Month: June 2015

Peonies at last!

~ Spence's Girl ~ 4 Comments

I can’t help it.  With each new bloom that appears in my garden, I get an almost euphoric pleasure and feel the need to share these beauties with those who follow my blog.  Have I thanked you lately for your support?  If not, many thanks! I only wish you could smell these fabulous blooms.

59 Candles, 59 Things – Part Nineteen

~ Spence's Girl ~ Leave a comment

Twenty Seventh thing: Candles make me happy.  And relaxed.  The glow of candles makes my home cozy. I love their soft lighting and calming fragrance.

Before retiring, I would frequently come downstairs in the morning, feed the cats, make a cup of tea and then retreat to the living room.  After lighting several candles and then covering up with a soft blanket (to be followed by snuggling cats), it made being up before sunrise peaceful and was a lovely way to start the day. It’s even better now that I’m retired! (just ask the cats)

Spence and I burn candles most evenings, especially in the winter when they provide our only light other than the blazing fireplace.

I love to give candles as gifts as well as receive them.  Just recently, my lifelong BFF gave me this amazing candle for my birthday.

Lavender Chaparral
Lavender Chaparral – Wild Lavender, Spanish Sage, Dry Chaparral and White Sandalwood

Another favorite of mine is this three wick candle:

Stay tuned for part Twenty as I continue to commemorate my 59th year of life by sharing 59 Things that make me happy! 

Lovely flowers from my garden

~ Spence's Girl ~ 6 Comments

As one of the 59 Candles, 59 Things (that make me happy) series, I recently posted pictures of my irises that had bloomed as of that date.  Since that post, the remainder have revealed themselves and were simply too pretty not to share.

And not to leave out some other happy surprises, the first peony (of several hundred blooms between three bushes) has opened as well as my lovely Dwarf Korean Lilac Bush, given to me by my step-son and daughter-in-law.  My yard is launching into it’s fragrant phase…

Ten Things about Me

~ Spence's Girl ~ 8 Comments

This is the first writing challenge from BUGS (Blogging U Grads) and the challenge is to simply introduce myself by sharing ten things about me.  Considering that I’ve shared quite a bit about myself in the last seven months, the challenge for me is to come up with things previously not revealed……

  1. I’m left-handed.  Proud of it and believe that my creativity springs from my left-handedness.
  2. Though my husband and I are the only human occupants of my home (my two sons are cats – just to clarify), my pantries (yes plural), refrigerator, freezer, spice and wine racks might lead one to believe that I’m secretly running a personal chef service, opening a gourmet food shop or preparing for the zombie apocalypse.
  3. I have extremely flat feet.
  4. I love The Gilmore Girls!  Have the whole series on DVD, watch it beginning to end once a year.  It makes me happy.
  5. My first job was as a cashier in a donut shop.  Yes, I was a donut slinger, at age 16.  Couldn’t eat donuts for many years after I left that job.
  6. I live in the same home that my grandparents built, where my Dad was raised, in the same neighborhood I grew up in.
  7. All my life I’ve been told I looked like both Grandmothers and my Dad.
  8. My hair is naturally very curly, like Shirley Temple curly.
  9. I am of 100% Swedish descent (to the best of our family knowledge).
  10. I didn’t learn to text until I was 57 years old.

Tada! I did it. And I’m quite sure that I’ve not previously shared these captivating facts about myself on this blog.

So, that’s me.  Nice to meet you.

Just a bonus thing about me! And because it's hard for me to make a blog entry without a picture.
Just a bonus thing about me! And because it’s hard for me to make a blog entry without a picture.

BUGS is a writing group that was formed by those participants in the Blogging University Writing 101 workshop from earlier this year.  This is the first of bi-weekly challenges they will assign us through year end.  I hope you’ll find them interesting.