Tag: Mr. Michie (page 1 of 20)

HELLO, August

Hello, August! We’ve walked away from July and into your arms on a high and we’re having way too much fun already.

We’re ready to continue going on ice cream dates and long strolls through the parks. We’re ready for evening walks, checking in on our ever growing brood of cygnets.

We’re ready for PB&J sandwiches and salty potato chips for lunch while we watch an old episode of “Bewitched” or “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”. We’re ready for afternoon movie dates with popcorn. We’re ready for lazy afternoons on the balcony perfecting our chess game or playing cards while records spin from inside.

We’re ready for cold iced tea and crackers smeared with pimento cheese as a late afternoon snack while we slowly start work on dinner. We’re ready for date nights with Mr. Michie’s glorious cheeseburgers, with thick slices of heirloom tomatoes and fresh corn on the cob oozing with butter.

You’ve already started our month with sunshine and a cool breeze, you know our heart’s desires and all that we are ready for you to bring us this month before school starts again in the fall.

Hello, August! Our cup runneth over!

{French cinema icon ⁠Brigitte Bardot relaxing outdoors in a color-blocked tank top and a shell-adorned straw hat playing cards. | 1960s | Pinned HERE}

HELLO, May

Hello, May! We’re excited you’re here. You’ll start and end your month for us with Bank Holidays and the realisation that that was occurring this weekend, made me do a happy dance. Three whole days together this weekend is just the cherry on top of the cake. 

We’re ready for the days to get warmer as they have slowly been doing in these last weeks of April. We’re ready for evening strolls after dinner before twilight sets in. We’re ready for more walks through the fields as we watch the baby lambs growing by leaps and bounds and the bluebells undulating in the breeze and dappled sunshine.

We’re ready for the heirloom tomatoes to start coming into the green grocers. We’ve already had a mini taste of what’s to come as one of our favourite grocers had some in and now I can’t wait for the first BLT of the season and slices of thick tomatoes on toasted bread with salt, oregano and EVOO for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

You bring with you a month of love for us as these two honeymooners shall be celebrating their anniversary before the month comes to a close. What a gift to be able to continue our journey through this lifetime together. 

We’re ready for lazy sunshine filled Saturday mornings working on crosswords over coffee or playing another round of UNO late into the night. Hello, May! We’re ready for all that you bring. We welcome you with arms wide. 

{Natalie Wood in a publicity still for “The Great Race” | By Giovanni Coruzzi | 1965 | Directed by Blake Edwards | Costumes by Edith Head | Pinned HERE}

Twenty

I adore old movies. I loved nothing more than staying home from school, sick on the couch and watching old movies on TV. One of my all time favourites is a Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda classic called, “Yours, Mine & Ours”. It’s a coming together of two families and how they learn to become one. Near the end of the film, in trying to get a heavily pregnant and in labor Lucille Ball to the car, her daughter wants some relationship advice and Henry Fonda steps in and makes one of the grandest speeches:

It’s giving life that counts. Until you’re ready for it, all the rest is just a big fraud. All the crazy haircuts in the world won’t keep it turning. Life isn’t a love-in – it’s the dishes, and the orthodontist, and the shoe repairman, and… ground round instead of roast beef. And I’ll tell you something else: It isn’t going to a bed with a man that proves you’re in love with him; it’s getting up in the morning and facing the drab, miserable, wonderful everyday world with him that counts!

And that is L-O-V-E. It’s the day in and the day out, the mundane and the every day. But in all the days in and the days out, the choice to continue getting up with that other person, being with that other person is the element that makes all the difference. That’s the key ingredient, the choice you make to face each day with this person by your side, come what may. 

We’ve weathered many storms and we’ve seen many rainbows in our 20 years of marriage. And I have no doubt that there will be more rainbows to share and storms to weather. That we have chosen to experience them together is what has made all the difference. 

Here’s to the next 20 years. To the storms, to the rainbows and to adventures that we haven’t even dreamed of yet. 

{Photograph: A newly-married couple waves as they drive off with streamers and a ‘Just Married’ sign on the back of their pink convertible | 1964 | by Lambert/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}

Nineteen

I saw an interesting video on “Meet Cutes NYC” earlier this month, “Mailroom Love 💌”, and the filmmaker asked the couple he was talking to, what’s the secret to 50 years together? And the woman’s (Alice) response was that “it’s much harder to like a person than to love a person”. And she LIKES her husband, Geoffrey.

That gave me pause. Love is a word so easily bandied around. And you can love someone to the depths of your soul, but that doesn’t mean you can be with them on a day to day basis. Liking someone is much harder. Continuing to get up every day and not only love but like the person you are with is sometimes a difficult challenge. 

I like the person I am with. I like him in the valleys and I like him on the mountain and I like him as we traverse this space and I like him as we have continued to grow up together. All relationships are not smooth sailing, seasons come and go, storms blow in and out, but we continue to weather them together and I LIKE him and I LOVE him and I couldn’t ask for more than that. 

So, here’s to 19 years of marriage with someone that I truly love and really LIKE and respect and value and who still makes me laugh and is the only person I want to be in the trenches with. 

{“Robert Redford, US actor, and Jane Fonda, US actress, cuddling as they pose for a studio portrait, issued as publicity for the film, ‘Barefoot in the Park’, USA, 1967. The Neil Simon comedy, directed by Gene Saks, starred Redford as ‘ Paul Bratter’, and Fonda as ‘Corie Bratter’. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)” | Pinned HERE}

Eighteen

Eighteen years ago today, you took my hand and placed it in yours and we’ve been holding hands ever since.

Here’s to the next chapter in our adventure.

{Publicity still of Myrna Loy and William Powell for “After the Thin Man”, 1936. Photo by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Getty Images | Pinned HERE}

Seventeen

Seventeen years ago, on a balmy Saturday afternoon, I walked down an aisle to join you and we’ve been walking together ever since. Here’s to seventeen more years of being side by side.

{Jane Fonda & Robert Redford in a publicity still for Barefoot in the Park, 1967 // Pinned HERE}

HELLO, March

Hello, March. February brought us the first flush of bulbs pushing up from the earth and bursting into bloom. The world around us has slowly been polka-dotted with the whites and purples of crocuses and the eruption of saffron painted daffodils. We’re ready for you to usher more pops of colour into the landscape. 

We’re ready to spend more days in the sunshine and for dusk to take a dash longer to arrive before the curtains close on the day. We’re ready for more chances to picnic outdoors and for longer evening walks. We’re ready for St. Patrick’s Day, where my Nana’s Irish Soda bread will grace our table.

However, we’re not quite ready for our rhythm to change with the latest government announcement that all children will return to school in one fell swoop on the eighth. Selfishly, I will miss the opportunity that this time has afforded us (Mr Michie and I) to work around one another again. I will dearly miss being able to pop out of one room, while on a break, and see Mr. Michie’s beautiful face working in another. That has been a gift that I have cherished.

We are blessed during this time to still have a roof over our heads, food on our table and jobs when so many others are not in the same circumstances. I think it’s easy to say during this time, that we’re all in the same boat. But, in actuality, we’re not. We’re all in the same fleet, but each of us face different challenges in our own boats. We should strive to be physically, mentally and emotionally aware of that. We are navigating these waters as best we can. 

So, let us continue to live in the moment and not let the small things pass us by. Let’s celebrate the coming of spring and welcome her with open arms. 

{Image by Barbara Dziadosz found HERE // Pinned HERE}

Happy New Year’s Eve

We are ready to ring in the New Year, hoping that it brings better tidings than this last one did. However, there is a silver lining to all things. This past year, Mr. Michie and I have been blessed to spend a lot of quality time with one another and for that I am forever grateful. In all the ups and downs that occurred in 2020, we have, as we always do, faced them together. I am blessed that I have a partner by my side who is truly a ‘partner’ in every sense of the word. We leave this year behind with a renewed sense of gratitude for each other. We will shepherd in that appreciation to the New Year.

I come from a family that makes the best of every situation and tries to find the humour in things. And I know that so many people have joked this year that they are “surviving, one glass of wine at a time” and I do see the funny side to that. But, I don’t want to be just “surviving”, I want to be thriving! And that is what we did in 2020 and that is what we will continue to do in 2021.

Wishing love and light to you all as we close the book on this past year and open a new one tomorrow. 

{Image: Arthur Sarnoff “Happy New Year!”, The Progressive Farmer Magazine Cover 1958 // Pinned HERE}

Life Lately

It’s Friday. The sun is glowing and the air is nippy. The shadows have been changing throughout the house on a daily basis. As I write this now a golden hued beam is dancing across the floor towards my feet. Two week ago at this time, that beam would have been in a different place. It feels like a beautiful autumn day, the kind of day my parents would pack up the car with a picnic and take us up to the mountains to feast and hike.

Christmas music is playing. It’s been playing since November 1st! The house is clean and ready for the weekend to begin. I’m working on a final plan of attack for Thanksgiving, so I can ensure that the bread I’ll use for stuffing and the loaf we’ll use for sandwiches and the pumpkin pie are all baked on time. I’m also working on a final grocery store list for the week ahead to ensure I have all the little odds and ends I need.

Thanksgiving will look very different for many this year. It will be as it has always been for us. It’s just us around our Thanksgiving table. Because of school schedules we have yet to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with our family overseas. But, one year that just might happen!

This year has found me very quiet in this little place of mine. I have felt at times that I did not have a voice. I’ve still been working on my own writing projects, but this has not been a place that I’ve wanted to come to. I’m not truly sure why? The time I have been spending here has been with the help of Mr. Michie, who has aided me in making changes to the overall visual look of my blog. It’s been awhile since I have written code, so this project was a good refresher! There are still a few things left to tick off the list before I get it close to how I would like it. It is a very different, more streamlined look for me and I have enjoyed that, although it was a hard design decision to come to. I narrowed it down in the end and decided what would work best for me.

Our days are moving one into the next. Life is still happening in the midst of all the chaos. There are lots of games of Scrabble being played and books being read and albums being listened too. There has been a steady rhythm that we have continued to beat out through this storm we are all weathering. And that rhythm will continue to carry us through.

I hope wherever you are today that my ramblings find you safe and well.

{Cranberries, Andrew Wyeth, 1966}

Goodbye, July!

We were up before 5am this morning and slowly got ready. Mr. Michie made a pot of coffee and heated up two pain au chocolat to go, while I worked on packing our bag with towels. We were on the beach before 7am and found a quiet spot to make camp. We ate our breakfast and watched the waves roll in. We toasted the end of the month and the beginning of the weekend.

After breakfast we went for a swim. The water was delicious! It was a perfect morning.

Life is GOOD!