I imagine that when we age the joy of little things take more significance, gives us more pleasure and get noticed far, far more.
Hell, even to get out of bed in the morning, sorting out the limbs, catching a breath, finding the floor with our reluctant crampy feet are little things but the success of standing erect, ready to face another day is a little thing, unnoticed in the past, laughed at by the youngers (Whut?). The smell of freshly ground dark roast beans, ths sunrise as I sip, the birds, the silence, the sea with fishing boats in the distance. None of this I take for granted.
I finished a cushion I designed and created. The back is jet black but shows grey in the photo for some reason. It took me a while, a kind of inertia for the few knitting projects on the go. I was busy with the writing and the workshops. But I realized knitting may be a little thing but it calms and focuses me and gets my mind off health and other challenges.
The orchid is beautiful. I was thinking of little things yesterday. Not just all the little things that bring joy but all the little things in a day that take up time but are seldom included in the daily narrative: cut up the watermelon, clean the onions after picking them out of the garden, pick up the toys the neighbor little scattered hither & yon, phone the arena to ensure it's wheelchair accessible; put the lawn chairs away; get the coffee ready for the morning....The list goes on. So many little things that add to the day and the next.
ReplyDeleteSo true Mona and we're at the age where we notice them and take pleasure in their meaning and the fact we're alive to appreciate them more fully. Time. What a gift!
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Here is a "little things" might have resonance for you: https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159715425227215&set=a.10150345291332215 Emma
ReplyDeleteThank you Emma, I am familiar with that photo.
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Smiling orchids. I like them, and I hope they will go on smiling for you long time yet. But nothing beats the smell of freshly ground coffee beans.
ReplyDeleteSmiling indeed, Charlotte. I am impressed they last so long too. They look so fragile.
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Some years ago we received a gift of an orchid that looked pretty much like yours and it seemed to last forever. I hope you will be as lucky. All the best - David
ReplyDeleteGood news on the orchid-life David. I will do my best!
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How I love your cushion. And the orchid. The little things are HUGE in my world, and I am so grateful for many of them.
ReplyDeleteThank you EC, for the compliment on the cushion and three cheers for small things.
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Orchids are magic, aren't they. My longest lived was going on fifteen years.
ReplyDeleteI like Aran knitting, too. As long as you don't lose your grip, there is something to do every row.
I am stunned, Joanne, 15 years! It must have felt like a member of the family! I love the novelty of the knitting, the back of the cushion was boring but I did that during Zoom meetings!
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Sitting in the sun with a good dog, a piece of cake and a book (or a friend) combines all the small elements of a good life.
ReplyDeleteThe orchid is reason for many days of delight and who wouldn't want a lovely, snuggly cushion?
I miss the good dog part Kylie but the rest I applaud and concur.
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Lovely cushion, lola would have that covered in cat hair in less than a day. 18 inches is about 46cm.
ReplyDeleteYes my friend has cats and I wonder how it will survive them.
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Years ago a friend was sitting in a chapel on one of the Aran Islands. You're talking the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteA group of boatmen from another island sat in front of two young girls. She noticed how absorbed the girls were - not by the men but by the patterning on their sweaters and how it differed slightly from their own island patterns.
Her name was Muriel Gahan ( she has her own Wikipedia page! ) and its reckoned she was the person who brought the aran sweater into the public domain.
I just knew her as a friend of my mother and a kind thoughtful woman, interested in absolutely everything a surly teenager had to say.
Thank you for sharing this YS, I've been creating and knitting arans since I was in my teens. Saw some very old "gansies" in the Dublin museum which enchanted me. Often the sleeves had different patterns, along with the back and front. It was the first time I had seen knitting as art. Women made so much of it with so little, shearing and cleaning and carding the wool and then spinning. My aran sweaters have lasted as long as me (so far!).
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What a lovely orchid. One of my favourite flowers. You're ahead of me with the smell of roast coffee beans. I have no sense of smell.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever have one, Nick? Reason I mention is that you'd never miss what you never had to begin with.
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Yes, I had a sense of smell some years ago. I can't recall when it disappeared. Jenny has to tell me if she notices a strange smell!
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