All Things Bright & Beautiful

 

Refrain: 

All things bright and beautiful,  

 All creatures great and small, 

All things wise and wonderful, 

The Lord God made them all. 

Each little flow'r that opens,

Each little bird that sings, 

He made their glowing colors, 

He made their tiny wings. [Refrain]  

The purple-headed mountain 

The river running by,

The sunset and the morning 

That brightens up the sky. [Refrain]  

The cold wind in the winter, 

The pleasant summer sun, 

The ripe fruits in the garden: 

He made them every one. [Refrain] 

He gave us eyes to see them, 

And lips that we might tell 

How great is God Almighty, 

Who has made all things well. [Refrain]

-Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848 [female]

Cecil Frances Alexander

Spring Arrives

             

For, see, the Winter is past:

Its rain is over and gone away.

The flowers appear in the land;

The time of singing has arrived,

And the voice of the turtledove 

               is heard in our land.

The fig tree gives out her green figs,

And the vines, the tender grapes,

Give a good smell.

--Song of Solomon 2: 11-13a  

   (translated c.m.b., 2024)

Lamb of God

 "Look, the Lamb of God,

Who takes away the sin of the world!"  

      (John 1:29b, 36b)

So said John the Baptist,

The voice of one who calls out. (Isaiah 40:3)

He is the Lamb of God,

Not the Ram of God.

"Your Lamb must be unblemished,

A one-year-old male..."  

     (Exodus 12:5a; Leviticus l4:10; Ezekiel 46:13)

Most things are cleaned with blood:

Without the shedding of blood,

There is no forgiveness.  (Hebrews 9:22)

Make One still young the offering,

The last of such bloody suffering; (Daniel 9:27)

Yet His soul shall rise to see

The spiritual children He brought to be.  (Isaiah 53:10)

The Ancient Lamb not very old;

With blood worth more than even gold:

It sets the human captives free

From sin's eternal misery.  (I Peter 1:19; Exodus, etc)

How much more will the Blood of Christ,--

He who offered Himself to God

Through the Eternal Spirit

As an unblemished sacrifice--

Cleanse our consciences from dead works

To serve the Living God?  (Hebrews 9:14)

As a lamb to the slaughter He was led;

And as a sheep before her shearers is silent,

So He did not open His mouth.  (Isaiah 53:7b)

"And I, 

If I be lifted up from the earth,

I will draw all people to myself."  (John 12:32) 

So taught the Lamb

Before His time had come.

"The Son of Man 

Must suffer many things.

He must be killed,

And on the third day raised to life."

  (Luke 9:21, 43, 18:31; Mark 9:32; Matthew 17:23)

Myriads of myriads, 

Thousands of thousands,

Angels and elders 

All saying with a loud voice,

"Worthy is the Lamb,

Who was slaughtered,

To receive power and wealth and wisdom

And might and honor and glory and blessing!"  

     (Revelation 5:12)  

For the Lamb,

The One in the center of the throne,

Will shepherd them.

And He will lead them 

To Living Fountains of Waters.  (Revelation 7:17a)

                 --translations & short verse c.m.b. (c) 2024

The Months

 
January brings the snow,

Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain*,

Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes large and shrill,

Stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

Scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

Skipping by their fleecy damns.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

Fills the children's hands with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,

Apricots and gillyflowers**.

August brings the sheaves of corn***,

Then the harvest home is borne.

Warm September brings the fruit,

Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasants,

Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast,

Then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet*,

Blazing fire and Christmas treat. 

     ---Sara Coleridge (1802-1852)

     English writer Sara Coleridge is most known as the only daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and an editor of his work, particularly after her father and her husband died.  However, she was an author and translator in her own right.

     In the 21st century, a discovery of over 100 of her unpublished poems was made.  A lecturer at University College, London, Dr. Swaab, discovered them in the Coleridge manuscripts and published them in 2007.

*Many places in the northern hemisphere will still snow in December & February. The British Isles, being smallish and surrounded by water, do not always have the conditions for snow.

**Gillyflowers:  most often, another term for "carnations", though the term may be applied to other flowers,

***Corn: old-school, Old World, meant "wheat" (whereas New World "corn" was called some variant of "maize.")

****Though this poem is not overtly religious, Sara was.  She opposed the Oxford Movement (Tractarian Movement), in the 1840s.  The movement led to an Anglican Church that was more "high church" or more similar to Roman Catholicism, as opposed to other protestant ideas present in England.  [Gerard Manly Hopkins, whose work is featured elsewhere in this blog, did approve of the Tractarian Movement.  Eventually he went so far as to formally become Roman Catholic.]

Simple Pleasures

 

Rather than coloring intricate adult coloring books, I like to color simple children's coloring books.  I like to get done sooner, but I also spend extra time shading them with pencils.

This was done at a coffee shop.  I was there with my husband, who's been on some convalescent leave. (His health issue worked out quite well.   We feel very touched by grace.)  He worked on a very intricate adult coloring page.

I tried to make the daisies look a bit like my favorite black-eyed Susan flowers.  I don't know that I succeeded.  The purplish-blue ones are alternately called bachelor's buttons, cornflower or chicory.

Backyard Flowers

      

     Once again, our backyard is awash with blooms before the insane heat of summers here takes off.  We were blessed with far more rain than is typical, plus some cooler weather, this winter and spring.

     Towards the end, you'll see the lemon blossoms.  You may catch sight of parts of the lemon fruits in these pictures.  You'll also see some of the lemon bushes near the bachelor's buttons [see below]. I say bushes because this is how citrus naturally grows.  To have 'trees', you have to repeatedly prune lower branches and paint the trunks white to prevent various types of damage.  We let ours go as shrubs, and we get a LOT of lemons.  This also allowed a second bush to grow up as a root shoot, filling a spot where we had cut out a thorny bougainvillea bush.  (We have one of those in the front yard, not pictured here.  It has hot pink, papery 'rays' around a cluster of small white flowers.  It's surprising this bougainvillea blooms anymore, considering its age and how many times it has been trimmed back.) 

     This year, there are a lot of Icelandic-type poppies in various colors.  (Our California poppies show foliage but no blooms yet.  You can check out some of the previous posts that show backyard blooms in past years.  You'll see the orange California poppies there.  Use the menu item with my name.)  Poppies are in the "mallow family", along with hibiscus and other flowers.

     There are also the 'cornflower blue' bachelor's buttons, or chicory.  Yes, the roots of these are used to make the ground chicory southerners use in coffee sometimes.  A couple of our bachelor's buttons, in close proximity, are about 3-1/2 feet (slightly over one meter) tall. These flowering plants are closely related to dandelions.  All of these are in the "composite family", which includes sunflowers and daisies.  (Discussions of composite flowers are in my older posts on backyard blooms.)

    Speaking of daisies in the composite family, there's a spot of orange in some of these pictures. This is an African daisy.  We actually had bigger swaths of both yellow and orange African daisies in other sections of the yard.  They've mostly bloomed out and gone to seed.

    Return readers may recall that my favorite flower is the black-eyed Susan.  Though it is rather hot for them by the time we get enough hours of sun to suit them here, we've had some success off and on the past few years getting some to bloom.  (It took years and lots of over-seeding for any success.)  I believe I saw the foliage of one 'Susan' tucked away.)

     Yet one other bloom on the scrawny looking shrub is one form of plant we call 'bird of paradise' here.  It comes in a blue and purple blooming variety and a yellow and orange blooming variety.  There is a completely different type of flower, striking in fiery shades, which blooms here also called bird of paradise. The bloom is somewhat bird shaped.  We do not have those.

    Please enjoy what we do have.  For those of you still "shivering" in colder climes, maybe this will perk you up.  Spare us some sympathy when we're broiling by the end of May!

Consider*

Consider 

The lilies of the field whose bloom is brief:--

We are as they;

Like them we fade away,

As doth a leaf.

Consider 

The sparrows of the air of small account:

Our God doth view

Whether they fall or mount**--

He guards us, too.

Consider 

The lilies that do neither toil nor spin,

Yet are most fair:--

What profits all this care

And all this coil***?

Consider 

The birds that have no barns nor harvest-weeks;

God gives them food:--

Much more our Father seeks

To do us good.   --Christina Rossetti, 1866  

*"consider the lilies and the birds [ravens]"; Luke 12:22-31, Matthew 6:25-33

**mount the wing, take flight

***mortal coil: this fleshly, physical life

Corner of Heaven

 

     Once again, I'm featuring some of the flowers that have grown up in our yard this spring and summer, as well as our pollinating drought-resistant pine.  Some are native to this area and others are not. Enjoy!

California Poppy (also native to AZ)
with some non-native poppies below

                 Snap dragons with African daisies

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

An Easter Carol

               

                Spring bursts to-day,
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)

  

*Habakkuk chapter 3
**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.