For Today.........Ambling in the Arboratum

Linking up to the Simple Woman's Daybook today.

Outside my window.......the cloudy day turned into a blue sky day just in time for a hike...I love when that happens!

I am thinking.......that sometimes it is refreshing to see starkness where lushness used to be.  Sometimes starkness is more peaceful and contemplative.

I am thankful for colder temperatures.  I feel invigorated!

I am wearing a pair of ugly, big, black, granny.....but oh, so comfortable tennis shoes.  I only wear them to hike and to exercise.  Other than that, they hide in the closet.

I am creating a prayer space in my schoolroom.  This week I found some very beautiful votive lights to put there.

I went.....over the hills and through the woods today to check out a sod house my husband wanted to show me  on our hike.  He thought it would make a great retirement dream home.  It was very picturesque and worth the hike to get there.......but......dream on, say I!

I am wondering......how DID pioneer women LIVE in sod houses on the prairie?  They must have been quite strong characters.  I always think of Ma in the "Little House" books putting up her China Shepherdess in each of her many homes.........bringing that little ray of culture with her to connect to the beautiful and the good.

This is the roof of the sod house...sprouting!

The view was quite wonderful from inside!

I am reading........poetry about fall and winter.

I am hoping.....our fall high school play pulls together well in the next three weeks!

I am learning......that I like being in the woods among the trees and discovering the way things change there over the seasons.

Around the house.....music is playing, potatoes are boiling, meatloaf is baking, and we have been talking philosophy in the kitchen over glasses of wine.  Some of my older kids came and hiked with us and have stayed for dinner.  Sunday wonderfulness!

I am pondering........the beauty of a well turned phrase........and the myriad of words in the English language.  One of my favorites:  Filigree  It just sounds like what it is!

A favorite quote for the day:  "A veil is spread between this world and the next.  We, mortal men, range up and down in it, to and fro, and see nothing.  In the Gospel this veil is not removed: it remains, but every now and then marvelous disclosures are made to us of what is behind it."  -Cardinal John Henry Newman

One of my favorite things........the sound of wind through dry autumn stalks..........

A peek into my day.............