Tag Archives: heart

Feb6

Texas Tea (Part 1)

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“Texas does not, like any other region, simply have indigenous dishes. It proclaims them. It congratulates you, on your arrival to having escaped from the slop pails of the other 49 states.” ~ Alistair Cooke ~ Quite a bold statement about the culinary creations in Texas considering the wonderful Italian pasta dishes on The Hill in St. Louis to the creamy seafood bisque found along the Oregon coast to the smoked northern pike in Minnesota. Texas is where Dean & I are headed for a mini vacation to inhale some sunshine and reunite with the Gall cousins. The family is celebrating his aunt’s 80th birthday on Saturday. We fly into Dallas/Ft. Worth tomorrow afternoon. So when you think of Texas food, do you think of huge sirloin steaks smothered with spicy BBQ sauce or keg of beer or Tex-Mex chili? Well, I think “Texas tea”. No, not the kind of “Texas tea” from Beverly Hillbillies. I am envisioning seated in a tea room sipping on a cup of rose tea and savoring a freshly baked herb scone surrounded with potted geraniums, English ivy,and lace tablecloths. Why? I am not sure, other than I am a romantic at heart. Don’t get me wrong, I love the outdoor life, earth, farming, critters, blue jeans, and cowgirl boots. But the more refined me, likes to wear a simple floral dress or blouse/skirt duo with a lace sweater and slight heels while visiting a local tea room establishment. So Dean & I will find such a vignette in Arlington/Ft. Worth area this weekend. I will write about our discoveries in “Texas Tea (Part 2)”. Maybe a recipe or two will be revealed as well.
Texas

Dec14

The Stars Are Brightly Shining

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Before the rains come, we decided on a mid-week trip to Boone Hollow Farm last night to deliver our work station for the greenhouse. If it is too wet, we have to walk into the farm. We miss our jeep! The 18-passenger van is too heavy, and our jeep is still needing a new engine. Carrying this huge, heavy repurposed wood shelf and counter top up the hill to our greenhouse would be next to impossible this weekend with the rainy forecast. We invited my oldest daughter, son-in-law, and their three children to join us. So glad we opted to take the 15-minute drive last night! Christmas lights scattered throughout on the country homes and barns presenting quite a show for our eyes. Our Charlie Brown spruce tree shined with blue in the distance visible from the country highway. On the hill, next to the greenhouse the lights got brighter as we came up the hill. Those solar lights are awesome!
But the real celestial show was yet to be seen… An ominous night sky in the countryside of Defiance, MO with a shooting star visible every 2 or 3 minutes. Our Ella Serene and Michael Elijah witnessed their first shooting star last night, with 20 more to follow. A cold winter night, yet it warmed my heart to see God’s creations surround and feel His love blanket my husband, children, and grandchildren. Singing “O Holy night, the stars are brightly shining …” The grace of Jesus’ birth is for my family and yours. I read in the media this morning, apparently we witnessed the Geminid meteor shower.Shooting Star

Oct30

Alternative Energy Sources

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Dean & I are waiting to hear word about our access to electric for the greenhouse.  According to the electric co-op, the barn down the hill may not have enough ampage to heat, circulate air, and provide light in the nightime for our 1300+ square foot greenhouse.  We have redesigned the greenhouse so half will be a greenhouse (so 650 square feet needs electricity), and the other half will be a lathe or hoop house for raised beds of vegetables to grow 9 months out of the year.  I wanted to have those beds made already, with a winter crop of organic spinach, garlic, and root vegetables, but family matters have taken priority.  Alternative energy sources will be sought, if need be.  In the meantime our plants are sheltered in two different garages with “plant lights” and space heaters to be installed this week to keep them green and alive during this transition.  I dislike this in-between time, but did not have the heart to let the hard freeze kill the green life we have cared for this past year.  Cannot believe, but it will be 1 year mid-November when we bought the greenhouse and adopted everything in it.    Do you have any ideas for alternative energy sources in Missouri?   Please share.

Aug30

Urban Farmers & Their Markets

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EarthDance Farms is a non-profit organization that grows farmers as well as organic veggies and herbs.  I participated in their freshman program last growing season.  This program is what spurred my husband and I to purchase a greenhouse and created Deanna Greens And Garden Art.  The farm is in the heart of the urban culture of Ferguson, Missouri.  But while farming in the middle of a field, you feel like you are miles from the next neighbor.  The female staff at EarthDance Farms are featured in a recent article “Organic Farming Attracts Women”. Please read about their adventures. http://magissues.farmprogress.com/MOR/MR07Jul12/mor008.pdf magissues.farmprogress.com.  Here is a EarthDance Farms photo taken at the Ferguson Farmers’ Market, as urban and farmer you can get at one time.  Visit there one Saturday morning! http://fergmarket.com/

Aug16

Sliver of Pink

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At dusk the sunset shown scattered slivers of pink while driving to St. Charles County from Pike County.  It reminded me of the sliver of  pink on my father’s cheeks Grandpa pointed out while he and I visited Dad last evening.  My 97-year old grandfather had not been able to make the 1-hour trip to see his son for 7 weeks due to the  summer heat wave and car engine malfunctions.   We made this trip possible especially this week.  Hospice care seems to think this may be my father’s last week.  The two, father and son greeted each other with gladness in their hearts and faces.  Something I will never forget. 

It seems wrong for a father to say “goodbye” to his son, no matter how old you are. 

Their last words “You take care, son.”  “See you later, Pops!”

Good bye is not forever … Thank You, Jesus for eternal life!

Aug6

Porch Meals and Hearts Mesh

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The rains came twice over the weekend!  It was like a miracle!  And with it came cooler air, more like normal summer temps, low 90’s.  We loaded our plants into the van in the wee hours Saturday morning, to make it to the Lake Saint Louis Farmer’s Market.  It was storming, but I kept at it in my rain poncho and Dean with his hat.  Our plants seemed happier, as well as their gardeners!   Later, I trimmed sun-scorched branches from some ferns, and moved them to more shade under the dogwood tree.  Sunday we repotted plants.  Our tropicals are gigantic, growing as long as they have water in their roots.  They thrive in this humidity. Dean & I met  at the front porch on several occasions this weekend. We  watched the storms come in and shared porch meals.  The green ambiance allows conversation to flow.  The electronic devices in the house don’t have that skill!  Our hearts mesh when surrounded with nature.  Whether camping, walking in the woods, and sitting on our porch bench with lovely greenery and birdhouses surround, life is simpler with plants and birds.  At least, most of the time!

 

Aug3

Purple Haze Carrots and Other Veggies

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This record breaking summer heat and drought is making for miserable working conditions for Missouri farmers.   Dean & I are a part of the local agriculture scene, though we farm more for organic promotion, recreation, and creation purposes.    For the farmer who is required to be outdoors all day and everyday, it is disheartening to see your crops dry up and wither in the sun.  My friends at EarthDance Farms as well as all the local farmers cannot seed any more carrots, beets, and beans for a fall crop because the earth is rock hard, and the seeds cannot germinate without rain.  I miss my favorites: purple haze carrot, candy cane beets, and tender  bush green beans!   Please pray for rains, several rains for Missouri and our neighboring midwest states.  We need God’s divine intervention. Deanna Greens and Garden Art’s tropicals and houseplants such as bird of paradise, hibuscus, banana trees, spider plants, red leaf philodenrens, arrowheads, rabbit foot ferns, and asparagus ferns love this heat and humidty as long as they are under our shade trees during the day and have plenty of water.  We water everything twice a day when it is over 100 degrees, which means almost everyday for the past 6 weeks!  Our oldest daughter took care of the plants, cats, and house while we vacationed in cooler Minnesota.  We were so thankful for a much needed break!   Now onward to the Saturday markets and the rebuild of our greenhouse.

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.”

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.

May22

God’s Hands On Earth

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I ponder the Photo Challenge of the Week: Hands.  I keep coming back to the famous art work by Michelangelo’s “Hands of God And Adam”.  Adam literally means “earth” in Hebrew, what God called His first man.  This Hebrew word is derived from a word which means “to be red”, ruddy color like man’s skin or the Akkadian word “adamu” meaning “to make”.  According to Genesis, Adam was made from the earth “adamah”.   

With gardening, I feel the presence of God in all my senses.  I touch the dirt, the living earth.  I smell the basil as I plant it in the terra cotta pot, and hear the raindrops fall on its leaves.  My eyes and heart see the delicate pink hibuscus blossom opened wide to the sunlight peaking above the green tree tops.  And I taste the goodness of God when I indulge in my salad greens.  God is good!