Around to it

Found on the floor of the garage - a clear message

In this new year, the message is clear. It is time to get around to it. Not just the cleaning of the garage which I thought was a message for my husband, but the things that have been waiting for me and knocking at my door, so to speak.

1. The Garden Devotional which I started 25 years ago: a publisher liked it and encouraged me, but later they decided not to pursue it when another publisher bought them out. I dropped the devotional too, and wrote infrequent Weekly Life Clip blog posts. Putting energy instead into another blog and a book proposal Early 1900s West Indies Travelogue about researching a great grandmother. A week or so ago I received a decline from the publisher regarding this, so I took the message from the garage floor to go back to my first love.
2. Watercolor thumb nail sketches in place of photos will be included weekly. It has been a long time since I have picked up a brush and all this is calling me too.
3. As I am letting go of the gardens I have loved so much, I will have the time to write and paint.. 

Pray that I get around to it!

“The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” Proverbs 16:9

Wind brings change and renewal

Last Fall while we were at church, a huge wind came from the east opening the doors of the church building. When we returned home, we found it had barreled down across our field and took down the 66 feet of grape arbor and fence and gate attached. Most of the grape plants were cut off a the base. By God's grace we noticed it and put up a temporary wire fence across most of the expanse and latched the fallen gate to the one standing to keep the deer out of our garden.

The nest boxes for the Violet green swallows, abandoned since the end of July, were left hanging on posts parallel to the ground.

So this spring, we hired a crew to rebuilt the fence. They finished just in time for the swallows return.

We placed the nest box a little higher, than this picture, on a pole as before. Today we hear newly hatched swallows chirping from the box. Any day we will see the new life.

We need a fresh wind of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to take out the old and bring in the new, so we can hold up under the greater storms of life and give others hope.

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." John 3:8

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?