My neighborhood lost another stately oak tree today in the rush to tear down small, old houses and build big, new houses. Seeing the stump of the tree reminded me of a poem I love, one which you may think is trite and overused. But I’d like to share it with you anyway: Continue reading
I just had to share this cool moment with you. A short time ago, I walked by a vase that was holding two gladiolas (gladioli?) from my garden. These were flowers I had cut and brought into the house at least four days ago.
In case you don’t know what gladiolas are, here are some sample pictures. I’m not in any way endorsing this nursery. I just like their pictures of glads.
They look like a sword filled with flowers one above another. One problem is that they keep tipping over because they’re so heavy. When the stems snap completely in two, I bring them inside and put them in a vase.
But here’s the issue I’m having. Ants love glads. They invade the flowers by the hundreds, or so it seems when I bring a glad inside. As I walked by the vase holding the glads, I noticed a dark blob floating on top of the water in the vase. So I stopped to check it out. Continue reading
Today’s post title has been my marching order to myself lately, along with my prayer flung up to Heaven. For many reasons, my soul has not been still lately.
Just one of the reasons for my jitters: I’m working on a huge project that’s in God’s hands, but as the deadline approaches, I find that I’m struggling to leave it in His capable hands. So I’m reminding myself of the absolute necessity of letting Him lead me, instead of me trying to lead myself. And one of the best ways I know to do that is through music. Continue reading
The title of today’s post is best read in a British accent, a la Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In that movie, there’s a scene set in the Middle Ages in which men are hauling carts through a village calling, “Bring out your dead. Bring out your dead.” The plague has hit, and the men are hauling away the dead. Now, in case you have been hiding under a rock for the last several decades or irreverent, comedic farce isn’t your preferred movie genre, you need to understand that nothing about Monty Python is serious. So try to imagine the humor of the scene that ensues:
A man is trying to get his elderly relative onto the cart, despite the fact that the elderly man, though frail, is still very much alive. He keeps protesting, “I’m not dead yet.” But the younger man doesn’t want to miss the opportunity of the carts coming through the village and have to wait until the next one.
Well, that phrase, “I’m not dead yet” has been running through my head all morning, thanks to a visit from an agricultural extension agent to check out some dead and ailing trees at our place in the mountains. Continue reading
Some of you may have wondered what kind of tree is pictured at the top of my blog. It’s called a Palo Verde tree, and it’s the state tree of Arizona.
I took several photos of this tree when I visited the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix three years ago, including the one in the blog’s header and this one below:
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| A Palo Verde tree at the Desert Botanical Gardens, Phoenix |
The tree transfixed me. Born and bred in the southeast, I’m accustomed to tall pines, giant oaks and maples, and abundant magnolias, cherry trees and more. But what had me spellbound about this tree was its green trunk. I had never seen such a color on a tree trunk in my life. Flower stems are supposed to be green, sure, but tree trunks? In my part of the world, tree trunks are brown. Continue reading
The Flourishing Tree 