March planning

 There was a wind advisory from three pm, but it didn’t seem like much until an hour ago, with the rain battering my window; now it’s quieter. I wonder if my idea to set up the portable greenhouse on Saturday is too over-eagerness for what is often a wild month. I haven’t started any seeds but having it set up would be useful.

I used to be able to keep seedlings in the house, but I know somebody will find them and chew them (not Annie!), so I’d like to be able to put them right outside as soon as they sprout.

Thank God she sleeps sometimes.

cassoulet, at last!

 Oh, what a day. We are to have three days of temps in the fifties, but cloudy. Well, today wasn't; we had mostly sun! Windows open, birds singing. So hopeful and springlike!

I like to buy meat on sale, of course. But sometimes the manager's specials don't amount to much; I got a one-pound package of Angus stew beef for six dollars but there wasn't another. So, I browned it, thinking of what an insipid stew it would make. What other protein could I put in? And then I thought of cassoulet - something I never made but always wondered about. I did some research, then found a vegetarian version  I used that as a starting point. 

After browning the beef, I cut up a leek and a red onion. I put in a good handful of "baby" carrots and sliced two celery stalks in thick pieces. I sauteed this with half a teaspoon of salt and one quarter of pepper, for fifteen minutes. I then added three cans of cannellini (drained and rinsed), a bay leaf, some parsley, lots of thyme, a (smaller) can of diced tomatoes, quart of water with some soup base - some garlic, some chicken - and the meat. Also, since cassoulet usually has some sausage in it, I had a little bag of sliced pepperoni, so I put in lots after cutting the slices into half moons. This cooked for half an hour.

I suppose the deliciousness of it came from the pepperoni, but whatever - I used what I had and would have made do without it. I am really pleased at this idea, since I don't tend to think of the beans when I want more protein. I think of them as carbs and don't want to eat lots, but this recipe is a keeper and I'll add cannellini to the new shopping list.

transfigurations

 "When we encounter Jesus Christ, we encounter ourselves - ourselves, that is, not as we are but as we are to become. Jesus, in revealing his own glory, reveals also the glory that is to be ours,,,,

The apostles, privileged to witness the Transfiguration, certainly knew our Lord better as a result. The human veil over his divinity was for a moment lifted, and they beheld his heavenly splendor....Saint Augustine says that the transfigured Christ reveals what his body is to become. We are to be transfigured as well. The purpose of everything in our faith - of all doctrines and sacraments - is to change us from one degree of glory to another....We are to hear the words of the Father applied to ourselves: This is my beloved Son....The entire Christian life is to train our ears to hear these words and our hearts to accept them."

                                                             -  Fr. Paul Scalia, from Magnificat, February 2024

Fra Angelico

"Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them."

                                                                - Mark 9:2-3

blooming

 It was cold today, mid-thirties and breezy, but the sun was bright and there's something in the air - spring! The birds are singing a lot more now. It's so welcome. 

The Christmas cactus at the library is blooming again! 

Does that mean it's spring?

"Son, Remember"

 I laid beside thy gate, am Lazarus;
See me or see me not, I still am there,
Hungry and thirsty, sore and sick and bare,
Dog-comforted and crumbs-solicitous:
Daintily clothed, with dainties for thy fare:
Thus a world's wonder thou art quit of care,
And be I seen or not seen I am thus.
One day a worm for thee, a worm for me:
With my worm angel songs and trumpet burst
And plenitude an end of all desire:
But what for thee, alas! but what for thee?
Fire and an unextinguishable thirst,
Thirst in an unextinguishable fire.

- Christina Rossetti

building up and repairing

 When you are fasting, i.e., eating much less than usual, you find you have more time to do other things! Not to mention that I have more energy; I'm becoming more aware of a sluggish digestion, and it's just better to have less. And I never have been one to stuff myself, so - well, it's very interesting. 

When I was sick, I ordered some groceries and I got a load of bananas, thinking fruit might agree with me. Of course, one can never eat all the bananas, so today I made up a batch of double chocolate banana bread, and now it's in the freezer, waiting for Easter, or later. 

My red and green Christmas rosary, of which I'm very fond, has painted beads, not colored glass, and they've been peeling. I found matching nail polishes and am slowly touching them up. I do no more than one a day, because I don't like the smell of the polish in the house. 

So it will take a little while. 

This, from an article in Plough magazine:

"When you build a thing, you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must also repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes its place in the web of nature, as you make it."

                                                   -  Christopher Alexander

It sounds like God's work.

just get a cat

Some people online are wondering if God has a sense of humor. These folks just need to spend some time with a cat.

true life

 “The God of the philosophers lives in the mind that knows him, receives life by the fact that he is known, lives as long as he is known, and dies when he is denied. But the true God gives life to the mind that is known by him.

Therefore Jesus said, The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob… is a God not of the dead, but of the living. So true is it that the Lord is the ‘Living God’ that all those whose God he is will live forever, because he is their God. 

Such was the argument that Jesus gave to the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. If God was the ‘God of Abraham’ then Abraham must rise from the dead: no one who has the living God for his Lord can stay dead. He is our God only if we belong entirely to him. To belong entirely to life is to have passed from death to life.”

                                                               -  Thomas Merton

more time for reading

 

It was so pretty this morning.  Snow falling lightly, and it’s been doing that every night lately - just to cover. I’ve been sick, so in between trying to keep up with laundry and supper things, I have plenty of time to read. 

I'm fully absorbed in reading The Scent of Water, by Elizabeth Goudge. I was thinking of reading it again this year, and then Sarah Clarkson picked it for the next Patreon book, for next month. So I was going to wait till March to pick it up, but here I was, with a couple of non-fiction books, but who can read only that all the time, and especially when sick?

It has happened to me more than once when sick -  reading a story that drew me in so completely and spoke to me in a way that I might not have appreciated at a different time. I read this once before, but I hardly remember any of the detail. I almost feel I should turn around and start it again after I'm done with this go-round. Maybe I will! If a book speaks to you to that extent, then maybe more time should be spent with it, to absorb whatever it is you are supposed to learn from it.

But I've also got St. Bernard's On Consideration:

Do you ask what piety is? It is leaving time for consideration.

I need to consider what it is that draws me to this Goudge novel.

"we are going to see how God loved us"

 "Preparation for Lent begins with desire. We exist to desire God. As Saint Augustine says, "My heart is restless until it rests in thee." In this is the preparation for Lent: touching a desire for God that is deep down in the heart. Desire is like a flame, it starts small and it grows. Lent should fan our desire for God into a bonfire....Each one of us can enter into his own heart and look for that desire for God. It might be a little flame barely visible, or it might already be a bonfire in us. Be that as it may, we are going to see how God loved us. This is what Lent is all about. Like Zacchaeus we are going to climb a big tree of faith so as to watch that no word of those last weeks of Christ's life passes in one ear and out the other. His every act, his every word, must be enclosed in our desire, for if we are to fulfill our desire to see him when the door of death opens (and even before, for the kingdom of God begins now) we have to imitate him whom we are going to look at. This will require that we empty ourselves of many things, since the kind of fiery desire we must have takes a lot of space. It is not just a little kindling that we are going to ignite, but huge dry wood. We must desire to empty every corner of ourselves of everything but this person called Jesus Christ, God and man, who died and rose so that we might see the face of his Father and meet the Triune God, the goal of all who have been born.

How does one get this great desire? The answer is always the same: prayer, fasting, and mortification. But prayer can be very simple. God, I believe; help my unbelief. In that prayer God will send faith, and faith is the match that kindles desire....[We] begin fasting not only from food, but from whatever leads us to run away from the new life God offers. It is in his strength, and his strength alone, that we are going to make this forthcoming Lent a time of deep and thorough cleansing. It is in him and through him that we will put our house in order so that we might go forth from it to put his order into the world. Above all, we must be open to the gifts of God, to the charity, the love with which the Father loves each of us."

                                                                   -  Catherine de Hueck Doherty

a big dose of snow magic

 Well, it's done snowing; we got roughly a foot. It was supposed to continue till seven o'clock this evening, but things have turned east. That part of the magic is over. 

Most of these photos were taken around seven this morning. It was so enchanting I kept going from window to window, noticing the dancing snowflakes,

the wet snow sticking to all the shrubbery around.

The contrast of color here and there against the mostly white landscape

and just the general fluffiness of it all. I have seen it a hundred times, but never tire of it when it comes again.

sort of a fishbowl effect here - I like it!

under glass

My boss buys bouquets for our birthdays, but when I bring mine home, after a day or two my eyes burn, I feel it in my breathing. So I thought I'd better tell her. The next time she bought two little Christmas or crab cactuses. They sat on my desk so pretty, and then hours later I wondered why my eyes were burning. I moved them to a far windowsill. 

This last birthday, she gave me a terrarium. It's the easiest thing in the world! No flowers, no fragrance. I can feel the humidity when I remove the glass cover, and when it seems less humid in there I just spray in some water. So far, so good!

true hearts

 O God, who teach us that you abide
in hearts that are just and true,
grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace
as to become a dwelling pleasing to you.

               - Magnificat, February, 2024

it might as well be spring

It is entirely spring-like today; I saw a neighbor pruning his grape vines earlier. Why not? Although I know nothing of grapevines. It's going to snow on Tuesday.

About a week ago, a chunk of our wooden back-door stoop broke off; well, the house is sixty three years old. My brother planned to fix it, but it's winter. But then it got warm! And today, when he gets out of work earlier than on weekdays, he is working on it. The cats are closed in the spare room, where I'm sure Annie feels safe from all the noise, and Daisy feels overwhelmingly curious, and maybe a little scared, but not enough to quell the curiosity.

I finished the RFK Jr. book - it was excellent. I like him. May God keep him alive. I was reading Towers in the Mist, but it's one of Goudge's historical ones, and I can't seem to get in the mood for it, so I've put it aside. I'm still going through Christina Rossetti's poems.

And somebody dropped off the cat stories at the library this week. That's more my cup of tea at the moment.

just a complaint

 I don't know what this looks like to you, but it's a new book that's coming apart at the spine. 

One of my jobs at the library is to repair books, and in the past few months I'm seeing new books - some brand new - just falling apart, way before their time. It isn't rough treatment by the patrons; they are poorly made. 

bright was the day

 It's the feast of St. Agatha. "She was martyred in Catania, Sicily, most likely during the persecution of Decius in 251." from Magnificat, February 2024. 

From a hymn: Bright shall the day of Saint Agatha rise. And it was bright this morning! We around here are excited about this because we've had so many rainy and cloudy days in recent weeks. The day of the fabulous sunset was the first sunny one in ages. I think overcast days have their beauty, but when there are so many -  well, we are enjoying the sun for now.

bright spectacle

 There was a spectacular sunset and I almost missed it. I just happened to go to the front of the house for something, and wow! 

The camera never seems as enthusiastic about sunsets as me. It was more brilliant than this. Believe me!

my sympathies

 I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't live where there are snowfalls.

 I think it’s so cute when cats turn in their paws like this.

I'm all for that longer celebration

 

I've picked up Elizabeth Goudge's Towers in the Mist, and found that St. Edmund Campion is a character in it - I hadn't looked at a synopsis beforehand. So it's more historical than some of her others.

I'm doing well with my mending and today fixed a torn flat sheet. 

Do you see that the tear is an L shape? I used to try and stitch those on the machine, but they end up being bunchy and looking like they will just tear again. So I found someone on youtube who says you should do it by hand. I did, and it does look better, but I don't know how it will hold; I'm ready to make a patch if need be.

After a day of rain, today was in the mid-fifties - the snow is gone. But Sunday afternoon we may get more, and with ice, which seems to be a theme this winter. Snow and ice. 

I took in the silk poinsettias and cleaned them - they look fine, and I'm glad I thought to put them out there for a bit of cheerfulness.

"One of the things about our own topsy-turvy time is that we all hear such a vast amount about Christmas just before it comes, and suddenly hear nothing at all about it afterwards....I am going to plead for a longer period in which to find out what was really meant by Christmas; and a fuller consideration of what we have really found... There is no modern legend of what happens just after Christmas; except a dismal joke about indigestion and the arrival of the doctor." 

                                    -  G. K. Chesterton

"If it is treated as such, it is because the modern world does not know what Christmas really is and why it is worth celebrating in the first place."

                                -    from Winter Fire: Christmas with G.K. Chesterton, by Ryan Whitaker Smith

knowing the way out

 "Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them
Christianity has died. Christianity has died and risen again;
for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave."

G.K. Chesterton

a bit about St. George

 Well, it did snow yesterday to freshen things up a bit and the cold continues, with today being the coldest - but it didn't end up as cold as predicted. And, as we came out of the grocery store we felt a very fine snow again! It continued for a few hours and now it's all a beautiful soft white blanket out there.

Daisy has been helping me pack away some of the Christmas things.

I'm sure I don't need to elaborate.

There's a piece about St. George in Magnificat this month which surprised me. As we all know, Shakespeare died on his feast day, April 23, and was either born or baptized on that, too. And there are the legends, that he slayed a dragon. That's about all I ever knew of him.

The article says he died around the year 303.

this book is lovely, by the way

"Saint George is generally considered to have been a soldier-martyr under Diocletian. He was canonized in 494, but gained enormous popularity during the Middle Ages as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, who were specially invoked during the Plague....George is also a beloved patron of England, in whose battles he has a long tradition of miraculous intervention. As recently as 1914, British soldiers, about to be overpowered by a larger German force, reported a winged army around them, calling upon their leader: either Saint George or Saint Michael, depending on the account. The German infantry paused their onslaught, and the British forces escaped destruction. Later, German prisoners mentioned their surprise at seeing the British using longbows again."  emphasis mine

What a story!! 

The above book was illustrated by the late Trina Schart Hyman, whose work I love. I also am fond of a book of John Updike's poetry about the seasons, for children, also illustrated by her.

January

The days are short,
The sun a spark
Hung thin between
The dark and dark.

Fat snowy footsteps
Track the floor,
And parkas pile up
Near the door.

The river is
A frozen place
Held still beneath
The trees' black lace.

The sky is low.
The wind is gray.
The radiator
Purrs all day.

-  John Updike,  c1965.

Simple in their descriptions, but greatly enhanced by Trina's wonderful paintings.

cats and things

 I'm working on adapting a new bedskirt to my day bed; I always have to cut off one long edge and attach some of it to a short edge. 

I found it where I get all my bedskirts - on ebay. This one is so pretty with the crocheted lace.

I enjoy reading Christina Rossetti's poetry and admire her gift, but many of them are on the same theme: lost love. I'm in the "lyric poems" section, so maybe things will be different in the other parts. I also have a biography of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and it's way more interesting than I expected it would be. The author seems to be a friend and has nothing bad to say about him, but that doesn't seem to get in the way, since every chapter is full of details for each situation described. I think there are still many in this country who do not know he's running for President. The press hardly mentions him. 

It's so cold this week, that the iced bushes from Tuesday's storm still sparkle in the sun. And tomorrow another inch or two will fall - not ice, just snow. 

I just finished a charming children's book I've always wanted to read, called "Whittington", by Alan Armstrong. 

This is the cover; you can tell why it intrigued me - the cat. Not to mention the fellow in his Renaissance garb. Well, turns out it was a Newberry honor book, and worthy of the recognition, a very enjoyable story about the life of Dick Whittington and his cat, legendary figures to British schoolchildren, I guess. Of course, it's fictional; Dick Whittington was a real mayor of London back then, but there is a cat in the story who is the real person of interest. However, the author found that Mr. Whittington did not come from a poor background; it seems his story got mixed up with a poor boy's and the cat may have been his. I don't know, but this book was well-written, going back and forth from our age to the fourteenth century. 

Another important cat, our Annie. I actually managed to get a fairly nice portrait of her, a very pretty girl.

And I'm still with the Chesterton Christmas book. It's supposed to be for Advent, but since I received it at Christmas, I am reading it now.

The world will never starve for want of wonders, 
but only for want of wonder.

- G.K. Chesterton

contrasts

 I only worked half a shift today - we've got snow. Not a lot, but mixed with wetter precipitation and temps in the twenties, everyone was nervous about slippery roads. I took some pictures.

It's those bluish gray tones and the dark of the bark.

And the red of the barns and the flags.

shortening winter

 "The best way to shorten winter is to prolong Christmas."

- G.K. Chesterton

Eternal Light

Eternal light, shine in my heart;
Eternal hope, lift up my eyes;
Eternal power, be my support;
Eternal wisdom, make me wise.

Eternal life, raise me from death;
Eternal brightness, make me see;
Eternal Spirit, give me breath;
Eternal Savior, come to me.

- from Magnificat, January, 2024 

enjoying it while we had it

 We had a snowy day at last. I'll call it a Christmas snow since we are still in the "greater" Christmas/Epiphany season. But it went quickly, after a warm day and then rain, more rain. 

I often wonder how my raised beds are doing out there, in so much wet. It rained again overnight, hard, and the wind howled; I was surprised the barrels stayed upright. It ended up a warm day, though, and I even opened some windows. But now the cold air is coming.

Meanwhile, the Three Kings left - they never can stay long because of Herod. So things are quieting down. 

I wanted some color outside and there are these silk poinsettias I don't seem to use in the house - I stuck them in the dirt, and there they have been at least two weeks. They're like the mail carrier: outside in sleet and snow and all weathers, uncomplaining.

that deep, Christmas red

 There is a very nice shop in town, and I like to at least go there before Christmas, when they have a good sale. 

This year I noticed that the shade of red they choose is consistent year after year.

The napkins were purchased several years ago, after the holidays; they were on clearance. They're so nice, they don't need ironing, but are cotton. I got the center table runner a year ago, and they look fine together.

This year, I bought four placemats in that same red, with white snowflakes on them. Very nice.

wintry thoughts

I had forgotten how cold everything seems after a snowfall.   This is not a complaint! 

 A WINTRY SONNET

A Robin said: The Spring will never come,
And I shall never care to build again.
A Rosebush said: These frosts are wearisome,
My sap will never stir for sun or rain.
The half Moon said: These nights are fogged and slow,
I neither care to wax nor care to wane.
The Ocean said: I thirst from long ago,
Because earth's rivers cannot fill the main. -
When Springtime came, red Robin built a nest,
And trilled a lover's song in sheer delight.
Grey hoarfrost vanished, and the Rose with might
Clothed her in leaves and buds of crimson core.
The dim Moon brightened. Ocean sunned his crest,
Dimpled his blue, yet thirsted evermore.

- Christina Rossetti

the season of Epiphany

" Epiphany is a season especially set apart for adoring the glory of Christ. At Christmas we commemorate his grace, in Lent his temptation, on Good Friday his sufferings and death, on Easter Day his victory, and on Ascension Thursday his return to the Father. And in Advent we anticipate his second coming. In all of these seasons he does something or suffers something, but on Epiphany and the days after it we celebrate him as an august and glorious king. ...

 As great men of this world are often plainly dressed and look like other men - all but as having some costly ornament on their breast or on their brow - so the Son of Mary in his lowly dwelling; and in an infant's form, was declared to be the Son of God most high and the Prince of Peace by his star, a wonderful appearance that had guided the wise men all the way from the East, even unto Bethlehem. The only display of royal greatness, the only season of majesty, homage, and glory our Lord had on earth was in his infancy and youth."

                                                           - St. John Henry Newman, from Magnificat, January 2024

about the Baby

 I like the way the nativity is set up in church this year; it's a bit cramped-looking, actually, but somehow more dynamic. The three kings are very close by, but it creates a pathway of sorts in between them where you can see the Baby.

When I typed "baby" above, I got that double blue line which tells me something's not right. When I changed it to "Baby", it went away. Isn't that surprising to you? That it thought I should spell baby with a capital B? I hadn't thought it was necessary there, but guess I was wrong. 

The Baby and his mother