Joy List Monday

Good morning!  It's Monday, again.  Time for another Joy List.  Are you feeling joyful this morning?  I'm feeling a bit sleepy, but I'm armed with some coffee and my notebook and have a couple certain four-legged friends on their pillows beside me.

Here's my list for today:




  • hints of sunshine peeking through the clouds
  • flowers, flowers and more flowers budding and blooming on my windowsills
  • coming home from work to be greeted by Matthias with soup and a snack in the oven
  • a feature in a new treasury on Etsy
  • a day off to be used however I choose

Not bad for a sleepy Monday morning.




I'm so excited by the opening of my yellow paperwhites (that's actually what they called them at the garden center!  To be silly I kept calling them "paperyellows").




I love the white narcissi for their pure simplicity, but the yellow is so cheerful and they smell sweeter than the white ones.




Flowers blooming inside when it's cold and snowy outside is one of my favorite things about winter.  And when they smell good, I just can't resist.  Like the sweet olive.  




It just keeps putting out flowers.  They are small and would be easily missed if it weren't for their fragrance.  They smell like sweet apricots, so strong that the fragrance wafts across the room.  The plant might grow amazingly slowly and it might look a bit twiggy and bare, but with those flowers...

I have a thing for fragrant flowers (have you noticed?) and another fragrant plant of mine is blooming right now, too.




My star jasmine plant might be a bit funny looking (I see a theme here), but I couldn't prune off the long, uneven stems when they were full of flower buds. More and more keep opening and reminding me just why I love jasmines so much.

Finally, this next plant's flower buds are not going to open into something that smells sweet, or smells at all.  But they will be bright, beautiful orange, and if I'm lucky, will form into fruit.




Pomegranates!  The outsides of the buds are thick and hard, but when they open the petals are crepe papery ruffles that look to me like fairies' skirts.  Stay tuned and I'm sure to have more photos of the opened flowers.

Flowers are such pure joy.

Don't forget to jot down (in whatever way shape or form calls to you) your list of joys for the day.  I hope your list is rich and full.

Comments

  1. I love the idea of a joy list, Anne! And your indoor flowers are gorgeous, especially the Paper Yellows!!
    Have a great day!! xo

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  2. 1. Fresh Pyjamas to wear tonight. 2. Birds still singing at dusk. 3. Finding that you have blogged today. 4. A pile of books to browse through. 5. A blank notebook waiting to be filled. x

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  3. 1. A small child who got dressed for nursery without any tantrums! 2.the smell of baking shortbread..yummm 3.a beautiful sunshiny day 4.an excuse to find joy-full things 5.my newly cleared crafty space ...thankyou Anne!xx

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  4. Hi Anne, I've been reading your last few posts, they are all so beautiful and filled with so much feeling. I have been making joy/gratitude lists off and on for a while, they always lift my spirits. I haven't done one in a while though, so thanks for the reminder to start again. xo

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  5. Beautiful pix, Anne. I brought in some of the daffodils that have buds on them. I'm afraid the freezing weather will kill the buds for this year. So far they haven't opened up. Maybe they won't. I don't know. I've never done this before. We had weather warm enough for several days that the bulb plants began sending up leaves, and the daffodils sent up buds, as well. Joy. My husband's love brings me joy. Helping the nursing home residents who have handicapping conditions make arts and crafts each week gives me joy. Getting an email, however short, from my non-communicating daughter, who lives her own life 1200 miles away, brings me joy. I am grateful that I can be as active as I want to be at 77.

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  6. I have flowers open at my place to. Not as many as you, but a few. I have a lipstick plant blooming, a near its end hyacinth with two heads toppled over from blooming (heavy pink flowers) and I have leaves of paperwhites (actually white ones) that will open in another week.

    I have a few joys.

    Fixing my sewing machine– it wouldn't feed wouldn't this or that, ect. ect. ect.


    I made a happy bright lumbar pillow for our poang chair. And two other feather filled pillows for Stefans office.

    Breaking out of our freezer a mini loaf of zucchini bread from last years garden.

    Going to REI and putting up a tent I plan on buying.

    Having a clean bathroom.

    And eating some yummy spaghetti with yummy mozzarella cheese!

    hows that?!

    :)

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  7. I'm a day late but here's my list for today:
    1) A beautiful winter day with snow on the ground and sun in the sky! (Very rare in this rainy Vancouver climate)
    2) My fiance's positive/constructive criticism on my application essay for grad school...he's awesome:)
    3) A perfect fitting pair of thrift store jeans for $3!

    I love this new feature...I find it so interesting to read your list, your readers' lists and to be reminded to think of my own.

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  8. You have quite the green thumb! I love the smell of sweet olive - I used to have a hedge of it when we lived in California. I've not seen yellow paper whites before but you're right that it certainly cheers up a winter day! I have a bouquet of market roses on my kitchen table that's making me smile. That's my joy for this week :)

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  9. I'm so excited that you've all decided to play along with me with this. Thank you! All of your joys sound marvelous!

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