View from deck at Wildrose Cottage, looking north
Looking east from the deck at Wildrose cottage
SEASONS OF MY LIFE
I cannot return to spring again
To plant when sowing days are gone,
Nor till the still soft earth of spring
When summer suns have come and gone.
Lord, help me know my times on earth
To work the plan Your hand does show,
Oh, let me bring at harvest time
A life made whiter than the snow.
©ruthellinger2000
My readers ask about me so here you go...Ten “Off the Record” facts about myself
1. I don’t Twitter, tweet, or talk on Facebook or other social network sites but I DO answer email from my readers and those who contact me through my website and blog.
2. I don’t watch TV and consider it a waste of valuable time not to mention the moral content is pretty near zero. I do listen to good music and check in on current news and world affairs daily to make sure we’re still okay.
3. I love to write, to be home in the evenings, and nearly always cook dinner. I enjoy going to Panera Bread for lunch.
4. I love my grandchildren, a fire in the fireplace, getting into the spa before bed and listening to audio books until I fall asleep. I value routine when I’m home.
5. I love my cottage up north, love to travel and explore new places. I might have been an explorer had I lived in another age. I am passionate about preserving our American heritage, historic sites, and the US Constitution. I am a member of the Daughter of the American Revolution and feel the rumble of my patriot ancestors in my blood.
6. I love antiquing with anyone who will go with me and love perusing thrift shops for treasures someone else has thrown away and am an avid believer in aggressive rescue efforts for these lost treasures.
7. I love mountains, misty mornings, ocean waves, sunsets, autumn and Christmas time. I love back-roads, bends in the road, brick roads, and country roads. I love driving around and looking at other people’s houses and landscapes.
8. I don’t like sitting at the computer but do so out of necessity. I know I am there too much when my husband leaves notes on the keyboard. I don’t like fast food except MacRib, shopping for groceries or putting them away, unloading the dishwasher or folding clothes. I don’t have a maid but wish for a cook, housecleaner, and servants and gardeners and a chauffeur.
9. I love herb gardens and flowers and am glad my husband does so I don’t have to care for the plants. I can preserve and can food, sew my own clothes, doll clothes, curtains, create and make many useful things, but I choose not to because my family is grown and I find more enjoyable things to do with my time. In earlier years, I managed a myriad of household tasks and was all things to my family. Now I do not stress over such matters. I find new things to stress about.
10. Among my fetishes are antiques, vintage linens, lamps, candles, pictures that tell a story, roses on anything, period novels, lace, feminine clothing, and dishes of all kinds. I love tea and tea things, quaint cottages and towns, porches, and all things Scottish. Most of all…I love Jesus, my Savior, and the knowledge that He knows all this about me and loves me anyway.
SEASONS OF LIFE...I love every season of the year, but I love autumn best. This photo was taken last week on the farm where I grew up, where I experienced life and love and the ties that bind, a place where happy and sad moments are forever etched in my memory. I choose to remember the happy times when autumn arrives with the acrid smells of a smoke-filled hazy days, of drying maple leaves, harvested corn piled high on the wagon, juicy Macintosh apples and golden pears, and always…the familiar and unique aromas of the farm in autumn. I return each season to the place I still call home.
THE BARN AND POND IN THE DISTANCE
My sister lives on the farm with her husband and each year, they sell pumpkins and garden produce which they pile on an antique farm wagon near the road. Customers place money for their purchase in an “honor jar.”
PUMPKINS FOR SALE
By the bend in the road and in the distance, you can see the farm pond and a small cabin made of cherry logs which my father built and spent many happy hours wood-working
LAURA'S HAPPY CHICKENS AND DELICIOUS FARM EGGS
CLOSING WILDROSE COTTAGE FOR THE SEASON
It's that time of year again and my Co-Director and I are planning a wonderful writing workshop and retreat. It is situated on the beautiful Alafai River surrounded by majestic oaks and Cedar trees. Writers are coming from all over and once again, we will learn. Posted this time are a few thoughts on writing.Something to Remember…
There is no greater work in this life, no greater duty as Christian writers than to help others in their journey. Among the many talents God has given, writers possess the ability to create from an expansive vocabulary of words, excerpts from their life experiences. Writers possess the creative skill to impart the wisdom they have learned, to help others keep up their courage, to laugh and cry, to empathize, to proclaim with the written word that God is the answer to the problems of life. Ruth Carmichael Ellinger
What do you know? Write about it. Don’t write about what someone else knows. Write about what you know in your own unique voice and style. Then, put into practice the 3 P’s in this order.
Prepare your manuscript
Polish your manuscript
Pitch your manuscript
A Writer’s Prayer
Oh, Lord, make me respect my mind so much that I dare not write what has neither meaning nor moral. Let my time be valuable enough to spend it wisely. Help me choose with equal care, my friends, my books, and those things my eyes should see, because all influence my life. Show me that, as in a river, the depths hold more of strength and beauty than do the shallows. Keep me from caring more for much writing, than for careful writing, for books more than “the Book.” Give me an ideal that will let me write only the best, and when that is done— stop me. Repay me with power to teach others. Then help me to say from a disciplined mind a grateful…Amen.
Ruth Carmichael Ellinger2011
