Simple Pleasure...Playing Fetch in Fishtrap Creek

Friday evening after work. A little sunshine, a Black Lab, a stick and a creek. It's all good.

IMAGINE * MEDITATE * BELIEVE * SPEAK * ACT

Do you believe a storm is coming or the sun is bursting through the clouds?

 

Debora's Life-Rule #9

 

Some people don't think that they have faith. They think it's some magical, mystical thing bestowed on a few special people...

 

Faith is simply imagining that something good will happen, focusing on that thought until you start to believe it is possible, then saying what you now believe will happen. This is where most people give up. They're afraid of looking like foolish dreamers. But anyone who's ever succeeded at anything will tell you it all starts with an idea, some focus, and a few words. (Those words seal the commitment to the idea, much like an oath or covenant.)

 If you've ever written a grocery list you've exercised faith. You imagined a lovely pot roast for dinner. You thought about how you could make it. You decided that you definitely could, and would make a pot roast. You wrote "pot roast" on your list and told your spouse, "Honey, we're having pot roast for Sunday dinner." You went to the store...and there, in the meat section was the pot roast you envisioned. You took it home, roasted it in the crock-pot with some red potatoes...and voila!

 

Fear, on the other hand, is imagining that something terrible will happen and focusing on it until you begin to believe it. Whether your fear materializes or not, you  live it over and over in your mind. And for some crazy reason, people who live in fear seem to almost enjoy spreading their negative thoughts around. How often do we hear a negative person say proudly, "I TOLD YOU that would happen." Of course it did. They exercised faith in reverse.  It's like a number line, it works in both directions.

 

So...

 

 

IMAGINE*MEDITATE*BELIEVE*SPEAK*ACT

 

Faith is way more fun than fear (and a lot less stressful.) But in the end, it's  really our choice.

 

 

And Jesus said to him, "If You can? All things are possible to him who believes."

The Gospel of Mark  Chapter 9, Verse 23

 

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Potagers...the French kitchen garden

Is there anything in life that can't be turned into art? I think not! I've been dreaming and scheming; up all hours of the night, pouring over seed catalogs and gardening websites when it struck me like a bolt of lightning...why not make my veggie garden a combination of flowers and vegetables with a formal geometric layout that would make it easier to get around and weed? And to add to the interest, I envisioned scarlet runner beans on a teepee in the center for a colorful, vertically interesting, and rustic, cottage-y feeling. I would build my garden around this central focal feature. Gardening meets quilting! So I poked around the internet looking for gardens that include flowers, herbs, and veggies in pleasing geometric layouts. What I found was that my big idea is not original (I always think my 2 A.M. harebrained schemes are original) and not only is it not original, it's been done for centuries and has a name; Potager. Here's how Wikipedia defines a potager...

"The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager (in French, jardin potager) or in Scotland a kailyaird,^[1] is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. Most vegetable gardens are still miniature versions of old family farm plots, but the kitchen garden is different not only in its history, but also its design.
The kitchen garden may serve as the central feature of an ornamental, all-season landscape, or it may be little more than a humble vegetable plot. It is a source of herbs, vegetables and fruits, but it is often also a structured garden space with a design based on repetitive geometric patterns.
The kitchen garden has year-round visual appeal and can incorporate permanent perennials or woody shrub plantings around (or among) the annuals."

I was actually kind of relieved to see that there are others that are as crazy and obsessive as I am.  

Urban Potager Kitchen Gardens, Chicago

Photo credit by Lisa Hubbard, Country Living

http://www.countryhousefrancetobuy.com/pages_house_france/garden.htm



Photo credit by Lisa Hubbard
BE STILL MY HEART!

This weekend hubby and I planted our potager in my community garden plot over at the Methodist Church. It of course, centers around a tee-pee of scarlet runner beans. Around the beans is a diamond shaped set of rows--one side lettuce, one side carrots, one side onions, and the last side is radishes. The corners are dahlias. Between them are dill, kale, and peppers. Along the far row are two spinach beds, and gladiolus along the front entrance. Here's my original plan...



I'm calling it Debora's Jardin Potager.
All I need is a little sunshine and some fine-misty rains!



from the Humble Potager


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The Face of Lummi; Past, Present, Future

This post is dedicated to all of the beautiful, beautiful Lummi children that I work with every day. My fondest wish for you is that you learn from your elders and carry their wise words in your hearts. That you  learn all you can from your teachers. That you overcome every obstacle and walk toward you future with dignity and confidence...heads held high. 

 I carry each of you in my heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Forest Wakens

We rose early this morning and went to the woods. Today was the first day in a long while that it wasn't damp and cold. Though I'm usually chilly in the forest, it was unusually warm for May so I tied my fleece about my waist and set about to find new things to photograph. I think hubby and Baron get a bit exasperated as they walk along and suddenly I am nowhere to be found; having stopped to take a picture every few yards. It's just so exciting to see something new and fresh...something more than mushrooms and fungi and fallen trees.

But today, oh my! The birds were chirping, the sun was warm on our backs, and the air carried a sweetness that speaks of fresh leaves, berry blossoms and cool, running water from the creek that meanders through the wood.

I don't know what this white blossom is. The leaves resemble wild geranium but the flower is different.

I just love how the sun comes through the canopy of leaves in the woods. Try as I may, I can never seem to photograph adequately how lovely it is to gaze up to the sky through a bower of maple leaves. I think if I were to repeat my wedding vows; it would be here. Quietly...simply.

These delicate pink blossoms are trillium; a protected species in many areas. It is so-named because it has 3 petals, 3 leaves, and 3 stamens. There is something holy about trillium. So simple, so delicate, so perfect in it's trinity. Father...Son...Spirit. It bears the signature of it's Maker in so many ways. Trilliums should not be picked because once the stem is broken, the entire plant dies. "I and the Father are One," said Jesus. How beautiful. One of the common names for trillium is Wake-Robin; because they bloom about the same time that the robins come out in spring.

These fern fronds are coming uncurled. New ferns seem rather snake-y to me. I find them beautiful and rather creepy at the same time.

When I was a little girl my big sister used to take me out into the woods back of our house where bleeding hearts grew in profusion. I loved to pick them and take bouquets to Mom.

Salmonberries all a-bloom the path along the creek. Soon the little finches will have a feast!

The forest is wakening. Summer is near!