50 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-21-16”

  3. Good Saturday….it is sun shiny in Colorado and warm! My peony plants are shooting upwards and it will most likely be July before I see blooms this year….a very late season.
    Asking our precious Lord to extend His grace and comfort to you all this day!

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  4. Last night the granddaughters and I saw a wonderful performance of “Wind in the Willows” by the home-school music-and-drama group from the church I went to before we moved. Truly amazing. One of the leads, Mr. Toad, broke his leg last week and was still able to render a marvelous performance. He had to hop around a lot but since he was a toad, it didn’t distract from his character.

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  5. The bird photo looks like some kind of sandpiper and the flower an iris of some kind. I was wishing I had a better telephoto lens on my camera yesterday, as I witnessed an argument between a couple of ravens and a swarm of angry grackles in some neighbouring trees. The ravens no doubt had been attempting a nest burglary. They do that sort of thing. It seemed as if every grackle that could be spared in the neighbourhood was intervening. Their calls sounded more than ever like a harsh “Tsk, tsk”, while the ravens gave utterance to hoarse shrieks which sounded self-righteously indignant. The crows chimed in with their caws for good measure, like avian rubberneckers. Altogether, it was an amusing convention of the three types of ‘evil’ birds of ebony plumage. It has only been recently that ravens have come to live here. They are usually found further up north in the province, but perhaps, as carrion birds, they have followed the bears, wolves (well, coywolves), and big cats back to these regions.

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  8. It’s overcast in Atlanta and unseasonably cool. Good for utility bills.

    In my devotional book I am reading, this morning I read about a lady who found it necessary to regretfully leave her high school teaching position when her contract was not renewed after 28 years, but she got part-time work teaching at a local. college. She found she liked the college work much better. The verse that went with it was Philippians 1:6. The author of this devotion was Martha Rogers, a Christian author. Of course I was relating what she wrote to Peter’s situation.

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  11. Gorgeous photos, they whisper spring is here 🙂 nature is reawakening

    I’m waiting for the vet to open, need to picjk up dog meds, then it’s off to see dinosaurs later today with a friend in from Colorado.

    We have everything in LA

    Blessings to Peter and family on the big wedding day !

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  12. My favorite LA spot is the La Brea Tar Pits.

    This morning with chores I snagged some spinach and kale to eat on the way as prebreakfast. For breakfast it is onions and celery and rhubarb and cabbage with this morning’s eggs. Does not get much better than that.

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  13. Dinosaurs!

    We took our little guys to the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum when they were pre-schoolers. They were so excited to see dinosaurs!

    When we got inside and I waved my hands, the three year-old’s face crumpled: “I wanted to see dinosaurs with skin on!”

    I felt like such a parental fraud–once again!

    He loved Jurassic Park when it came out seven years later!

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  14. I love ravens! They’re so personable. I like to make raven noises at them and they seem to answer back. I do NOT care for grackles. The first time I ever saw one, I saw hundreds and their cackling/cawing/screeching just creeped me out. I couldn’t go outside 🙂

    Hopefully, I will get my seeds in today and then rain tomorrow!

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  15. I loved Jurassic Park, too. 🙂

    I haven’t been to LaBrea Tar Pits in a while, so am looking forward to it — there’s a show at 1 apparently, so we’re aiming to meet up by noon. She’s just finished a one-woman road trip along Route 66, ending in Santa Monica yesterday.

    Older man ahead of me at the vet’s this morning (who also had a Bernie bumper sticker) was bringing in an injured cat with a possible broken leg. 😦

    Then a young woman came in with the strangest looking dog — a standard poodle but shaved for the most part, but gray/white with black spots all over, very Dalmatian like.

    The dog’s head, meanwhile, was not shaved but was full-grown, part of it in a top-knot pony tail, all black fur. And the dog, Ruby, was jumping and dancing all over the place, the woman could hardly keep her contained. She looked like she belonged in a rock band.

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  17. Kare, ravens are considered one of the most intelligent birds. They, along with their relatives the crow and the myna, can be taught to speak (their tongue has to be clipped); but they can also problem solve. Aesop’s fable of the raven who got to water in a jar by dropping stones in isn’t very far from the truth. Charles Dickens made a raven, Grip, a character in his novel Barnaby Rudge; in the preface to the book, Dickens said that Grip was based a couple of different pet ravens of his acquaintance:

    ‘The raven in this story is a compound of two great originals, of whom I was, at different times, the proud possessor. The first was in the bloom of his youth, when he was discovered in a modest retirement in London, by a friend of mine, and given to me. He had from the first, as Sir Hugh Evans says of Anne Page, ‘good gifts’, which he improved by study and attention in a most exemplary manner. He slept in a stable—generally on horseback—and so terrified a Newfoundland dog by his preternatural sagacity, that he has been known, by the mere superiority of his genius, to walk off unmolested with the dog’s dinner, from before his face. He was rapidly rising in acquirements and virtues, when, in an evil hour, his stable was newly painted. He observed the workmen closely, saw that they were careful of the paint, and immediately burned to possess it. On their going to dinner, he ate up all they had left behind, consisting of a pound or two of white lead; and this youthful indiscretion terminated in death.

    While I was yet inconsolable for his loss, another friend of mine in Yorkshire discovered an older and more gifted raven at a village public-house, which he prevailed upon the landlord to part with for a consideration, and sent up to me. The first act of this Sage, was, to administer to the effects of his predecessor, by disinterring all the cheese and halfpence he had buried in the garden—a work of immense labour and research, to which he devoted all the energies of his mind. When he had achieved this task, he applied himself to the acquisition of stable language, in which he soon became such an adept, that he would perch outside my window and drive imaginary horses with great skill, all day. Perhaps even I never saw him at his best, for his former master sent his duty with him, ‘and if I wished the bird to come out very strong, would I be so good as to show him a drunken man’—which I never did, having (unfortunately) none but sober people at hand.

    But I could hardly have respected him more, whatever the stimulating influences of this sight might have been. He had not the least respect, I am sorry to say, for me in return, or for anybody but the cook; to whom he was attached—but only, I fear, as a Policeman might have been. Once, I met him unexpectedly, about half-a-mile from my house, walking down the middle of a public street, attended by a pretty large crowd, and spontaneously exhibiting the whole of his accomplishments. His gravity under those trying circumstances, I can never forget, nor the extraordinary gallantry with which, refusing to be brought home, he defended himself behind a pump, until overpowered by numbers. It may have been that he was too bright a genius to live long, or it may have been that he took some pernicious substance into his bill, and thence into his maw—which is not improbable, seeing that he new-pointed the greater part of the garden-wall by digging out the mortar, broke countless squares of glass by scraping away the putty all round the frames, and tore up and swallowed, in splinters, the greater part of a wooden staircase of six steps and a landing—but after some three years he too was taken ill, and died before the kitchen fire. He kept his eye to the last upon the meat as it roasted, and suddenly turned over on his back with a sepulchral cry of ‘Cuckoo!’ Since then I have been ravenless.’ Link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/917/917-h/917-h.htm

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  18. Michelle, I have seen those skinless dinosaurs in D.C. many years ago.

    We have a wonderful museum here in Atlanta, the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, that also has skinless dinosaurs. When Wesley was young we had annual passes and bought t-shirts and other things for Christmas and birthdays from their gift shop. My friend, Karen, and I still laugh about the time Wesley fell into the reflecting pool out front. I had warned him not to get too close, but he did not listen and toppled in. He was fortunate we were with Karen and her daughter who got him out while I was feeling quite angry about his lack of listening and obeying mom skills. He never did that trick again.

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  19. It poured rain here, and then the sun came out making it feel very muggy. We have some crazy weather lately. Art mentioned that last night when he got home. It’s very windy.

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  20. One of our family stories is when Gramma & Papa (my mom & dad) took the three granddaughters (my two daughters & my brother’s one) to a dinosaur museum. In one room was an especially large replica, possible animatronic. Chrissy, about four or five at the time, immediately turned & leapt into my dad’s arms, crying, “I want out. NOW!” 🙂

    Forrest’s other grandparents recently took him to a dinosaur park, & his Gramma posted a cute video of him being squirted by one of them.

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  22. It was windy here today…but warm…the car temp reader said 81 while I drove home from work on the interstate….it is cooler here in the forest….but oh so beautiful! So blessed to hear of Becca’s baptism ❤ and Peter's newly wedded daughter!

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  24. It’s the biggest site of fossils for the Ice Age anywhere, apparently. Asphalt (it was called “tar” mistakenly) seeps, some only 6 inches deep, trapped mammoths and other now-extinct animals — once they became trapped, they began to vocalize and scream, attracting predators like saber tooth cats, wolves, etc. who thought it looked like an easy meal but who then also became trapped in the guck. Very efficient way to collect and preserve bones, as it turned out. The asphalt seeped into the bones over time to preserve them perfectly.

    The fossil goldmine was discovered in 1913 by companies starting to dig and drill for oil. Most recently (2006), the art museum next door built an underground garage, turning up thousands and thousands of more fossils, filling 23 large crates that archeologists are still working on.

    Altogether so far, the site has yielded 5 and a half million fossils, from huge (an entire intact tusk, the only one from that era ever found) to tiny (mouse toes!).

    Fascinating story — and the “pools” and shallow pits are still there, bubbling with gas. The museum has put fences around them to prevent other entrapments (squirrels, etc.) — they’re well disguised (which is why so many animals were fooled) by the leaves and other ground cover that would fall on top and stick, making them look like dry land.

    The bones of one human have been found, nicknamed “La Brea Woman,” from about 9,000 years ago.

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  31. Kevin- There are other examples of bilingual redundancies in the West. Arizona has Picacho Peak between Phoenix and Tucson. Picacho is Spanish for peak. Tucson also has the Rillito River. Rillito means Little River. We Americans don’t think things through sometimes when naming places.

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  32. hey, I actually got into my computer again. I had given up trying. This time I got a flash drive and saved all my files so I can access them on my school computer. I do not take it for granted that I will be able to get on here. I am getting used to using the ipad and itouch. but not too good for typing a post.

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  33. I know, I know. I have told you for years that nine year old was starting to read and he never seems to get beyond that. But he is in there reading the labels on the milk. That is sooo encouraging!

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  34. No church for us today. Fourteen year old is having one of her moments. She does this when husband leaves. I hope she gets over it before he gets back or it could be a long rough time.

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  37. I’m at the office this afternoon after a lunch at Firehouse Subs. It was 57 degrees when I got up this morning. Mumsee may not be odd, but our weather is odd. How is that for an odd statement?

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  38. Today for the first time while meeting someone, I introduced myself as S’s grandmother.

    My husband started laughing. “I’ve never heard you introduce yourself as someone’s grandmother before.”

    Ah, but the woman whose hand I shook, lit right up. “I see her all the time!”

    Which is why I’m better at connecting with people than my husband is.

    OTOH, it still felt odd to say it, no matter how many gray hairs I have!

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  39. Good sermon from one of our elders today on the Christian life — and I stayed afterward to chat with a few people I haven’t caught up with in a while, which I needed to do. My former pastor was there to give communion also, and it’s always a special treat to see him.

    I’m thinking there’s a nap in my future today before dog-park time arrives. I noticed that the cat already is taking her afternoon snooze on “her” patio chair. I’m restricting her outdoor time a bit more these days with the uptick in coyote activity all around us. I still think she’s generally safe in the backyard with the 6-foot wood fence all around, but I know if a coyote wanted to get back there it could. The dogs’ presence back there, off and on, hopefully is a deterrent.

    I made a pot roast last night and it turned out perfect since I cooked it for an extra, extra long time. It’ll provide lunches for the week ahead.

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  43. It wasn’t cold and it wasn’t a dog park.
    It was a dinosaur park they were cold blooded and they went there to keep warm.

    The way something is not is not the way it used to be..

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  44. I used to read the milk label, the cereal box, whatever was on the table while I ate breakfast. Now I’m on Facebook or here on the blog while I eat breakfast 🙂

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  45. My brother read about a contest on a cereal box when young. He entered a story writing contest, A Fish Story, and he won a prize, a life jacket. Reading boxes can help people move up in the world…but since our family did not own a boat or a pool or live on a lake or by the beach…
    I never asked him if he wore his winnings in the bath tub.

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  46. My brother and sister and I would sit on three sides of the table with the cereal box between us, each of us reading a different side. When I finished my side, I’d call out “K for Kevin, ding!” The others did the same except using their own initials and names. After all of us had so signaled we had finished, we’d turn the box so everyone could read the next side.

    That’s probably odd.

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  49. Oh, and Mrs L and I celebrated our 34th anniversary visiting with relatives we don’t get to see often, like a niece we last saw at her wedding 5 years ago.

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