October fruit

Fruitful Crabapple Tree

 



Picked, washed and stemmed

Made into jelly

Island Quince shared by a friend

 

Quince syrup when jelly did not jell.

Cure for Darkness and Sorrow

Remaining rosebud by Melianthus Major December 23, 2012

Lo, How a Rose
Lo, how a Rose up-springing
On tender root has grown:
A Rose by prophet's singing
To all the world make known
The rose midst winter's cold
A lonely blossom bearing,
In former days foretold.

This Rose then of my story
Isaiah did proclaim
What God ordain'd in glory
By blessed Mary came.
The Child the Virgin bore,
The world's salvation bringing
Through Him for ever-more.

The Rose-bud small and tender
Gives fragrance ev'ry day.
And by It's brilliant splendor
Makes darkness pass away
True God, true Man, we pray,
Help us in ev'ry sorrow,
And guard us on our way. Unknown, 15th century German

"For God so loved the world that he gave is one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NIV

" I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life." John 8:12 NIV

The rosebud appeared and stayed as I dealt with cancer surgery, a message from God.
 Have a Blessed Christmas!

Fath Like Potatoes

 It has been a busy summer with not much time to write or tweet, nor sit and think. Sometimes, we just need to plant a seed and not worry about the results nor timing for what it produces. It is best to just enjoy what is brought to us each day and not worry about the present nor future.

My brother Wally came to visit a few weeks ago. He has a lot of faith, travelling alone dependent on oxygen concentrators. We watched the movie Faith Like Potatoes one night, encouraging us to have faith that God knows what is going on and has a plan, no matter what the impossible situation may be and what we don't see happening. 

The next day the nib on his portable oxygen concentrator broke. This island has a wonderful group of well trained EMT's who quickly arrived with oxygen tanks and helped us find and order a new oxygen concentrator (non portable) and more tanks which were delivered to the ferry line from Bellingham. Other islanders already waiting in the ferry line took them into their cars just in time for the ferry departure to this island and the need that evening.

 We then ordered a replacement part which could not get here in time for his departure back home, so had it sent to a place near Seattle. All the while, we were praying and trusted God for His grace to solve the problem before his trip back. There were many glitches, but always trusting that our Lord would resolve  them, which he did at the last minute.

Potatoes dug out of the ground

 

The potate critters rescued

 

"And He said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed in the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how...for the earth yields crops by itself:" Mark 4:26-28

 

I pray we can scatter the seed of prayer for our upcoming elections, that we might have faith that God who has sustained our country and given us a democracy will continue to guide us and protect us.

 

 

Recovering Eden

Rosa Eden or Pierre de Ronsard

We bought "Eden" about 10 years ago, placing it in the new long border. According to Wikpedia "The cultivar was created by Marie-Louise Meilland and introduced in France by Meilland International in 1985."

Placed at the back of the border rather than front, it soon became engulfed and neglected. It managed to struggle  until we decided to take out much of the border due to bindweed infestation. Pruned back, fertilized and watered well, it is recovering.

Aren't we always trying to recover Eden in the garden and in our lives? We want the perfect place without weeds, rot, or constant struggle. We desire the beauty yet balance in diversity and a place of optimum conditions for purposeful growth. We need to find a door that will set us free from the weeds and rot of life so we can live fully.

 "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me; he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill, and to destroy (gardens and us). I have come that you might have life more abundantly," John 10:9-10  Jesus



Revival

Rosa Filipe “Kiftsgate” in its glory  (Photo by Cherie Christensen) July 2000

In 2007 we decided to tackle the dead-since-two-years-ago wood on the “Kiftsgate” rose at the entrance to our cottage. It is the type of rose that could engulf a house. In fact in England several cottages have disappeared under them. It has grown for years without much water, planted in a cutout of a flagstone patio at the foot of a post holding up a roofed trellis. It's small profuse July white blossoms made a canopy over our heads as we enter and leave our home. After staining the cottage and a winter storm, it began to die. One side was completely dead. On the other side were some canes at the base cutting lose from the nibbling deer and beginning to find their way up the post to the trellis again. “Now or never,” we decided to make room for the new shoots working for several days with a ladder and long-handled pruners making room for the new growth, winding it along the now bare trellis to start training the bush once again.

 

Rosa Filipe “Kiftsgate” revived July 2012

I wrote in an old blog post that I’ve thought a lot about dead wood over the years. I have a lot of it, old ways of acting, behaving especially in difficult circumstances that don't help anything new to grow. Time is ripe for freedom and a movement of the spirit here. My dead wood needs to go. It doesn't feel very good to be pruned or bear the scars, but I know that this is the only way new branches leaves, flowers can grow unobstructed and beauty returned.  This year the fruit of pruning appears. Rejoice in new life.

How are you preparing for revival? What needs to be taken away in your life that is keeping the beauty of new growth at bay?

Friday the 13th

Clover in Potager

 I don’t believe in superstitions although my mother did. She had hundreds of them, now all stuffed in a file under her name to stay there, where I don’t see them or even find them. I do remember her often and them, once in a while, but I denounced the superstitions long ago.

We could never let a pin stay on the ground. Mom went around with pins sticking into her apron top or blouse. “Find a pin and pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck.”  When I came to know the living Lord, I knew there was no such thing as “luck”, only grace and His blessings. Along with the confession of other sins in my life, the first and foremost, not depending on Him for everything, away went superstitions, among them the looking four leaf clovers and pins on the ground. Instead I started looking up for His guidance and direction and blessing and life and never looked back nor down.

“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding (or superstitions). With all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Revisiting the Struggle to Write

Friday, March 7, 2008

A two week break

Heading outside

As we came back from our trip, too much else to catch up on...taxes, gardening, planting vegetables, attempting to order my life, spring cleaning, and fitting in some music, art and reading.

I reread Billy Collins poem "Advice to Writers" again.

"Even if it keeps you up all night,
wash down the walls and scrub the floor
of your study before composing a syllable.

Clean the place as if the Pope were on his way.
Spotlessness is the niece of inspiration.
The more you clean, the more brilliant
your writing will be, so do not hesitate to take
to the open fields to scour the undersides
of rocks to swab in the dark forest upper branches,
nests full of eggs.
When you find your way back home
and stow the sponges and the brushes under the sink,
you will behold in the light of dawn
the immaculate altar of your desk,
a clean surface in the middle of clean world.
From a small vase... sparkling blue, lift
a yellow pencil, the sharpest of the bouquet,
and cover pages with tiny sentences
like long rows of devoted ants
that followed you in from the woods."

from Sailing alone around the room: New and Selected Poems.

I took Billy’s advise. The reason for my increasingly poor writing is the clutter and surrounding disorder. These weeks ahead I'm starting in one corner floor to ceiling with brush and pail and vaccuum and rag. The loose wandering papers will be gathered and teathered or placed in caged files. Away with the cobwebs, away with the piles. If I happen to head out the door it might be two years* before I fnd my way back to the desk and talk to you, just so you know.

 

*Four years later I encounter the same problem, taking too long a break from writing, and catching up with anything except writing. I made the mistake of looking out the back door this morning, where the picture below was taken, reminding me of this post from 2008.

"For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out..." Romans 7:18

Praise be to God who gives us all we need to do His work for His glory. Here is good advise on writing found this week.