Of Friendly Fireside

Color and temperature of a flame are dependent on the type of fuel involved...wikipedia

yes, its Wikem-Day. If you are a regular reader you will know what this means, but if you are new to this word, check its definition here!

I seek them out

Drawn it seems,

By fearless trust

And brave day-dreams

Undeterred

By history

Souls soft-stirred

With mystery

Eyes, like candles

Brightly-strung

Time is long

For they are young

So, I seek them out

Where hungry desire

Bids me warm frozen dreams

At childhood's fire

© Janet Martin

On Sunday I look forward to a new term as a grade six Sunday-school teacher. I am always excited, not so much for what I will teach them, but for what they will teach me!

Also, I would love to share one of my favorite fireside poems

There in the flame of the open grate,
All that is good in the past I see:
Red-lipped youth on the swinging gate,
Bright-eyed youth with its minstrelsy;
Girls and boys that I used to know,
Back in the days of Long Ago,
Troop before in the smoke and flame,
Chatter and sing, as the wild birds do.
Everyone I can call by name,
For the fire builds all of my youth anew.
Outside, people go stamping by,
Squeak of wheel on the evening air,
Stars and planets race through the sky,
Here are darkness and silence rare;
Only the flames in the open grate
Crackle and flare as they burn up hate,
Malice and envy and greed for gold,
Dancing, laughing my cares away;
I've forgotten that I am old,
Once again I'm a boy at play.
There in the flame of the open grate
Bright the pictures come and go;
Lovers swing on the garden gate,
Lovers kiss 'neath the mistletoe.
I've forgotten that I am old,
I've forgotten my story's told;
Whistling boy down the lane I stroll,
All untouched by the blows of fate,
Time turns back and I'm young of soul,
Dreaming there by the open grate.

Edgar Albert Guest

To Time's Passengers

 The above message is for each of us to take to heart every day...
from the movie The Help

The strict alarm-clock bites the air

And pushes progress into flight

Cloud-ships, unruffled by fan-fare

Sail stirring seas of first daylight

Time’s passengers, we, the people

Rouse and rise to face, who knows?

Duty and desire mingle

In euphoric highs and lows

Beck and call fills out new dockets

Purposed or not, we all reply

Some, for pennies in their pockets

Some, for dream-dust in their eye

Some become the king of dollars

Some, pure sunshine for the heart

We, the people, first-time scholars

All must learn to do our part

…and within our coming-going

Whether we see it or not

We touch others, oft not knowing

The full impact of spilled thought

We, the people, yon and hither

Should keep this one thing in mind

…how our splash of dash-and-dither

Affects those following behind

© Janet Martin

I've been pondering this line since reading it the other day...

 But at that moment I realized what may be the biggest tragedy of all—that we can always see the effect of this world upon us, but rarely the effect of us upon the world.

By Bill Coffey from Affecting Our World

Fool-mold

If disappointment never addled

Or upset the way of Plan

If pleasure would cradle and coddle

The self-minded way of man

If no pain-sorrow would make clearer

Life's full joy; if hope, a sea

Of soft, thick-buttered bread would shimmer

What faithless fools we all would be

© Janet Martin

Shangri La

A person could get lost

Such as we were

Tucked ‘neath a quilt

Of word-hardy paper

She and I laughing

And splashing through nooks

Far, far away

In the land of books

© Janet Martin

When Winter Wends Its Way...

When winter wends its way at last

To sleep in pasture-lands of Past

When morning is a teddy-bear

With honey-sparkles in its hair

Then we will say, giddy and glad

That winter was not all that bad

When winter wends its way to where

It cannot reach from here to there

But fades into far yonder blue

Then earth, a brown and tattered shoe

Is polished by the silver strain

Of melting snow and pelting rain

When winter wends its way into

The book of Bygone, then we-two

So lark-happy in heart and soul

Will take a leisure country-stroll

To marvel how, where white had been

Earth’s easy-chair is velvet-green

When winter wends its way to bed

Too tired out to spout its dread

Then soon wild hyacinth will spill

To dot the plot of nook and hill

And every brook, set free, will sing

When winter wends its way…to spring

© Janet Martin

Yesterday they (the weather-people;) fore-casted our Spring Outlook...

Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 8:21 PM - 

Most Canadians can expect the weather to feel familiar this spring, as the trends that have prevailed over the winter are forecast to persist through March and beyond, according to The Weather Network’s 2015 Spring Outlook revealed March 3.

"Spring is going to come," chief meteorologist Chris Scott said of this long-range forecast for March, April and May. "It’s just going to be a bit delayed across the East."

The spring-like weather is due to start later for most, and remain colder than usual.

"What’s happened is a big part of what’s to come," he said. “March is a winter month."