Dear Reader:

At Tractor & Supply last week the whole stock of Trisha Yearwood’s Home designs were on sale – 50% off! I love her homey decor tastes and discovered this water can pitcher that I fell in love with….the only problem was I thought it really was a water pitcher (and I did need a large one) only to discover as water ran down on my feet… flowing through the bottom hole in the can from the outside faucet… that it was a planter…not a pitcher.

So yesterday I took it with me to Ace Hardware to ask the nursery professional for some guidance in getting something for it that I could put on my front porch… while sustaining the afternoon sun that envelopes it. I came away with a Tibuchina Urvilleana –Princess Flower. If planted in the ground they can become bushes but will bloom in containers also. I loved the picture of the little flowers attached to the plant container so I brought it home and placed the container next to “Big Red” and the white bench. Maybe the Princess Flower will give encouragement to “Big Red” as it develops its own blooms.

At Tractor & Supply I also picked up the latest copy of Magnolia –Chip & Joanna Gaines-magazine. The theme for this publication was curiosity. Jo talked about a day trip she and Chip went on recently…where they took only the back roads through rural Texas letting curiosity be their compass….stopping only when something jumped out at them and made them stop the car.

Aren’t these sometimes the best trips of all? The trips we don’t plan down to the last detail… but, instead, take each adventure as it comes moment to moment?

I find myself growing “curiouser and curiouser” as I grow older. Time is definitely more on my side these days than when life was a blur of frenzy and hectic schedules. These days I can treat myself to sudden car stops to check out a new store or neighborhood or garden nursery. ( I was just thinking the other day I should create a decal that says something like…“Warning….This car is driven by a retiree with time on her hands at last…prone to sudden turns and stops.”)

I have to pinch myself each time this happens…because most of my life, previously, had been rushing. It is amazing how exciting life can be, again, when we don’t pass it by in our attempt to make a deadline…to be somewhere else all the time.

My curiosity “bug” extends to purchasing curios or conversation pieces. I noticed one fun curio that Jo Gaines has in her living room that draws her guests’ attention….(Of course it is hanging from her Shiplap wall.)

She says: “I used to stress a lot about time, mainly about how I was constantly left without enough and always hopeful for more. When I found this clock, I knew it was the perfect symbol for me. It’s missing the hour and minute hands, so when I look at it, I’m reminded that there is grace in the moment, and that time at home is never wasted.” ( She always shares this thought when guests ask her why the crucial parts of the clock are missing.)

It reminded me of my Kelly Rae Roberts clock that I purchased years ago before I even knew about her and got involved into her “Possibilitarian Movement” and later her art works. It took months for this little clock to arrive and I think it was the last one made….I have never seen another one.

I liked it because it had wings.…reminding me that time does fly so I need to remember to hold on to friends and family who come through my door…because tomorrow’s are never guaranteed… just wonderful moments! It sits on a trunk Walsh got me one birthday…and that sits on Grandmother Wilson’s old antique wash stand. I have a separate pitcher and bowl in the bathroom on the B&B side because the bathrooms aren’t big enough for a wash stand.

 So until tomorrow….

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Morning sun shining in my kitchen….reminding me of the magic of life.

The hostas are starting to bloom and the morning glories…though, only a few, still frame the fairy painting quite beautifully.