I Love...

The truly delightful Savannah tagged me with this, and it fits just perfectly into my February Cheer theme...and don't think the beheading of St. Valentine wasn't part of that! I never said I would forgo the acerbity!

Anyway, here it is:



in exchange for which I'll list a few things I love.

I won't even mention Sarge and Hedgie. My dear ones are the absolute sine qua non.

But I also love...

1. Rain: I scan the 10-day forecast to see when we're due for some, and then I look forward with such eagerness to the rainy days. I think rain speaks to most of my senses in a comfortable way. The long half-light that soothes the eyes and the subtle grey-on-grey of the clouds, the rivulets on the windows; the way a rainy day smells, in the city it brings a freshness to the concrete and in the country, carries with it the almost primal smell of summer grass or in autumn, the very distillation of wood smoke on damp; the feel of a rainy wind on my cheeks; the sound of rain thrumming on my little skylight, or the tin roof of Hedgie's lake cottage bedroom as I put her to sleep...

2. Perfume: I've never been a girl with a single signature scent. I change perfume with the whim of my moods. I think it's the best way I know, as a grown woman, to play dress up. My bottles live on my dressing table, which once belonged to my grandma Eva (a staunch single-scent woman by the way!), it's an enormous Victorian piece all out of scale with my modern life, but I'd never give it up. It's where I go to stand and look and wait for inspiration to strike: "who am I today?" I ask myself and some days, even if I'm just going to drop Hedgie at school and do the marketing and mail some letters, I find that I'm my own gothic heroine, planning some assignation with a shadowy someone...you see, one can't let one's self be crushed by the weight of sheer practicality all the time!

What is on my dressing table? L'Aromarine "Fleurs Blanches"; Annick Goutal "Mandragore"; Fresh "Fig Apricot", "Mangosteen", and "Pink Jasmine", just to name a few of my favorites...

3. Kissing Sarge: not sex, no. That I would put with my list of without which nothing...kissing, though, is a different matter entirely. Done correctly, as it is always between me and my husband, I think it's the epitome of...well, I won't say what. It's just the very last word.

4. Laura Ingalls Wilder: I know I've said it before, so many many times, but the "Little House" books are something like my bible, her words are my words to live by, and contrary to what one might believe at a casual glance, this was not a simple woman. She was complex, emotional, ornery, and romantic; thoughtful, faithful, and full of curiousity, a pioneer in every way one can be, a feminist housewife with boundless imagination...in short, my role model.

5. Felt: yes, felt. I do love felt. Ever since Hedgie was very small, we've kept a supply in our house. It can be easily sewn up by hand, even by a child, no seams necessary. It comes in every color imaginable--check it out--don't you want to make something with this too?

Now I won't tag anyone in particular, you're all great and creative, but if anyone would like to snag this and in turn tell us some things you love, please do! I guarantee that it will make you feel just wonderful.