Winter Mantel

The painting is one of Jozef Israel’s. I think the shepherd’s wife has brought him lunch in the pasture. He says grace while she pours. Added to our winter mantel arrangement it completes the old world vibe I am after.

Elv was afraid I would actually want to keep that old chimney clean-out door. He also knew that it was going to show up somewhere like this. But he trusts me and never criticizes my adventures in decorating. I can’t say he exactly gushes over it either. So here it is. I like it because it’s beautifully shaped with a sunflower. Long ago they apparently had time to be creative with details. I want to have time and thought for details again, both the noticeable and the unseen. Maybe in a couple hundred years someone will decorate the mantel piece with some of it. In the meantime, I intend to offer my world sanity and peace.

I discovered another hygge word this evening. Hjemmehygge pronounced yem hooga means home comfort. I intend to create warm jemmehygge as I decorate and prepare for winter here. There will be some Christmas decor, too, but mainly can we just have a cozy place to spend long, dark, winter evenings?

I have stocked up on tapers again. There are house plants to keep watered and growing for the green needed. The freshly cleaned bird feeder is full and the chickadees have found it while the squirrels have not. The bird feeder hangs just on the other side of the living room window, so I get to see their fuzzy feathers right from my desk.

I was talking with a friend today at work about the constant commotion around us. We were saying how you couldn’t even make this up, and how the realities of events around us seem more crazy than fiction. Conflicts abound. Even the weather has gone berserk, right?

It’s one thing to hear about conspiracy theories and strangeness “out there”, but it feels weird to me when, unexpectedly, people closer to home buy into them.

I always circle back to the fact that God isn’t surprised and He is still in control. He knows all the outcomes. We can trust Him. No matter who becomes the new president. Regardless the weather, the economy, or the actions of our seemingly hell bent careening as a nation. Jesus is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Hopefully, shepherd’s wives will still bring lunch, beauty will show up on chimney clean-out doors, and we can pray without ceasing till He comes.