wasn't that a party!

We took a week’s holiday to attend a nephew’s wedding in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It started out with decorating and running around doing last-minute wedding things like filling the candy containers

and setting out the wedding favors (I'll bet you never got a pair of work gloves as wedding favors before).

Then there was eating

and the beautiful bride

and her sweet little flower-girl sister.

After the ceremony

there was singing

and more singing,

and music



and some dancing.

WASN'T THAT A PARTY!

on waiting

Waiting is much more difficult than walking. Waiting requires patience, and patience is a rare virtue. It is fine to know that God builds hedges around His people -- when the hedge is looked at from the viewpoint of protection. But when the hedge is kept around one until it grows so high that he cannot see over the top and wonders whether he is ever to get out of the little sphere of influence and service in which he is pent up, it is hard for him sometimes to understand why he may not have a larger environment -- hard for him to "brighten the corner" where he is. But God has a purpose in all HIS holdups. "The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord." reads Psalm 37:23.

On the margin of his Bible at this verse George Mueller had a notation, "And the stops also." It is a sad mistake for men to break through God's hedges. It is a vital principle of guidance for a Christian never to move out of the place in which he is sure God has placed him, until the Pillar of Cloud moves.

-- Sunday School Times, quoted in Streams in the Desert - Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

end of blank card blues

posted here today.

make an exception

and watch The National on CBC television tonight. The buzz is that they will highlight Ratanak - a non-profit foundation, and Place of Rescue - an AIDS shelter and orphange near Phnom Penh run by Marie Ens (a Canadian and Christian and Missionary Alliance Missionary). She has been called, by some, Cambodia's Mother Theresa. It should be inspiring!

(The National airs 10:00 - 11:00 p.m. local time on CBC television. It can also be viewed on Real Player. Click on the "Watch the National Online" link this page (video updated 11:30 p.m. ET).

wildflower journal - chicory

These sky-colored, daisy-like flowers (and they are part of the Compositae family) grow stemless on a rigid stalk. They were introduced from Europe but are now widely found on roadsides and in waste places throughout North America.

Chicory has a deep tap root which helps it grow in hard packed, rocky ground. The root of the chicory plant is sliced, kiln-dried, ground and roasted to a rich dark brown color, like coffee beans. When mixed with coffee, it adds body, aroma, color and mellowness. For many years chicory was used to stretch coffee supplies when pure coffee was a luxury. Chicory, by the way, has no caffeine. Apparently the specific taste of some famous New Orleans coffee brands is due to the blend of dark roasted coffee and chicory. Find some chicory FAQs and recipes for ground chicory beverages here.

Chicory’s first spring leaves are also edible as a green -- although I've never tried them. Find them low to the ground as they form a leaf-circle (basal rosette, resembling dandelion) early in the spring. Chicory is also related to endive - another common edible green.

Chicory flowers open and close every day. You’ll have to catch them in the morning, though, as most are closed by noon.

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For more wild flowers - check out this white collection from the Yukon (posted by Rebecca).

kitsch - garden moments, 2nd week of August

My garden is humming along right now, though not doing anything exceptional. So this week instead of plants, I’m going to post a few pictures of garden kitsch - those folksy containers and bits of decoration which show another side of the gardener’s personality, or perhaps better said - in my case at least - the personality of the gardener’s friends and family. I don’t think I’ve ever bought this type of garden jewelry for myself - though I do enjoy it.

This sunflower stake from my sister lives between oregano and thyme, just behind an orange geranium.

The barn planter was a birthday gift from my neighbor. The chicken is actually something I bought, but for Mom. It came back here to roost after one of our several downsizings of her stuff.


I got this little bug-flower bauble last year from a friend (pictured in last year’s garden). Sadly the gold ball shattered when I took it out and now the whole thing has mysteriously disappeared.



My favorite garden ornament seen lately, though, was in my sister-in-law’s garden in Saskatchewan – this fairy engrossed in a book.

(Previous 'garden moments' filed in Gardening)

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- Here's the latest from Rebecca's Yukon Garden. (She has links to previous postings - check the noticeable progress.)
- Islandsparrow's garden will make your mouth water.
- And I must show you this gorgeous farmer's garden - posted by Julana

poetry contest for the novice

Are you a Christian poet – as yet unpublished? Do I have a contest for you!

Utmostchristianwriters.com is running its first annual poetry contest for novice / unpublished poets. From Nathan Harms, Utmost’s webmaster in an email I got today:

We are in the final 2 weeks of our first annual Novice Christian Poetry Contest. We decided to sponsor this contest due to a great number of requests for a contest that would be more suited to unpublished Christian poets, but the number of entries is lower than expected to date.

If you qualify as an unpublished Christian poet, we encourage you to consider this contest. The total prizes that will be paid are US$1750 cash. There is no restriction on subject matter.

Poets, this is serious cash!

Utmost's home page has links to rules and entry form.

Deadline to mail entries is August 31st.

book review: Relentless

Title: Relentless
Author: Robin Parrish
Publisher: Bethany House
Genre: Fiction / Suspense
ISBN: 9780764202216

“Collin Boyd stepped off the Metro bus on his way to work, and across the street he saw himself strolling down the sidewalk.”

With that intriguing first line, Robin Parrish launches us into Relentless, his debut novel that is combination science fiction, fantasy, suspense thriller and super hero comic book, though to my way of thinking is most like a video game – in book format.

Collin, having morphed into the body of a stranger (Grant Borrows), with abilities and a reputation he didn’t know he had, is plunged into a lethal game of cat-and-mouse. The trouble is, he (and we) are never sure who the cat is or why he’s the mouse. As the story progresses, however, and we fit characters and incidents together, we begin to comprehend the extent of what’s going on here. For Grant’s shape-shift and whether or not he fulfills his prophesied destiny will impact not only him and the other changelings he meets, but the whole world.

As a plot-maker, Parrish does a masterful job of weaving his universe of characters (and there are many) into the non-stop action. Practically every chapter has its scene of high drama with car chases, sword fights, shadowy villains, and amazing escapes. His deftness in the story-telling department kept me reading just one more page, and one more, and one more...

The characters were another thing. Though realistic in a stock actor kind of way, I found it hard to empathize with them. The women were mostly beautiful and sexy, or gray and wise. The men were athletic, or brainy or both. All had the incredible ability to fight to the death, yet emerge alive and with the emotional and physical energy to keep running or pursuing. Perhaps I wasn’t taken with them too because I didn’t really like many of them – Grant included with his irritable, impatient, impulsive, petulant, self-pitying ways. As a whole, I’d say that character complexity, believability and likeability were sacrificed to plot.

The writing is strong, though, with vivid prose and a truly relentless pace maintained throughout. Parrish especially excels at the crisp description of fight and chase scenes, which abound. Gaffes, like Collin referred to as Grant before Grant is officially introduced (p.10), pus pouring out of an apparently uninfected wound only hours old (p. 32), and ‘retch’ spelled ‘wretch’ (p. 379) were rare exceptions.

The Christian aspect of this book is found in the existential questions it poses and its symbolism. Grant struggles the entire time with questions of purpose – why am I here and what am I meant to do. The plot plays games with another philosophical / theological dilemma as Grant and others grapple with issues of free well – do I do the things I do because I choose to do them, or am I playing a pre-determined role. And as the book progressed, I couldn’t help but also see how Grant’s portrayal as a potential savior, built on the fact he was the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, paralleled another such one.

Though Relentless ends on a high note, many plot ends remain untied. We’ll have a bit of a wait to discover how they turn out. Book Two of Parrish’s Dominion Trilogy isn’t due for publication until the summer of 2007.

Thank you to Bethany House for providing a copy of Relentless for review.

Filed in Book Reviews (Fiction)

garden moments - first week in August

The time of harvest has come. While I have no substantial heads of cabbage, great bunches of onions or blushing tomatoes to display, I harvest too. Cut flowers are pretty much a staple around the house these days. For how can one resist bringing some of that color inside?


For this arrangement of dahlia in sage leaves I got my inspiration from a slim book found among my mother’s things. Victorian Posies by Pamela Westland is a beautiful (and once scented) book. Opposite the drawing from it, below, are instructions on how to make "Aromatic Tussie Mussies."

Even before Victorian times, people used to make scented posies from herb leaves and flowers called tussie-mussies and carry them from room to room.

Gather a mixed bunch of herbs – there could be golden marjoram, pineapple mint, purple sage, silvery curry plant or lavender leaves, glossy bay leaves, and creamy-white feverfew flowers (also known as pyrethrum parthenium or bachelor’s buttons) – and tie them into small posies with a “ribbon” of long chives. You might like to place them in pretty wine glass on the dining table.

I had not thought of using aromatic herbs as greenery for cut flower bouquets. And though I don’t have nearly all the plants she mentions (and probably would always pass on the oniony-smelling chives even if I did have them) I do have sage. So I gave it a try. I find the bouquet is lasting nicely.


Prunings are also part of the harvest – as are these petunias, snipped from my hanging baskets, which were becoming altogether too leggy.


And of course even new hydrangeas last a little while in water. However, they don’t dry well at this stage – crinkling entirely in a few days. They have to be quite mature for the flowers to dry smooth and flat.

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Now this harvest make your mouth water.

(I'll post links to other gardens as I find them...)

wildflower journal - pearly everlasting

I first noticed Pearly Everlasting on the Mud Bay Park walk a couple of summers ago. I was surprised to find they were dry and brittle to the touch – a type of wild straw flower or ‘everlasting’ used in dried flower arrangements. They are in the same family (Compositae) as other straw flowers, daisies and tansy.


From this article I discover that they are perennials, last for months (as flowers), were used by Indians to stuff pillows, and are also known as Silverleaf, Moonshine, Cottonweed and None-So-Pretty.

new resolution

I'm going to try to impose some order and predictability and discipline on my blogging life. Thus I'll attempt to post here most Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I've promised my poetry blog to put up something there. We'll see how it goes...

death etc.

Presently in God-School I am taking the course called ‘Death’ or better named ‘Death Etc.’

The first semester was in spring, when my mother-in-law died. I audited that course.

I have now nearly finished (I think) another semester. This one came complete with work experience and a practicum as I accompanied my mom, just a month ago, through the Valley of Death.

The last month has taken me through a series of lessons some of which are ‘What is worthwhile in life,’‘The value of things,’ and ‘What it means to be vapor, grass, a shadow.’ Even Pastor’s sermons have been part of the curriculum. In the past two Sundays he has delivered a sermon series on Heaven (I, II).

One of my textbooks has been Mark Buchanan’s Things Unseen, which I finished reading yesterday afternoon. Here are some points – cram notes, if you will – from one of the last chapters: ‘Big Deal.’

“Don’t let an event as important as death take you by surprise” (a quote by Margaret Kim Peterson, commenting on a consensus of Christian thinkers from Basil the Great in the 4th century to Jeremy Taylor in the 17th) (p.202).

To prepare for a good death doesn’t mean that you live for death. It is not a death wish – a longing for or fascination with morbidity. Rather it means to live life so that death comes as a completion, not for life, for life to the full (p. 203).

Being aware of death makes us more aware of life. It keeps our appetites healthy, our wonderment sharp. It winnows clutter from our life.

A numbered day (Psalm 90:12) is one lived in attentiveness and thankfulness, one we’ve named, received, entered....We learn to number our days aright by thinking about our death....Only a steady gaze at the brevity and frailty of our own existence can snap us out of the monotony of unnumbered days (p. 204).

News of our mortality helps us see things in their right proportion, their real shape, their true meaning. Shattering defeats, spectacular triumphs – neither is quite what it seems when viewed from the graveyard. And the often staggering but mostly hidden value of ordinary things – food, light, warmth, life – shines through....

Here’s the gist: Death, carefully pondered, resolutely faced, actually looses its grip on us, its deadlock on our imaginations. It can wholly reawaken holy wonder (p. 205).

– Mark Buchanan - Things Unseen

It’s important, I think, to pay attention to and keep up with these lessons. I need to review the notes, learn the principles, and put them into practice in my life. For I do not know when the final exam will come for me, if it will be posted so that I know its probable date ahead of time, or if it will be sprung on me as unexpectedly as a pop quiz.

Photo: Serpentine River and the King George Highway bridge - from the path at Ducks Unlimited.

Give what you have; to someone it may be better than you dare to think.
- Longfellow

garden moments - fourth week of July

After a week of heat and uninterrupted sunshine, blooms are the order of the day.

This week saw the first dahlia.

The dahlia patch now looks like this.

It was also the week the stargazer lily began to bloom.

And here is the hydrangea bush which, this year, doesn’t seem to know when to stop!

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Other gardens we're watching:

Rebecca's Yukon Garden

Kim from Hireath

Mrs. North of Sixty

a beach story

We took the day off Monday and went with our friends J. and M. to Harrison Lake (the lake with the sand castle competitions.) To have our picnic we found a small shady spot between two paths just big enough for the four of us (on the panorama it’s just beyond the bluff of trees on the right). M. unpacked her fancy cigarette-lighter-plug-in cooler with its pita breads, cold cuts, cheese, eggplant dip, salad, dressing and cold drinks, and we feasted.

We were passing around the second course -- yellow plums and pecan chip cookies -- and about to make tea when a man with a couple of little kids in tow plunked his blanket and some picnic things onto the tiny patch of shaded grass right beside us, at the same time flashing us a smile, as if to say, ‘I’m sure you won’t mind.’

While the kids buzzed around the things he’d left – he having gone for more we guessed – we discussed that surely he and his gang were only using our bit of grass as a staging place to collect their things before going on to find their own shady spot.

But no. It soon became obvious that this group was fully intending to share that shady spot with us, no matter that it would necessarily be cheek by jowl. And it soon also became perfectly obvious that they were not only a handful. More and more came to join them, their numbers swelling from four to maybe fifteen adults, teens and kids. Their spread-out blankets practically touched our chairs and they jabbered and laughed while the kids ran back and forth to and from the water. The original man connected his portable barbeque to a little propane tank and was soon roasting wieners, chicken and hamburger patties and the lot of them were milling around with buns and ketchup and mustard and mayo.

All the while the four of us sat there trying to carry on our conversation but hardly able to ignore the bustle right beside us and also hardly able to hide our scowls. How dare they just come in and invade ‘our’ tiny space like that!

As time wore on, the tension eased somewhat. I’m sure they sensed our disapproval as they glanced over from time to time. Once one of the Mamas asked us to keep an eye on their things and we said, yes, of course we would.

But this was not a great way to spend a relaxing afternoon. And though I, for one, was tempted to hang out there indefinitely to make the point that moving in on people was not the way to go about getting a picnic site, the need to do something on this beautiful day, plus the shrinking of our own bit of shade as the afternon wore on, soon had M. and me leaving to explore the shops. About twenty minutes later we bumped into the guys as we exited an antique shop. They too had tired of the scene and packed everything into the car. Of course the minute they’d left, the other party had moved in!

So what was that all about?

Rudeness on their part, and selfishness on ours?

Or perhaps it was a cultural clash. Because these people were of a different race, obvious by the color of their skin and the way some of them chattered in their mother tongue or in heavily accented English. Maybe they were simply accustomed to living in crowded conditions and weren’t even aware that we home-born Canadians like lots of room and don’t take kindly to our space being invaded.

Whatever it was, I couldn’t shake the thought, as the day wore on, that here we had also missed an opportunity. We could have been more welcoming, perhaps struck up a bit of a conversation, even just demonstrated by our body language and facial expressions hospitality, generosity, compassion and love. All four of us call ourselves Christians. We could have shown that we've been with Jesus.

There is a test question I sometimes ask myself when tempted to behave badly toward people. It is, 'What if I run into these people again, say in my neighborhood or in church? Will I regret anything I did or said?' I didn't think of that yesterday, until it was too late.

Perhaps if I’d really paid attention to this segment from Monday morning's reading in Streams in the Desert, I’d have done better:

“In the present day there are those who live intermittent Christian lives because they have become occupied with the outward, and center in circumstances in place of centering in God. God wants us more and more to see Him in everything, and to call nothing small...” C.H.P.

beach beauties

Despite the uncommon heat, we got in a walk today. The breeze coming off the ocean was just brisk enough to keep us comfortable. Along the way we passed this natural arrangement of Tansy (yellow), Pearly Everlasting (white) and Steeplebrush (pink). I don’t think even a florist could have arranged these beauties better.

book review - Letter Perfect

Title: Letter Perfect
Author: Cathy Marie Hake
Publisher: Bethany House
Genre: Fiction - Historical Romance
ISBN: 0764202588

Start with a klutzy and reluctant deb named Ruth. Add an ill mother, a mysterious letter, a charming rancher with an impressionable daughter and handsome son, and you have Cathy Marie Hake’s historic romance, Letter Perfect.

This light read has us accompanying heroine Ruth Caldwell from a finishing school in Missouri (Jefferson City, 1859), to her home in St. Louis, and then to the Broken P Ranch in Folsom, California, which is the book’s main setting. There she becomes a companion to ranch owner McCain’s pampered daughter Laney. She is also a thorn in the side of his dependable son Josh when her presence as potential heiress calls into dispute the McCains’ ownership of the Broken P. True to the genre, a romance ensues. This is beefed up with elements of mystery and characters who surprise us with their villainy and heroism.

Free-spirited Ruth provides the perfect vehicle for Hake to address the role of women, one of the book’s main themes. Ruth challenges the ‘woman as ornament’ perception of mid-19th century America by keeping on top of current affairs, pursuing an interest in physics, teaching Laney to read, insisting she pull her own weight by working around the ranch, and taking charge of her finances.

Other themes addressed are family, loyalty, friendship, tolerance of others’ foibles and dealing with death.

Of course a Christian world view is foundational to the story. Hake does a good job of showing through her characters how God’s presence is experienced and His direction followed day to day.

The narrative is mostly efficient and fast-paced with Ruth’s bumbling ways giving just the right amount of humor as she trips and smudges, bumps and spills her way through the story. However, several elements of Hake’s story-telling style irritated me.

I found her frequent use of dialogue tags (versus the practically invisible ‘he/she said’) not only unnecessary but sometimes almost laughable: “Josh nickered softly...”(Chap. 5), “‘We need more everyday dresses,’ Laney chirped,” and, “‘What’re you doing here?’ he barked...” (Chap. 6).

Another style thing that jarred is Hake’s manner of reporting the point-of-view characters’ thoughts (signaled by italic font) often in longish paragraphs of complete sentences. These interior almost-monologue-length bits didn't seem natural as thoughts and resulted in the characters coming across as stiff and self-conscious.

Those stylistic quibbles aside, Letter Perfect has well-developed main characters, a cast of believable extras, an engaging plot, flashes of humor, a positive message and a happy ending. Look for it to be released in August, just in time to take on your last holiday of the summer.

Thank you to Bethany House for providing a copy of this book for review.

curb appeal? not sure: garden moments, third week of July

Each year my garden’s trim – the annuals I pick to fill in the spaces between the perennials – is a little different. This year I went for petunias and impatiens.

The color scheme was inspired by the planter that I got for my birthday way back in May. (Here's what it looked like on June 12th.)

Besides the watermelon-colored geraniums, purple daisy-type blooms and deep rose mini-petunias, it also has pale green and green-with-red-vein foliage plants, and an orange shasta daisy in there somewhere which has bloomed twice. As you can tell, it’s hardly a planter with a color theme.

(This is the planter today.)



The all-over-the-wheel color scheme of that planter is why this year I chose variegated everything. I bought flats of ‘assorted’ and didn’t know when I planted most of them, what colors they would be.

Thus it’s been a lot of fun to see the curb come to life as the red, fuchsia, salmon, pink and pinwheel blossoms cover the spreading clumps, flowers clashing happily side by side.

packing etc.

It’s already July 19th – where is the month going? It’s summer, and a lovely one at that but for all I’m paying attention it could be any season.

Again we’re in the thick of downsizing and packing up someone else’s stuff. We’ve spent two long afternoons at Mom’s suite in the villa. Good thing we went through this process last fall – because I’m nearly done, or I thought I was.

We came home last night bone weary after working from 1:00 - 6:30 then eating out, and I remarked to E. – Doesn’t this feel familiar? I fell asleep way too early, then woke at about 3:00 a.m. and tossed for a couple of hours. During that time I reconsidered my earlier packing decisions and decided unless I deal still more drastically with things, I’ll need to go through this exercise yet again, only in a storage locker not a pleasant apartment. And so today I undo some of those boxes and put more into bags for the thrift store, then pack cartons for families nearby and just put stuff in – and they can decide whether they want it or not.

Besides growing in the skill of getting ruthless with memorabilia (and my husband would argue I still have a long way to go!) I’ve gained another gem of wisdom during this process of tidying up the ends of someone’s life. It is that it pays to be completely knowledgeable about how one’s bank or credit union deals with the death of an account holder. We’ve found that it differs from institution to institution.

When one is joint on an account with someone who dies, and the bank is told of that death, one bank did nothing until we brought in the death certificate. Then they limited transactions on our part to bank drafts and threatened to return any cheques that came in after that (though they’d told us earlier we’d be able to use it for a year). Their custom is to never take a name off an account. Instead, people still alive and joint on the original account must open a new one.

In another institution, we were told that as soon as they get word of the death of one of the account holders, they freeze the account (no transactions of any kind). Then, when the death certificate is brought in, they take the name of the deceased person off the account, set up a separate estate account and the person or people remaining on the original account can use it as before.

All that to say, find out from your institution what happens when an account-holder (joint or not) dies. You might be surprised – but better surprised now than later!

(For Canadians who live in British Columbia, I found the blog of an estate lawyer who practices in Kelowna, and this entry about bank accounts.)

a week ago today

A week ago today, after the sad formalities of the weekend had been attended to, we partied on the farm – where it all began.

(Out of a possible 58 people in our immediate family, 49 gathered in Saskatchewan for at least part of the weekend.)

Cousins got reacquainted.

Grandmas

and Grandpas

kibitized with grandkids.

Aunties

and Mommies shared the babies.

Some kids drove big machines


while others went along for the ride.

There was eating

and celebrating

And of course there was our family’s traditional schmalzing tournament.


Schmalzing is running beside a metal tire rim with a stick to help guide it over a course. It’s a ‘sport’ my younger siblings made up after I left home - so I never learned how to do it.

We partied until dark!

garden moments - second week of July

The daisies (white flowers on the left) are in bloom now. And barely visible against the dark fence, the first wine dahlia is about to pop open.

(The blue line going across the photo is the clothesline. Also, clicking on the picture enlarges it - fortunately not enough to see all the weeds I missed pulling today)

On the right is the pink rose bush we got from friends to plant in memory of Ernie's Mom. It is a floribunda, smallish flowers of the most delicate pink. (I'm thinking the tiny pink buds, dried, would add a lovely touch to old-fashioned everlasting arrangements or potpourri.)



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More gardens!

In growing - Islandsparrow shares her lovely garden.

In Flowers - Jeanine shows off hubby Vince's green thumb. (Hat tip: Islandsparrow)

In My Yukon Garden July 10th - Rebecca's garden is taking off!