Happy Birthday, dear Tasha

A tinge of fragrant wood smoke is curling up from our chimney into the chilly air above our old farmhouse this early morning.

The sun has not come up over the hills just yet and I am here writing to you by candle light, with a proper cup of hot tea to drink and a sleepy kitten lying on my lap.

A perfect early morning to quietly reflect on how such an extraordinary woman,Tasha Tudor, touched my life completely.

Today would be her 95th birthday and in celebration of

the amazing life she led

I'll go about my day as I always do...enjoying each quiet moment and task.

Shortbread cookies will be baking for afternoon tea, hand sewing the hem of a small linen petticoat for a doll, reading a few pages of a treasured book of Tasha's extraordinary life...

and in keeping these little rituals we all feel the loss of her a little less and somehow,

we feel even more connected to her and to all those whose lives she touched.

~

Tonight as I cook over the fire and light our evening with hand made candles,

we go on.

Enjoying our family and each season as it comes, without rushing... it is the quiet celebrating of taking joy and the gentle side of life that she loved and bestowed on us all.

~

My gardens speak of her, with herbs and old roses and deep indigo lupine-late blooming this summer~the tangled potato & pumpkin patch and apples hanging from the trees down in the old orchard.

My attempt at knitting a shawl, slow going as I have so many irons in the fire, is snuggled in a basket by my chair. I hoped to have it ready by the time the first frost nipped my cheek on my early morning walks through the gardens.

As chilly as it is this morning, I know

I must knit a little more each evening now....

Each thing we do here as we live our lives close to the land, every dream we dream.

everything has it's roots growing deep in Tasha's garden.

The seeds that she planted in the hearts of those who loved her are

growing and stretching towards a deep blue summer sky today.

~

The garden that was planted in my heart the day I first read a story of her, first saw her gardens, stood by her barn door, amazed at how tiny she was, first hearing her voice and chuckled at her wry New England humor.

I was given a name for what I already loved...

but just didn't know...

a candle was lit...a garden planted...

and there, I found my kindred spirit.

What a gift she was to us.

and is still...

http://thepastoraldollmaker.blogspot.com/2008/07/road-to-tashas.html

~~~~~

Please Come & Enter for a very Special Celebration Giveaway is going on

until Midnight tonight August 30th

at Rookery Ramblings !

Go Here to enter the Rookery Ramblings Giveaway in Celebration of Tasha's Birthday!

http://rookeryramblings.blogspot.com/2010/08/tasha-tudor-day-giveaway.html