Goodthoughts

Babies in the Garden of Eden

We planted our vegetable garden a couple of months ago.  Like doting parents...we've watered and weeded...inspected leaves...picked off bad bugs...and given our young plants some encouraging kind words.  Now, we're getting to the fun part...beautiful blossoms followed by baby veggies!

Like any proud parent...I have a few choice pictures to share...like this cute little squash...our first!  I can't wait to cook up a skillet of squash and onions.  Add some corn on the cob, tomatoes, and lima beans and you have the best summer dinner ever!

This ribbon wrapped teepee is home to our English peas.  They're just starting to mature...they're great just eaten right out of the pod...some never make it inside!   It's amazing how different fresh vegetables taste from their canned version on the grocery shelves.  I've never really cared for English peas, but I love these! Even if peas only produced their delicate blossoms and vines they would be worth growing in the garden.  Maybe by this time next week we'll be eating these beautiful Brandywine tomatoes.  In summer the answer to the question, "What's for lunch?" is usually...tomato sandwiches!!

I picked these carrots tonight.  Aren't they pretty?  

The basil and Swiss chard are coming along.  I've got to figure out how to cook the Swiss chard.  I must confess I planted it because of its name...Bright Lights...with veins in varying bright colors!! 

I hope your gardens are doing well.  Email me some pictures of your garden "babies."  I'd love to see your gardens, too!

Every garden-maker should be an artist along his own lines.  That is the only possible way to create a garden, irrespective of size of wealth.
Vita Sackville-West

Your Mind has Wings...the end

This is the end of the story...let's see if Oakley will finally find his dream!  Scroll down to read parts 1, 2 and 3.

The End

copyright Debbie Warnock 2007

Your Mind has Wings, part 3

Today's part 3 of Your Mind has Wings, the story of Oakley, a little wooden chair searching for his dream!  Today he meets some interesting ladies who help him on his journey.  Scroll down to read part 1 and part 2 of the story.

Stay tuned...

Your Mind has Wings, part 2

Here's part 2 of the story of Oakley, a little wooden chair who went off in search of his dreams!  Click here to read part 1.
Stay tuned...

Your Mind has Wings, part 1

I wrote this children's story 2 1/2 years ago while painting a little oak chair for an art chair auction to benefit our community music program.  It's the story of a little wooden chair, Oakley, who wants to feel special and goes off on a few adventures in search of his dreams. 

The illustrations are all photographs that I worked over in photoshop to give them a more interesting and graphic look.  The lifelike bluebird in the illustrations is actually a gift from a little boy...it's plastic and battery powered so it can move its head and sing its bluebird song whenever anyone walks by!

I got very attached to Oakley while I was working on him.  I understand how Gepetto felt about Pinocchio!  It was really hard to give Oakley away after spending so many hours creating his story.  He transformed me as much as I did him during the whole long process.  So...I guess in some ways his story is my story, too. 

Here's Oakley's story in serial form...an episode a day till he finds his dream!  Hope you enjoy it!

  Stay tuned....

The Garden of Eden is ready to bloom!

Our vegetable garden...which we affectionately call The Garden of Eden, is all planted and full of promise!  I thought you might enjoy a tour of what's going on so far.
Our garden has 4 raised beds...and like the original Garden of Eden has a tree in the middle of it....an ornamental cherry...no forbidden fruit in sight!

The bed on the left has a bamboo teepee in it for the English peas to climb up.  It's amazing to watch those tiny tendrils reach for the satin ribbon wrapped around the bamboo!

 
My favorite bed right now is the lettuce.  Maybe you can see from the picture that it's divided into 4 sections...each a different type of lettuce.  Just for fun, I planted the seeds in spiral and starburst designs and it was really pretty when it first came up. 

Chuck and I eat salad from our garden almost every day.  Eating a salad made with 30 minute old lettuce is such a treat!
 
Beans are popping up everywhere!  We have limas, 3 different varieties of green beans, sugar snap peas and butterbeans.

My favorite veggie...the tomato!!  This one is called Hillbilly and is supposed to be an early producer.  I sure hope so...tomatoes in early June would be a perfect way to welcome summer!!  Can't wait till we start eating tomato sandwiches for lunch every day!  If you've never tried it...bread...mayonnaise...tomato slices...salt and pepper...yummy!  If you want to make it a gourmet treat... add avocado slices!!!

Gardening is such a satisfying hobby...it builds you muscles...wears you out so you sleep like a baby...lets you work with God's creation as an intern...lets you see colorful changes and beauty every day...plus...if you have veggies you get taste the fruit of your labor, too! I can't think of a better way to spend a day!

The best Mama THEN...and NOW!

I've always loved this picture of Mama and me.  It was the summer before I turned 3.   I think this picture tells a lot about us. 

Skinny little Mama in her shorts and striped t-shirt...always ready to give and receive a little affection.  I've kind of got her in a head lock here...giving her a little kiss.  She didn't mind...she always had time for kisses.    Mama never gave big bear hugs though. Mama's a patter...she pats on everybody.  I'm a patter, too...got it from her I'm sure.

I'm standing there barefoot in my pajamas.  We have a lot of pictures of me standing in the yard in my pajamas.  Don't ask me why...must have been a lazy child. 

As I look at my naturally straight hair curling around my face...it makes me think of how Mama would roll my hair in little pincurls around my head at night.  I'd go to bed like that and the next morning...curly hair!   I loved it when she played with my hair and she enjoyed it just as much as I did.  It made me feel special...and also sleepy and ready for bed!  No wonder she liked to play with my hair!

There's a lone petunia that I almost cropped off the left side of the picture.  Mama loves flowers and we always had petunias and zinnias and other pretty things.  I have her to thank for my love for flowers...the best hobby anybody could ever have.

A lot of years have gone by since then.  Some things have changed...I don't wear my pajamas in the front yard anymore.  Mama and I live in different states now and don't see each other as often as we would like.  I do have to reach down a little bit to give her a kiss now.

But  the important things will never change.  We're still best friends.   We still pat on each other when we're together.   We talk and laugh on the phone and enjoy hearing each others stories....what flowers we're planting.  Mama makes me feel special...I hope I make her feel the same way. 

Thank you, Mama, for always being so sweet to me...then and now.  I always feel happy from being with you... whether it's in person or on the phone.  Your contagious laughter rings in my mind whenever I think of you.  Thank you for all the years of joy and love...and then there's also the chocolate pie...and chocolate pudding...and chocolate fudge!  Like I said...you're the best Mama THEN...and NOW!  I love you!  Happy Mother's Day!

Painting in progress, finished

I started this painting, God Makes All Things New, over a year ago.  It's an idea I really care about...but painting it.... has irritated me more than anything I have ever tried to do! 

This is a 36 x 36 oil on canvas.  Normally, I can do a painting this size in about 3 days.  As you may know, a lot of my paintings are sort of visual prayers of things I'm asking God to do in my life.  This painting is about my dream to have a ukulele band in our church. 

Looking back on it all, I think my problem was that I started the painting at the same time that I was growing tired of my painting style.  I wanted to try something new but kept reverting back to the way I had done things in the past.  My painting looked like a caricature of my other paintings...only worse.  I kept painting in different styles every time I started up again!  I loved the idea but hated the painting.

One day I decided to paint most of it out...quit being so tedious and paint the idea in a more subtle suggestive way...rather than trying to hit everybody over the head with it!  So, in about 3 or 4 hours I had painted over everything on the whole canvas except for a couple of sheep heads peeping through the foreground paint and 3 sunflowers.  Everything else was wet paint!  Maybe God was making all this painting new, too!

The painting is hanging our dining room now...and Chuck and I have decided that we like it.  In spite of all the problems...this painting has taken me somewhere I've never been...my thinking process shifted.  Maybe God was making me new, too.   Nobody wants to be stuck in the past.  I hope I'll always be able to see my art... and my life...from a fresh perspective. 
All is well.  Thank you, God.

Lemons and Peppermint Sticks

  Our oldest daughter, Laurie, has a new blog called Lemons and Peppermint Sticks about her amusing life raising two smart and funny daughters, Vivian and Maggie, with her equally smart and funny husband, Steve.  Oh, don't forget the two dogs...Hunny and Baby.  Hunny eats everything...but has a special fondness for library books!  Well, read her 1st blog post and you'll understand...

Laurie has always amazed me since she was very little.  She's small in size but big in personality, smiles and thoughtfulness! 

She's a great mom and really good at making memories for her family.  Laurie celebrates every holiday known to man with some form of chocolate and decorations!  But most important,  somehow Laurie manages to do all this without making a big deal out of it...she makes it all relaxed and fun!

I hope you enjoy Laurie's blog...leave a comment so she'll know who you are. 

Laurie got the name of her blog from a special treat we started making for our grandchildren.

  Here's the recipe:  Take one lemon, roll it on the kitchen counter with your palm to make it good and juicy.  Cut a hole in the top and insert 1 old fashioned, porous peppermint stick.  Hand this to the first sweet child you see and tell them to suck really hard on the peppermint stick.  Then stand back and watch their eyes light up when the lemon juice comes through! 

Easter Sunrise

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in.  She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.  "Dear woman, why are you crying?" the angels asked her.

  "Because they have taken away my Lord," she replied, "and I don't know where they have put him."

   She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn't recognize him.  "Dear woman, why are you crying?" Jesus asked her. "Who are you looking for?"

   She thought he was the gardener. "Sir," she said, "if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him."

   "Mary!" Jesus said.

  She turned to him and cried out, "Rabboni!" (which is Hebrew for "Teacher").

   "Don't cling to me," Jesus said, "for I haven't yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, `I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, "I have seen the Lord!" Then she gave them his message.

John 20:11-18 NLT

The beautiful painting, Easter Morning 1, is by Chinese artist He Qi.  To find out more about this talented artist and his work go to http://www.asianchristianart.org/profile/HeQi/HeQi.html