Gratitude and Glimmers #102

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of November. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color. Thanks for hosting these once again all year, LeeAnna.

From my mindfulness calendar for today:

It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

--David Steindl-Rast

1. I love sunrises and sunsets, but in winter with silhouetted trees, they’re something else. 

Sunrise

2. Speaking of trees, I like seeing all the bird nests in winter in the bare trees, this little one right in town on Main Street. 

3. I love that I live so close, a mere ten houses away, from Lake Erie. I am in awe of the power of water, and of Mother Nature.

December 19 Hills of ice

The power of the wind! It moves the ice and reshapes it daily. This is the earliest we've had this much ice on the lake, but we've had more winter than usual in December, though the snow we had all went last week, and it's rained a few times since. 

December 20 taken from two streets over

4. I like the NORAD Santa tracking website. It was a favourite of my mum’s, one she closely watched and asked her grandchildren if they were too, so every Christmas Eve I like to see where he and the reindeer are. He was heading to Puerto Rico at this screenshot moment, and then 45 seconds later, off to Aruba. It makes me feel close to Mum.

5. I loved experiencing the Winter Solstice again with a candlelit labyrinth walk at Sprucewood Shores Winery. So tranquil and moving. The same girl played the Tibetan singing bowls, and they also had chanting music playing softly over the loudspeakers. Everyone is so respectful, quiet and introspective. The woman who sets it all up each year asks for a donation to The Women's Shelter in Windsor. An all-around great evening, and of course, a glass of mulled or not wine to go with.

6. I like the show Locals Only we've watched on CBC Gem. Surresh Doss, a food writer, is the host, taking you to interesting and eclectic neighbourhoods in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, visiting restaurants from a variety of cultures within Canada such as Nigerian, Haitian, Philippine, Iranian and much more over the ten episodes of season 1.

7. As for books this month, I really enjoyed The Witches of St. Petersburg by Imogen Edwards-Jones. It’s about the influence of two sisters from Montenegro who had a powerful influence over Tsarina Alexandra and were responsible for bringing in Rasputin. Imogen spent ten years writing the historical fiction novel; it’s very well-researched with references. Multiple, surprising, little-known facts about that time that sent me to the Internet time and again. I also read the final book in the Jenny Cooper series, A Life to Kill, another un-put-down-able read. I'm now on book #42 for the year, Goodnight from London by Jennifer Robson, another historical fiction one. It doesn't look like I'll hit my 50 books goal.

8. I really liked receiving an email from Kathy showing me two quilts, with a third in progress, that she made with a fat quarter bundle she won in a giveaway a while ago. The completed one the blue, on the right, is the pattern, Feedsack Patches and was gifted to a young lady with Sickle Cell Anemia (love that). The two quilt tops (pink sashing) she made are identical, so she got a total of three quilt tops out of the bundle! Thank you so much for sharing these Kathy!

9. I liked the typically cheesy Christmas movie A Cozy Christmas Quilt. It's a Canadian one, filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, featuring Canadian actors, one from my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta. The quilting parts of the movie were spot on, except for Liam's choice of a Lone Star quilt pattern to make for his first quilt (with help from Amy and her friends, but still). I especially liked her comment, when she took him into the local quilt shop, "I'm in heaven!", that and the fact that she grabbed several bolts not destined for his quilt, simply "to add to my stash!" I liked that she quilts traditional quilts for others to make money, but that she is an art quilter herself, and is a finalist for a fellowship grant.

10. I wish that you have your kind of holiday, however you celebrate. If it’s not your favourite time of year, then I wish you peace and some time to renew and highly recommend getting outside even if it’s very cold where you are or very hot.

December 25

As for me, I plan to eat some good food and be grateful for it, chat with family, and spend some time in my sewing room, working on two quilts, a Christmas one and a trees in winter one. 

Keen observers and peeps with fantastic memories will think they're seeing double...

You're not wrong. I made one very much like this, in December 2022, named Santa's Power. When I was pulling out all my Christmas fabric a month ago, I spied the remainder of this King Wenceslas (in my mind) yardage and thought, it needs to become another quilt, and now. So I've been working on it, along with Amanda-Jean's (Crazy Mom Quilts) Trees pattern I bought several years ago. This way I can chain sew like a crazy woman!