Sunday Verse--the Resurrection of the Lord

There's a poem for that!

So Mac set us the theme of photo + verse (poem of not less than four lines).

I am glad that I prepared my image ahead while my internet was down and I couldn't surf. Putting it together now would involvle not only my normally bumbling fingers, but this:

So what can I say?

Just don't use the guillotine

To make confetti in a hurry on a busy day.

(Paper cutter really by the way.}

ER was quiet.

Stitches were quick.

Back to business before the night's over.

(Well, sort of.)

Well, back to the header photo and forgive any typos, just imagine typing with that thing on your thumb. We went for a Sunday drive a couple of weeks ago (when I was looking for folds in the hills.) The Horse Heaven Hills are an area to the south of us. Even Wikipedia knows of them:

James Gordon Kinney, an early pioneer, is credited with officially naming the Horse Heaven Hills in 1881. He first came to the region in 1857. Impressed by the knee-high grass that fed the large bands of feral horses that roamed, he remarked "the area offers excellent forage and comparative isolation... This is surely a horse heaven!"

No more feral horses nor knee high grass, the land is farmed mostly in wheat. Farms are big, as wheat farms always are, and the distances between neighbors are long. In creating a double haiku  to go with the picture, I thought about the possible difference in attitude between a farmer and his wife--particularly in earlier days when social contact was not just a click away.

Let's see what poetic mischief the others have got up to this Wednesday from the links in my sidebar.

Sunday Psalm--Palm Sunday

Headbangers--Look Down--(I'm Back!!!)

The two thoughts are not related other than the fact that without the second I wouldn't be doing the first.

I'm back online and I'm WIRELESS!!! Wow! My modem quit working nearly a week ago, and after some hours on the phone with tech support (both the one for the company and my personal tech support -- my son Jeff, who was actually the one who figured it out since the company insisted it was working)  and a wait for the new modem to show up at my door, I am back in business.

When Craver VII announced the theme of Look Down, I started thinking of all the great shots I had in the archives looking down. I had to then admit to the team that that had made me dizzy.

Having overcome the vertigo, I did my photo search, realizing that I had been looking down from the London Eye, and from Seattle's Big Wheel.

I looked down at the staircase at Scotty's Castle. Ooooooh, I'm dizzy again.

[edit: Actually, taking another look at the staircase, and knowing myself, and having my husband take a look at the picture as well, we have determined that we were probably looking up. But it still makes me dizzy.]

I have looked down into Box Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Canyonland, as well as  several other canyons not pictured including the Grand Canyon.

But my best Looking Down shot is this one. And no flight I have been on has gone over Mt. Rainier again in quite that same way.

Check out the other headbangers in my sidebar to see what they have looked down at.

Purple Picnic repost--Headbangers' Theme is the color purple.

When Tom told us his choice of a theme for this week;s header challenge, he said we might have to look in our archives. I think he meant our photo archives, but here is a purple post from my blog archives. On May 5, 2010 I posted this for ABC Wednesday. I share it again now for the Purple theme Tom has chosen. Check the links in my sidebar to see what the fellows have found.

 

 

ABC Wednesday--P is for a Purple Picnic

Do you have a special way of remembering friends? For me, each summer, and for some of my quilting buddies, it's a purple picnic.

So, you may wonder, how does one have a purple picnic and why?

Here is the story behind it. One September, my friend Grace and I were getting together to do a Shop Hop. A Shop Hop is a sort of quilters' frenzy, where quilt shops in a region have a weekend where they team together for special deals, contests, patterns, drawings. And quilters go in a frenzy from one shop to the next to look for the clues, the freebies, and the special patterns designed for the event. It may be something only an addicted quilter can understand.

Grace lived her life in a wheelchair. In the last few years it was a motorized wheelchair, after nearly a year in the hospital. She was ready for some adventure. A full shop hop was more than she would be able to handle, but a few of the shops on my side of the mountain where the Shop Hop covered quite a few miles and only 13 shops was a lot different than the more than 50 along the I-5 corridor.

While planning our excursion, we thought of Debi, a friend not too far off our route who was going through some rough times and we decided to drop in on her. We would arrive in her town close to lunchtime, so we decided to pack a picnic and bring it along, and if Debi wasn't up to a spontaneous visit, we could take it to the park.

I'd brought a batik tablecloth home from my trip to India and had never had a chance to use it. And it was purple. I said I would bring my purple tablecloth and exuberantly, Grace declared, "We can have a purple picnic!" We then set out to plan all the purple we could think of. That first purple picnic (Debi did welcome our visit.) included purple potato chips, purple pop, purple plums, purple gift bags of purple goodies for each of us, including Debi's son. Even a purple toy or something--don't remember what--for Debi's little dog and Grace's service dog, Landrum. We had a delightful lunch, cheerful catching up on everything, and Grace and I were on our way to continue our shopping.

The following year, sadly, Grace suffered a massive stroke and passed away. Some of us were gathered for a quilting weekend, and we had planned a purple picnic, this time adding cold borscht and purple paper plates, purple plastic tableware, and purple napkins to our picnic items. The picnic became a memorial to Grace as we remembered her always witty rejoinders, her faith in what she could accomplish despite her health issues, and her ability to always cheer each of us up.

The purple picnic became an annual tradition, and each year since, at least one person in our group has had a purple picnic in memory of Grace. The one pictured was shared last summer on a camping trip.

When Grace passed away, we remembered what she always said--that one day she would dance---dance with the angels.

Now our purple picnics will honor both Grace and Debi, who passed away earlier this year  after a long bout with emphysema.

                                          Grace                                         Debi

Do you want to have a purple picnic? Here are some purple foods to consider: purple potato chips, blue corn tortilla chips (which are actually purple), cornbread from blue cornmeal (available at a health food store), potato salad from blue or purple potatoes. borscht, grapes, plumes, grape soda, grape jelly, purple jelly beans, pickled beets,....maybe you could add some more.....

Sunday's Psalm--Fourth Sunday of Lent

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord. 

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

 

 

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

Fold

Butterflies fold their wings when they light.

Dragonflies apparently do not.

The sheep gather in the fold.

 The cruise ship stewards fold the towels into fanciful animals.

The dentist keeps files in folders.

The hood of this old car folds up for access to the engine.

 
These yellow tulips fold up at night.

Geologic folds show up in shadows at Death Valley National Park.

I gave the theme for this week's Header challenge. And I don't yet know what I will use. Wednesday afternoon check the other Headbangers from the links in the sidebar. I bet no one is thinking of the laundry.

Sunday Psalm--3rd Sunday of Lent

The Lord is kind and merciful.

Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.

The Lord is kind and merciful.

He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills,
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.

The Lord is kind and merciful.

The LORD secures justice
and the rights of all the oppressed.
He has made known his ways to Moses,
and his deeds to the children of Israel.

The Lord is kind and merciful.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.

The Lord is kind and merciful.

Skywatch at Living Memorial Sculpture Garden

 We have often passed this site in the rush to get from home to Southern California or back. This trip was the first time we stopped. On the way south we pulled into the parking area to be greeted by a covering of about nine inches of snow. We didn't have the right shoes on to brave the trail out to the artwork. Returning a week later, we found the snow gone.

This particular piece is called "The Why Group". It is so large that it is hard to convey in a photo.

Additional photos from the garden will be at my photo blog over the next few days.


We were graced with beautiful blue skies on our trip to California. See other skies around the world at Skywatch.