Goodthoughts

Shelling peas

There was a touch of fall in the air today.  The 100+ temperatures that we had a couple of weeks ago are thankfully gone.  So I decided it was the perfect day to sit on the front porch and shell peas.  I bought these purple hull peas at a little produce stand near our house.  You don't see these in the grocery stores much but I learned to love them when we lived in south Georgia and everybody there grew them.  

I dumped the peas out of the brown bag onto a metal tray sitting on the little table in front of our wicker loveseat on the porch.  I was amazed at how gracefully those half dried up purple hull peas had landed on my yellow tray. Why is it that randomness is often so beautiful?  Look at how those two peas in the lower right corner are turning up at just the right angle to balance the whole composition in a whimsical sort of way.

So then I sat down and started shelling peas.  The greenish peas with the bright red eyes looked so pretty in the old fashioned ceramic mixing bowl my sister gave me years ago.  The red eye of the pea echoed the color of the pod perfectly.  

Not only are these peas beautiful but they come in their own biodegradable carrying case with a soft little membrane inside to keep them comfy till somebody like me pops them open!  God must have thought a long time before he made purple hull peas!

I thought their colors looked really pretty with the pillow on the loveseat!!  I don't think I've ever had such a good time shelling peas!  Tomorrow they'll give up their beautiful colors to a pot of boiling water and turn a very "unamazing" shade of grayish brown .  But what those little peas lose in beauty they'll more than make up for in taste!  Sounds like a fair trade to me!

 

Scrambled pansies

Scrambled pansies sounds like a new sidedish Rachael Ray may have cooked up, but these pansies weren't scrambled in a skillet on the stove!  No, they were scrambled on my computer, in my head and with my hands.  And why would I want to scramble pansies?  Aren't pansies beautiful just the way God made them?  

The thing I love about art is the creative process. It's a need to deconstruct reality, rearrange the composition, crank up the color and leave a little bit of yourself and your emotions shining through the work.  It's the hope of endless possibilites.  It's the only way I know to wear myself out and totally pep myself up at the same time!  

 

So, here's how the pansies got scrambled.  I started with a photo looking straight down at the pansies and forget-me-nots growing in front of our fence. See that yellow pansy on the far left side?  See if you can find him on the finished version. I cropped a portion of this picture and opened it in Photoshop.  I then filtered the image to look like a drybrush painting.

I generated about 40 random patterns on the pattern maker.  Look how the elements in the original photo are scrambled up. The white fence is "growing" in slivers in the ground with the flowers.  The combinations are infinite, but I chose the one I like best and moved on.

 

 

 

 

Now, the fun part begins.  With Photoshop's large selection of brushes and my Wacom pad and stylus I can paint with almost the same feel I have with real paints and brushes. So I started choosing brushes and colors and just got lost in painting for a while.  But unlike, real paint, I can use different color overlays and light sources to scramble things up even more!  I painted all sorts of shapes (a triangle, my symbol for God's serendipitous guidance, seems to have crept in!) and colors over the patterned photograph. I cropped it to more of a square shape and thought I was finished.  I love the colors and the movement in it.  Can you find the pansies?

Today I decided to see if I could take it a step further with a new version.  I wanted it to look even more springy and happy.  I used some special effects with some gradient changes that focused it into a circle and a vivid light source that made it scream "happy" for me.

I noticed when I got through that one of the shapes looks like a question mark, not something I intended, but I like the idea! Questions and triangles...inspired by the springtime pansies...as they sing their happy love song to God.

Bugs and blooms

You know, when you're trying to garden organically...you're going to run into a few bugs!  Here's a look at our vegetable and flower garden where the bugs are enjoying some of the plants as much as we are.  The secret to staying ahead may just be to plant so much stuff you can afford to lose a few now and then.  So, come on in...and welcome to this year's garden!  And I know what you're thinking... it's not 2011... but I can't figure out how to change the title...so you'll just have to remember it's really 2010!!

The Daffodil

Spring officially arrived yesterday!  I've been working in the yard all week...happily coaxing my muscles back into gardening shape again.  Daffodils have popped up all over our back yard but the first clump to bloom was down by the labyrinth.  I picked a vase full and brought them inside to brighten the kitchen table.  Their happy faces inspired this poem which I wrote this morning and shared with the children at church.

     

 
 

Some Questions for Angels

 

Chuck and I started talking about angels a few weeks ago.  For some reason, neither of us can remember exactly what got us started.  It seems that I asked him a question about angels and he started googling on his laptop and we were off and running!

Several years ago, I wrote in my journal that I wanted to paint pictures of the unseen world.  I had no idea how I was going to do that at the time.  Or even what I meant by it.  But after Christmas, I felt compelled to try my hand at angels. 

My bluebird paintings usually have an angel somewhere in them, but I think I'm at a different place now...where the angels are going to be center stage. 

This painting is a cropped version of a digital painting I've been working on since Christmas.  It's about the story of Jacob's ladder in the Bible with a little twist...at least in the staircase!  I have a lot more work to do on it, but thought you might enjoy seeing it.

Here's a little late night journal entry from Sunday while pondering  my guardian angels.

I've been reading angel stories today.  It makes me wonder about my guardian angels.  Like where are they while I'm writing this...looking over my shoulder?...smiling at each other?...hovering above me near the ceiling?...or sitting beside me on the bed?

If I talk to them would they feel better?  Have I been ignoring them my entire life after all they've done for me?  Should I ask questions or their opinion about things?  Should I ask them to come enjoy the sunset or watch the clouds shifting in the wind?

Should I talk to them like I talk to God?  Should I ask them for ideas for paintings or  for directions when there is a fork in the road?

Would they like to discuss ideas for the garden?  I think angels like gardens.  It probably made them sad to guard the Garden of Eden from Adam and Eve.

Maybe my guardian angels sit outside in the garden when things are slow here with me.  Maybe they're the ones calling me out to play on the first warm day of spring...and every day after that! 

Maybe they like the garden for the same reason I do...there is so much to remind them of God there.  The color.  The beauty.  The mystery and magic of life.

Chuck is preaching a series of sermons on angels. You can read the first one,  Entertaining Angels: Who are Angels and Why Do We Need Them? at chuckwarnock.com

 

Tomatoes and God's Extravagance

Last week while we were at the beach...our tomatoes in our vegetable garden started multiplying!  We knew it was going to happen and left word with our friends to come pick all they wanted.  Even with all that picking...we still have tons of beautiful red tomatoes!  I picked all these this afternoon.   The biggest basket was so heavy I had to ask Chuck to carry it inside for me!  We have tomatoes everywhere!!

The leaves have fallen off some of the plants and when you walk into the garden... the tomatoes appear to be happily floating in the air!  

An old wooden chair I turned into a trellis has fallen over with the weight of its bounty.

Every time I look at all these beautiful, juicy...absolutely yummy tomatoes, I am reminded of the generous extravagance of God. 

All I did was plant one tiny seed per plant...a little watering and weed pulling on our part...a little staking and tying...and God somehow turned that seed into more tomatoes than Chuck and I can possibly eat! 

God's extravagance doesn't end with tomatoes...it's in the beauty of the flowers...the birds song...the gentle breeze...the warm sun...the ocean waves...laughter...hugs from someone you love. 

Maybe God is extravagant with us...so we'll be like that with each other.   The more tomatoes we pick...the more we have.  The more tomatoes we give away...the happier it makes us! 

There is no shortage of anything in God's extravagant economy...not tomatoes...not smiles...not love.  Our job in life is to remember to be thankful for all God gives us...and pass it on with a smile!

Praying for a mantis

One day while watching tiny squash bugs crawling all over a squash leaf in our organic vegetable garden I thought how nice it would be to have a little army of praying mantises gobbling up all those nasty little bugs!  Every time I saw a suspicious looking bug getting up close and personal with one of my veggies...a praying mantis came to mind...really more of a wish than a prayer.

A few days later while dragging the water hose past the vegetable garden to a backyard flower bed...a praying mantis jumped on my shoulder.  It startled me so...I swatted it to the ground.  As he fell to the grass I realized that I had just tried to get rid of the very thing I desperately wanted...a praying mantis!

I bent down and looked at the grass and there he was...a baby mantis.  I picked him up gently and carried him to the garden and sat him on a squash plant and told him he could eat all the bugs he could find.  

The next afternoon while weeding the labyrinth...I raised my head and found myself face to face with another praying mantis...this one bigger and more mature than the first one.  I cupped my hands around him and gave him a free ride to one of the tomato plants.

A few days ago, Chuck notice a praying mantis sitting near a lavender plant by the driveway.  He was the biggest one yet!  I picked him up with my hands together.  He stuck his head out to look at me but didn't make any attempt to get away. 

When I got to the garden,  I put him on the trionfo violetto beans growing up a big teepee.  He sat there a few seconds just looking at me...sort of that "look of love" Pretty Kitty gives me.  Then he jumped back toward me and I caught him in mid air on my hand.  He turned his face up toward mine and just looked me in the eyes...I had the strange feeling that he liked me.  And I knew I liked him! 

We did the routine two more times...me putting him on the beans and him jumping on my hand...and then on my shoulder...each time making eye contact.  Finally, I carried him to the cucumber vines and sat him down on the ground.  He stayed this time, but he seem to watch as I walked away.  I sure hope he enjoyed a delicious bug buffet! 

Life in the Garden of Eden

I love spending time in the Garden of Eden these days...thankfully no snakes so far this year.   The garden's grown a lot in the past month...it's gone from baby to young adult stage.  Best of all the tomatoes are starting to turn red.  They're not quite juicy ripe on the vine yet...but almost!

Here's a video of the pictures we took yesterday.  I hope you enjoy it.  The garden is about 20 x 40 feet with 4 raised beds and the rest planted in the ground.  Straw covers the paths and keeps the weeds and mud down.  We planted way too many cucumbers.  We eat cucumbers with every meal but breakfast and give them away whenever we get a chance!  I love picking the vegetables.  It reminds me of an Easter egg hunt with brightly colored eggs.  

We have a family of baby bluebirds in the box near our garden.  I looked in 2 days ago and the birds were actually hatching out of the eggs!   It was so amazing.  I took a couple of pictures of the 4 baby bluebirds yesterday when they were 24 hours old.  They're so cute and their pictures are at the end of the video.

The video is sort of a walk from our tiny pond at the bottom of our back porch steps, past the herb garden and into the Garden of Eden.  Let's go!!

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

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!