Feast or Famine! My fridge

Caroline asked me a question arising from my Sunday Scribblings post, which featured angels gathered from about my house. She's visited, and knew there was something else that people give me. That's butterflies. Butterfly pictures, butterfly mugs. Butterfly bookmarks. Glass butterflies to hang in the window... lots of butterflies.

There's even one on my fridge. I popped over to her blog, Caro's Lines, to tell her that, and she was asking the question: What's on your fridge? so here it is... the front of my fridge. For some reason, I've allowed the upper part - the freezer-cabinet door - to be the "notice-board", and I don't put any magnets on the lower part - probably because I open that door so often, things might fall off?
Can you spot the butterfly amid the confusion? I actually like that messy collection. Every magnet, postcard or photo has a story. There are invitations to friends' book-launches, memories of holidays and special places, tributes to some of my favourite artists - Gaudi and Monet feature a couple of times. My best young friend is there, grinning as he opened my Christmas gift last year. And the magnets include a pretzel, a fairy, a fish, three salamanders, a French breakfast-tray (with a copy of France-Soir, for some reason).

Maybe it's time to cull the postcards and make space for new images... Anything there that caught your eye? Want to share what's on your fridge? You could let Caroline and Andrea (who started this question) know you've done so.

And the title of this post? Feast or Famine... I hadn't posted anything here for over a month, and now there's two posts in one day! We'd call that a Feast or Famine situation.

Sunday Scribbling: "I knew Instantly..."

Dear friends of the Sunday Scribbling community (and beyond). I've been on the "missing list" for over a month, and some of you have been kind enough to leave a comment, or to email asking am I doing OK, and letting me know that you were thinking of me. I'm doing fine, but have taken my energy away from blogging during the past while for a number of reasons; chiefly the process of mourning the loss of my dear mother has given me the urge to coccoon a good deal, but the business of life meant I still needed energy for my work, friends, family, and something had to be allowed to lie fallow, and that something was my blog. I have missed you all, and especially have missed checking in with your blogs as regularly as I used to.

Even though I display a "Blogging without Obligation" button, it is more than anyone could expect that readers would remain loyal in a veritable desert, so I thank those of you who are still around, and I'm afraid I'm making no promises about being here any more regularly from here on. I simply can't, because I don't know if I can make good on promises like that. The coming weeks will be busy - as they are for all of you, I'm sure. I am doing something I've never done before - spending the Christmas holiday away from home, and that's because I'll be spending it with my son - in Argentina! Yes! Buenos Aires! I do promise to report on that in the New Year! But I don't promise to publish any photos of me involved in anything resembling a Tango!


And now... to this week's Sunday Scribbling prompt: It's "I knew instantly..." and I want to share a poem that contains a moment in which I just knew instantly that, alone as I might feel, I was not alone; insecure as I felt, I was protected, and sad as I felt, that I would not always feel that way.


The angels that live in my house:
Rose-quartz, two inches tall,
with folded wings, a gift from my sister;
two carved in ash, with dainty wire wings,
one for wishes, one for freedom;
Hanging in the hallway, with sweet chimes,
a tiny angel, gilt-trimmed;
and holding up a heart - the angel of love.

Two boxes of cards offer Angel-words,
remind me to seek Courage, Patience, Stillness...

And the angel I have never seen,
but that has come twice to hold my hand,
and once - that lonesome Christmas,
as I stood weeping at my kitchen sink,
I felt the warmth and presence,
a gift that came behind me,
to enfold me in gentle wings,
to guard, protect,
to light.

There will be other Sunday Scribblings on the prompt HERE. Go visit!