Fall Fun

One of my recent resolutions is to have fun. Here are a few pictures of playing around in the past weeks. First, my good buddy Melrose visited the museum with us.

And I went on an acorn hat floating adventure, twice, actually. This picture is from the second time. They are little coracles, like in the book A String in the Harp.

I picked some colorful leaves, ironed them dry, and then mod-podged them to preserve the colors. They look like they are just permanently wet. Since the non-stop rain the past few days has brought down ALL the leaves, and kept them wet, I have to wonder why I bothered.  :-P

And a fun little acorn hat craft. I colored inside with markers and then filled them with white glue. This is how they looked halfway dry. Now they are shiny and the color is more intense. I'll take some photos when I do some more. :)

I am glad I can enjoy God's world. 

For Very Small Animals on a Blustery Night

^{Mark 4:37} And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. ³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” ⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

With Jesus in the boat you can smile through the storm... while you're sailing home.  :)

"And how about the colors, Frederick?"

This week we had lovely warm fall weather which when I was growing up and we were unenlightened we called "Indian Summer." Now we know better and call it "global warming." 

Anyhow.

Every year when we get this perfect weather my brain puts me into the Leo Lionni book Frederick. 

Today it went up to 79 and the sky was blue and the sun was golden and so warm it felt like gentle toasting and you can feel your skin making vitamin D. 

And you know it is the last you are going to feel this till probably the end of May. Or maybe even June. So, today I am Frederick, gathering colors and words for the longness and greyness of winter.

Poetry Hour

This morning in worship I started to notice tiny bits of white falling past me. Most odd. One came by every maybe 20 seconds or so, and then occasionally a group of three or four at a time.

Tiny. 

Random.

And white.

I ran possibilities through my mind. Not snow. We were inside and the day warm and the building tight. Not dandruff, they were falling straight down from above. Was the guy behind me launching some sort of fine cracker crumbs aloft? Or was the sky falling, I wondered, feeling a bit like Chicken Little?

I picked up a tiny crumb and put it on a sheet of note paper and wrote a note to Devastatingly Handsome and passed it down, "Some tiny crumbs keep falling down on me." He read it, motioned at the crumb, and gave me the "you are insane" look.

And still they continued to fall. 

Mr Music told me there was a ladybug crawling on the ceiling. Apparently the painter used the same paint right across the acoustic ceiling tile and the metal support and the paint does not really adhere to the metal. So, if something as rough and tumble as a ladybug crawls across it, it flakes down on the congregants in tiny bits. 

Mystery solved.

Good thing I am not a Scottish poet or I would be writing an ode: To A Ladybug. Because I am easily distracted like that in church (actually, at all times). (apologies for the formatting. Blogger and I are not getting along today. And it is not worth, it, anyhow, just a ramble...)

O Jenny do not toss your head,                   O congregants, do not fear above
And set your beauties all abroad!                 Nor gather plaster in your eyes!You little know what cursed speed                 You little know what crumbs of paint
 The bugger's making!                                  The ladybugs drop down!                  
Those winks and finger-ends, I dread,          Those crumbs and tidbits, I dread,  
Are notice taking!                                        And try not to notice!

O would some Power the good Lord give us  Oh would some Power the good Lord give us
To see ourselves as others see us!                   To pay attention as the sky falls!
It would from many a blunder free us,          It would from many a dropping spare us,
And foolish notion:                                       And foolish notion:
What airs in dress and gait would leave us,   What airs in spots and six small legs,
And even devotion!                                       Spoil my attention!

Fallen in Beauty

I am not sure where I am going with this, it is just a thought I had walking ye dear doggie through the woods the other day and enjoying the beautiful colors and smell of fallen leaves: Why is death and decay in this setting so beautiful?

A couple years ago Devastatingly Handsome was involved in finding the body of a neighbor who had been dead several weeks. It was far from beautiful, and taught us new things about the ugliness of death. And yet, here, in the leaves, the green which is their life has drained away and what is left is truly gorgeous. Are we seeing death wrongly? is it different because, um, the fallen leaves have not fallen into sin? 

Something for me to ponder as I enjoy the beauty this fall.

Psalm 116:15 ~ Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

Fall Gifts

Fall, or as my Dad called it, Sweater Weather, is my favorite time of year. In honor of its arrival in full leaf force, I want to share some of the gifts God has shared with me this fall. 

First, we were blessed by a friend bringing over a bag of Melrose apples for us to try to see if that is a kind of apple we'd like to plant. They are delicious, just a bit tart, nice and firm and juicy. My little pink monkey, Melrose, is in love.  <3  If you can't have little pink bananas, the next best thing is an apple that bears your name.

Second, my Mum gave me this lovely ring. It is her birthstone, and mine, the peridot. This ring belonged to *her* grandmother, and her grandfather gave it to her on her 13th birthday, reset with the peridot for her. I love the golden tracery on the sides, and the sheer connectedness of it.

And someone on this property has left lots of lovely things planted. I was happy to find these Chinese lanterns growing across from my kitchen and am enjoying their cheerful color on my dining room table. Aren't they fun? Miss Dance thinks God was good to give us little pumpkinny seed pods. I agree.  :)