Dear Reader:

I have done several blogs on nooks and crannies…I have been drawn to the corners of life since I was a little girl. Nooks and crannies were my favorite places to hide out and live in throughout my childhood… there existed my imaginary world.

The meaning of “nooks and crannies” is a place that is remote…isolated from the whole. I will never be a Sir Edmund Hillary but I am an adventurer, in my own right, when it comes to finding nooks and crannies in homes and gardens.

 They are the first places I feel compelled to decorate in a house or garden…making each corner tell its own story…because that is where the secrets of a house or garden are found.

As I get older my world grows smaller around me. I love my home and garden and spend carefree days on different little projects that just make me happy. I still love traveling but it has gotten to be such a headache to fly and with an older car I worry that something could go wrong at any time-I am just more comfortable driving around areas where I know I can get help if necessary…I feel like my lowcountry world consists of Summerville and Mt. Pleasant on a daily and weekly basis.

“Small and Little” are words that mean “bigger and more for less” to me these days. I don’t need more of anything but love…we can never get enough love. The more we get…the more we want…one day we will be filled to the brim, overflowing with God’s unconditional love. We will know and finally accept it without self-imposed restrictions.

I love these two excerpts from Kent Nerburn’s book Small Graces.

” In the book of Micah, the prophet says, “And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

We must learn to value the small as well as the great…
Confucius told his followers, ‘Bring peace to the old, have trust in your friends, and cherish the young.’

“Do we really need much more than this? To honor the dawn. To visit a garden. To talk to a friend. To contemplate a cloud. To cherish a meal. To bow our heads before the mystery of the day. Are these not enough?

The world we shape is the world we touch — with our words, our actions, our dreams.

If we should be so lucky as to touch the lives of many, so be it. But if our lot is no more than the setting of a table, or the tending of a garden, or showing  a child a path in a wood, our lives are no less worthy.

…Sometimes, it seems, we ask too much. Sometimes we forget that the small graces are enough.”

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So until tomorrow….We must always remember that “our home is the caretaker of our memories. From our windows, our imaginations take wing.” (From every “nook and “cranny.”)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

* Another wonderful surprise, the doorbell rang and a pretty woman holding a basket full of peaches was standing on the porch. Before she even introduced herself…I was thinking she reminded me of someone….Luke! It was Luke’s mom…Barbara.

She  brought me and Vickie peaches from the upstate while here visiting Luke and Chelsey. She also brought me two white or Chinese peaches. I confess I have never had one. She assured me that once I ate it…it would be harder to return to the yellow ones.

She was right…absolutely delicious...the best thing I have tasted this summer…it almost had a floral tasting…definitely a softer one. Delicious! Thank you Barbara for the gift and most importantly for your son, Luke, who has become a ‘white knight in shining armor’ for me…so helpful and kind, along with Chelsey and her healthy greens and floral knowledge! It was a good day when Luke and Chelsey moved into our neighborhood. The light shines brighter here now.

*Never say never…after finishing the blog about my contentment at being more of homebody these days…I received an amazing package in the mail. I was admiring Anne’s (shutterfly) picture album from our trip to Ireland in 2014…(a few days before she left to return again.) And today…she had Shutterfly make another copy which she had saved from the first album for me. Unbelievable!

So I spent the second half of the afternoon going down memory lane. Suddenly the old urge to go and experience new sights and sounds came creeping back. John O’Donohue’s words are right -printed on the first page of the picture album:

“When you travel,

A new silence

Goes with you,

And if you listen

you will hear

What your heart would

love to say.”

When the time is right…I will travel again…and I will know when it is the right time. Thank you Anne for memories!