I love our backyard. 🙂 It’s so green, comfortable and restful. Ignore the fences and background…let the stepping stones draw you to the ring of chairs, and come sit alongside me with a cup of tea. We’ll talk about life while we just relax from this busy world for a moment. Or thirty. 🙂
i love this tree in our front yard, so when we went on vacation last week and I saw that the buds were about to burst into bloom, I was a little worried that we’d miss its full beauty. But when we returned on Friday, it was in all it’s glory. Harsh weather this weekend caused many of the petals to start falling, but the scent is still intoxicating and delicious when you walk past and the pale pink flowers still make me smile.
All the blooming trees and bushes – lilacs, azalea, dogwood, crabapple, pear and chokecherry, inspire me to want to plant things in the fresh dirt. This weekend I got a bunch of rhubarb cuttings from my parents and can’t wait for those to produce for the first part of summer. Tomorrow I’m going to make a trip to the greenhouse nearby to pick up herbs of all varieties for my hydroponic garden and some flowers to make various pretty pots around the house. I’m not really a gardener, but I try to make our yard and environs pretty for the short months we can enjoy living, flowering plants. 🙂
I am greatly anticipating our Farmer’s Market starting and visiting it on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s to pick up fresh vegetables and fruit from local farmers. Sometime soon I also want to visit the St. Paul and Minneapolis Farmer’s Markets – they are the grandpappys of markets in the Twin Cities – overflowing abundance of plants, fruits, vegetables and other delectable edibles like fresh bread and amazing scones. I could spend a. lot. of. cash. there. 🙂
I really, really love spring and I’m so glad its finally here!
I had an idea in mind for this photo, but as per usual, couldn’t make it happen due to my poor skillz. I need to have some serious one on one time with my poor camera some morning soon and get it figured out so I can do better w/ manual settings and get the look I have in my head onto the camera.
So here’s the photo, in which I wanted to feature our budding chokecherry tree. The others are my “outtakes”/what I wore photos. Basically – I’m just SOOOOO happy its spring! It won’t be long before these red buds turn into beautiful pink flowers and then red leaves with little red berries. I love this tree in our front yard. Happy Spring!
this spring, as the white ice and brown barrenness of winter gave way to the green mist of growing grass and budding trees, I was reminded of the Rich Mullins song, “The Color Green”. It is quite possibly my favorite song of the many he wrote. My friend Peggy introduced me to it when she and our friend Heidi and I were driving back from a wonderful weekend in Stehekin Valley, WA in May of 2005. I can still picture driving on Highway 2 over Stevens Pass and down into Gold Bar, listening to this song absolutely blow me away with its beauty.
and now, every spring, I think about how much I love the color green. it’s something so simple – the blue sky and the green grass and leaves, but it reminds me so poignantly of new life, a fresh start and the kind, steadfast love of a God that never changes. I love the phrase, “winter unfrozen and free to run away now” – can’t you just picture the snow melting and running off into a field that bursts into sprigs of green shooting forth from the soil?
then there is the music – a lilting, Irish motif with incredible joyful spirit and verve. You can’t help but smile as the penny whistle rips through a trill and the orchestra swells with the melody of the color green. It makes me think of the part in the book by C.S. Lewis, “The Magician’s Nephew”, when Aslan creates the world and everything has a song. I think the color green has this melody. This is the music of spring.
I praise the Lord for all his tenderness to this work of His hands – I thank Him for the color green!
And the moon is a sliver of silver
Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter’s shop
And every house must have it’s builder
And I awoke in the house of God
Where the windows are mornings and evenings
Stretched from the sun
Across the sky north to south
And on my way to early meeting
I heard the rocks crying out
I heard the rocks crying outBe praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praiseAnd the wrens have returned and they’re nesting
In the hollow of that oak where his heart once had been
And he lifts up his arms in a blessing for being born again
And the streams are all swollen with winter
Winter unfrozen and free to run away now
And I’m amazed when I remember
Who it was that built this house
And with the rocks I cry outBe praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color greenBe praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise
Today, after we returned from a run/walk, we needed a snack. So I laid out corn chips and ham slices, hunted for some salsa in the pantry and we snacked. While I went into the kitchen to get water for us, I looked out the window and thought, “I want to remember this beautiful moment,” and thankfully my iPod was close at hand and I snapped this.
Things I love about this photo:
Other things that made me happy on this lovely spring day:
early this morning (as in 5am early) I woke up to two sounds – the first, Jackson crying. He’s been wakeful early in the mornings lately, which I’m not sure what to do about. The second sound was a constant chirp, almost like a smoke detector protesting its lack of battery power. It took me a few moments to realize that what I was hearing was a BIRD!
Yes, the birds have made their way back to snowy Minnesota. It may not quite be “spring” as we know it, but the snow is melting, the temperatures are warming up and I know that in the next month, the green mist of spring will spread across the brown and barren landscape of winter. I always think of the phrase “Aslan is on the move!” when winter starts to melt into spring. Not even the long, cold, icy grip of the past several months can hold over a sovereign God who appoints the seasons.
Our layers of winter clothes will soon be unnecessary and I’ll be able to break out my beloved sandals. 🙂 We’ll pull the deck furniture out of the garage and sit in the sunshine to eat our breakfast. I’ll hang diapers and sheets on the line and Jack will make mud pies.
Later this morning an entire flock of robins, mixed with a pair or two of yellow finches, purple finches, chickadees, starlings and blackbirds filled our chokecherry tree for a morning snack. Jack was enthralled and their morning song cheered both of us on this dreary day. Its heartening to see the bright colors of orange, yellow and pink in their feathers and know that this is the beginning of my favorite 8 months of the year.
jomegs: a little slice of my life 