Nana would be proud I think - delicious!

Wish it was this easy sometimes

Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen.  Keep in the sunlight.  

- Benjamin Franklin

Grateful for all those cakes

I have nearly finished my first ever Christmas cake!  I just need to buy some ribbon to tie around it and it is done.  It was a long process...cutting up fruit, soaking and stirring fruit, baking, feeding the cake with rum...feeding it with MORE rum...and EVEN MORE rum!  Then there was the icing part.  Lots of fun was had and I'm feeling particularly grateful now for all the Christmas cakes my dear Nana used to make every year for all the families in our big family. 

  
Now I know what she went through (one for her and one for each of her three daughter's families) - WOW!  A massive (and expensive) task for a lady of 80.  Bless you Nana, you were a wonderful lady, for more reasons than lots of great cake. 

Shadows

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.  

- Swedish Proverb

Merry

Lucky

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
- Seneca

Backs

 

I'm grateful for feeling golden...

She was wearing her pjs, runners, cardi and hat.  We headed into the garden, her hand in mine, tiny feet taking tiny stumbly steps - oh wow, steps by themselves!  She pointed and tried to say things - flowers, trees, sky, birdy, grass and fence.  She wanted to head out the gate.  I wanted to take her back in and dress her properly - what will people think of me, daughter out in public and still in pjs at midday?  I decided to live in her moment with her & let her lead me outside.  She waved at buses (bah bah), the drivers waving back.  She waved at a truck (tark, tark).  The driver waved back, beaming!

We picked tiny flowers and put them in her pockets.  We watched a dragonfly on a tree and her eyes lit up.  The look on her face when she recognises something outside that she has seen in a book is just magical.  I love watching this little person that WE created, exploring and seeing her world open up in front of her.  Blissful and golden.  Yes, 16 months is certainly feeling golden!  

I am feeling so very grateful for feeling golden.  December last year, I was a month away from seeking help for Post-natal Depression, so possibly at my worst.  I felt as though I would never enjoy life again.  Hip-hip-hooray for that not being the case!  Today I'm linking up with Maxabella loves...I'm grateful for...

Bean's treasures from her first nature walk

Fronts

Boo-boos galore

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.  Art is knowing which ones to keep.

- Scott Adams

My birthday hydrangea

Troubles

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.  

- Mark Twain

Time to get outside with the camera...

Friendship

I think C and I can really make each other feel good because we can overlook the things that other people judge us on.

- a best friend about us, 15 years ago, such a gem and still a best friend!

More of Poppy's favourites

Exploring

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover.

- Mark Twain

What did you see in Poppy's garden?

Hope

I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest.  I do not judge the universe.

- Dalai Lama

Down the road a year ago

Just what the doctor ordered

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.

- Seneca

Busy enjoying her = no time to blog

Anatomy

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.

- Ray Charles

Don't worry

That the birds of worry and care fly over you head, this you cannot change, but that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent.  

- Chinese Proverb

Up

On fire

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.

- Kenji Miyazawa

Pretties for dear friends

Tired

Fatigue is the best pillow.

- Benjamin Franklin

Seeing things

Sending love to a very dear new family

Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one.

- Gloria Steinem

My very hungry caterpillar

Bizarre and beautiful

She is so cute I want to rip my head off and throw it at the wall.

- a lovely friend of ours, talking about my daughter

Unnatural