Good morning ALL! It’s the first day of my favorite season. We’re having thunder and wind and rain at home right now. Under the eaves outside my kitchen window, a lone ruby throat hummingbird is huddled on the feeder. I’m trying not to scare him off from his relatively dry and stable shelter, but I am going to have to go to the window to use my sink soon. The dogwood in the back yard is just beginning to turn, and if all goes well, in a week or so it will be a glorious crimson.
Morning!! A beautiful shot of that butterfly…on thistle no less 😊
Debra we have a couple hummingbirds hanging around still…they love visiting my moss rose plant but not so much the nectar in the feeder right now. I believe they will be gone by week’s end. And I too love autumn! Our furnace is on this morning as it is 41 degrees out there.
Good morning! It is dreary looking outside, but since it is autumn, I am happy to be home because the ageratum is in full bloom. The blooms are a lavender blue much like the color of periwinkle or vinca blooms. It’s such a contrasting color to what people think of as the autumn colors.
I love the header photo with the butterfly. Great shot, AJ. Are you getting outside more to practice your photography?
I have seen few butterflies here this year so it’s great to see them on the header.
I hope to make a big pot of my healthy lentil soup today. I made the raspberry fruit bars with almond flour, oatmeal, almond butter, and maple syrup last night. I have missed these healthy type foods.
We had a seafood dinner at Charleston, a take out meal. I got grilled grouper with a salad, fried okra, and cole slaw. We were surprised that there were no hush puppies with our meals.
Janice, I would paint the table whatever you want. My daughter redid an old kitchen table recently by sanding and sealing the wooden top in it’s natural color and then painting the legs navy. It was stunning. Raspberry fruit bars sound yummy.
As expensive as upholstery can be, it can really pay off, since modern furniture is seldom as well made as the older pieces. I love having a mix of old and new myself.
Kathaleena, that table sounds beautiful. Once I get things better arranged to know what else will be alongside in that space, I will decide how to spruce up the old table and chairs.
27 ears ago we welcomed a girl into our family. We were expecting a boy (speculation, as we didn’t have a sonogram done), but we wouldn’t exchange her for anything.
A hummingbird crashed my outdoor Bible study yesterday. We all paused to watch it explore the nearby Rose of Sharon bush.
Since the great huntress has pretty much killed everything in my yard (including the praying mantis I didn’t know existed out there), seemingly the only birds she can’t catch are the hummingbirds. So, we see them often in the red bottlebrush tree outside the large kitchen window.
BTW, if you have a bird bath or fountain, hummingbirds can only drink from running water–which is why you often see them in the sprinklers. That’s one of the reasons we have a fountain with running water and feel justified in running it since we’re watering the birds. 🙂
Good morning. Beautiful butterfly. I have seen lots of them the past week in the garden. I have monarch caterpillars on my dill. I wonder if part of them are just passing through.
From the World Magazine “Sifting” email this morning:
~ It’s nice to start this morning with some good news: The ancient massive trees of Sequoia National Park’s famed Giant Forest have so far survived the wildfire burning all around them. The KNP Complex Fire in Northern California recently entered the perimeter of the Giant Forest near a cluster of huge trees called the Four Guardsmen, but the trees’ bases had been wrapped in fire-resistant material and crews had raked and cleared vegetation that could help spread the fire. I think there might be a sermon illustration in that—but I’ll let you connect those dots so I can get on to the news. Here’s what we’re Sifting today: ~
I’ve got a young Coastie looking for his first home. In searching, I ran across this…I kinda want it myself.
xhttps://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/324-E-Palmetto-Ave_Pensacola_FL_32507_M61895-09631
Animals like clean water, and the birds love when we have the fountain going in the pond. Swallows dipping through all day long. Sheep like their water fairly still.
Francis Schaeffer Warned Us About 2020
Review: ‘The Church at the End of the 20th Century’ by Francis Schaeffer
When we consider the contribution to Christianity of the late Francis Schaeffer, we often think of his L’Abri community in the Swiss Alps and of his noteworthy books, such as The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and How Should We Then Live? Yet it’s one of his lesser known works, The Church at the End of the 20th Century, which is perhaps the most relevant for the American church at the end of 2020.
Published exactly 50 years ago, the particulars of this short volume can be quite dated—reflected in the unsightly cover of my copy from 1970—yet its themes are surprisingly contemporary. Schaeffer speaks to the loss of truth and personal responsibility, the collapse of authority, and the growing threat of violence. He warns of impending ecological disaster and scientific manipulation, even the possibility of nations developing and weaponizing a deadly virus. …
.. Schaeffer writes in response to the student revolution in his day. At the time, the youth culture in America and Europe was disillusioned by their parents and the political elites they saw as authoritarian and out of touch. They were interested in unfettered freedom. There was also fatigue with unending wars. And at home, especially in the United States, students were unsettled by the twin issues of poverty and racial injustice. This led many to engage in a political movement known as the New Left.
As Schaeffer opens the book, he describes his society as marked by increasing polarization, disillusionment, and a loss of hope, the combination of which was careening toward chaos. Politically, Schaeffer laments an environment where classic liberalism has committed suicide—ruined by the pursuit of autonomous freedom divorced from the Judeo-Christian values that birthed such freedoms. He also cautions about the futility of conservatism—which is, by definition, a fight for the status quo—when we inhabit a post-Christian society where the prevailing values of the majority aren’t worth conserving. …
1. “Christians must realize there is a difference between being a cobelligerent and an ally:
… the challenge is that, as in Schaeffer’s day, pastors and Christians are told they must choose one side or the other. At this very juncture Schaeffer believes the church should resolutely remain on the outside—not on any particular side of the political aisle—to speak on behalf of Christ and Scripture, truth and love. That is, the church should work for what is right while rejecting both political polarization and also cultural capitulation.
Perhaps most interesting, Schaeffer makes this appeal, in part, for the sake of the next generation who are prone to outgrow the confining political affiliations of their parents. If that was true 50 years ago, surely it is so among evangelicals today. …
… Schaeffer closes the book with an appendix on “The Mark of a Christian” (also published separately), in which he appeals for this kind of love in practice. “Our love must have a form that the world may observe; it must be seeable.” But sadly, what the world sees in much of the church today isn’t love toward our political rivals or ideological opponents. And that fighting has spilled into our churches. Like no other year in my memory, congregations are torn asunder by ethnic tensions, a contested election, and our pandemic response, even something as simple as a mask mandate. If we’re to wage war, it needs to be on our divisiveness.
The church at the end of 2020 desperately needs to recover her loving unity and present the watching world with the hope of a beautiful community.
___________________________
I learn something new every day online. Today I learned about the bit of tanka poetry I wrote is really a sub genre of tanka:
Kyōka (狂歌, “wild” or “mad poetry”) is a popular, parodic subgenre of the tanka form of Japanese poetry with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. The form flourished during the Edo period (17th–18th centuries) and reached its zenith during the Tenmei era (1781–89).”
The silly poem I wrote based on the prompt of a toad or frog:
frog went a courtin’
looking for his green green bride
he could not find her
though he tried and tried and tried
little bird said she’s been fried
The writer who informed me of what I wrote said:
“A very good kyoka! I am especially fond of kyoka, even more so than tanka.”
Fire (controlled burns are typically used) and the Sequoias:
_______________________
… Sequoias are “pioneer” trees that rely on fire to reproduce
Giant sequoia trees “need the unpredictable heat of fire to reproduce,” according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Before they can grow to heights of 300 feet or more, the department says, sequoia seeds must be released from cones — a process aided by fires, which dry and crack them open. Flames also help in other ways.
“Fire loosens the soil, allowing seeds to fall into the mineral-rich earth and gather moisture that was previously drawn by larger plants,” the department says. In the process, fires also give sequoia seedlings a chance to establish themselves by clearing out duff and growth on the forest floor.
But for about 100 years — from the late 1800s through the late 1900s — fire became a rarity in sequoia forests, after the arrival of European settlers. That triggered “a massive failure of giant sequoia reproduction,” the National Park Service said.
“Giant sequoias are a pioneer species — they are among the first to take root after a disturbance occurs,” according to the National Park Service. …
….
Sequoias can live for thousands of years — some of the specimens in the 68 groves along the Sierra Nevada’s western flank have been alive for more than 3,200 years. These trees have lived through fires before, but officials are concerned by recent wildfires’ frequency and intensity.
The Castle Fire in 2020 killed up to 14% of the large sequoias in the Sierra Nevada area, totaling up to 10,600 of the trees, according to early estimates. That accounts for about a third of the total area of their groves in the Sierra Nevada.
Experts are now working to identify which sequoia groves are overdue for a controlled burn and are most vulnerable to wildfires, through a project called the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition. The group’s members range from federal agencies to the University of California and the Tule River Indian Tribe.
Jo this is my own personal concoction for the soup. I boil a large pot of spinach to which I add some light olive oil with Italian Mrs. Dash. I remove the spinach from the liquid and save for later. I chop up one whole red onion, three or four carrots, three or four stalks of celery and put all that in the spinach pot juices. I add a good amount (to taste preferences) of turmeric, black pepper, dill seed rosemary, thyme, basil, cumin, and salt if desired. I bring it to a boil and cook until veggies soften. Then I may add a bit more water before I put in a cup or more of washed and drained lentils to bring to a boil and simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed into the lentils. I usually have enough to make at least four or five meals from one batch. I don’t ever measure the herbs, but I put a lot in for my taste preferences.
Wandering Views 
I had completely forgotten about Autum.
It is cold and rainy outside.’/vyr U N XIT GWEW,
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Good morning ALL! It’s the first day of my favorite season. We’re having thunder and wind and rain at home right now. Under the eaves outside my kitchen window, a lone ruby throat hummingbird is huddled on the feeder. I’m trying not to scare him off from his relatively dry and stable shelter, but I am going to have to go to the window to use my sink soon. The dogwood in the back yard is just beginning to turn, and if all goes well, in a week or so it will be a glorious crimson.
God is good. Always.
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mE TOO ???
LikeLiked by 2 people
It just occurred to me.
I’m not always good. Just so you’ll know.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Morning!! A beautiful shot of that butterfly…on thistle no less 😊
Debra we have a couple hummingbirds hanging around still…they love visiting my moss rose plant but not so much the nectar in the feeder right now. I believe they will be gone by week’s end. And I too love autumn! Our furnace is on this morning as it is 41 degrees out there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good morning! It is dreary looking outside, but since it is autumn, I am happy to be home because the ageratum is in full bloom. The blooms are a lavender blue much like the color of periwinkle or vinca blooms. It’s such a contrasting color to what people think of as the autumn colors.
I love the header photo with the butterfly. Great shot, AJ. Are you getting outside more to practice your photography?
I have seen few butterflies here this year so it’s great to see them on the header.
LikeLike
I hope to make a big pot of my healthy lentil soup today. I made the raspberry fruit bars with almond flour, oatmeal, almond butter, and maple syrup last night. I have missed these healthy type foods.
We had a seafood dinner at Charleston, a take out meal. I got grilled grouper with a salad, fried okra, and cole slaw. We were surprised that there were no hush puppies with our meals.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Janice, I would paint the table whatever you want. My daughter redid an old kitchen table recently by sanding and sealing the wooden top in it’s natural color and then painting the legs navy. It was stunning. Raspberry fruit bars sound yummy.
As expensive as upholstery can be, it can really pay off, since modern furniture is seldom as well made as the older pieces. I love having a mix of old and new myself.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Good morning. We are preparing for the butcher’s arrival.
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Kathaleena, that table sounds beautiful. Once I get things better arranged to know what else will be alongside in that space, I will decide how to spruce up the old table and chairs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good morning!
27 ears ago we welcomed a girl into our family. We were expecting a boy (speculation, as we didn’t have a sonogram done), but we wouldn’t exchange her for anything.
LikeLiked by 6 people
*27 years
LikeLiked by 3 people
A hummingbird crashed my outdoor Bible study yesterday. We all paused to watch it explore the nearby Rose of Sharon bush.
Since the great huntress has pretty much killed everything in my yard (including the praying mantis I didn’t know existed out there), seemingly the only birds she can’t catch are the hummingbirds. So, we see them often in the red bottlebrush tree outside the large kitchen window.
BTW, if you have a bird bath or fountain, hummingbirds can only drink from running water–which is why you often see them in the sprinklers. That’s one of the reasons we have a fountain with running water and feel justified in running it since we’re watering the birds. 🙂
LikeLiked by 3 people
Good morning. Beautiful butterfly. I have seen lots of them the past week in the garden. I have monarch caterpillars on my dill. I wonder if part of them are just passing through.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I did not know that!
Hummingbirds can only drink from running water.
That could be a problem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Many cats, including mine, much prefer running water to drink.
Well, it’s autumn so we’re getting our 90-degree days this week.
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I got out to water late yesterday, but it was a quicker spritz than usual as it was already getting dark.
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From the World Magazine “Sifting” email this morning:
~ It’s nice to start this morning with some good news: The ancient massive trees of Sequoia National Park’s famed Giant Forest have so far survived the wildfire burning all around them. The KNP Complex Fire in Northern California recently entered the perimeter of the Giant Forest near a cluster of huge trees called the Four Guardsmen, but the trees’ bases had been wrapped in fire-resistant material and crews had raked and cleared vegetation that could help spread the fire. I think there might be a sermon illustration in that—but I’ll let you connect those dots so I can get on to the news. Here’s what we’re Sifting today: ~
LikeLiked by 1 person
Butcher has gone and took one ram and fourteen roosters with him.
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The cat is lying flat.
It means it’s getting hot, not even noon yet.
You can often tell the weather by a cat’s body language.
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I didn’t know that.
But I don’t have a cat, so it doesn’t mattr.
I look out the window.
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I’ve got a young Coastie looking for his first home. In searching, I ran across this…I kinda want it myself.
xhttps://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/324-E-Palmetto-Ave_Pensacola_FL_32507_M61895-09631
LikeLiked by 1 person
Cute, Kim, but isn’t that the neighbor’s house right next door?
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Animals like clean water, and the birds love when we have the fountain going in the pond. Swallows dipping through all day long. Sheep like their water fairly still.
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RKessler, they’re probably black swallowtails, not monarchs. Monarchs only feed on milkweed.
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Nice to see you, Cheryl. 🙂
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Hi Cheryl. 🙂
This is interesting:
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/reviews/church-end-20th-century-francis-shaeffer/
_______________________
Francis Schaeffer Warned Us About 2020
Review: ‘The Church at the End of the 20th Century’ by Francis Schaeffer
When we consider the contribution to Christianity of the late Francis Schaeffer, we often think of his L’Abri community in the Swiss Alps and of his noteworthy books, such as The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and How Should We Then Live? Yet it’s one of his lesser known works, The Church at the End of the 20th Century, which is perhaps the most relevant for the American church at the end of 2020.
Published exactly 50 years ago, the particulars of this short volume can be quite dated—reflected in the unsightly cover of my copy from 1970—yet its themes are surprisingly contemporary. Schaeffer speaks to the loss of truth and personal responsibility, the collapse of authority, and the growing threat of violence. He warns of impending ecological disaster and scientific manipulation, even the possibility of nations developing and weaponizing a deadly virus. …
.. Schaeffer writes in response to the student revolution in his day. At the time, the youth culture in America and Europe was disillusioned by their parents and the political elites they saw as authoritarian and out of touch. They were interested in unfettered freedom. There was also fatigue with unending wars. And at home, especially in the United States, students were unsettled by the twin issues of poverty and racial injustice. This led many to engage in a political movement known as the New Left.
As Schaeffer opens the book, he describes his society as marked by increasing polarization, disillusionment, and a loss of hope, the combination of which was careening toward chaos. Politically, Schaeffer laments an environment where classic liberalism has committed suicide—ruined by the pursuit of autonomous freedom divorced from the Judeo-Christian values that birthed such freedoms. He also cautions about the futility of conservatism—which is, by definition, a fight for the status quo—when we inhabit a post-Christian society where the prevailing values of the majority aren’t worth conserving. …
1. “Christians must realize there is a difference between being a cobelligerent and an ally:
… the challenge is that, as in Schaeffer’s day, pastors and Christians are told they must choose one side or the other. At this very juncture Schaeffer believes the church should resolutely remain on the outside—not on any particular side of the political aisle—to speak on behalf of Christ and Scripture, truth and love. That is, the church should work for what is right while rejecting both political polarization and also cultural capitulation.
Perhaps most interesting, Schaeffer makes this appeal, in part, for the sake of the next generation who are prone to outgrow the confining political affiliations of their parents. If that was true 50 years ago, surely it is so among evangelicals today. …
… Schaeffer closes the book with an appendix on “The Mark of a Christian” (also published separately), in which he appeals for this kind of love in practice. “Our love must have a form that the world may observe; it must be seeable.” But sadly, what the world sees in much of the church today isn’t love toward our political rivals or ideological opponents. And that fighting has spilled into our churches. Like no other year in my memory, congregations are torn asunder by ethnic tensions, a contested election, and our pandemic response, even something as simple as a mask mandate. If we’re to wage war, it needs to be on our divisiveness.
The church at the end of 2020 desperately needs to recover her loving unity and present the watching world with the hope of a beautiful community.
___________________________
LikeLiked by 1 person
I learn something new every day online. Today I learned about the bit of tanka poetry I wrote is really a sub genre of tanka:
Kyōka (狂歌, “wild” or “mad poetry”) is a popular, parodic subgenre of the tanka form of Japanese poetry with a metre of 5-7-5-7-7. The form flourished during the Edo period (17th–18th centuries) and reached its zenith during the Tenmei era (1781–89).”
The silly poem I wrote based on the prompt of a toad or frog:
frog went a courtin’
looking for his green green bride
he could not find her
though he tried and tried and tried
little bird said she’s been fried
The writer who informed me of what I wrote said:
“A very good kyoka! I am especially fond of kyoka, even more so than tanka.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
And another interesting piece
A Former Insider’s Take on Crisis Pregnancy Centers
https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/crisis-pregnancy-centers/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I may be wrong, but I remember hearing that sequoia trees only release their seeds during a fire. In other words they need fires.
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Janice, what is the recipe for the lentil soup? That sounds good. Especially with the cough/cold that I am battling.
Umm, it is actually the first day of Spring. We will be entering the rainy season soon.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oof. That’s a lot of work, that house, Kim! But I love those narrow double doors to the kitchen.
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Kim, that’s a whole lot of pink.
Very 1950s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Fire (controlled burns are typically used) and the Sequoias:
_______________________
… Sequoias are “pioneer” trees that rely on fire to reproduce
Giant sequoia trees “need the unpredictable heat of fire to reproduce,” according to the California Department of Parks and Recreation.
Before they can grow to heights of 300 feet or more, the department says, sequoia seeds must be released from cones — a process aided by fires, which dry and crack them open. Flames also help in other ways.
“Fire loosens the soil, allowing seeds to fall into the mineral-rich earth and gather moisture that was previously drawn by larger plants,” the department says. In the process, fires also give sequoia seedlings a chance to establish themselves by clearing out duff and growth on the forest floor.
But for about 100 years — from the late 1800s through the late 1900s — fire became a rarity in sequoia forests, after the arrival of European settlers. That triggered “a massive failure of giant sequoia reproduction,” the National Park Service said.
“Giant sequoias are a pioneer species — they are among the first to take root after a disturbance occurs,” according to the National Park Service. …
….
Sequoias can live for thousands of years — some of the specimens in the 68 groves along the Sierra Nevada’s western flank have been alive for more than 3,200 years. These trees have lived through fires before, but officials are concerned by recent wildfires’ frequency and intensity.
The Castle Fire in 2020 killed up to 14% of the large sequoias in the Sierra Nevada area, totaling up to 10,600 of the trees, according to early estimates. That accounts for about a third of the total area of their groves in the Sierra Nevada.
Experts are now working to identify which sequoia groves are overdue for a controlled burn and are most vulnerable to wildfires, through a project called the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition. The group’s members range from federal agencies to the University of California and the Tule River Indian Tribe.
(via NPR)
https://www.npr.org/2021/09/20/1038972507/california-sequoia-trees-general-sherman-aluminum-blanket
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nightingale said that today was a crazy day at the nursing home. As she described it in a text:
“One lady is constantly repeating, ‘Amen. Hallelujah,’ and chanting Catholic prayers, and chasing men.” 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
It has been a crazy day here but nothing new.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Jo this is my own personal concoction for the soup. I boil a large pot of spinach to which I add some light olive oil with Italian Mrs. Dash. I remove the spinach from the liquid and save for later. I chop up one whole red onion, three or four carrots, three or four stalks of celery and put all that in the spinach pot juices. I add a good amount (to taste preferences) of turmeric, black pepper, dill seed rosemary, thyme, basil, cumin, and salt if desired. I bring it to a boil and cook until veggies soften. Then I may add a bit more water before I put in a cup or more of washed and drained lentils to bring to a boil and simmer until most of the liquid has been absorbed into the lentils. I usually have enough to make at least four or five meals from one batch. I don’t ever measure the herbs, but I put a lot in for my taste preferences.
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I substitute celery seed for celery stalks if I am out of fresh celery.
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This soup is good with cornbread, of course.
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Cornbread goes well with a lot of different soups and stews. And yes, we put sugar in ours. 🙂
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Sugar in the cornbread, that is.
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Having just finished painting–and now spending plenty of $$ updating–the guest room, yes, that house is a lot of work!
OTOH, everyone in California is crying at the price!
As to the Crisis Pregnancy Center article–yes. That has been my experience working at four different centers in two states over the last 35 years.
We’re going to a fundraising dinner Friday night, as usual. 🙂
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Good night Jo. (Hope I got here in time to say that.)
Good morning everyone else.
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Good night, Chas
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