March 31, 2013 - Easter Day

Alleluia!  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

 

The day begins with a beautiful sunrise

The sanctuary is again filled with color and light

The banners echo what we proclaim

The courtyard cross blossoms

Today is Easter Day - the delight of my heart, the promise of the presence of God with us always, the joy of light.  Christus Victor!  Christ Jesus is victorious over death...so what is there to fear?  God is with us, God is for us, and all earth joins in the chorus of joy.

 

I've been to all of two services, and a portion of a third, enjoyed the Boy Scout breakfast, and wandered in my garden.  The lamb is roasting in the oven, and the scent is filling the house with the promise of a feast.  The skies are blue, the birds are singing, the flowers are in bloom.  Is it always like this on Easter?  No...I've been through several that were freezing cold, and a handful that had rain and clouds.  Somehow, it doesn't seem to matter.  The proclamation of resurrection overcomes gloominess, at least for me.  This day brings me into a heart of celebration, of love, of possibility.  Christ is risen indeed!  Alleluia!



March 30, 2013 - A Day on the Columbia

California gull

Double-crested cormorant rookery

Canadian goose, and blooming currant bush

Immature bald eagle

Can you find the black crowned night heron?

Today my husband and I spent a good deal of the day on the river, in our boat.  We fished, we watched birds, we caught a bit of sun, we talked, we dodged all the tumbleweeds in the river.  We caught no fish...which meant we didn't have to clean any!  We saw lots of birds - above is a small sample.  The sunshine!  It got up over seventy degrees today.  And good, quiet, restful, relaxed conversation. 

 

On getting home, we hauled out my kayak to see if I could safely get in and out.  I figured I would be able to get in, but that getting out could be difficult.  I had that backwards!  It's not too difficult to alter my manner of getting in, so if I can find a companion, I should be back on the river soon, at least for short periods of time.

 

Finally, we joined our son and daughter-in-law for an anniversary celebration.  Good food, good conversation, lots of laughter, and the sheer joy of being with family.  What more could I possibly ask of one single day?

March 29, 2013 - Good Friday

Today is Good Friday, the day on which we remember the trials, suffering, and death of Jesus.  It is a good day, because it is the day in which we are shown that God stands with us, even in death.  God stands with us, through the greatest of pain.  God stands with us, not apart from us, but willing to even enter into the depths of our agony, our forsakeness, our solitude.  Since Jesus suffered and died at the hands of people just like us, since Jesus was scorned, abused, mistreated, and unjustly accused, and since Jesus is a part of the Trinity...then what?  Well, for me, then I know there is no place I can go Jesus has not been ahead of me.  There is no depth of trial, no crisis of abandonment, no cruelty or treachery that God in Jesus has not already known, already experienced personally.  And for me, that shows me that God in Jesus, indeed God in the Trinity, always stands with me.  Do I always feel this clearly?  No.  But I trust in it with my whole being.  God is for me, who can be against me?  God is also for you...who can be against you?  The depth of that trust is, in itself, a gift of God.  And it is offered to all who will receive it.

March 28, 2013 - A Road Trip

Fennel ice cream and palmier

Main Street, Walla Walla

Petits Noirs, my favorite chocolate shop

Japanese quince

Honeybee on flowering pear

Home in time for sunset over the river

Today I enjoyed a road trip with two friends.  We visited second-hand stores in Walla Walla, found a wonderful bakery, had a delicious lunch, then went to Milton Freewater and visited a cider tasting room and our favorite chocolate shop - Petits Noirs.  Outside the shop were lots of blossoms, including the tree and the shrub pictured above.  The scents were heavenly, and the bees were extremely busy.

 

It was a treat to spend a day, simply being, with no specific purpose.  When I got home, I wandered in the garden (the deer visited last night, and from the size of the hoofprints, I think there was a fawn).  I pulled a few weeds, then went inside and prepared dinner, which was ready just about in time for my husband to get home.  We enjoyed time on the deck before dinner, and yet another beautiful sunset...then had the fun of a phone call from friends in California we've known since we were in high school.

Tomorrow is Good Friday.  It will be a day of both remembrance and of thankfulness.

March 27, 2013 - The Evening, the Morning...

and What Happened in Between

 

Off the front deck - sunset

From the back deck - sunrise

The "what happened in between" involves a good friend, her sister, her mother, and a posse of sheriffs and friends.  My friend's mom has dementia, and is always trying to walk back to Idaho.  Last night, she made some good progress in that direction.  (Yes, she was going in the right direction.)  She made it several miles, before being found by, or finding, some good people who took her in.  Meanwhile, I sat with my friend's sister, as my eyesight makes me a lousy scout at night.  The call for help came well after I'd taken the top photo - but I was back home by 10:00, in time for a normal bedtime, so I could get up and take the lower photo.

 

Mom was well, and actually looked happy and invigorated by the exercise (and perhaps the tea and cookies offered by those who located her.)  The sisters were, of course, distraught, exhausted, between tears and laughter.  (They had just located a secure home for Mom that day!)  All the friends and sheriffs that helped in the search...well, what can you say?  That's what community is for, after all!  The beauty of friends, of friendship, of love, of love that goes so deep that lots of people go out and look for a wandering woman...for it is love that calls us into such places.  And so, Maundy Thursday begins.  Maundy, for the Latin, mandatum.  "A new command I give you, that you love one another."  



March 26, 2013 - What's New in the Garden

American robin

Starling

Dark-eyed junco

Focus on Flowers

Currant bush

Salome daffodils

At the base of the tree

Today was a lovely, mostly sunny day.  No wind to speak of, lots of flowers in bloom, lots of birds in full song.  We had many more visitors in the yard - goldfinches, magpies, killdeer, and numerous unidentified rapid flyers.  Unfortunately (or perhaps, fortunately) I spent most of the day indoors, cleaning the house.  Just a little bit left to go, and that chore is finished.  I like having a clean house for Easter - I even cleaned off my desk, which is a fairly radical activity, necessitating filing, shredding, and just plain throwing away.  Rather than stacks of paper, I am currently looking at a good portion of the desk itself...a pleasant change from what it has been!

My husband and I got outside on the deck this evening, to enjoy a glass of wine, to listen to the birds, to watch the river flow.  We even heard a woodpecker down by the river, which we hear only rarely.  There were meadowlarks in full song, occasionally joined by the squawking call of a pheasant.  It was wonderful to recognize the change in the season, marked by resuming one of our favorite habits.  It won't be every evening...not yet, at any rate.  But it's a wonderful beginning - a promise of good things yet to come.

 



March 24, 20123 - Palm Sunday

Magnolia preparing to blossom

 

Palm Sunday banner

Ice follies daffodil

I have no idea what kind...but love the color.

Today is Palm/Passion Sunday.  The day began with very cold weather (our neighbor's wind machines were running all night for frost protection.)  After listening to praise band rehearsal, it was time for the service, complete with palm branches, singing of "Hosanna!"  (which means "Save!") and finally entering into a reminder of the week to come.  Holy Week.  Each day a remembrance, each day holy, each day filled with its own life, its own story, its own drama, culminating in Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter.  It's hard to describe what those three days mean in the life of a Christian.  For me they are an annual visceral remembrance of Jesus' love for us, of God's grace offered to us, of the power of the Holy Spirit.  It is mystery.

 

And it always seems appropriate that so many flowers bloom at this time of year.  Easter is early this year, so I doubt there will be any tulips in bloom - but my magnolia seems to be trying to break speed records for early blossom.  The garden is filled with daffodils, forsythia, and everything has begun to sprout.  The new life we see, from that which was hidden in the earth, is the best possible reminder to me that death has no power over life, and God always has the last, gracious word, renewing that which was broken - even me!

March 23, 2013 - Spring Is Here

Today I spent a good part of the day in town...and ended up regretting it.  Not for what I had done, but rather for what I didn't accomplish.  What I had done was to get to the REI garage sale (and not purchase anything), have coffee with a friend I hadn't seen in several months and get caught up, and visit with my friends and their almost three-year old grandchildren.  (Twins...quite adorable!)

 

What could have been better than that?  Well...now you'll know my addiction, if you don't already.  Time in the garden on a beautiful, sunny, non-windy day.  I did get almost four hours in when I returned home, but the list of chores to be done remains quite lengthy!  And being outside, listening to the birds, digging in the dirt, pulling out weeds, even rototilling, fills my soul as few other things do.

 

Yesterday I heard a flock of sandhill cranes fly overhead.  Today it was seagulls.  (I did prefer the cranes...we hear them twice a year, in spring and in fall, as they fly over on their annual migration.)  I finished planting Walla Walla sweet onions and my sugar snap peas today, and did some clean-up in the ornamentals near the vegetable boxes.  (I also retrieved all the rose canes blown out of the burning pile by the high winds we've had the past few days.)  The magnolia is on the cusp of blooming, the asparagus froze last night, and the deer have not nibbled any more on the tulips.  It's a garden - it's always a mixed bag - sometimes a blessing, sometimes a burden.  That's what the rest of life is like, too...I just occasionally forget to appreciate that it comes as a whole.  May God give me the patience with my life that I enjoy with my garden! 

March 22, 2013 - Spring Skies

From the Front Porch... 

 

 

 

 

From the Back Porch

The weather changed, moment by moment today.  I saw snow twice - once near Grandview, and once at home.  There was rain, wind, calm, sun, and ever-changing clouds and skies.  It must be part of the reason I love spring so much - the infinite variability in the skies, the changes in colors, and all that extra drama!

The photos above really were taken just a few minutes apart - one set on the front deck, and one on the back.  The final photo was taken a bit later, just to pick up some extra color.  And yes, there was another beautiful sunset this evening.  I am, and always will be, delighted by my surroundings, by the shadings of beauty that greet me in so many forms.

March 21, 2013 - Golden Skies

A golden sunrise from the back deck...

followed by a golden sunset from the front deck.

Today was a Portland day, a retinologist day, which means leaving the house early and returning late.  Fortunately, in mid-March, that is not a hardship.  There was much to see between here and there (The desert parsley is in full bloom!  See how the water is spraying off the barges as they come down the river in this wind!  Look at the harriers!)  And there is sunset, with storm clouds to make it that much more dramatic. 

 

The trip itself went well - few traffic problems, good conversation with a friend who seemed truly glad for the trip, and a single injection, this time in my already bad eye, so I have to admit to not caring that much.  My good eye is holding steady!

 

We had wind, sun, rain, clouds, and even a few snowflakes through the Cascades.  We had conversation, both serious and humorous.  There was a bit of time to read, some time to make two phone calls, and returning home just in time for sunset.  We even had time to visit the grave of my friend's great-grandfather - a grave newly rediscovered, not that far from where my appointment was.  Had I taken my camera, I would share several photos.  I did not - but the beauty of the day is impressed on my memory.

March 19, 2013 - Visitors in Our Area

Mourning dove leaving our back yard

Western meadowlark across the street

Red-winged blackbird by the pond

Today began sunny and cold, with no wind, then quickly changed to cloudy, cool and breezy.  I fear for my apricots...sustained 27 degree temperatures with no wind, while in full bloom, doesn't bode well for a harvest!

 

The birds were in full song today.  The redwing blackbirds were heard everywhere I went, and any time I was close to home, the meadowlarks were singing.  The doves have been mostly silent, though on occasion I've heard one making a rather unusual, raucous cry.  I love listening to the birds - the bring me great joy.  It's not just the music they make.  I think I also respond to their total uninterest in me, their disregard for whoever all else might be listening.  They have an intended audience; it's not me; they don't care whether or not I listen in.  There's something to be said for that kind of attitude.  "I've got something to accomplish, and I don't really care who all else may be paying attention!"  We humans get caught up in how we're perceived - I envy the birds their lack of caring about that at all!

March 18, 2013 - The Desert Begins to Bud

Gray rabbitbrush

Purple sage

 

Bitterbrush

Tall sagebrush

Welcome to the shrub-steppe environment.  Most of our larger plants are gray in color, and several are just beginning to put out leaves.  (The sagebrush keeps its leaves year 'round.)  When we moved to Burbank, I decided to grow a shub-steppe area out in the back, in a section that had previously been a pasture.  The tall sage is doing stupendously well - some of it is considerably taller than I am.  (I started it from seed several years ago.)  The rabbitbrush self-starts here - but the purple sage and the bitterbrush I purchased.  I've added a few flowers for color, but it's too early for any of the ones I have to be in bloom.

 

And of course, there are the natives that grow on their own.  I have some yarrow (white), lots of fiddle-neck, plenty of milkweed, and more blossoming weeds (non-natives) than you can shake a stick at!  It's almost a full-time job, trying to keep down the plants I'd rather not have in the garden.  That said, pulling weeds is a wonderful occupation - an excellent way to evict all sorts of frustrations and irritations from your life, while exiting them from your garden, as well.

March 17, 2013 - Windy wildflowers in Wallula

Phlox - but none of my three flower books show which one!

Cushion phlox

Balsamroot

Twin Sisters

East of Twin Sisters, on the trail

Today was windy, which interfered with gardening.  So, out the door to Twin Sisters to see if I can manage a short hike.  And the answer to that is yes, as long as it's relatively brief!  I expected to see a few flowers blooming on the hike - just not the ones I saw.  It's early for phlox and balsamroot, and there was also biscuitroot and crazyweed in bloom.  But what I had hoped for, yellow bells, are either not to be found in the area, or are not yet sprouted.

 

Meanwhile, back in the garden, the asparagus continues to grow, the apricot is in full bloom (and got through a night without a frost - several more of those to go!) and the daffodils continue to brighten the garden.  Everything is adding more green every day - apropos for St. Patrick's Day!