85 N. Main St., Norwood, NY 13668
(315) 353-5054

Blog“Just Over the Hilltop”

Return to Blog List

Happy Birthday to my Mom! Today is her birthday and when I look around I see no one else I’d rather have than her for my mom. She certainly was the heart of our family with a drill sergeant ability to get us to work together and to get things done. Don’t take me wrong, she wasn’t mean, but you didn’t want to disobey or disappoint her.

Mom taught me the basics of life’s meaning: make a home a happy hopeful place, learn to get along with others even when differences occur, and serve outside the home using your natural talents. Don’t try to be like others, be yourself. Try to better your best as the 4-H motto says. Complete a project and keep your promise. As I write some of her sage teachings, I see I still have work to do in my own life. They say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. Well, she taught by words and deeds these lessons but I find I’m still balking at the “complete your project” one. My desk and office area never seem to get completed or neatly arranged.

Last but not least, love is an action. Saying “I love you” is good but the way you treat your family will show and reflect that your love is unconditional, unending, and unprecedented. My Mom modeled and showed that magnificently. Happy ?th Birthday, Mom!

Beautiful flowers

I guess I got a little sidetracked with my marvelous Mom memory and so I bring you back to the journal. Hello, from just over the hilltop in Norwood where the dark skies, cold and damp temperatures, and the beautiful flowers greet you. The irises, the peonies, the mini irises, the wild geraniums, and the yellow day lilies are all in bloom.

the fragrance was intriguing and inviting because you could smell it before you saw it

I found an Oriental Lily at Lowe’s the other day and Dick planted it for me yesterday. It is under the kitchen window so the wonderful fragrance in coming through the window and the gentle breeze carries it to the porch. This is a flower I first discovered when visiting “The Bridge of Flowers” in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, with the children’s Grandma Morse several years ago. The fragrance was very intriguing and inviting because you could smell it long before you ever saw the flower. Grandma Morse gave me one a couple of weeks later and in one of our moves was left behind. I now have another one in memory of her. Oriental Lily – welcome to Rose of Sharon.

Projects

Dick has almost finished building and painting the shed, has cut and installed a door through the garage to the shed, repaired a leak in the downstairs pedestal sink, helped me with some overgrown weeds in the flower bed near the fence, and still has time to carry our guest’s luggage upstairs, repair another guest’s shoe, and go shopping with me. What a blessing he is to me and to our home.

Writers’ group met with fewer people as many have begun their summer travels. We still had a great night and will have one more meeting before taking July and August off to recharge by relaxing and clearing our heads. Bible study has also stopped for the summer but a summer picnic is being planned.

Music and Rest

The other night I sat down at the piano playing old tunes while waiting for our guest to arrive. Many of the old songs I know are familiar to me because my Grandpa Bills used to sing them. This is one I don’t remember him singing but is still a favorite. “When you come to the end of the day – And the night calls your worries away, Do you ever watch the setting sun And dream of things that you might have done? Do you turn from your work with a smile? Do you feel that it’s all worth the while? As you dream the twilight hours away When you come to the end of the day?” This is a lovely tune by Frank Westphal and the words by Gus Kahn copyrighted in 1929 and played at Mr. Westphal’s funeral in 1948.

and then sweet sleep and rest is welcomed: “when I come to the end of the day

I know I’ve written before just how much we love the porch and last week we enjoyed the bullfrogs, the fireflies, and an unidentified bird while reflecting on our day in the cool of the evening, in the dark, on the porch. It has been my goal since a young woman, to not have regrets or anger when the sun goes down. Rocking and talking on the porch allows my unfinished projects, unsolved thoughts or problems, and unspoken words to get taken care of, put in perspective, and then sweet sleep and rest is welcomed: “When I come to the end of the day.”

May the end of each day be a pleasant and quiet spot for you, too. Have a great week. Lovingly, Sharon

Comments