Hello again…

I’ve been quiet through buttercup season…

…and the pink roses, tho’ they will come again…

…but the crown vetch is still here…

…the yarrow and the Queen Anne’s Lace are in full bloom…

…and the milkweed is humming with bees and dappled with butterflies…

It is the most beautiful chapter of summer for us, and a gorgeous setting for slowly easing back into more usual days after my deario’s heart surgery. It all went so well, with a few wobbles here and there in the weeks of recovery so far. Those quiet weeks in late May and early June were spent…

…navigating the world of meds, now happily down to the morning and evening pills in homemade pill boxes…

…watching hours and hours of the French Open…

…hanging out the wash, always…

…and the rest of the pleasant everyday round of weeding and outdoor baths, preparing meals and reading, planting seeds and noticing. Even as I type this, Doug is driving for the first time-on the tractor-mowing some paths so we can walk to the woods again. I kept up with the around the house mowing until he could, but am glad to hand it over. Mowing is tricky when you feel for every flower and so-called-weed in your path. I must say, tho’, the wire grass and dock seed stalks did not call up my sympathy…

You may recall from my last missive that I am taking the summer off from making, and it has been just what my soul was needing and calling for. It has left more spaciousness in my days and tending Wisteria & Sunshine has felt like the perfect amount of work in the summertime. We’ve been focusing on retreating there, each to her own vision of what that means…

I’ve been devoting my retreat hour or two most days to journaling, reading about menopause and well-being, and creating lovely little systems to support me as I lose weight and remember how to flourish, after a long season of not. Pen and paper, pencil and scissors are more in use than usual, so I am a contented woman in those hours…

There has also been lots of talk about books in our haven. One of summer’s most important ingredients, wouldn’t you agree? As for the rest of my days, I am keeping tabs on the world at large, for sure, and there are outings and small gatherings to look forward to as the summer months unfold, but my plan is to keep retreating (in one way or another) all summer long. It has been so nourishing, and seems to be the cure for my muddleness of late.

Upstairs, downstairs (and “in my lady’s chamber” as most of all of our rooms would count as that in our empty nest : ) on the porch and outside, these are all my retreating spots. Fortuitously, as I was finishing up with several of my retreating books and listenings, a new offering landed in my inbox from the lovely women who have taught me how to create my digital planners and been a wise support for creating online. Daily inner and outer decluttering and journaling in a very pretty container. I’m grateful to add this to my own tools and glad to let Michelle and Aimee guide my path to flourishing for awhile. It will make the coming summery weeks all the more restful.

I’ll leave a link below if you might be interested in joining me. And I’ll leave you-for now-with my heartfelt wishes that this summer bring you refreshment and renewal, if you are in need of it…and delight in abundance.

xo

Lesley

Click to learn more!

This is an affiliate link, which is something new. I know it might seem a little strange from me, but I am learning to not be hesitant about sharing goodness and allowing some to come back to me. If this isn’t your cup of tea, but you are interested in creating your own retreat this summer, I will gladly welcome you in the doors of Wisteria & Sunshine where we will keep a summery, creative approach to retreating in the months to come.

…and I’ve been quiet here for all these months…

…but noticing and tending…

…gathering and celebrating …

…beginning new things and continuing on with all of the beautiful, beloved ingredients of our everydays…

…beautiful in spite of all of the darkness that comes along with the light of life. I’m writing today because I have a deep desire and need to get all of my ducks in a row, and a note to you is the last of my online ducks to tuck into place. This season of change and bloom and some surprising news we received a month ago have drawn forth some clarity and decisions I didn’t know I needed.

My deario needs heart surgery, to repair a valve that is damaged and weakening his heart. So we are on an unexpected path of consultations and tests and surgery in a hospital in the city next month. He should be just fine after his long recovery, but it’s turned our world a little upside-down. And I am finding I need to be a helpmeet more than ever, and want to be so.

I want to pour all of my spare hours and energies into paring down and making our home and garden as peaceful and well-tended as possible, to make the weeks of Doug’s recovery as restful and untroubled as they can be made. Realizing this led to the understanding that I would need to put down some other responsibilities…and then I realized that it would-indeed-feel like putting down a burden to take a rest from making for awhile.

And not being one to hesitate once I’ve made a decision within myself, I’ve brought it into being in the outside ways. So my Etsy shop is still open, but only for digital goods, including a new digital planner! I’ve been discovering this year (is that a shock?) that digital notebooks and calendars can be really helpful in certain ways (which I explain in the description of the Wings & Wildflowers planner, if you are interested) and have been slowly learning how to use mine. If my days allow, I will get another digital notebook and calendar in my shop in the months to come. In the meantime, I am just grateful for the ease and delightful prettiness of these, for me and for all who receive them.

If you are a current Daybook customer and think there is something you might want before I return to making in the early Autumn, please send me a note (just reply to this.) I will let you know when I open the shop for Daybook orders for just one day in May, to gather orders that I will work on filling before the summer booklets are needed. Does that make sense?

Wisteria & Sunshine will remain as it is, a place of beauty and encouragement that I am pleased to spend part of my days creating and tending. But now, the other portions of those days I can immerse myself more deeply in my homemaking and land nurturing, mending dresses and making herbal concoctions, practicing mowing the lawn and pumping out the basement and other tasks that Doug has always takes care of so well.

Even tho’ Doug’s diagnosis isn’t dire, anything in this realm brings ones mortality into greater awareness. And the birthday cake you see above was made to celebrate my 63rd trip around the sun. I am both a bit weary from twenty years of making and wanting to have more time to get to the things that often fall by the wayside when I am tired or muddle-headed from doing business online these days. And I know I will come back from my respite eager to see what the next chapter of my work will bring.

For now, I will just let you know that you will find a new film at my you~tube channel, and that until you hear from me again (which hopefully won’t be so very long) I am sending love and heartfelt wishes for a sweet spring to you,

Lesley

xo

Click the photo to watch to my film…

…and the photo above to visit my shop…