Things of Great Beauty.

The Landfill Orchestra.  Oh, my.  Children in extreme poverty with instruments made from items in the dump.
The Landfill Orchestra.


People reading around the world.  Never, ever underestimate the power of the written word.

To Light a Fire


Music for Vespers:  from WNYC

Vespers

My lovely friends who were roommates during college.  Beautiful on the inside and out.

My husband's house during college years.   It's still standing more than 30 years later.

Some of the sunflowers in our garden. They are full of bees!

Part of the harvest of our garden.  From this we got soup, zucchini bread, frozen beans and more.

A sweet little baby happy.  I love simple knitting with beautiful yarn.

Best of all-my beautiful daughter is coming home this weekend after an amazing summer in the Philippines.

The act of creation.

It's hard to describe how happy our little garden plot makes me.  We are all ready planning for next year, thinking what else we could plant and how we could plan better and get more out of our 20X20 plot.

I am thrilled to see these sunflowers coming out!

We have two bean tents that have vines that have cross-over.  The purple beans actually belong to the other bean tent.  The scarlet runner beans are the green ones.  The purple beans are only purple until they are cooked...then they turn green!  Either way, they are lovely.

The yellow cherry tomatoes are the first ones to have color.

This pepper came from this plant.  I'll dice it and freeze it for the winter....there are plenty more on the vine.  I am hoping for serendipitous timing on hot banana peppers, tomatoes, and bell peppers so that I can make salsa.

Behind the pepper are two huge zucchini.  Plenty more are coming.  I bought disposable loaf pans today so I can make and freeze zucchini bread. 

Dave Harrity in Making Manifest says to remember that what you create is something close to holy.  That is what I feel in our garden as I see things grow and become beautiful.  I feel a tremendous sense of peace and yes, holiness as I watch this process.  It's amazing.

A seed only flourishes by staying in the ground in which it is sown. When you keep digging the seed up to check whether it is growing, it will never bear fruit. Think about yourself as a little seed planted in rich soil. All you have to do is stay there and trust that the soil contains everything you need to grow. This growth takes place even when you don’t feel it. Be quiet, acknowledge your powerlessness, and have faith that one day you will know how much you have received.
Henry Nouwen

A Midsummer's Day in the Pacific NorthWest.

 Paul and I rarely get a free weekend.  Since he is a pastor, Sundays are his main gig!  We both work during the week so there aren't many free days to just go out and see things.  We live in such a beautiful part of the country that we try to take advantage of any chance we can do go out.
This Saturday was a free day.  Paul didn't have to preach on Sunday, I didn't have (much) grading to do so we headed out as soon as we could.
But first we had to clean the house.  Then we went out to get a new compost bin.  I  cringe every time I toss a  used coffee filter, knowing that it could transformed into compost and help our garden next year.

Buying this compost bin is part of my  master plan to get Paul to agree to move to a more semi-rural part of our city and let me garden and keep bees.

We drove up to Moulton Falls and and Lucia Falls.  Clear, clean, cold water.  Salmon and steelhead spawn here.  This is about 30 minutes from our house.

We saw this beautiful garter snake eating tadpoles.

We stopped by a blueberry farm to pick 14 pounds of blueberries.  How long does it take to pick that much? About 15 minutes.  We also stopped by a road side stand and bought fresh sweet corn.  Perfect for a summer dinner.

One bowl before freezing.  Cost?  $1.00 a pound.

I stopped by our garden on the way home to water and found this cucumber ready to eat.  There is nothing like fresh food from your own garden.

The sunflowers are starting to really come out.

It was a good day, a joyful day, one that I am glad we had.

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute...Give your approval to all you cannot understand...Ask the questions that have no answers. Put your faith in two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years...Laugh. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts....Practice resurrection.” 

― Wendell Berry, The Country of Marriage