Puppies and Plants in Dry Garden

We have been so busy with puppies that we barely had time to take pictures of plants. 

Here they are in the potager heading for the shed where the fertilizer is kept! You can tell we are not used to puppies!

Puppies in the Potager

Since it hasn't rained for months, we spend a lot of time watering as well.  As you can see the garden is way ahead of itself for this time of year.

Crocosmia Lucifer and butterfly in the Lavendula angustifolia

 Don't think we have ever had so many swallowtail butterflies.

Day lilies and butterfly

Day lily border with knifophia

  Most of the garden is a "dry" garden tolerating lack of water.

Calendua and Papaver somniferum in Potager

Yucca in blossom near cottage

Puppies in a cage under the cedar tree

As the drought continues we trust the Lord to give us wisdom and priorities in all things:

• How to care for those we are in charge of, (puppies)
• How to care for the garden when water becomes scarce
• Our daily walk so that we might bear much fruit.  

“Blessed is the person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that send out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”  Jeremiah 17:7,8

Cheer and Rambling Musk Rose

This rambling musk rose cheers my heart every year when it blooms. It spreads out over iron archways and up the old growth cedar tree. It doesn't take much care and doesn't seem to complain even when it gets very little water. The only stress it shows is black spot on some of the leaves. It thrives anyway and we are so grateful it does as it cheers everyone's heart that looks upon it.

Rosa "Paul's Himalayan Musk"

Rosa "Paul's Himalayan Musk" climbing up the old growth cedrus

Lately I realized that I am not cheering other's hearts. I have been praying quite a while for the fruit of the Spirit, Joy, and this week the Lord showed me it was because my face didn't show cheer.  I did not feel sad nor angry on the inside, but my mouth in particular did not show joy. I tried to get enough sleep at night thinking that was the problem, but the Lord showed me that people have been responding to me as if I was mad or upset by getting upset at me, and in my response to their misunderstanding me, I would get upset. It was a vicious cycle. It was not until yesterday that my prayers were answered.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9 KJV  I had confessed my angry responses and asked for wisdom
While checking email the next day, I noticed a podcast entitled The Secret Power of Smiling  (listen to it here by clicking on the blue link and it will make your day or change your life as it did mine). It tells what a smile can do for you and others.

I grew up knowing that I needed to be myself and not force anything  trying to be someone else. Somehow, trying to smile was never taught so I thought that smiling should come naturally, not forced. My Dad would sometimes looked me in the face and placed his hand over his mouth, pulling his hand down to make a sad face, then he would pull his hand up over his mouth and make a smile.  I laughed but never knew what he was trying to do until yesterday.

Be sure to listen to the podcast for  the secret power of smiling which brings cheer all around us.
 As a result:
"1. I will resolve to get better
  2. I will recruit an accountability partner
  3. I will practice, practice. " Michel Hyatt  the practical way from The Secret Power of Smiling

And I can emulate the cheer that the rambling musk rose brings to others and hopefully bring cheer to other's hearts and not just once a year in June.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control Galatians 5:22."

Invasion

The Leaves of  Ranuculus repens  Creeping buttercup

For the past several years I've been fighting  this low growing perennial, Ranuculus repens , Creeping buttercup, "opportunistic colonizers" according to Wikipedia. Many years ago I found this inconspicuous plant, which is usually in the woods,  hiding near the foundation of the house, mostly out of sight and out of the way. I didn't know it's identity and tenacity until it bloomed.

Yellow flowers appear this month to herald the invasion

 It has invaded the long border that faces south and seems not the same diminutive plant I see in the woods outside the gates of our garden. I guess this is how it is "opportunistic".Next thing I knew, being away from the long border for a while due to illness, it took over all.
For several years, not liking to apply herbicides, I've tried to dig out the roots to exterminate it. But it seems that, much like the bindweed, one little piece of root will propagate many more plants.

So I decide to cut some flowers and bring them inside. I watch them for a few days. They don't wilt. Every night they close up their petals and every day they open them up again, looking as good as they were the day before.

There is a sort of luminosity to them and every day they glow in my face. I guess this is what we did with buttercups as a child. We picked them and placed it under a friend's chin to "See if they liked butter" by the yellow glow on their skin. The buttercups were not invasive then, or so it seemed. But times have changed.

Believing that God is sovereign in all life, I ask, "For what purpose are they taking over the garden beds and what am I to do about it?" 

Perhaps they are a strange metaphor:

What creeps into our lives, unannounced and seems to take over without our even recognizing it until too late, starts to rule our lives and change it. Eradicating it seems hopeless. Can we ever bring something back to where it was or where we thought it was? I see this happening in all of life, our families, our community, our country, and even greater in the world. 

But by the grace of God:

• Keep a watchful eye around you.
• Be proactive.
• Look to the world and anywhere in your country and life where harm is creeping in.
• Pray fervently for grace, wisdom and eyes to be open for solutions, words and actions.

Where in your life can you ask for God's grace to redeem you so you can return to peace and His control which is the solution to tough problems?

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."  Jesus speaking to Paul
"Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecution, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" Paul 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV

May Day

We used to place flowers at neighbor's doors as a surprise for May Day.

 Here are the flowers I would have picked for the first of May from our garden for you.

Aliums

Lilacs

Rosa Abraham Darby 

Lupines, Delphiniums and Pansies in the Potager

Clematis Montana over the garden gate

Enjoy the blessing and beauty of May

Eyes to See

Box of Old Journals to Destroy

I've been getting rid of old journals that take up too much room but reading some of them first. 

This week I found this: "Trust me in times of trouble and in plenty", I hear God saying. "Pray not just in the morning but always. Ask, seek, knock. Do not depend on yourself for anything."

I respond,"I cannot really depend on anything but You Lord. Help me to turn to you in everything I do."

Looking back, after the eye operation for a new cornea, the Lord has been showing me and reminding me how to trust and turn to Him. Since December, I put drops in my eye four times a day every day and lay down and be still for two or more minutes each time. So now it is a habit as I wait, "Lord to open my eyes so I can see what You see and what you want me to see.". I pray for needs that He shows me.

I don't think you have to have an eye operation or drops in your eyes four times each day to stop and ask questions of the Lord and talk with him. All I know is that my eyes have been opened to see what I have been blinded to before. I am more aware of what is going on around me and how I need to respond.

The Lost:
He has shown me this last week to have a heart for the lost, More specifically to have a broken heart for the lost.  A few weeks ago I had a blood draw for a 6 month check up and the nurse could not find an adequate vessel and I ended up with a huge bruise.on my forearm. After a week, the bruise turned into a heart shape.

It seemed like it was a strange blessing from God. But sometimes it takes day or more to realize what God is telling me. So last Sunday a week after the picture above was taken, the second week after the blood draw, I noticed that the "heart" bruise on my arm now looked as though it was a broken heart. Not coincidentally, at church, the praise and worship video showed a bandaged heart and song about having a broken heart for the lost! I get the message Lord!

The Lost: (no answer to the meaning and purpose and reality in life and no distinctiveness of man)

It is then that I remember what I have been praying daily for years:

"Lord help me see the lost as you do. Help me to have a broken heart for them and great compassion. Help me think about their spiritual condition. Help them really matter to me. Lord give me a heart that beaks when I encounter non-Christians in a crowd. Give me new eyes to see them as they really are (lost, separated, distressed) and show me what to do for them. Give me words, wisdom and grace. "

"Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now an found, was blind but now I see." John Newton

So what are you trying to get rid of, so to make room for a new way of looking at what is around you?"
Are you trusting God to show up in unusual places?
How might you be lost?

April blossoms

Last week the cherry trees, plum, early apple and Asian pear were in bloom and I missed a picture, so here is a sample display of pink and white blossoms in our orchard this week to cheer you.

Granny Smith Apple blossom

Crab apple blossoms

Espalier apple just starting to blossom

 Purple and Pink Blooms in the Potager Garden

Pansies and lilies inn a pot

More pansies by the gate 

Tree peony and Clematis Montana at the gate.

 By the way, the bees are out and about!
"...The whole earth is full of His glory." Isaiah 6:3

Palm Sunday Leading to Easter

We prepared the week before last for special company, cleaning, cooking and decorating to make "fit for a king."  We also prepared for Palm Sunday,  to celebrate the entrance of Jesus into the city of Jerusalem, the King of Kings, riding on a donkey, with palm fronds waved by children.

The Chinese Windmill  palm  (Trachycarput fortunei) in the Hot border, the main palm died and this is the new life that came from it.

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Another palm in the past was moved from the hot border to a pot and placed it near the rose arbor tucked away from winter winds when temperatures dropped.

"Open Palms" like a Prayer in Winter Snow (several years ago)

Palm Moved to the Front Deck

So we sacrificed  and clipped off the bottom fronds and a friend helped slice the barbs off the stems so children's hands would not be injured and on Palm Sunday the children of the church waved the palms and sang "Hosanna".

This weekend, Easter, we prepare for the "King of Kings" Jesus. Preparation, not outward cleaning or movements to better spaces but coming clean inside to make us fit so we can open our hearts to receive all that Jesus did for us. He left heaven as the three in one Godhead, took on human form, born of a virgin, lived a life of dependence on the Holy Spirit with all the temptations of humanity but without sin, became the sacrificial lamb of God to take away the sins of the world and all who believe in Him, and sent His Holy Spirit to live in those who believe, so we could be set free from the power and penalty of sin and have access to the same Holy Spirit for every part of our redeemed life. If you have not asked Jesus into your life, do it this Easter. Don't just prepare outwardly but your heart inwardly knowing He has rescued us, setting us apart so we can receive Him. He is risen! He is Alive!


How are you preparing for Easter? Is it just outward preparation or is it the most important preparation you can ever do, that of opening your heart so the King of Kings to come into your life so  Jesus can live through you.   Happy Easter!