Family Friday

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The mornings have been getting warm enough to walk down to the harbour with a cup of coffee

and watch the sunrise. The dock is in at the town landing.

It was so calm and peaceful. 

The Alliums that we planted in the Autumn have grown almost 4 feet tall!

I’m just 5 feet so that’s almost as tall as I am. 

They’re so pretty against the garden wall!

Even though we couldn’t gather anyplace to honor Memorial Day the houses in town were all decked 

out to honor those who have fallen fighting for the freedoms we hold so dear.

We shared the first salad with lettuce greens from my garden!

Yum!

I haven’t had a pedicure yet but I did get new garden shoes!

My mum and I drove quite a ways to a garden center where she wanted to buy a rose bush

and she bought me a new pair of garden shoes.

It will be nice to have something I can slip on and off at the door.

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Friday fave fives

In the garden out and about

Poppies in a neighborhood garden.

They are growing all wildly-nilly along an old split rail fence.

The harbour is just across the old and narrow street.

Just a few houses up hydrangea is getting ready to blossom.

I think the bright blues and pinks are very pretty but they are just a little too ostentatious for my taste.

I’m partial to the old fashioned type myself. 

Phlox maybe? With grey/purple cat-mint interspersed. 

It’s a lovely mix.

Lilacs bend over fences and wisteria hangs over courtyards.

Gentle breezes wafting the scents of so many flowers

And the smell of the Atlantic

I walk the crooked streets toward home.

In my own garden

There are a few strawberries coming along

And the Columbine

Here and there a Cosmos blossoming from between the perennials.

How is your garden growing?

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Little things Thursday

Thursday favorite things

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Peace

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Before 1954 Veteran’s Day was referred to as Armistice Day. 

It marked the occasion on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour when the armistice signed between the allies of world war 1 went into effect. 

30 May is the official Memorial Day but that is celebrated on the last Monday of May which makes it the unofficial kick-off of summer fun. 

I am partial to Armistice Day which seems to represent the overwhelming sadness and futility of war.

I am also partial to the third verse of My Country Tis of Thee because it doesn’t speak of one particular country but rather the freedom that all mortals seek.

My country ‘tis of thee

Sweet land of liberty

Of thee I sing

Let music swell the breeze 

and ring from all the trees 

sweet freedoms’s song 

let mortal tongues awake 

let all that breath partake 

let rocks their silence break 

the song prolong

PEACE

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Our world Tuesday

Pictorial Tuesday

Image-in-ing

My corner of the world

Community global

Morning Glory

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Morning glory

t

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason,
full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

James 3:17


Open to reason and full of mercy

God clearly tells us that we are to get wisdom. And then he goes on to tell us what wisdom is.  He doesn’t say, once you’ve got it do this...., because I think he must know that we are going to need a lifetime to make sure we have it and keep it.
To be full of mercy alone is a big job, let alone all the other things listed in this one verse of James.

If I want my walk through life to emulate Jesus...and I do, then I need to cultivate these qualities of wisdom from above.

I am finding myself studying these kinds of verses more often since we have been in lock-down.
People are acting out in fear, and anger, and hatred, and ignorance.
There’s so much information and much of it is contradictory.
It’s hard to understand what to do or how to act.
Do I wear a mask? Can I hug my grandchildren? Can I get my hair done?
Can I bring a gun to the courthouse steps?
Can I scream obscenities at people who don’t think, or act, or look like me?

And then I read James and it all comes down to wisdom from above.

First pure and then peaceable...

Peaceful  can be applied to a person or an object and means at peace.
Peaceable, can only be applied to a person and means inclined to try to keep the peace. 

In other words, we have some responsibilities here.
We can’t just take a deep breath, inhale-exhale, and move on.
God has given us a job.

He doesn’t tell us to have wisdom. He tells us to get it.
He wants us reaching for it, grasping, searching, learning, studying
Getting it.

God calls us to love one another,
He calls us to wait on him,
And he calls us to get wisdom from above.





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Purposeful Faith

Anchored truth Tuesday

Tell His story

Thy woods and templed hills

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Let music swell the breeze

And ring from all the trees

Sweet freedom’s song

Let mortal tongues awake

Let all who breath partake

The song prolong

...

I love thy rocks and rills

Thy woods and templed hills

My heart with rapture thrills

Like that above. 

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Every evening at six O’Clock, since the Quarantine began, the church bells ring out all over town.

The evening of Memorial Day it was misty and cold. 

It was quiet with no one parading, no picnicking, no boating on the harbour.

When the bells rang they called me out to the little landing on the back stairway.

Without those who gave their lives for our freedoms we would not be able to love 

the natural beauty that surrounds us.

Nature notes