Batik and Roses

How was your week?  I hope yours was full of blessings!  Here we are in April.  It's really April.  Almost Easter.  This first week of April was mostly a quiet one here at Willow's Cottage which was totally fine with me.  I am sharing my week in Friday Fave Fives with Susanne.

1.  I took a rest day and accompanied a friend to the studio of a batik artist.  My friend had commissioned her to transform two old white linen tablecloths and give them new life as vibrant batik creations.  Having lived in Indonesia, I have a deep love and appreciation for batik.

You can choose most any color or combination of colors from the samples.

Kathryn Hermann is an artist who lives with her art.

Tying up the citrus tree with blue batik scraps

THE damask rose

It smells heavenly

Of course, when I photographed this bloom, I was sure I would remember its name. Huh.  It's a pinkish lavender orchid.  I think.

Oh yeah.  My kind of garden art.

This guy looks real, doesn't he?

2.  Rain.  Twice this week I woke in the night to hear 'pitter pitter pat pat patter' as rain dropped onto our parched earth.  Rain on the roof, on the car, in the street, is the sound of my childhood.  Obviously, I wouldn't want to listen to rain every night, but this week it was a wonderful sound.

3.  The Professor has been busy most evenings with tech rehearsals and dress rehearsals for the play for which he is lighting director at the university (this is his moonlighting job).  I miss him being around but I have savoured the quietness of just sitting and reading* and knitting.  *reading may include reading of student compositions

4.  Decluttering.  I declutter rooms in my house on a regular basis.  You know how stuff just sneaks in and piles up?  I have to wage constant war on the creeping clutter.  Last week as I was cleaning the master bath, I noticed some medicines I had been overlooking.  You know how your eyes just pass over something because it has been there for so long?  We went through all those old meds and were able to toss all but one bottle into the plastic bag which I then dropped off at the local police station.  Decluttering makes my heart happy because I love a clean, simple, uncluttered space.  [Stay tuned for more decluttering--I may be in the mood...]

5.  I've been puttering around in my own little garden this week.  Mostly I have pulled weeds and dumped a few pots which had dead plants in them.  But I picked the first rose.

I hope you will take a few minutes and ponder your blessings and focus on what is on your gratitude list this week.