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Mlee | Wildbloom Cottage|Slow Living

@joylessons

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Field notes from a Tennessee ridge.
Author & observer of domestic liturgies.
Tracking the architecture of seasons.
Ink, wild gardens, vintage books.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

If you’re frazzled today and need to smile, here’s a little pick-me-up: a blackbird feeding his mate.
#birdwatching #blackbirds #birding #birdbehavior

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a year ago

In the late afternoon, when the light turned broody on the ridge, I sat at my desk, sketching a tufted titmouse. Not to memorize it, really, but to study lines of grace in the crest, dark mask, and (most importantly) the bird’s trusting grip on the branch.

Every part of nature holds a lesson.

The candles flicker down to their wicks, and the old pages exhale a dusty scent. Outside, Water’s Ridge carries on with its work of scrubbing the last bits of daylight. Way off in the cedars, an owl hoots.

Sometimes I think I’m teaching myself to sketch songbirds, but I’m really learning how to pay attention to the sacred.

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3 hours ago

Behind the scenes.

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2 days ago

The comfort of home on a rainy day: dogs at the window, lighting candles, looking for a recipe, cooking, and letting July ripen under a stormy night sky.

#slowliving #cottagecoreaesthetic #darkacademiaaesthetics

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3 days ago

I’ve waited for it. An old fashioned rain to fortify my zinnias and cosmos. As thunder scrapes across the ridge, the bookcase is full of old stories, and candles are throwing shadows on the wall.

I put the kettle on the stove. Music is playing, the sunflowers are dried, and the night is full of magic.

#slowlivingpoetry #darkacademiaaesthetics #cottagecoreaesthetic

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4 days ago

🌻
A Recipe for Midsummer Potpourri

I find comfort in gathering up the fragments of midsummer & turning them into something that sweetens the cottage. So I’m giving the drooping sunflower petals a second life in the rose potpourri. It’s the perfect indoor liturgy for a sweltering afternoon. My mother used to say potpourri helped her remember the better parts of a hot summer when her curtains were pulled shut against the Tennessee winter wind.

What You Need:
🌻One cup of dried sunflower petals, plucked after the bees have finished their work.
🌻One cup of deeply fragrant rose petals, dried until they rattle like old paper between your fingers.
🌻A few small, whole rosebuds & the woody discs of bare sunflower heads, saved for their texture.
🌻One whole cinnamon stick (broken by hand into three uneven pieces), a scattering of whole cloves & three star anise pods.
🍊Add thin peels of 1 orange & 1 lemon, dried.

The Method:
Lay your petals in a layer across a wire screen. Leave them in a shadowy room for about three days. Large sunflower blooms will take longer. I turn them daily. They will eventually lose their moisture but keep their color.
Gather the loose dried petals. If you like botanical things on your desk, place some of the brown centers in an old glass jar.

In a stoneware bowl, mix the petals, citrus, & spices. Don’t use a metal spoon. Use your hands. Turn the flowers over gently, allowing the sharp edges of the cloves & star anise to nestle into the soft curve of the roses.

Transfer the mixture to a clean glass jar & screw the lid down tight. Place it at the back of the pantry, behind the tea tins, where the light cannot reach it. For two weeks, the spices will draw out the latent oils, adding the scent of summer to the fibers of the petals.

Pour the blend into your favorite bowl Set it on a high mantle or the top shelf of a hutch, safe from the curious paws of a cat or dog, but perfectly positioned to let the aroma of midsummer sift into your room.

Note:

This potpourri doesn’t use traditional essential oils or dried orris root powder, which can pose risks to cats & dogs. Still, I keep it out of reach.

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5 days ago

August is waiting on the ridge, and with it comes the calm, satisfying work of preserving the sweet memories of mid-summer.

I’m sketching quiet garden visitors by candlelight while the first batch of sunflower heads dry on the screen.
The loose petals will soon find their way into a pet-safe autumn potpourri blend, but for now, they rest on old pages.

A life is built out of the things we look at every single afternoon. Our Sunday liturgies have a way of holding us together and helping us to slow down and listen to the quiet. 🕯️🌿

#slowliving #cottagecore #tealovers

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6 days ago

🕯️
The comfort of home.

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7 days ago

🌱
Friday Field Notes
A life is built out of the things we see every single afternoon. Dishes. Wild vines. Your grandmother’s old hutch. Our daily liturgies help make a home a sanctuary.
🌻

#liturgyofthelittlethings #slowliving #ordinarysacred #cosycottage

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8 days ago

Do you make time for whimsy? If so, what is your go-to activity? How often do you carve out space for it? I’m curious because I often feel a little guilty for shutting out the world. I mean, I should be vacuuming.

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9 days ago

✨🌱
I needed a reminder about my favorite topic—joy—when the bunnies ate several tender zinnia blooms.

“The overwhelming and inevitable life-lean towards the ordinary is why true deep-pile contentment is found when you re-enchant the everyday.”
—Catherine Gray, The Unexpected Joy of the Ordinary
(Aster-Hachette UK).

Read more @unexpectedjoyof

#theunexpectedjoyoftheordinary #catherinegray #unexpectedjoyof #laurasiamattingly

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10 days ago

✨Where you’ll find me.✨

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11 days ago