The House Around The Corner

There's this house around the corner, and they have flowers all over the front yard, not just in tidy little beds. They run rampant, and are glorious.

"For as the earth bursts forth with spring wildflowers, and as a garden cascades with blossoms, so the Master, God, brings righteousness into full bloom and puts praise on display before the nations."

I am taking the day off of the computer and going to celebrate my granddaughter's birthday! See you later!

The Source Of All Wisdom

 

"A wise old owl sat in an oak;

The more he saw the less he spoke;

The less he spoke the more he heard;

why aren't we like that wise old bird?"

How many of you remember this little poem? It used to be quoted to me as a child, sorry I cannot find the author. Today I thought I would share some of the owl things we have around the house. The first is our tiny Owl & The Pussycat music box; remember when they set out to sea in a pea green boat? Then there is my small tin box from England, a couple of plates for the girls, an owl carving made from a single tree limb, see the tree rings on the top? The pillow is one I got for Ella when she was younger to help her with her nap, and finally the huge owl balloon I got her one Halloween. She gave me her opinion. "Owls are kind of like birds, but they're not!" I asked her why an owl was not a bird and she said "Because it's an owl; it can't be both an owl and a bird at the same time." Owls are associated with wisdom, and so are older people, but here's the real deal on that.

“I kept thinking, 'Experience will tell. The longer you live, the wiser you become.' But I see I was wrong—it's God's Spirit in a person, the breath of the Almighty One, that makes wise human insight possible. The experts have no corner on wisdom; getting old doesn't guarantee good sense.”

Job 32

Imprisoned

I took these pictures one day while Ella was here watching the movie "Tangled". It is basically the Rapunzel story told from a modern viewpoint. Ella watched with great interest as Rapunzel was imprisoned in the tower, then climbed down by her hair. After that, Rapunzel went from one predicament to another, being chased by bad people. When the movie was just about over, Ella turned to me and made this comment "She should have never left that tower, Ginny!" I could hardly keep from laughing. Being in a tower is safe, for sure, but it never does get us anywhere.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…”
Isaiah 61:1

Making A Big Flap

Ah, spring, the season of love. And in my header, it does look like true love, doesn't it? But take another look, all is not as it seems. Love is taking a back seat here while there is fighting to be done. These two male mallards are fighting for the female while she watches, slightly bored. Even more bored in the next picture, as she starts to primp while the fight continues. The male mallards are truly vicious in their mating fights, and though they both look dead in the next to last picture, they are not. They are just flattened from exhaustion. Awhile later, all three waddle off into the sunset, to continue to fight another day. And believe me when I tell you that they did, over and over.

"You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.”

Matthew 5:9

The Judas Tree

Behold the beautiful yet flawed Redbud tree, the next plant to bloom around here after the forsythia.  They are growing everywhere now, especially on the sides of the highways. But they are very sparse, and they have weakened branches, prone to breaking. The story goes that this was the tree that Judas Iscariot used to hang himself from, blushing it's white flowers to pink from embarrassment. Now it is very weak, refusing to grow strong enough for another person to hang again. The last picture will show you the strange way it blooms, the flowers coming right out of the trunk. As if in a hurry to make up for that long ago deed....

“Judas, the one who betrayed him, realized that Jesus was doomed. Overcome with remorse, he gave back the thirty silver coins to the high priests, saying, "I've sinned. I've betrayed an innocent man."
They said, "What do we care? That's your problem!"
Judas threw the silver coins into the Temple and left. Then he went out and hung himself.”

Matthew 27:3,5

Getting A Bit Squirrely

Well, what have we here? It's a little squirrel named Anne Marie, and this squirrel can sing and perform! Anne and her class sang two performances at local schools recently. It was a spring program, and each child was dressed as an animal. Unfortunately, I missed both performances, but Anne and her parents came to see us after one of the shows so I could get a first hand look! This may be the only time I will say that my granddaughter is a bit squirrely! But then again, how many squirrels do you know who can sing and do the split??

“Let Wilderness turn cartwheels,
Animals, come dance,
Put every tree of the forest in the choir—

 An extravaganza before God as he comes,
 As he comes to set everything right on earth,
 Set everything right, treat everyone fair.”

Psalm 96: 12,13

The Golden Bells

The forsythias were the first bushes to bloom here this spring, and there are a lot of them in our neighborhood. I took so many pictures of these beautiful bushes, but finally narrowed them down to the dozen you see here. To me, they look like rays of earthly sunshine shouting up into the sky. There are about ten different species of forsythia, and they are used as medicine to treat lung and throat diseases, sometimes even being given intravenously! Forsythias are also called Golden Bells, and sometimes when the breeze is just right, I can almost hear them ringing!


“Oh, visit the earth, ask her to join the dance! Deck her out in spring showers, fill the God-River with living water. Paint the wheat fields golden. Creation was made for this! Drench the plowed fields, soak the dirt clods with rainfall as harrow and rake bring her to blossom and fruit.”
Psalm 65