Tut, Tut , It Looks Like Rain

My children always said this from Winnie the Pooh when it rained.
We marvelled today, almost forgetting what rain is like.
God answered prayers! It's steady and good.

He thought for a moment and said: "I shall try to look like a small black cloud. That will deceive them." ..........

What do I look like?"
"You look like a Bear holding on to a balloon," you said.
"Not," said Pooh anxiously, "--not like a small black cloud in a blue sky?"

Well, now, if you walk up and down with your umbrella, saying, 'Tut-tut, it looks like rain,' I shall do what I can by singing a little Cloud Song, such as a cloud might sing. . . . Go!"
So, while you walked up and down and wondered if it would rain, Winnie-the-Pooh sang this song:

How sweet to be a Cloud
Floating in the Blue!


Childe Hassam:
Rain Storm, Union Square, 1890, Museum of the City of New York.

IT'S RAINING!!!!!

GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS!! We have RAIN!! Not a downpour but enough
to get wet!

John Sloan, Spring Rain

Look What came in the Mail Today

The Back Door Mail on Saturday

Light for the piano

Emma and I saw a piano on Saturday at an Open House of a historical Victorian
house in Matthews. It had candle holders on it like this:




You never know how something is connected to something else. Never think what you are looking at is for nothing. Tonight we read this in Little Women, when Beth gets a piano from Mr. Laurence:

"See the cunning brackets to hold candles, and the nice green silk , puckered up , with a gold rose in the middle, and the pretty rack and stool, all complete," added Meg , opening the instrument and displaying its beauties.

We had just seen one on Saturday! Our eyes sparkled and Emma said "OH ~~!" as we read it. I said on Saturday that I wondered why the Jane Austen movies didn't have these kind of "lighted pianos" but here we know that the Alcott's had one!

IN the Midst of a Drought

I saw these driving to a friend's house on Friday:



Angel Trumpets ! What a glorious name for this tall bush. The flowers dangle down
and I think of a trumpeter holding his instrument on his knee when I see them! I got a cutting!

From A Solemn Music by John Milton ( 1633-1634)

That undisturbed Song of pure concent,
Ay sung before that saphire-colour'd throne
To Him that sits thereon
With Saintly shout and solemn Jubilee,
Where the bright Seraphim in burning row
Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow,
And the Cherubic host in thousand choirs
Touch their immortal Harps of golden wires,
With those just Spirits that wear victorious Palms,
Hymns devout and holy Psalms
Singing everlastingly;

A Back Door Letter

While I was on the phone out on the back deck, Emma sat right at the table and
wrote me a letter! She put it in a decoration we have that is by the door and can
hold flowers or a letter. She addressed it to:

MOM
Backdoor
Buckingham House

She is giving one of these to a very good friend and neighbor for a birthday present so they can send letters without the post like in Little Women!

THAT just sent me on a search for Little Women's Letters. Here's a link where you can open the book and the computer flips the page for you! Now that is progress for out of print books and so much easier to read!

http://www.openlibrary.org/details/littlewomenlette00bons

A quick, bright smile went round like a streak of sunshine. Beth clapped her hands, regardless of the biscuit she held, and Jo tossed up her napkin, crying, "A letter! A letter! Three cheers for Father!"

"Yes, a nice long letter. He is well, and thinks he shall get through the cold season better than we feared. He sends all sorts of loving wishes for Christmas, and an especial message to you girls," said Mrs. March, patting her pocket as if she had got a treasure there.