In The Pink!

Lavatera "Barnsley" In The New Garden

Welcome New and Old Friends to "A Year Of Finding Love," my blog that is a daily practice I've developed to find love and beauty.  I find its the little things, the simple, the overlooked that imbue my life with awe and love...,  Usually found in nature, children, art...  My camera with me always, forever on the lookout for love...  ~ Thank you for joining me.

So I'm happy to report that there is a profusion of pink in the garden at our new house plenty of fodder for future 

Beverley's Pink Saturday  ~ Thank you Beverley for featuring my blog in this week's posting.

I truly appreciate all the support you give to us budding bloggers:)

  

Since moving into our new home last week friends have written and called to ask how I'm doing with the huge task of unpacking and settling in... Actually, I'm doing quite well, all things considered - (gone for 3 days racing in the middle of the move, arrival of friends from out of town with their 2 girls for 6 days, CG dropping a chair on his foot and breaking his big toe...etc.) I'm feeling really quite "In The Pink!"

I've decided to share some of my pink images from the new garden, and one of an adorable cottage just a few minutes away that had an entryway just smothered in baby pink roses... I couldn't resist taking a photo...  Hope you enjoy...

Love, 

Neinah

Pot of Impatiens with Vintage Basket

The dusky pink of Nicotiana "chocolate Smoke" from the

Chocolate Flower Farm on Whidby Island

Pink Valerian Covered With Spider Webs

This little bird and his family lives in the pink rose bush - a handy spot for the feeder!

This little cottage has such a beautiful entrance...

Happy Pink Saturday!!!

Evening Time...

View Across The Harbor

I'm really starting to settle into a rhythm of living at our new home.  After dinner and clean up, I love to just sit and look out across the water, I watch the changing light and reflections on the homes, and trees, if you look carefully you can just make out the outline of the city (at the top of the photo between the tree tops.)  The skyscrapers turn a beautiful shade of dusky pink just before the sun dips below the horizon, and the cities lights turn on and begin to twinkle.  

Even though I still have many boxes to open and sort, I feel calmer as the days pass, and find myself allowing for more time to wander outside and enjoy this new beautiful garden...

Here's a few scenes of this new magical place.

Belonging....

My New Perch On The Front Porch

Already I have found a favorite place to perch and ponder for a while..., the front porch, late evening as the sun is going down...  Now with a special perch, I am beginning to have a sense of belonging again.

And in that vein of thought, I am reminded of David Whyte's wonderful poem ~

The House of Belonging

I awake

this morning

in the gold light

turning this way

and that

thinking for

a moment

it was one

day

like any other.

But

the veil had gone

from my 

darkened heart

and 

I thought

it must have been the quiet

candlelight

that filled my room,

it must have been

the first

easy rhythm

with which I breathed

myself to sleep,

it must have been 

the prayer I said

speaking to the otherness

of the night.

And 

I thought

this is the good day

you could

meet your love,

this is the black day

someone close

to you could die.

this is the day

you realize

how easily the thread

is broken

between this world 

and the next

and I found myself

sitting up

in the quiet pathway

of light,

the tawny 

close grained cedar

burning round

me like fire

and all the angels of this housely

heaven ascending

through the first

roof of light

the sun has made.

This is the bright home

in which I live,

this is where

I ask

my friends

to come,

this is where I want

to love all the things

it has taken me so long

to learn to love.

This is the temple

of my adult aloneness

and I belong

to that aloneness

as I belong to my life.

There is no house

like the house of belonging.

~ David Whyte ~

A New Home...

Front Door Knocker

Well, we have arrived, and boxes and boxes litter every corner of our new home on this little island in the Puget Sound.  From the kitchen window we have a tiny view of the harbor and even a little view of the distant city.  But I only allow myself a moment here and there to gaze that far into the distance, as I have so much at hand to do. 

The beautiful grounds of this house call out to me, inviting me to wander and explore and photograph, and so when the movers came and went leaving the boxed up guts of our previous home in the new strange rooms,  I found myself wandering outside for fresh air to breath and a moment or two to de-clutter my mind and make creative space to handle the work ahead of me - thereby avoiding a full on panic attack!

Like our old house before the garden is proving to be a source of quiet,  solitude and peace.. 

The new house however contains a hundred boxed voices that yell at me as soon as I enter, demanding attention, wanting order.. 

I open the windows and let the outside in, and feel the warmth of the sun, and know that all is good, all will be well.

It feels very good to have our own home again.