Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun25

Create Art

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I contemplate what garden art to create as sales for starter plants have died down for now.  My antique pottery finds will make homes for some of our succulents this week, and tarnished serving spoons will make garden signs.  Relic stepping stones will feature treasures along my “gardening path”.    Pieces of  pottery,  hand trowels, canning jar lids, and  bottle caps, everything old will be cleverly displayed in these new garden stepping stones.  Creating something new from old, this is an art form to me.  Creating new recipes from standards ingredients is another art form to me.  The abundant herbs, pineapple sage and lemon thyme are needing the old branches pruned, to make way for new growth.  Those old leaves make a new crockpot dish with  chicken and brown rice for Dean & I’s Sunday dinner.   Yummy garden art!You know, God never gets tired of creating.  He is not done with me yet.  Thank you for that grace, my Father.  Many distractions, yet simply put, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”   My heart cries out to God this day, “God be My potter, I am Your vessel.”

Jun21

June Bugs

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This June the Japanese beetles made their way to our yard.  (They are not really June bugs, but they arrive in June in my world.)  And of course, we have much for them to munch on as our greenhouse is still in reconstruction.   These shiny metallic looking green bugs seem to love our basil, and tasted the hydrangeas,  geraniums, and hibiscus.   We are thankful as the plants’ temporary home, our green screen house seems to capture the little critters.  And while they mate on the screen, we capture them into jars that become their coffins.  Dean & I seem to have conquered this bug invasion, but are on guard everyday, morning and night for the next  couple of weeks.   Beware!

Jun21

Close In Many Ways

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My identical twin sister and I are close in many ways.  Of course, we are close in age.  But our looks, height, weight, markings, hair color, skin color, etc are very close as well.    Those young childhood years we were instant playmates.  Though during the junior and senior high school years we developed our own interests and friendships.  So many personality traits are different.   Yet we share a common interest in organic gardening, art, and the simplicity in living as mature adults.  There is a close, understood  bond with twins.  And as we get older, this rings true in our relationship.  Here we are, my twin sister Margie & I at age 2.  I would love to hear your twin story.

Jun8

Friends Forever

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I dedicate this post to my Aunt Shirley & Uncle Lee, childhood sweethearts and best friends for life.  They were married 50 years ago in May.  The 1st photo displays the fun loving couple I will always remember in my heart, and their friends and family.  Included are my father (to the left of the bride) and my mother (to the right of the groom).   The 2nd photo is at their 50th wedding anniversary celebration with their children and grandchildren.  We lost dear Aunt Shirley on June 6 after many months of battling lung cancer, she died from a seizure.  I love you, Aunt Shirley and Uncle Lee. 

Jun5

The Ambiance and Menu

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The ambiance and local menu tonight was colorful.  My huge kitchen is decorated with vases of our cut flowers and the fireplace mantle is overcome by beautiful blue hydrangeas from my parents’ yard.  Dean & I’s  dinner plates were filled with roasted spring root veggies and beef  farm fresh by friends who allow their cattle to graze in their farm’s natural pastureland.  I sit on my patio listening to the evening chatter of the birds and crickets until the summer night sky is dotted with fire flies. I needed some beauty in my life today.

My feline companions bat at the moth and June bug on the patio screen hoping to get a hold of them.  Celine and Lily will need to stay inside as the neighborhood Great Horned owl visits our tall backyard maple tree some evenings.  This may be one of those evenings.  We protect our animals from harm with barriers like screen doors.  Maybe similar to how our God sets up boundaries for us.  I take in the beauty of our green friends, the plants we care for everyday.  Tonight I will not water or trim or plant.  I will sit and enjoy the greenery.  They endured the sudden hail storm yesterday.  Our elephant ear , banana trees, and birds of paradise have ripped leaves now.  These plants will come through after some shedding.  Is not life like that?  We get hammered by hard blows,  unwarrantly and needlessly.  Yet, we rise again to be ourselves, probably better people for it if we allow.  Thank you God for the beauty my eyes behold tonight, and the reminder that the heart heals.

Jun1

Today & Every Morning

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I work in the county seat of Clayton, Missouri, the  hub for many financial institutions, businesses, and the government offices for St. Louis County.  Every morning when I arrive next to the Police Headquarters building, a peregrine falcon calls from the Commerce Bank building, which is at least 20 stories high.  It is a destinct call, and it echos between the other tall skyscrapers.  Today was no exception.  Although I appreciate the photo of the week challenge, to take  a photo of this peregrine falcon would show up as a speck in the photo as I do not have  a  zoom lens.   I cannot enter the rooftop of the bank building.  I am sharing an online photo of a peregrine falcon found on the city hall and courthouse in Minneapolis.   I have yet to see this falcon and his companion up close other than through binoculars.  I see remnants of where they have been, torn feathered wings of pigeons along the sidewalks and on top of my 5-story building.  Someday I may witness an attack in flight.  Until then, I enjoy the echos of their calls to each other.   They seem to need each other.