dance of the buttercups

there is a joyful rendezvous happening nearby my country cottage... buttercups by the thousands have arrived and are dancing and partying everywhere! they are just so happy to be alive! and Yellow! who wouldn't want to be Yellow?! if this bohemian could choose her own skin color, she would choose sunny yellow, or maybe copper, or maybe even metallic navy blue, or some kind of pumpkin orange... like the letters of my morning pages journal cover:

this is my daily journal that i play in...not every day. i'm admittedly bad at "daily" routines.

but i TRY to play in it a little every day.

this page was inspired by a pile of plastic bowls in these joyful colors... hence the bubbly, round shapes, also. (did i mention how i love bubbles?) and then the quote:

i LOVE quotes!

i collect quotes.

i try to use them in everything i create.

my favorite quote is one of Ralph Waldo Emerson's: "All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients."

i love to find my thoughts spelled out in other people's words. and i love to see other people's humor...

make me laugh, i'll adore you forever...

here, a november page that expressed how i felt time was rushing past me:

I WANT MY BUBBLE BACK!!!!!!!!

(trying to deal with all the stresses of life... i love my imaginative places to play and escape for awhile. my bohemian bubble brings me joy and laughter.

meanwhile, back in bohemia... the mountain's mood today is... wistful. doesn't it seem wistful to you? maybe this bohemian's mood matches her mountain's mood today.

i leave you with this thought: are we dancing like buttercups, just glad to be alive? i feel a mood coming on....i better get outside and start dancing.....

mountain moods

today's mountain mood: blue and gentle....

bleeding hearts by the wishing well wishing for love and sunshine...

is there sunshine and love in your life today? i hope so!

EVIDENCE OF LOVE:

* enfolding hugs

* squeezy cuddles

* rumbly purrs of fuzzy kittens

* spoken words of affection

* loving gestures : flower bouquets, handmade cards, cookie baking, etc.

* hand-holding

* contagious laughter

* sharing a meal together

find evidence of these and savor every tidbit...

and LOOK! here i have found evidence of fairies in my yard! some artsy fairy has adorned the shed in the back yard with imaginative beings!!! some day i WILL catch those fairies at their mischief and get pictures to show you. I WILL. you wait. i will.

farewells to all. till next time...

a weekend with travellers

See this lovely tree? Wouldn't this make the loveliest spot for an outdoor room? This is my plan... No evil plot, this... Just a noggin full of wild ideas... But. How to make it waterproof? ! this is my bohemian mountain majesty. every day it wears a different face... I LOVE seeing it every day. Although some days it hides behind sequined curtains of dewy fog and lacey cloud. The colors of its curtains change to reflect the mountain's mood; sometimes being silver, sometimes purple, sometimes even a sinister black. today it is peeking from beneath a silvery shroud. ooohh! such beauty. well...the weekend with the travellers was sun-filled and busy! There on a small hill, in a shaded park, we served them tea and cookies and strong bohemian coffee. many a weary traveler stopped for refreshment and fresh air and to unkink stiff and sore hard-ridden muscles. and as it was Memorial Day weekend, we remembered respectfully and with intense gratitude the fallen warriors who protected the freedom of bohemia and beyond... and looked ahead to the future journey to bring aid and help to a poor family in a neighboring country. the bohemian sun shone gloriously upon our skin all weekend, although the night air grew cold enough for snuggling under fuzzy blankets. many interesting new friends were well-met here in this shaded park. what joy to know that people are, on the whole, decent, friendly, and interested in learning about each other. this bohemian's wish for all today is many, many more well-met friends in every place you travel on your life's journey. and don't forget to take advantage of the quiet, refreshing parks and waysides as you go... happiest trails to you all...

have a fling!!!

"Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes to us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday." -John Wayne "Gratitude comes from the root word gratis, which means pleasing. The most obvious interpretation is that when you are pleased with something, you are grateful. A second interpretation - the more radical one, and therefore the one we prefer - is that when you are grateful, then you are pleased, not by the thing, but by the gratitude. In other words, in order to feel pleased, be grateful." "Have grateful flings." -John-Roger and Peter McWilliams Today in Bohemia, let's have a "grateful fling"... I love the word "fling", don't you? It sounds so joyful and full of motion and unfettered and has a hint of wild abandon... On with the "fling"... I am so grateful for: *warmth *family *beauty *flowers *soap bubbles *gum bubbles *imagination *hot showers *rain on the tin roof *sunshine on my skin *snow on purple mountain majesty *things glossamer and whispy *laughter of children and babies *desserts *tastes; like chocolate, coffee, oranges popcorn, honey, lemons, bananas... *musical variety *diversity *God's glory *the awesomeness of God's creation *the love of a good man What's listed on your "fling" today? I'd love to know... Spring blessings on you and yours...

retreating into bohemia

He leads me beside still waters

He restores my soul

Weekend in Bohemia:

* soothing sounds of trickling water

* rhodies wildly in bloom

* 300 acres of lush garden

* graceful swans herding fluffy signets

* waterfalls cascading and splashing

* ponds as still as glass

* laughter in a multitude of women's voices

* and yet, solitude...

* gourmet food served with graciousness

* music to lift and nourish the soul

* heart to heart sharing

* the voice of God woven throughout lives

* and peace...quiet, restful peace.

This bomemian's prayer for all is that there may be a quiet, restful bench in Bohemia for each one...for refreshment and re-creation and to let the imagination run wild...

s#n@o*w... a 4 letter word!

sunshine is pouring in my window... after the snowfall on the hills beside my home this morning, frozen toes and fingers, rain running in rivulets down my picture windows, it seems that now Spring is trying to come back... i think you can, i think you can... bohemian ecstasy: hot, creamy coffee in my happy orange favorite mug * warm, cozy wood stove fire* fuzzy green socks* A Fanciful Twist blog visit * slathering paint on the daily journal book * deep red amaryllis blooms * a robin's birdsong to awaken by * frogsong to lull me into slumber * the "orange room" * fuzzy kittens to cuddle * a nice, warm My Honey to cuddle up to * a nimble mental workout (scrabble) * a warm, dry dungeon for a workout session rather than having to be outside in the nasty, wintry weather * things that make me smile and laugh * friends and family connections by every means ( letters, Facebook, e-mail, cell phone, texting, etc....) * prayers answered * anticipation of a timely women's retreat in rhododendron heaven * naptimes * love * hope there's ecstacy in your world today...

bohemian sunshine

oh, oh, oh! It's magic...hmm. Reminds me of a song. But the magic is: (drumroll, please...) It is sunshining in Reality AND Bohemia today. That sooo makes me happy. I am having technical difficulties with my blog. I feel like an old dog learning new tricks...posting pictures sideways or not at all or in the wrong place... In Bohemia, that should not happen. Something is amiss in my fair Bohemia! My magic wand must be on the fritz. And where is my fairy dust? And my fairy godmother? None-the-less, I did have a wonderful morning in Bohemia! I searched for fairies in the garden underneath the songbird cafe (yard work); I plucked lucky flowers to adorn the vase (say "vahhhzzz") in my sunny kitchen window; I threw evil spellbinder thornbushes into the burning firepit of my Prince Charming's woodcutting arena; AND I lounged around in said arena WITH Mr. Prince Charming Himself drinking iced tea and flirting... It was all so very lovely. Meanwhile, back in the resident artist's studio, said artist actually cleaned in there this morning! What do you mean you can't tell what was cleaned up?! Projects looming on the artist's horizon: a mask for an artist friend, 2 pages in a round-robin altered art book, one set of cards for the card stamping exchange group, and some more cleaning...tomorrow, perhaps. But for now, may I wish you a beautiful, sunshiny, full-of-family day Mother's day...

stormy weather

so. frustrations are running high in my bohemia today. i labored over my blog yesterday and then, whilest trying to load pictures for you to enjoy, the whole blog disappeared into thin air, never to be seen again. sigh. and then today. can't seem to figure out how to put pictures on my blog. sigh. thusly, there will, alas, be only wordy words today. big sigh. it is a dreary weather day in bohemia today. rain... purple clouds...wind gusts blowing the blossoms off of my trees...cold enough to need a fire in the woodstove... whoa! what is all this drizzley whining i hear? in my bohemia, it is supposed to be the way i want it to be! well... time for an attitude adjustment! with my kids, we used to play this game: negative words mean you have to say 5 positive things immediately when you are cought. so shari, quick! say 5 GOOD about your life at this moment: *nice warm house *my deep red amaryllis in bloom *COFFEE in my favorite mug *yummy smoothie for breakfast *fuzzy warm socks (the ones with snowflakes on 'em!) things in my bohemia that do not mind the stormy weather: *the sparrow at the feeder *the twitter-pated robin banging himself against my craft room window *the trees and blossoms ballroom dancing in the wind *the tiny kittens snoozing in a fuzzy pile *jazzy music joyfully filling my home hmmm... i feel better already! hope you all have a grrrreeaaatttt day, no matter what the weather.

where is my bohemia?

"Sometimes you have to look reality in the eye and deny it." -Garrison Keillor "Bohemia is nothing more than a little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royalarchives and treasure and move away beyond the hills." - O. Henry MY interpretation of Mr. Henry's quote is this: that Bohemia is anything/anywhere I want it to be. My Bohemia is a bubble of imagination in which I dwell. On any given day it could become any kind of place. Sometimes I travel and play there all alone with my imaginary companions. Sometimes I take my "real" friends with me. Someday soon you will meet my wild and wonderful friends who aren't afraid to travel to my Bohemia. Meanwhile, in my Bohemia, the resident Bohemain is wondering where her gypsy imaginings have come from. She has always secretly harbored the knowledge that gypsy blood is pounding through her veins. She' pretty sure she was born in Bohemia because she passionately adores all things gypsy and bohemian; clothing, music, dancing, jewelry, scarves, ruffles, ribbons... Everything that she sees she translate through her rosy-colored gypsy glasses. All around her cottage home in her little village is the living proof that her Bohemia is real.

the adventures of jenna, the grand-dog

What wild imaginings have gone on today, she wonders quietly to herself. It is cloudy and cool. She thinks perhaps she can pretend she is at the ocean. It is just a light dusting of ocean fog on the way to burning itself out and letting the warm sun burst through... She is in love with the color yellow that the sun wears. And besides...she needs her vitamin D dose for the day!Jenna, her grand-dog, has gone on a walk with an "aunty". What do you suppose they have discovered in their ramblings through the neighborhood? On any given day, there are squirrels to chase and flowers to sniff and friends to greet. But best of all is when Jennna finds proof of fairie trails. Then, even the Grand-person gets excited, and though the Grand-person doesn't wiggle her behind quite the way Jenna does, secretly in her wild heart she would like to. The wild imaginings wander off into the plans that she has hatched for an outdoor room. She has "outdoor room" envy. While she plans to make a cozy nook for herself, with books and tea cups and satin beaded pillows, she wonders if it will survive her damp, cool corner of the country. Sigh. So now she has started up this blog space that she must keep up. There are so many things to learn about blogging. She hopes you will bear with her beginning ramblings with patience. And as the days unfold, she will introduce you to the other eccentric beings who live in her world.