Cynthia Reyes

Life, Still

May 15, 2023May 15, 2023 Cynthia Reyes

The beautiful moments are often arrived at through a circuitous journey of challenges.

In other words, life.

A thing to be much valued.

On a stroll through the garden yesterday, the GrandToddler reached out and plucked 3 blooms from their stems. Back in the house just before our Mother’s Day lunch began, she walked up to each of the 3 generations of mothers present and handed each person a flower.

Then she looked around at her dad, grandpa and great aunt and decided they each needed a flower as well. So back into the garden we went. This time, I followed behind a very determined 3 year old and watched her choose and pick the flowers.

It’s been a beautiful spring – cool, which means the blooms last longer. And in case you’re wondering what that cage is doing among the pink and white bleeding hearts, yellow daffodils and pale pink tulips – it’s to protect the bleeding heart plant from rabbits. They like some of the tender stems in our garden.

Until I took the above photo, though, I didn’t realize that the front garden in spring is very colourful, but the back garden is more subdued. The white trillium below (Ontario’s provincial flower) grows in patches and occasional singles throughout the back garden.

I must have planned it that way and forgotten.

Or maybe not. Such is the life of a forgetful gardener. Makes for delightful surprises every spring.

Whatever the reason, there are patches of both white and blue flowers throughout the back garden. Below is one of my favourites: the forget-me-not, which self-seeds so prolifically, I think of it as both a perennial and an annual. It grows between stones or wherever it pleases.

It’s been a rough few months but I’m so glad to be alive. Among my happiest moments is time spent with our grandchildren. Did I tell you we have a second granddaughter now? What a sweetie. And so alert. She’s been grinning and “talking” back to us since she was 8 weeks old. Lifts the heart.

As I did with the GrandToddler, I plan to start taking her on walks through the garden before long.

Life is made up of many and varied moments. On one end of the spectrum, some are brutal, yes. Trust me: I know. But many are beautiful.

Flowers from a grandchild, and grins from another, rank right up there with the best of them.

I hope you are doing well,

Cynthia.

A Good Home

Checking in…

January 27, 2023January 27, 2023 Cynthia Reyes

It’s come to this: I’m “checking in”.

First: How are you? I sincerely hope you’re doing well, or at least coping.

Life is a series of challenges, isn’t it? Luckily, there are also blessings. And I’ve found that when I’m thankful, the hard times seem a little less daunting. Though the truth is that some weeks, the blessings and challenges are so close together that I can’t always tell where one ended and the other began.

Today is a snow day – a seriously snowy day, in that it fell and piled up for hours on end and the photos you are seeing were taken this morning. Much respect to people who have to shovel, drive or walk in it – I’m enjoying it from indoors. A big blessing: I can do this from a safe, warm house.

Plus, I know the importance of snow and rain, and even cold temperatures, to our natural environment. So no complaints.

I’m not writing much these days, and I know I should return to it. My excuse is that I decided a few years ago to make my family and health my Big Priority. When I write, I spend hours at the computer (I think slowly, and through my fingertips, so don’t suggest audio recording), and that makes the pain worse – which then hobbles my ability to attend to my Big Priority. Not good.

Too busy to write a regular post, I seem to either visit blogs I follow OR produce a new one of my own. Then I visit with each blog for a while (trying to catch up with that blogger), so by the time I get to them all, months have passed.

Oh, dear. I hope you’ll forgive me for being a slouch, a slacker, a slug and a sloth.

Meanwhile, I’m indulging in gratitude for a healthy family. Good health is not a thing to ever take for granted.

In a few weeks, I will seriously miss the garden – gardening is my hobby and a great way to exercise during the warmer months. But our focus has been on the interior spaces lately. We had some repairs done on our house – long overdue. The contractor and his team did a great job, affordably. We’re so thankful.

Much more has happened, but that’s all the news I have enough time to share right now.

My very best wishes to you,

Cynthia.

Top 3 photographs by Hamlin Grange.

A Good Home

Dept of Alternative Facts: Replace

January 9, 2023 Cynthia Reyes

A wise and practical way of looking at one of the fears some White Americans have turned into a conspiracy. Instead of seeing ourselves as being replaced, Oscar argues, we should make sure we are helping to build and pass on the things that help a society to thrive.

hermitsdoor

replace: (v) to change one object with another similar object

One the the conspiracy theories floating around in recent years is Replacement Theory. The logic, this time around, is that people of color, specifically legal and illegal immigrants to the USA, are part of a plan to replace people of European ancestry. The implication here is not just that the racial/ethnic composition of the USA is changing, but that some organization is orchestrating this.

I would agree that the racial/ethnic composition of the USA has been constantly changing over the past 500 years as various waves of people from different part so Europe and other parts of the world came over, sometimes at our government’s encouragement, sometimes due to people fleeing political, social, and economic situations in their home countries.

Over the past few years, the owners of our local paper have been transferring the leadership of the paper to…

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