Today, November 26th, is our mother's birthday. In sweet celebration, I am happy to share a page from Bertha Reppert's Twelvemonth Herbal. This herbal provides a peek into her personal diary. She wrote about her herb garden, her family, and shared easy recipes from her kitchen.
Full of favorite quotes and fun tips, it is an easy to read herbal with each page devoted to a day in her life, centered around herbs. On her birthday, she shares her favorite things.
November 26, My Favorite Things
Visiting a well clipped knot garden...Making wormwood wreaths...Watching winter birds at the feeders in the snow...Bird songs at nesting time...The sound of rain against windows...Pansy faces, smiling at me...Purple...Little girls in jumpers and tights...Small Boy Scouts on parade, carrying flags...A gloomy day with nothing scheduled...Noisy holidays when everyone comes home...Family, close friends, laughter and love...Hyacinths in February, in pots, blooming...A letter from my sister...Bach's B Minor Mass, in its entirety...Wearing my "sheep to shawl," plant dyed...Embroidery - and the time to embroider...A cold bedroom, warm comforters and snuggling...Markets, especially farmer's markets, anywhere...To feast my eyes on earth's bounty...Borage growing lustily in a crack in the pavement...Strolling cool damp woods on a hot summer's day...Golden witchhazel threads glowing in a winter woods...Walking barefoot in the grass...Sunny fields of golden mustard...or dandelions...or goldenrod...Church bells peeling the Angelus while I'm working my stilled garden...This is my birthday wish list!
The quotes that she included on this page:
The angel that presided o'er my birth,
Said "Little creature, formed of joy and mirth,
Go love without the help of anything on Earth." - William Blake
and also,
Whoever loves much, does much. - Thomas A. Kempis
Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you and miss you.
What a blessing and wonderful gift to have this journal and these memories!
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