Good morning! It's nice to be back. First of all, I must apologize for having you all add me to your feed readers, only to change my blog address on you. My address is now http://www.quietude.blogspot.com/ Makes a little more sense than the old "bitter gamer" one, no? If you have always wondered, the bitter gamer is my brother, who gave me some webspace years ago. When I first started my blog, I didn't really have plans of making it public, and so didn't worry about the address. However, I eventually got me some visitors, and then when people started asking me for my blog address in real life, I realized how bizarre it sounded. :-P I am just now getting around to changing it, since Blogger has disabled FTP support. I also felt it was time for something a little less "blah" than the white Blogger template. Hope you like it! I think it says, very firmly, that this is a Woman's Blog. Now, if you've been reading Quietude for a while, you probably noticed that I began to gradually lose my blogging steam in the months after my marriage. I eventually got to the point where I was just "guilt-blogging," which is not fun for me or for you. When I first started my blog, I hoped to use it as a chronicle of the quiet joys and beauties of day to day life. Somehow along the way, I veered away from that. Now I am hoping to recapture that first purpose, but also expand and shift my blogging topics to reflect the season of life I am in. My "hobby" interests currently take a back-burner to the more important tasks of being the best wife and mother that I can be, so it may be that I will not have as many posts on vintage clothes, sewing, books, etc. But, I pray that I can find beauty and joy in the humble task of serving those I love best, and share that with you! I'm back! I enjoyed my break from blogging but I'm glad to be back to posting. First of all, I must apologize for having you add me to your feed reader, only to change my address on you! My new blog address is now http://www.quietudeblog.blogspot.com/ Blogger discontinued FTP support recently and it seemed like a good time to switch over to a new address; one that fits my blog a little better than the old one. ;-) (If you have always wondered, the bitter gamer is my brother, who gave me some webspace years ago. When I first started my blog, I didn't really have plans of making it public, and so didn't worry about the address. However, I eventually got me some visitors, and then when people started asking me for my blog address in real life, I realized how bizarre it sounded. But I haven't gotten around to changing it 'til now!) For the time being I will leave the archives up here, but all new posts will be at my new address. So please update your links, feed readers, etc. to point to http://www.quietudeblog.blogspot.com/ See you over there!

Lovebirds

A sweet little cardinal and his mate have been frequenting the bush outside our kitchen window this winter. Thanks to Geoffrey Chaucer, there is a tradition that birds choose their mates on St. Valentine's Day:

"For this was on seynt Valentynes day,
Whan every foul cometh ther to chese his make,
Of every kinde, that men thenke may;
And that so huge a noyse gan they make,
That erthe and see, and tree, and every lake
So ful was, that unnethe was ther space
For me to stonde, so ful was al the place."

--from "The Parliament of Fowles" by Geoffrey Chaucer, c. 1382

Apparently, Chaucer was responsible for the romance we now associate with St. Valentine's Day. Very little is known of the actual martyr(s) the day honors -- according to our Encyclopedia of Saints, Valentine was a Roman priest and physician, martyred c. 269 A.D. during the reign of Emperor Claudius II. Another Valentine (possibly the same man) was bishop of Terni, near Rome. The legends that have sprung up around St. Valentine (he fell in love with his jailer's daughter and sent her a last message before his death signed 'From your Valentine'; he secretly married couples during Claudius II's ban on marriage, etc.) seem to be just that -- legends.

Anyway, our cardinal and his "wife" were spotted cosily sitting near each other amidst the branches this morning, but they have been together all winter, so I think that blows Chaucer's tradition out of the water. :)