Homegrown Meals

Our meals are wonderfully heavy on homegrown 

garden produce this time of year. 

Can you guess which six vegetables in this meal 

were grown in our garden? [Hint: not the carrots]

New Nature Journal

An exciting order came from Europe last week - 

blank journals filled with watercolor paper. 

Elsa and I have been nature journaling on 

mixed media paper, which doesn't handle watercolors very well, so it was great to find 

some reasonably priced spiral bound pads 

of higher quality paper.



My first page was inspired by the novel view of 

a buckwheat field. I don't know if there are any 

in our county, but there are several about an 

hour east. Dad pulled over when I asked to see 

one up close.

The second page gave a pleasant afternoon spent on our front steps.

The 5 foot tall, 6 foot across 'Great Star' 

hydrangea by our garage caught my eye.

And when looking around for more to fill my 

page, I (maybe foolishly) attempted some 

of our rock collection displayed among the 

flower pots.

As always, I love the time spent learning more 

about the intricate varieties of God's creation... 

things I never would have taken time to notice before!

Words

Who else remembers "Auntie"?

My first glimpse of the internet in the late 1980's was using an online bulletin board by this name.

How things have changed since then. For example, to the best of my memory, our computer screen was about 6 inches and probably weighed more than my whole computer today. Back then we had no inkling of all we would do on a computer hooked up to the phone line (let alone a cell-phone beaming through thin air). It was just a novelty that we didn't take seriously as children. My cousins and I occasionally "logged on" to "post a comment" (terms I had not yet heard) on the bulletin board which anyone could read.

Our comments were mostly "Hi, Daniel" or a joke from our favorite, tattered joke book. Even that petered out long before the world-wide-web had any significant meaning.

But what has changed even more than the tech side is the appalling decline in human communications.

Oh, I know people are in touch more than ever now, though the methods of my childhood: snail-mail, telephone, and face-to-face (whatever that is in 2020?!) are on their way to extinction. It seems, so are English grammar and spelling.

Don't get me wrong. The internet is a compounded blessing to those of us who are ill and mostly home-bound for years. Being able to keep our off-site family daily updated with notes, quips, prayer requests, and photos is an unheard-of connection just a generation ago. Email is invaluable for keeping up with friends and conducting business. My sister can even start and run a whole business from home, thanks to the internet. And then being able to do our shopping from the couch - especially for specialty groceries - and having podcasts, audio books and Sunday sermons at our fingertips...

What concerns me most is the change in attitudes regarding human interaction. Have you noticed how less than 30 years online has drastically lowered standards in courtesy and decency? Kindness is the exception. Civility is rarely considered. You can say whatever you want to utter strangers and think nothing of tearing down and picking fights with friends and relatives. Even opinions are often couched in "fightin' words."

What a contrast to the list of standards we can read that George Washington set as his goal in his youth. No wonder he was so greatly respected and trusted and was such an effective leader for our country in times of bitter turmoil and war. [Side-note: I have read three biographies of Washington these years. Even the one "In Words of One Syllable" uses richer language than most writing now!]

What a greater contrast our online words are to the standards of relationships given by God, which were really the foundation of George Washington's character. 

For example:

Philippians 2:4
Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Ephesians 4:32
Be kind and compassionate... forgiving...

Psalm 19:14
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Philippians 4:8
Whatever is true...noble...right...pure...lovely... admirable...excellent...praiseworthy... think about such things.

Luke 6:45
...for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.

James 3:4-5
The tongue is like a small rudder turning a large ship, and...
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

(And to dig deeper, use a concordance to search the book of Proverbs for its many warnings about the power and use of the tongue.)

I cringe to think how an entire generation has now been raised with the internet's standards for using our words. How can we possibly raise the standard again? 

Only by looking to THE WORD. (John 1:1,14)

After typing all these words, I can only pray that this blog avoids the pitfall described by George MacDonald in A Quiet Neighborhood which described a person, "with an immense amount of mental inertia discharging itself in constant lingual activity about little nothings."

Joys of Summer

Picking and eating dessert outdoors



Hanging laundry on the line and enjoying 

the fresh, clean, sun-bleached scent



Happy cats ready for play



Garden tours



Picking bouquets to enjoy indoors

Harvest Begins

July brought us much fresh food for the picking.

Our year's supply of raspberries is now in the 

freezer, and we enjoyed some "pick-your-own" 

desserts in season.

When the self-seeded dill weed was tender, 

I spent an afternoon freezing that for salads 

and dressings the rest of the year.

We must be on to the 3rd planting of lettuce 

by now. Fresh salads every day!

In Florida we learned a new favorite way to 

cook broccoli -- on the grill!

Cucumbers and zucchini now fill our fridge 

- and our meals.

Pear dressing on chicken made for a 

nice variety in salads one week.

And kale season has begun with big pots 

of Zuppa Tuscana.

A Brief Visit, and More Nature Journaling

Guess who Frances-the-Cat brought us for a visit.



This poor thing (maybe a robin... anyone know??) 

was nowhere near to flying as it's wing feathers 

were just beginning to push out the ends of their quills.




After the trauma it had been through, the baby was 

only too glad to snuggle into my hand and have it's 

portrait sketched. Then we tried nursing it the rest 

of the day and got to hear it become chatty after a 

while. But by evening it began to have seizures, 

and by morning all the suffering was over. 

I am grateful for the time I had to closely study 

this amazing bit of God's creation which reminded

me of Matthew 10:29-31.

Around that time I also studied a Blue Jay's feather...



... some mushrooms from our lawn...



... and the flowers in pots on our deck and lawn swing.

A Rare Bike Ride and Its Consequences

When growing up, it seemed we used our bikes 

almost as much as our legs! Every year we 

looked forward to zipping 5-16 miles a day on 

paved bike trails while staying at a state park 

with our cousins. Otherwise we perfected our 

balance and coordination on the slithery 

gravel around home. 

Then came adult responsibilities and years 

of entrepreneurship and caregiving... 

followed by years of chronic illness with 

hardly strength to walk around the house.

But this summer Elsa and I got out for a 

delightful bike ride again! First we pedaled 

into the strong wind that tempered a hot sun, 

past the old schoolhouse...

... stopping to look at a wild rose, then listened 

to the wind swish through a wheat field as we 

coasted back home being pushed from behind.



But those 2-plus miles of joy carry a big 

price tag for Elsa who has been battling 

another adrenal near-crisis for months past. 

Would you pray for her? It is so hard to 

have days where she cannot even knit - 

let alone tackle the house work and 

cooking she feels calling her.

"We wait in hope for the LORD;

He is our help and our shield.

In Him our hearts rejoice, 

for we trust in His holy name.

May your unfailing love rest upon us, 

O LORD,

even as we put our hope in you."

Psalm 33:20-22