Finding Beauty ~ I will Sing…

I took these photos at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens last week. Lavender and purple seemed to be the winning colors that were blooming at this time.

The plush green of the Japanese Garden was so calming and refreshing. Spring is just so lush around here. There are benefits to getting a lot of rain. All this beauty makes me want to smile a lot and to sing. You might even catch me talking in song lyrics. Don’t be alarmed!

…All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings…

Excerpt from All Things Bright and Beautiful

Words: Cecil F. Alexander

Footnote: I won’t be participating in weekly memes due to several key events happening around the homestead and in South Africa! World cup begins on Friday and I’ll be trying to catch every match and probably singing Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole! This is also a busy family weekend because of visitors, graduation, and kayaking. If the whales attack us while we are kayaking I’ll have my sister write a post so you’ll know where I disappeared to.

So until I post again…Go U.S.A.!!

Yard Art…Contrasts

Time again to visit Mary at Work of the Poet and see what people are putting in their yards these days…

So I was having myself a little chuckle as I noticed these contrasts in yard art. You have your lion and your bunny here. At least it is a smiling lion. I was thinking the lion and a  lamb would have been a good pairing.

Then you have what I believe is the Madonna at the front door with your classic Gnome down the stairs. Makes me want to sing this song even if there weren’t more then 2 things…

“One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?”

I’m so glad there is yard art to entertain me on my walks!

Lessons in Rain and Dew…

Deuteronomy 32:1-4 (NLT)

“Listen, O heavens, and I will speak!
Hear, O earth, the words that I say!
Let my teaching fall on you like rain;
let my speech settle like dew.
Let my words fall like rain on tender grass,
like gentle showers on young plants.
I will proclaim the name of the Lord;
how glorious is our God!
He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
how just and upright he is”

We are going back and forth this week from wet days to dry days. Yesterday was dry today is wet again. It’s nice that I don’t have to water any of my plants for now.  Hope your week is going well and you are being encouraged.

Sarah Bernhardt Peony~

I started with a Sarah Bernhardt and I have been bitten! I want more Peonies in my yard. I’ll be on the lookout when the time is right to plant some more.

On Sunday I bought a hummingbird feeder. My first of those, too. I want to set it somewhere out my computer window because a sweet hummingbird comes to visit everyday.

My neighbor found Mr. and Mrs. Ducks nest. It’s in one of their planters. There are 8 eggs in the nest. Mrs. Duck was sitting on the eggs when the neighbor showed me the spot. So soon we’ll see some little ducklings. I wonder how soon….

My week is thankfully starting slow but will move into hyper-mode soon.

Dear comes home tomorrow from a 6 day business trip to Chicago, yippee!

World Cup begins on Friday! No…really people, do you understand the magnitude of that for this soccer fan?!

Friday night my daughter’s boyfriend arrives for an 8 day visit before he heads off to bootcamp.

On Saturday after we watch the U.S.A./England World Cup game we head to Bowman Bay for a 3 hour kayak tour.

On Sunday my daughter will be walking in her graduation ceremony from the University of Washington!

Life is rich!

So for now I’m just letting this Sarah Bernhardt Peony intoxicate me with it’s fragrance.

James 1:17

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Thanks for stopping by and blessings on your week.

Between Storms ~ Mosaic Blue

We’ve had a couple dry days this week tucked between some very soggy ones. Saturday dawned dry and glorious.

My kids swung by to pick me up for the Sounders Soccer Game at Qwest field and the Blue and Green was proudly displayed everywhere. Some people go way out to show their colors. We had another record breaking crowd for MLS Soccer. Seattle is the best place to be if you are a soccer fan in the U.S.A.

Here I am with our son Josh and our DIL Laura after we stopped at the Taco truck for our Street tacos, 3 tacos for $5.00. It’s our traditional meal before the game. Oh good there’s no cilantro stuck in our teeth!

I was very happy that the Sounders shut out the New England Revolution 3-0 but another thing that made me very pleased was to finally meet Oliver face to face and to be able to hold him during the game. He slept the whole time grimacing when the crowds exploded in cheers. At the end of the game when I handed him back to his mom Bridget he woke up with a sweet smile for her.

He smiled while I held him, too.

Please visit Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday and Smiling Sally for Blue Monday.

I Sing the Mighty Power of God ~ Hymn

I Sing the Mighty Power of God

I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad, and built the lofty skies.
I sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day;
The moon shines full at God’s command, and all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord, who filled the earth with food,
Who formed the creatures through the Word, and then pronounced them good.
Lord, how Thy wonders are displayed, where’er I turn my eye,
If I survey the ground I tread, or gaze upon the sky.

There’s not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known,
And clouds arise, and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne;
While all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care;
And everywhere that we can be, Thou, God art present there.

words: Isaac Watts

Round Robin Photo Challenge ~ Garden Portraits

It’s time for the Round Robin Photo Challenge!

The Challenge: Take an overall photo of a garden, any garden, then choose one flower or one vegetable, and showcase it as a portrait. Really get in there and show us it’s beauty!

To see more interpretations of this challenge click over to the Round Robin Photo Challenge Blog.

 

National Doughnut Day!

To celebrate National Doughnut Day I went to a very nice specialty doughnut shop in Mill Creek, Washington today called Frost. That is real bacon on the Maple Bar and it was really really good! The other donuts are a Butterfinger Crunch and a German Chocolate. I don’ t know how they taste yet because 1 doughnut is already over my sweet limit. I dropped off the other Maple Bacon Bar to my daughter at work.

FFF ~ What’s Normal?

It’s Friday and time to consider the week gone by and highlight my favorite things. Please visit our gracious hostess Susanne at Living to Tell the Story to join in.

I’m beginning to wonder if life will ever be normal around here. What is normal? Maybe the word I’m looking for is routine. Other then Dear going to work Monday through Friday nothing is routine here yet. Seems like each week there is some major event that is different then the last weeks major event. Hmmm…maybe this is my new routine.

But onward and upward to my favorites.

1. Being done done done with our garage sale is definitely one of my favorites. Sighs with relief. I’ve enjoyed having cash in my wallet from the sale and paying for stuff with it instead of pulling out a card.

2. Enjoying time and food with loved ones on Memorial Day was good. The sun even broke through the clouds and Dear was able to barbecue on the deck!

3. In my yard…. Seeing my first ever Peony almost opening up. I really should plant more and if I don’t kill this one off I will. See that nutty duck on our barn/shop roof. He really keeps us entertained around here, too. And no Mr. and Mrs. Duck did not listen to me and they are still leaving squishy deposits on my deck!!

4. Yesterday was another dry day here in Western Washington so I stopped at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens and saw some pretty plants blooming. I really enjoy Dogwoods. That very round purple bloom caught my eye but I was too focused on photographing that I didn’t think to ask what the name of it is. Duh!

5. My last favorite this week is my new view from my computer desk. When we re-decorated our spare room the desk had to go up against this window so I now have this view instead of a view of the wall. I really like it. One of the nicest things about it is that birds come to visit this plant throughout the day and I’ve even had a hummingbird come late each afternoon for a visit. So far it’s been too quick for me to catch a photo. Yesterday I took the screen off the window and washed it inside and out so my view would be nicer. I only fell off the ladder once while washing the outside of the window. Tip: Do not put one of the ladder legs on top of a sink hole!!

So what has your week been like? Are things routine where you live or is life crazy?

 

The Fungus Among Me…

We had a short dry spell on Tuesday so I decided to mow the lawn because it had become quite unruly. I had my camera in my pocket when I spotted these in the lawn.

So like any good blogger I got down on my knees and took some photos.

They are such interesting looking growths.

FUNGI IN ART AND LITERATURE

From time to time, fungal hyphae penetrate the consciousness of artists. In the work of medieval Flemish painters, toadstools were often associated with Hell. Victorian illustrators in England took a more benign view, and developed a popular style that linked fairies and toadstools. Elements of this connection persist today. The colourful spotted cap of Fly Agaric, often associated with a gnome or sprite, remains a favourite with children’s illustrators, designers, advertisers, and the manufacturers of kitsch garden ornaments. The psychedelic sixties, of course, generated a mass of artwork that owes its origins to fungus-induced creativity.

Down the ages, from Shakespeare to J.K. Rowling, fungi have also sprouted regularly in literature. Shakespeare seems to have had fungus in mind when he penned The Tempest. Prospero observes that it is elves’ pastime to “make midnight mushrooms,” and one scholar has suggested that the fits of Caliban show that he was suffering from ergot poisoning. In recent times it’s no surprise to find fungal references at “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’ in the Harry Potter stories.

Writers often turn to fungi when searching for a metaphor for decay or rottenness. Examples abound and can be found in the works of many great poets and authors, including Spenser, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, D.H. Lawrence, and Emily Dickinson. Raymond Briggs’ cartoon creation, Fungus the Bogeyman, a celebration of much that children like to find revolting continues the tradition.

The best known-and perhaps most inspired-literary mushroom of all is the one nibbled by Alice in her Adventures in Wonderland. Eating from one side of the mushroom makes her grow larger, eating from the other side makes her shrink. It’s possible that author Lewis Carroll knew of the properties of Fly Agaric. One effect of this hallucinogenic fungus is to make objects appear larger or smaller in the user’s eye.

ht: The source of this information can be found here.