It all began last Thursday, with a cake you see. And a fantastic conversation over warm sips and moist bites...
My wonderful delightful neighbor and I had a date to chat, and carry on as we usually do. Telling salacious tales and giggling madly.
I told her about how I had just found this lemon yogurt bundt cake recipe (1 hour before she arrived), in the midst of cleaning all my closets, building new shelves for the closets, emptying out every drawer, and getting ready to build a little building....
She laughed at my nuttiness, and how I seemingly whipped this cakeling up at the last minute ;)
(Of course I greeted her with wet, just showered hair, and no make-up + sweats covered in paint (are you gasping?). It was the trade off to "just out of the oven" edibles)
We curled up on the couch, and in between all sorts of chats, I told her about my grand plans, of organizing this entire love shack, and donating boxes of junk ( I mean treasure).
Then we went on chatting.
Now, the twist in the tale is this.
I kept my word, of organizing my whole country house.
And, for the last 5 days, I have emptied every drawer and closet in this house.
I have done so many loads of laundry, I stopped counting.
(Mister's shirt piles were mountains)
We built a little building in the yard too. (well, Mister and a friend did really)
And, I cleaned s'more.
Every nook and cranny.
It looked like an explosion had gone off in the house, with me organizing and getting rid of stuff.
On and on, this went on.
Hitting the bed every night totally exhausted.
A pup on my head and a pup by my side.
I am 90% done.
Hooooray!
HOWEVER....
As I ran back and forth, in the house, out of the house.
Hauling boxes to my car to donate...
I noticed that in the faux spring warmth of January,
Camellia got a tad confused...
And had adorned herself with oodles of blooms.
Camellia, I asked, are you certain you want to do this??
There is a winter storm rolling in, in just a couple of days...
But, she informed me that...
She simply had no control over it, so...
All she could do was, hope for the best, and ride the storm...
And isn't it funny?
It's just like life, and nature and all of its happenings....
There are just some things we can't control.
Some we can, like our closets and drawers.
And, some we can't.
And really, we just have to take it all day by day, moment by moment.
Living and breathing.
Enjoying each step as we go, in the moment, instead of drowning in worry.
I promised to cover her and keep her as warm as I could...
And as the storm moved in, in full force, it cast the most miraculous glow of yellow onto the trees, just as the sun set.
It was dark blue sky and yellow glowing trees...
Winds roared in.
Storms in my neck of the woods do not visit very often.
But when they do visit, they are welcomed in a curious sort of way ;)
As the house howled with wind, and hail hit the roof,
and the windmill spun as fast as it could...
I looked out the window, and all was pink...
Pink skies and winter trees, to fill the soul.
And so,
I did the only logical thing I could think of.
I baked another yogurt lemon bundt cake.
And all was imperfectly perfect.
Or, perfectly imperfect.
Just as life should be.
Don't you think?
Now, I must get some parcels in the mail, and finish organizing as we have a 5 day house-guest coming in a couple of days...
Eeeeeks ;)
I am sooooo glad you liked the valentines I made you in the last post, hoooray!!
ps: I have all my seeds ready for planting, and have gotten oodles into the ground already (of those that could go into the ground at this time). I have much more planting to go. I can't wait to see what grows. Hopefully something. I have new seeds, and then TONS of seeds I harvested from last year's flowers. I can't wait to see what sprouts. Time seems to go faster when you are planting all of the time. The months get so much shorter... Anyone experience that?
pss: I made one large bundt cake with that recipe, instead of 3 small ones. Also, I made my first cake a few days ago by mixing by hand, and another last night by mixing with the hand mixer. Just the change in mixing made two different cakes. And, I dare say, I think I like the one where I mixed by hand best. It was moister. Oh, and mine was done in 50 minutes.
