It's a Blustery Winne the Pooh kind of Day.

Oh lovely, cold, windy, day filled with birds and leaves frolicking in the winds going here then there, how I love days like you!

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“Tut, Tut, looks like rain” 

― A.A. Milne (author of Winnie the Pooh)

Nuthatch with peanut in his beak

“What day is it?" 

It's today," squeaked Piglet. 

My favorite day," said Pooh.” 

― A.A. Milne 

Chickadee about to go to the feeder

I adore days just like today. It's cold, windy and wet and the leaves are blowing off the trees in a dance of pirouettes and triple somersaults in the air. The birds are everywhere on our feeders; filling their bellies to keep warm for the day and I have once again begun my ritual of having my tea outside while bundled-up from the chill. 

My cold weather routine fills-me-up; it's the best good morning I know. I am not a morning person but this meditative blast of cold and nature makes me so full of hope and gratitude. I can't explain it but I hope you too have your special moment which helps recharge the batteries and slows you down enough so that you truly see what you have, become a silent observer of what is going on around you - even for just that 10 to 20 minutes - I believe it's the closest I come to the proverbial 'living in the moment'.

“Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.” 

A.A. Milne

This week I've indulged a little bit in doing something that is really nothing...Hubbie has been on vacation and so he has had to make trips to get: a 600lb straw bale, an even heavier used plough and an even heavier than the other two things - giant wood chipper. I have happily accompanied him on these trips - always with Peanut and my bag of knitting and twice with the 2 boys who love car rides. We have been literally squashed inside our small pickup truck with the 2 big boys in the back peering out the side windows and breathing down our necks as they peeked at the front views too. Peanut has been tucked-away on the floor in front of my feet under 3 layers of towels and my old jacket. She happily accompanies her mama everywhere I go and she generally sits in her cocoon and is contented to have an up-close and personal view of me sitting and knitting. We went to a house where a fellow sells used farm equipment - first we stopped for tea and a doughnut (oh happy indulgences!) which I slowly sipped while I knit in the parked truck - meanwhile hubbie browsed through the man's version of  a thrift store. We must have been there 40 minutes and it was bliss. I am an avid people-watcher and farmers are food for the curious observer. I knit, sipped tea, watched Peanut in her cocoon and smooched the boys as they stuck their heads through the space between the 2 front seats. They finally loaded that old plough into the back of the truck - we felt the truck sink down and shake sideways and then it settled...Hubbied conversed with the fellows in his broken French and they, in their broken English - payment was made and we were off again through some beautiful farm country watching the busy Combines collect the seasons' soybeans, corn and other crops. 

“Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” 

― A.A. Milne

Now I'm thinking you have either stopped reading already or yawned a few too many times but this is a Blog - a web log or online journal, right? I felt I just had to write this down for myself and so I shared it with you, dear readers. Maybe it will resonate with one person ...that we all need to slow down and make room for these moments of absolutely nothing. I am grateful...so very very grateful for these moments of nothing which are in truth everything. Elizabeth Zimmerman wrote about her escapes to the Canadian woods with 'The Old Man' where he fished while she knit - this resonates with me to my core. Her books are so much more than books about Knitting.

I wish you one of these moments of nothing...very soon...may it fill you up and recharge you as mine did today...

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“Well," said Pooh, "what I like best," and then he had to stop and think. Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.” 

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Chickadee

“sometimes i sits and thinks, and sometimes i just sits..” 

― A.A. Milne

Nuthatch on feeder and Chickadee in flight

“What I like doing best is Nothing." 

"How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. 

"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say, 'Oh, Nothing,' and then you go and do it. 

It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." 

"Oh!" said Pooh.” 

― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

Downy Woodpecker

“Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.”
― A.A. Milne

Nuthatch in flight with peanut in beak!

“TTFN Ta Ta For Now!” 

― A.A. Milne

I will be off Sunday and back on Monday - have a beautiful weekend!