Artfully Tailored Conversations
Two sisters gathering conversations about Family, Faith, Art. Small and Large tales! Travel and Kitchen tales! Wandering and Wonderment tales! The kinds of things you carry in your heart and pass across the table. WELCOME to our little corner of the world...where stories unfold like wildflowers. OH! MY!
Artfully Tailored Conversations
Wondering/Wandering
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Welcome to Artfully Tailored Conversations. Welcome. This is Melody. This is Penny. Hi. Hi. Two Sisters, One Heart. Gentle Conversations. Today we are going to talk about the art of everyday wonders, where we are going to be wandering in wonder. You may wonder what this wandering is. Sorry, I can't help it. Let us tell you our tales of daily wandering wonders. Now, say it fast three times. Try, just try. Just try. I cannot do that. So, Melody, do you want to lead us off on some daily wandering wonders?
SPEAKER_01Well, let's see. I guess I should maybe set the stage here a little bit. So let me tell you about my surroundings. Um, I live in the country. Um, as far as like fields surrounding us, we have a little bit of acreage, which is actually ginormous to me because there's a lot to take care of. However, it's beautiful. We get the joy of watching the farmers plant and all the machinery that goes across in front of us on the road back and forth day and night. It's pretty awesome to watch them work from really, they don't they don't stop until we get some cold, cold weather and then snow. Right. And so anyway, um, we do have some paths that we we kind of dug out several years ago. We've been here, oh gosh, I don't know, 25 years or better. I'm not even sure. And we have woods that surround us, which I absolutely love because I love to go in there and um and this as the saying goes today, wood bathe. Oh, pray tell. Yeah, no, no, no, no. It's not what you think. You just go and smell, oh, and it smells so good. It does, it really does, especially after a rain which we've had for the last two days. Yes. That has we've we've been asking for, we're asking the Lord for it since we've had some wildfires in our state. Yes. And um, let's see. We have some outbuildings, we have a beautiful barn. It is beautiful, and we don't farm. It was a farm, it was in my husband's family. And um, we were very fortunate to to have 20 acres of it. And um in the barn has he'd seen some some frivolity and oh yes and fun things. We've had three dances up there. One of them was our oldest daughter and her husband's wedding. A beautiful wedding here. And it was it's all three times, it was very, very fun. And we haven't been able to do it now for several years. I would that's one of my desires is to have another hoot and annie. And we had live music twice, and that was really, really special. So I don't even know if you can get anybody anymore to play, you know, live like that. Probably, but I don't know where to go.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01Uh let's see. And we are also surrounded by lots of wild flowers and plants, and some I know. They're mostly medicinal herbal flowers, like Mother's Ward and Stinging Nettle and um Comfrey.
SPEAKER_00And dandelions.
SPEAKER_01Dandelions, of course, which I already talked about. And and I found out last year, this is just a little side note, that you can eat the petals off of those orange daylilies that we have growing here all over creation. And I I read that and I'm always skeptical when I read something. I get a little bit scared, but I thought, well, I'll try one leaf if I get I fall over and call 911. But I didn't, I survived, and I actually uh picked a ton of them and dried it.
SPEAKER_00Dried them.
SPEAKER_01And so I put them in my tea. Okay. My tea. I love my flower teas. I don't know, what else, Penny? It's we have a nice patio, and um I I am very creative. I don't, I think we touched on that. And so one year I was on um marketplace and I um somebody was giving away an actual fireplace from their house inside the insert. Yes. And um, so I said to my husband, You want to help me go pick up this fireplace? Poor guy. His eyes were old. Anyway, we went and we picked it up and and brought it back here, and it sat for a few years behind our garage. And then finally I decided that's it, that's enough. It's I'm gonna put it on the patio because I don't didn't like what we had. And so I built a base out of some concrete blocks, and he and I muscled it up on top, and I spray painted it up, you know, cleaned it up, and and um it was black, but so I touched it up with the black, and then we put a nice uh big chimney on it, and a little squirrel cage on top, and some glass in the front. It's beautiful, and we enjoy it immensely to sit out there in the evening, have a glass of wine, and and have a little fire.
SPEAKER_00It's so nice because it's usable almost all year long. And especially when you start hitting in the little chillier temperatures at night. Oh my gosh, it's so nice to sit out there. My husband and I will come, yes, and it smells good. Come and sit out there and enjoy the uh nature conversations going on around between the crawling creatures and the flying creatures.
SPEAKER_01And the twiddly birds.
SPEAKER_00Yes, the birds, and our cats. Yes, and the cats are whole nother story. Yeah, that we'll do a whole episode on the cats.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and my husband, he he loves to cut wood, and so we have a lot of firewood, and it's so interesting because we don't have a huge woods, and the farmer that owns the rest of the property has pretty good woods, I guess. But and he's allowed us to go in and cut the dead stuff. Right, right. And every year my husband cuts pretty much everything that's dead, and we think, well, that's it. I don't know where we're gonna get more wood. Well, then the next year, after the winter, he goes in and there's trees all over the place. It's just amazing. So we have so far, we've had provisions firewood for that, and for our home too, which we heat with wood.
SPEAKER_00Always smells so good, always smells so good. In fact, we have a fire going today. Yeah, so chilly. Yeah, a little nip in the air with the storms that went through last night and yesterday. It just dropped the temperature down now. Uh-huh. Just a little nip. So it's a good day for a little fire.
SPEAKER_01That's right. So I don't know. That's kind of, I guess, kind of it.
SPEAKER_00There's more detail to come, but we're just doing a little overview of our surroundings so you can kind of get an idea of where we're coming from.
SPEAKER_01And we've been working on a couple gardens that because we can.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Not that we can, but we can can say that three times. We can can. Yeah, we can can. So anyway, how about you, Penny? Give us the 411 on your own.
SPEAKER_00Ooh, 411, yeah, little place is right. Um live in a small town um west of a major metropolitan area. And uh it's considered country, I would say, countryside. Definitely. But it's a small town and we live in town. Um, so we we have neighbors and uh fortunate wonderful neighbors, yes. Yes, we do. And on one side, we have a darling young family, three little children, a very sweet couple, um, great kids. And um it we're close enough that if we both stand on our side door stoops, we can shake hands. So we are very close indeed. And uh which thank God we get along and like each other enormously because it's never an issue to be that close. But it's nice to to have neighbors. We have lovely neighbors across the street. Um, you know, we all know each other, and so we kind of know who's supposed to be around and who's kind of wandering and kind of look out for each other, and that's really nice. Yeah. And um I married into the house. It was it's my husband's home, and um it's small, but we're making it work. Small but charming. Yes, but charming. Yes, it's a 19, late 1950s, early 1960s model. Um but it's it, yeah, it's on the small side, but yes, we're making it work. And so it's it's a challenge, but it's kind of fun. I like it. Because I have to rethink my brain a little bit. I have I came into the marriage uh with rather large pieces of furniture.
SPEAKER_01Yes, to say the least.
SPEAKER_00Uh, because I had large places, and so I had room for these large pieces of furniture. So I've had to let go of an awful lot. And um bless my husband's heart, he understands. So he's given me carte blanche um as far as what to do in the house. And he just always says, honey, he says, Whatever makes you happy. He said, You should go ahead and do it. And I said, Don't give me too much rope. Yeah, you have no idea what you're asking for. But he is he's never said no to anything that I've wanted to do within reason, and um, I think I'm fairly reasonable about most things. So anyway, I'm totally different environment from here, but at the same time, we have we have bunnies. Uh we have a uh baby squirrel nest in one of our trees in the front yard. They're in a knot that's opened up when there's a little nest in there. They just popped up this week. And um so we have we have dogs in the neighborhood. People have dogs. Um there is nice. Yeah. And they they put you on notice, you know, someone walking around, even if they're friendlies, they they give a little bark. But um one it's a really nice neighborhood. It's a really nice neighborhood. I feel very grateful. Not you know, we're we have peace, I guess, is kind of what I want to say. Um, so that's very nice. Um, I think that one of the biggest things about both our our homes is is that because of where we are, we're exposed to more limited in my world than in Melody's world, but we're exposed to creation. We're exposed to you know all these things, yes, that God has made. And so this is this is the wonder that we're wandering through in this episode, is to give you a little taste of uh hopefully you you get a sense of what we feel about the wonder that we live in. Um it's there's something every day that catches our eye that we say, oh God, you are so wonderful. Look at that. It smells good or it looks good, or geez, I want to, I always want to hug a tree. I know. Well, and they say you're supposed to, you know, actually. It gives you a certain kind of, it grounds you, it gives you a certain kind of energy. But um I'm very grateful to be surrounded and not not in a cookie-cutter world, but we're both surrounded in very natural environments, and we're very grateful for that. And I'm thankful that our eyes to eyes are sorry, our eyes are open to um the wonder that is around us, and it does inspire us. And I know, especially for Melody with her art, I know if she may not be painting something that she's looking at in her yard or whatever, but just being around it, I know that it stimulates and inspires her creativity as whatever she's working on. Um, it's important for both of us to be exposed on a continual basis to that. And I I'm I'm very grateful that I see it.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I love to take pictures of macro pictures actually of the flowers that I just found a flower on Sunday that I never saw before. Yeah, I've never seen it before. I don't know what it is. Um, and I haven't had time to to research and see what it is, but it's just absolutely beautiful. Anyway, yes, it it is um does cause cause creativity. Stimulates. Yeah, stimulates and I am grateful, really grateful to be able that I can see these things and um experience and experience them the way that I do. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Um saying um well, I think that is a good place to come to a close for this episode.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think you said something that the beauty some days is not so easy to see. Yes, uh, but always the wonderment.
SPEAKER_00That's that's what we want to leave you with. Yeah. Um always look for the wonder because it's there, and um, it will be a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_01Um we will um we will continue this and we'll maybe talk a little bit about my artwork.
SPEAKER_00Yes, we're going to go back to creativity and we're going to start um some rather not lengthy episodes, but we're going to do um hopefully anywhere from two, four, five arc um episodes about uh Melody's artwork and how she came into it and what exactly she does, and hope we hopefully with our words be able to give you a visual of what she creates. So we will leave it there for now. Okay, and um we wish you God's blessings for the week.
SPEAKER_01Yes, and thank you for coming along with us. We really, really appreciate it. We got 50 people!
SPEAKER_00Yes, yes, so click a like and a follow and pass us along uh to your friends, and we will speak with you next week. God bless. God bless. Bye. Bye.