Monday, April 1, 2024
Spring Arrives
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Perfect Love
Monday, January 1, 2024
The Months
January brings the snow,
Wednesday, November 1, 2023
For All the Saints
Who Thee by faith
Thy name, O Jesus,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Thou, Lord, their Captain
Thou, in the darkness drear,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
We feebly struggle,
Yet all are one in Thee,
Alleluia, Alleluia!
The saints triumphant
The King of Glory
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Through gates of pearl
in praise of Father,
Alleluia, Alleluia! --William Walsham How, 1864
Monday, August 1, 2022
Corner of Heaven
California Poppy (also native to AZ) with some non-native poppies below |
Poppy with spiderwort [??] |
Sweet alyssum; with something from pea family below |
Rose, bred for hot environments |
Icelandic poppy |
Daughter's rendition of Icelandic poppy |
Black-eyed Susan, at various stages |
Friday, April 1, 2022
An Easter Carol
For Christ is risen and all the earth's at play.
Flash forth, thou Sun,
The rain is over and gone, its work is done.
Winter is past,
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.
Bud, Fig and Vine,
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine*.
Break forth this morn
In roses, thou but yesterday a Thorn**.
Uplift thy head,
O pure white Lily through the Winter dead.
Beside your dams
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs.
All Herds and Flocks
Rejoice, all Beasts of thickets and of rocks.
Sing, Creatures, sing,
Angels and Men and Birds and everything.
All notes of Doves
Fill all our world: this is the time of loves.
-Christina G. Rossetti (1830-1894)
**Compares the flowerless rose, all thorns "just yesterday", to the contrast between Good Friday, when the Lord died, to the blossom of His resurrection on Easter.
Tuesday, June 1, 2021
Signs of Change
In Romans 8:18-23, St. Paul wrote about how all creation was subjected to futility, to frustration, not because it did anything wrong, but because God decreed it. (See Genesis chapter 3 where the very ground was cursed because of humanity's sin. Sinful humanity could not be allowed to live on in an otherwise perfect creation.) Paul talks of creation groaning as if in labor pains, waiting to be set free.
Over the past 2 years, I have finally gotten my favorite flower, black-eyed Susans, to grow here, though outside of its range. This year, however, one of the plants is putting out some freakish flowers with multi fused heads. Below are photos of one with three fused heads developing.
open with some "normal" heads |
These links will provide you other black-eyed Susan photos and a poem I wrote about black-eyed Susans a couple years ago.
Saturday, May 1, 2021
"The Desert Shall Blossom"
In Isaiah 35:1, the Bible says:
"The wilderness and parched land will be glad:
And the desert-plain will rejoice and blossom."
These passages originally spoke of a spiritual blossoming with Messiah's coming. Secondarily, they hint at the perfection of the natural world in the recreation to come in heaven.
We are seeing a somewhat more literal version of this in our own backyard this spring. This is a mixture of area wildflowers and cultivars from elsewhere. Enjoy!
Common Poppy |
Shirley Poppy? |
African Daisies |
Phlox & Wood Sorrel (one of many things called "shamrock") |
Snap Dragons
|
Prickly Pear |
Drought Resistant Pine (Canary Island Pine?) |
Black eye Susan with Bachelor's Button
Black-eye Susans are my favorite flower. They are native to the Midwestern US. After many years of trying, I got them (with God's help!) to come up here last year. The above photo was about to open when I first posted. Now it has, with more to come. Below is a link to a poem I wrote about Black-eye Susans.