group of knitters
came in before we left! They sat in front
of us. They had size 35 needles! That would
be a fast and wide stitch! Another lovely
was being right by the books , sort of like
having lunch in a library! Found a hardback
of a biography of Sarah Orne Jewett and a
book on poetry ~~ one of my passions besides
letters and paintings! The birthday girl found
"JACK"....not my friend's dog , but CS Lewis!

an old copy of The Country of the Pointed
Firs:

Glorying in the Sea

We got home tonight in
time to watch Persuasion on
Masterpiece Theater. No commercials.
WOW....Emma thought her father was
unlike Elizabeth's or Emma's! I thought
about a 10 year old talking about Jane
Austen's world like that. We both
commented that her sister , Mrs. Musgrove,
was like Miss Bates in Emma. Here's
my favorite line from the book:

"Anne and Henrietta, finding themselves the earliest of the party the next morning, agreed to stroll down to the sea before breakfast. They went to the sands, to watch the flowing of the tide, which a fine south-easterly breeze was bringing in with all the grandeur which so flat a shore admitted. They praised the morning; gloried in the sea; sympathized in the delight of the fresh-feeling breeze--and were silent;"

Persuasion, volume 1, chapter 12

From Homes of Jane Austen:

We found the little parlour on the right-hand side of the entrance door gay with country flowers in honour of the day. There in that room were written "Mansfield Park," "Emma," and "Persuasion," so that we, her grateful readers from far and near, were standing on the very spot where Jane sat at her little mahogany desk and brought into being the gentle Fanny Price, the spirited Emma, and the sweet Anne Elliot. The speeches were from the heart, and warm in [Page vii] appreciation of one who had bestowed upon us a "perennial joy."

Carl Larsson

Carl Larsson is one of my favorite
painters. Swedish artist who loved
his family and country life and all
the things that make life warm and
cozy and fun. I usually buy anything
I see by him. Last year at
the Mint Museum was his calendar.
I have books and notecards. We have
a high school friend who is a jazz
musician in Stockholm. He sent me
a package of postcards of Larsson's
paintings. Nice to have them from his
homeland.

Larsson's house was extraordinary.
It's above. Here is A Nap Outdoors!
Sort of felt like that the last couple
of days, hasn't it!