Giving Thanks…

“ The Family at Prayer” by Haddon Sundblom

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

 ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It's a way to live.

~ Attributed to Jacqueline Winspear

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.

~ H.U. Westermayer

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.

~ W.T. Purkiser

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God...

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (King James Version)

From Cassandra's Window

Autumn, the year's last loveliest smile...

~William Cullen Bryant

It's "Daisy-Time..."

And what's romance? Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything as you like it, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose, and it's always daisy-time.
D.H. Lawrence



The Field Daisy

I'm a pretty little thing,
Always coming with the spring;
In the meadows green I'm found,
Peeping just above the ground,
And my stalk is cover'd flat
With a white and yellow hat.

Little Mary, when you pass
Lightly o'er the tender grass,
Skip about, but do not tread
On my bright but lowly head,
For I always seem to say,
"Summer is here to stay."

By Ann Taylor (1782-1886)

Ah...the Lovely Roses of June!

For if I wait," said she, "Till time for roses be,-
For the moss rose and the musk rose,
Maiden-blush and royal-dusk rose,-
"What glory then for me
In such a company?-
Roses plenty, roses plenty
And one nightingale for twenty?"
~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The roses above, which have been blooming profusely among the magnolias outside my library's window, inspired me to gather some of my antique decorative publishers' editions featuring roses on their covers and to do some scanning. Please click on the photo below to enjoy these lovely artists' renderings from long ago...

The Rose in Decorative Publishers' Bindings

The rose speaks of love silently, in a language known only to the heart. ~ Unknown

Thought for the Weekend...

Sweet May...

Lavender, Lovely Lavender

Ladies fair, I bring to you
lavender with spikes of blue;
sweeter plant was never found
growing on our English ground.
~ Caryl Battersby

Lavender Shortbread

This recipe is for a rich but not too sweet shortbread cookie with a hint of sweet lavender fragrance and flavor. Serve with tea or with lemonade laced and garnished with fresh lavender flowers. These shortbreads are wonderful to share with friends and family in pretty boxes or tins lined with lacy paper doilies, lace napkins or hankies. Don’t forget to write out this recipe to include with your gift!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (2 sticks) butter (no substitutes!), at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons very finely chopped lavender flowers (fresh or dried)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
2 1/3 cups flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 325°F.

Cover bottoms of two baking sheets with parchment or brown paper. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, lavender, and mint with an electric mixer. Mix until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add flour, cornstarch, and salt and beat until incorporated. Divide dough in half. Flatten into squares and wrap in plastic. Chill until firm.

On a floured board, roll or pat out each square to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Cut the dough into 1 1/2 -inch squares or rounds. Transfer to baking sheets, spacing cookies about 1 inch apart. Prick each cookie several times with a fork. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until pale golden (do not brown). Cool slightly, then transfer to a rack. Sprinkle with lavender powdered sugar, made by putting 4 or 5 springs of lavender flowers in a sealed jar with powdered sugar for a day before using the sugar.

Makes about 4 dozen.


An Antique Margaret Armstrong Decorative Cover from Cassandra's Collection

Here’s your sweet lavender
sixteen sprigs a penny
that you’ll find my ladies
will smell as sweet as any...
~ Lavender Sellers’s Cry, London England, circa 1900

Hanged up in houses,
it doth very well attemper the aire,
coole and make fresh the place to the delight
and comfort of such as are therein.
~ John Gerard, 1597

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green,
When you are King, dilly dilly, I'll be your queen,
Who told me so, dilly dilly, how can I know,
I told myself, dilly dilly, love told me so.
~ Traditional Song, circa 1680

MORE Beautiful Old Books

When you sell a man a book you don't sell just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night - there's all heaven and earth in a book, a real book. ~ Christopher Morley

Let your bookcases and your shelves be your gardens and your pleasure-grounds. Pluck the fruit that grows therein, gather the roses, the spices, and the myrrh. ~ Judah Ibn Tibbon

Beautiful Butterflies

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly. "One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
~ Hans Christian Anderson




Please enjoy these butterfly poems and quotes illustrated by butterflies from my collection of antiquarian books and ephemera...

A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam...
and for a brief moment its glory
and beauty belong to our world...
but then it flies on again, and although
we wish it could have stayed,
we are so thankful to have seen it at all.
~ Author Unknown

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days,
The time, when, in our childish plays,
My sister Emmeline and I
Together chased the butterfly!
~ William Wordsworth

From Cocoon forth a Butterfly
As Lady from her Door
Emerged - a Summer Afternoon -
Repairing Everywhere -~ Emily Dickenson

Without Design - that I could trace
Except to stray abroad
On Miscellaneous Enterprise
The Clovers - understood
~ Emily Dickenson





















As the Lord had finished creating the earth, something was missing so he chose pieces from all the flowers, threw them into the sky and blew life into them and the butterflies were born. ~ Author Unknown





















Butterflies are self propelled flowers. ~ R.H. Heinlein





















Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine. ~ Jeffrey Glassberg





















Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases
wherever it goes. ~ Author Unknown

I've watched you now a full half-hour;
Self-poised upon that yellow flower
And, little Butterfly! Indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless! - not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!
~ William Wordsworth

Flowers and butterflies drift in color, illuminating spring. ~ Author
Unknown


We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. ~ Maya Angelou

Free the butterflies-
I'll be there
to see them soar
upon the air.
Know my spirit
is on the wing,
feel my laughter-
hear me sing.
Forever in your dreams
always in your heart.
~ Fran LeMasters

Let Books...

Let books be your dining table,
And you shall be full of delights
Let them be your mattress
And you shall sleep restful nights.
~Author Unknown