A Small Smattering

 

The weather forecast for the next few days brings happy tidings of spring-like weather! No more waking up to snow on the ground and seeing it peeping out from the shadowy parts of the yard to remind us that winter still had her clutches on the world.

I sat on my bed the other night, looking out through the window to the great darkness beyond. The tree branches were in dark purple silhouette against a clear sky, and there was a milky-white pulsating star just above one of them. I was filled with a deep sense of longing . . . a deep ache. And yet, at the same time, contentment washed over me. There was a yearning for more, a sense of something deeper not yet attained . . . and a feeling of sincere and real contentment with where God has me right now.

Rissa received a seed catalogue in the mail recently, and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy and spring-ish inside to pour over it (even by lamplight in the evenings) and dream big dreams of big gardens and big flowers and big vegetables and . . . big smiles. We’re going to plan out what we would like to do with our backyard and then have the landlord come down and see what she thinks about it. Rissa has great plans of morning glories twining over the fence, beans and peas spiraling up the chain-link, flowers nodding happily (but she intends to keep a wide berth between herself and the tomato patch. “They smell weird.”) We figure that if we make lots of improvements on the property, renew our lease, and be overall perfect tenants, then perhaps . . . perhaps they might let us have a kitten—or a puppy. Just maybe . . .

 

I can’t believe it is already the middle of March. March of 2009.

Bex and I were off visiting friends the other evening and apparently have impeccable timing. We were informed that during the course of the evening while we were gone, we missed out on the beginnings of a high-speed car chase just outside our house. Rissa’s car was nearly smashed into smithereens. Tiny ones. Policemen, EMTs, and “firemans” were swarming our neighborhood, inspecting Rissa’s (undamaged) car, the gravel  in front of our Neighbors house (for reasons we can only try to understand), measuring skid marks, and other such things. Abby was so excited she could hardly handle it . . . and I hear that she was just getting ready to take coffee and dinner out to the “firemans” (I told you she was excited—she could hardly talk! ) when they all up and were gone, leaving one lonely police car on our street. So, I guess that was the excitement of the week, and Bex and I missed it.

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and we’re all set and ready for it with a corned beef brisket in our freezer and a head of cabbage in the fridge. And our tree is being very green and festive.

Happy Spring, everyone! 

“I had thought…a picnic!”

 

The weather here in Colorado is not to be depended on. At all. All last week the inhabitants of the Little White House were seen overtaking the park and quite astounding everyone with their tennis and basketball skills (or lack thereof, perhaps?), and then yesterday Bex and I woke up to a blanket of snow and had to dig our car out before heading to work at a most ungodly hour of the morning. Today is perfectly sunny and nice again. (Rissa is insisting that it is “not nice…it’s cold!” I still hold that it is “perfectly sunny and nice again…but still cold.”)

We do tend to make good use of the beautiful weather, though. Last week we were lazing around the house on a gorgeous day and decided that something needed to change. We couldn’t let the day go to waste! A picnic in the mountains was proposed and accepted, and the little house was soon a flurry of activity. I began the makings of a picnic meal and soon realized we had no picnic basket. I hollered from the kitchen stating the same and Rissa soon came running in with her sewing basket. Perfect! Abby and Bex took the top down on Bex’s red convertible. We snatched water bottles, jackets, books, sunglasses, food, tablecloth, and any other accoutrements we felt might be necessary, and headed down the road…or rather, up the the road, as we were headed for the mountains. It was a perfect drive that afternoon, and we found ourselves at a beautiful park in the mountains by a river. Our hair was a little worse for wear, but the park was empty and there was no one but ourselves to see us. We set up our picnic table and sat down to a lunch which quickly disappeared without much ado.

After lunch we all went our separate ways and explored the park. I love walking alone up there…so peaceful and quiet. I reflected on many things, stood on a bridge overlooking the river and was mesmerized by the swirls and eddies, and thanked God for such a beautiful creation. I could not help but sing right then–

“When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee
How great Thou art, how great Thou art…”

I came back from my jaunt to find Rissa perched on a rock overlooking the river, Abby was squealing as she poked her toes in the water and found it to be snow run-off (very cold!), and Bex was spread out smack dab in the middle of a great expanse of grass with her book. The next hour, or so, was spent in much the same activities. (I might add that Abby’s squealing did not necessarily continue for the next hour.)

Today is another beautiful day, the snow has all melted, and I think a walk downtown might be in order before heading to work tonight.

 

Waiting for Patrick

I write this sitting curled up cross-legged in a patch of sunshine. Rissa is in a similar patch just across the room – we’re currently the only two at home. Life is good here, despite the odd worry that crops up once in a while.

Bex has taken to smirking at me when I stumble bleary-eyed out of my room in the mornings; looking up from her perch on the sofa to flash me a fiendish, entirely-too-wide-awake grin. My mind is at its most sluggish, and I blink at her wordlessly for a few seconds before mumbling the tail end of whatever my train of thought might be. It hardly ever makes sense, because somewhere along the path from my brain to my tongue, the words generally get altered to an “ugh” or similar wordless grunt.

I am in love with the sunshine. We all are (although the true winner of Grace’s heart might just be her bed. ) If we all happen to be home at once, you’ll generally find us sprawled out over our little blue porch, reading or scribbling in a journal or just sitting in the sun.

(Note: Patrick is our mailman – though his name isn’t actually Patrick. It is my opinion that all mailmen ought to be named Patrick. Ours is a jolly-looking fellow with a white beard and a safari hat. Doubtless he adds a little spice to his daily rounds by imagining himself on the veldt as he walks from door to door, humming sea chanties – he also looks vaguely old-salt-ish – and delivering life-saving packets of malaria medicine into each person’s mailbox.)

(yes, he totally does that. *nods*)

Softly Falling Snow

A deep stillness came over house this afternoon, and a pervasive chill has seeped in at the windows. A few hours ago, the sky began to spit down tentative snowflakes, and now seeping down through the dark branches are the largest and softest of snows. The instinct seemed at first to be for hibernation, but I think the impulse for snowball fights is creeping in.

“They’re big enough that we could float on them!” Bex says. She’s in a furry, white hat with ear-flaps, and on her way to work for the evening.

Life at the Little White House has trundled ever onwards. Our poor dear Grace has vacillated between varying degrees of sickness, and my job-hunt has been at times depressing, and Abby and Bex do this and that. But that all sounds rather bleak and depressing, and it isn’t, really.

There have been visitors and neighbors, and moonlit strolls to the park, and wild glee, and plans for mischief. All in all, I think we are very happy. And–good heavens, it’s nearly five!–I think it is a hot cocoa night.

Today marks the two-week anniversary of Rissa and my residence at Patty’s Place, and we celebrate by keeping Grace company and watching Wives and Daughters while devouring freshly-baked scones. Grace is swathed to within an inch of her life in blankets and pillows – she’s come down with something awful and has spent the last two days curled up on the couch at her parents’ house. She has all of us at her beck and call, and oddly enough, none of us mind in the least.

It has been adventure upon adventure living here in Colorado. But…now that it comes down to relating tales of them, I find that I simply cannot remember a thing. My memory is rather appalling, I’m afraid…

Grace and Bex have awesome friends. It’s true. I don’t even refer to myself and Rissa here. Two of them have moved directly across the street from us – they are our Neighbors in more ways than one. *wink* It’s tremendous fun to run pell-mell across the street to their house and back again – the secret is that you have to run as though for your very life, even when there isn’t a speck of traffic for miles around. Especially when there isn’t, if you ask me.

We’re real!

No, really. Great changes have been occurring behind the scenes while we have been maintaining an unflinching silence at the Little White House Blog.

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. There is where they should be. Now put foundations under them,” said good, old Henry.

Any girl who read L. M. Montgomery in her formative years has a very specific sort of castle in the air. It’s called Patty’s Place, populated by kindred spirits, and may or may not contain a pair of china dogs with green spots on them. (If so, they are necessarily named Gog and Magog.)

The girls of this Patty’s Place read far too much L. M. Montgomery in their formative years, and perhaps a little too much good literature in general, for after constructing this castle in the air, they have managed to put a pretty impressive foundation underneath it.

In short, Patty’s Place is no more a virtual home on the blogosphere, but a real, live house: a drafty, quaint, weathered, charming Little White House that’s sitting on a Colorado streetcorner. There are four tenants–you know three of them already: Rissa, Grace, and Abby. The fourth is Bex, and we’re not sure if we’ll be able to persuade her to write here or not yet. We intend to keep this blog up, but modify it to reflect our changed circumstances. The principal core of writers will probably still be Abby, Grace, and Rissa, but we hope our other friends (you remember Anne and Jacinta, certainly) will continue to write letters to us to share them here. At the moment, it will continue to be a little quiet, because we haven’t set up internet yet, but expect more stories of our charming new lives to follow soon!

(Just wait until we tell you about the Neighbors!)

In the meantime, you can watch the progress of our re-design. If you wanted to re-read the old posts, never fear! Check out the “Old Journals” page in our Archives. New author and contributor biographies should appear at some point, and our new Patty’s Place a. k. a. Little White House will no doubt deserve a biography of our own.

Wishing you sunny skies and wholesome pot roasts,
The Girls of The Little White House