Saturday, May 30, 2009

Summer Snow - oh how it blows...


Nope, that isn't snow piled up against the curb outside our house, it's some kind of cotton from the trees around our neighborhood. There are mounds of it dusting the ground and cottony poufs flying through the air, so much that you must be careful to keep your mouth closed when going for a walk or you'll eat the fluffy white seed clouds.


The culprit is this long collection of seed pods that hung from trees just a week ago. They've "blossomed" into a furry mass and as they blow in the breeze, are ripped from their home in the branches to scatter and fall all over the earth.

The collections of cottony seeds are very easy to pick up...and so soft!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Nature speaks in it's own language, free!

Vowels...

A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue : vowels,
I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins:
A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies
Which buzz around cruel smells,
Gulfs of shadow; E, whiteness of vapours and of tents,
Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of cow-parsley;
I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips
In anger or in the raptures of penitence;
U, waves, divine shudderings of viridian seas,
The peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of the furrows
Which alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads;
O, sublime Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds,
Silences crossed by Worlds and by Angels:
O the Omega, the violet ray of Her Eyes!

~ by Arthur Rimbaud




Saturday, May 23, 2009

Snoqualmie Falls...



We went to Snoqualmie Falls today and the glory of God's creation was screaming at me, "TAKE MY PICTURE!" There were just so many wonders, things I've never seen before. Honestly, I hadn't even seen a waterfall in "real life" before today...I want to go back and see it all over again!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

New Things: Shoots and Dreams

Today the sun was out, brighter than it has been in a week. In fact, it was difficult to find a cool and shady place to rest. Of course...the plants love it so! The greenery below was just a bundle of shoots springing from a bulb two weeks ago, can you believe it? It's been remarkable to watch the transformation of the life around me changing and forging a new path through the moist, Washington soil, 'til touching the visibly blue gray, yet tactilely imperceptible sky that embraces us all. Seasonal dramas do not play out with such force in Southern California; I see I am lucky God transported me to another home in His creation to teach me to cherish the beauty of context and 'ground' me in His schemed cycles, contented and propelled to praise.





Sunday, May 17, 2009

Thy morn and evening breath...

TO SPRING
by: William Blake (1757-1827)
~*~
THOU with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn'd
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish'd head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Like Christmas





It is like Christmas year-round here in the Northwestern part of the United States. You see, we even have pine cones in the springtime. I don't know that I'll ever get used to the abundance of evergreens and how, quite unexpectedly, you may need to light a log a'blaze at noon in the middle of May. It is my favorite holiday and these visual reminders only stir up the desire within me to deck the halls and sing at the top of my lungs, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." I realize that most people think my Christmas infatuation is a form of lunacy, but think about for a minute and you'll soon realize it's not so much of a problem as a very positive and uplifting distraction that that brings back our focus to hearth & home and the most important thing of all...

Luke 2: 10-11
"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. "

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Blessed in Christ

. . . Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Ephesians 1:3

Christ bestows all the goodness of the past, the present, and the future upon His people. In the mysterious ages of the past the Lord Jesus was His Father's first elect, and in His election He gave us an interest, for we were chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world. He had from all eternity the prerogatives of Sonship, as His Father's only-begotten and well-beloved Son; and He has, in the riches of His grace, by adoption and regeneration, elevated us to sonship also, so that to us He has given "the right to become children of God."- John 1:12

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Sacred Memories

Above, a memory in a photo. My mom reading to me...she made me the woman today who feasts of the words on pages, in songs and conversations.

Dolly and her Sacred Memories...

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Glorious Leeks


Numbers 11:4-6
4 The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!"

My tastebuds think leeks are the best things ever. I could eat them morning, noon, and night. Sauteed, in soups,julienned in salads... They are so delicate when chopped and sturdy when whole. Their flavor is both soft & buttery as well as bitter in a way that warms a dish yet infers a freshness.
Tonight:
Cook up equal parts jasmine rice & green lentils.
Sautee up 2 halved and chopped leeks in olive oil with halved cherry tomatoes & salt.
Mix all things together with a bit of curry sauce.
Garnish with chopped cilantro or parsley depending upon your liking.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

He is the Sun that Brightens Our Lives


Job 11:16-18
16 You will surely forget your trouble,
recalling it only as waters gone by.
17 Life will be brighter than noonday,
and darkness will become like morning.
18 You will be secure, because there is hope;
you will look about you and take your rest in safety.

The sun of spring reminds me that God's love shines upon us all even when we think the clouds will never roll away to reveal the warmth and clarity we so crave.