A Kettle of Hope

There comes a time when everything comes together. Well, let me re~phrase  that a little. There comes a time when most things come together. Okay…one last try. There comes a time, when things seem to be going pretty well, and your feeling pretty hopeful. There that’s much better!

 

Perhaps it started with a little class I recently took which instructed me how to grow vegetables on the Oregon coast.

Yes, everything grows differently on the coast.

 

Not only vegetables. Everything.

Or, perhaps it was later in the week when the sun decided to tease me with it’s glorious light.

Of course deep down inside I knew the truth.

A good reminder that we always know the truth.

It had actually begun a few weeks before when a large box unexpectedly arrived at our cottage.

And when I opened up the box there was a wonderful MacKenzie-Childs teapot inside.

I was so excited! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Wow!  However, it did feel a little surreal, because something very similar had occurred almost 12 years earlier.

We had just recently moved into our home in Riverside, California, and my husband gifted the same teapot to me. (Well, actually it was a smaller version)

Being aware of my fondness to this particular artist, he knew that the tea kettle would complete the kitchen in our new home.

I loved it, and used it for many, many years.

Ironically last year when we sold our home the new owner happened to notice the teapot sitting on our stove, and mentioned how much she too LOVED it.  After a moment or two, and without much hesitation, I bequeathed it to her. After all by that time I’d already rid myself of many things as I was transitioning lifestyles. Lately, I’ve been reflecting on this lifestyle transition. And, there’s been an awareness, along with a deeper appreciation of this new life. Things seem to be coming together a little more. Day by day, month by month, season by season.

Going slowly, I try to purchase only what I love, will use, and brings me joy.

Nothing more, but at the same time nothing less. (grin)

Many of my efforts seem to be centered around the kitchen. The heart of home.  I’ve painted, made a curtain or two, a skirt for the sink, chalkboards to help remind me of this and that.

And, if I may say so myself it’s becoming quite charming around here.  My husband knew that receiving the teapot that I always loved, would somehow help make our little cottage kitchen complete. (Reminds me of those butterflies, and letting them go.) He was right….

Again.

Those husbands they think they know everything. (wink)

This week marks 8 months of living on the Oregon Coast. Something to celebrate. I’ve experienced 3 seasons. Summer, Fall, Winter, and now entering the fourth. Spring. I look forward to this Season…a Season of Hope. These seasons have allowed me opportunities  to meet wonderful new friends, experience lots of rain, many peaceful walks, a few wild winds, and being grateful to grow with the beauty of a new life. And new life as we know all too well, is always about Hope.

Oh, and of course if your lucky. ..perhaps even a new tea kettle. ..

“Any book about gardens, written for the pleasure of writing, must have its sources in dreams. The visions of gardens beautiful and retired hover before the imagination, and no real garden, however humble, but is invested in celestial light of cherished hopes of what it may become in fragrant flowers or what it might have been had fortune been kind.”

The Joy of Gardens, 1911 ~Lena May McCauley