SUNDAY STROLL- WOODY WOODPECKER ATE HERE

Here in the woods just off our front porch is a tree whose top broke off some time ago. It became a prime dining table for all the Woodpeckers in the woods.
As you can see here, the master drillers, the Pileated Woodpeckers prepared the table. Their boring into the wood sounds like a jack hammer: rat-a-tat-tat resounds throughout the woods.

Their evidence of dining pleasure is found all through the woods. Their call isn't exactly like Woody Woodpecker, but close enough to let you know they are here.

Today I'm keeping it short and close to the house. We will be away from home after church and I wanted to at least have a little stroll.

For more strolling make a bee line to The Quiet Country House.

GRACE NOTES

Grace Notes are musical ornamentation, added notes that give a lilt or character to the musical phrase being played. I find ideas and concepts that add to my personal experience and save them in my book of quotes and I believe they add that type of grace to my life. Along with a strong sense of God's Grace.

I love to sing, I think it must be a part of what it means to be human. We all seem to respond to music, the emotion, the danceable beat or rhythm. The sounds can lift our spirit or calm our anxiety. I wonder why that is so universally true. Over the years I have found the following thoughts that remind me of this inherent trait of human kind.

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Universe--

Uni - one, verse - song.

One Song!

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My idea is that there is music in the air;

the world is full of it and you simply take as much as you require.

Sir Edward Elgar

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"I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free,

for His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me."

song - His eye is on the sparrow.

Civilla Martin & Charles Gabriel

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"Bach gave us God's word,

Mozart gave us God's laughter,

Beethoven gave us God's fire,

God gave us music that we might pray without words"

Engraved on a German Opera House.

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This is my Symphony

To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury,

and refinement rather than fashion,

to be worthy, not respectable and wealthy, not rich;

to listen to stars and birds, babies and sages,

with heart, to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently,

await occasion, hurry never;

in a word,

to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the cement,

this is my symphony.

William Henry Channing

SUNDAY STROLL-MEDITATION GARDEN

This Memorial Day Weekend I want to invite you into the Meditation and Healing Garden in our church yard. Our church has several talented artist who worked all last summer on the mosaic wall.


Come sit and contemplate the heroic nature of human beings who through the ages were willing to die for friend, home or country. This is the time to say thank you, not to just soldiers, but all who serve to protect and preserve the concept of personal freedom. We need to be about healing one another's wounds.

Here in this garden are many herbs, mints, sage, balms, this Rosemary plant is turning into a shrub, don't you think.

The angel sits in the midst of Thyme and calls us to attend to the here and now. This is our time. I am a meditative and feel hope and peace in any natural setting. Here I pray for the healing of spirit and mind and heart of the world.

Stroll through other gardens and places at Aisling's place.

GRACE NOTES

This picture is from Journey to Wild Divine, a biofeedback game of adventure I play on my computer.

I realized a long time ago that life is pretty much what we choose to make of it. We don't always have control of what is happening, but we always have a choice in how we think about it. When it finally occurred to me that I am free to think what I want to think, I was amazed. I was so relieved and delighted to realize I didn't have to view the world the way my family thought or society directed. I am on my own in my own thoughts. What a Eureka moment.

The following quote says it pretty well.

ATTITUDES

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or wreck a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the inevitable, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our ATTITUDES"

Chuck Swindall

HOME COOKING-Kielbasa Skillet meal

May I introduce you to Fred.

I found this recipe some years ago in our magazine from Farm Bureau Insurance. The anonymous cook who submitted the skillet meal couldn't remember why the family had started calling it Fred, but Fred had become a favorite meal for her family. We have found it a nice addition to our table as well. I will give her version and say here I use it as a loose guideline.

Ingredients

1 lb. kielbasa (I use turkey)

1/2 stick butter

1/2 head coarsely chopped cabbage (I like long slivers like kraut)

4 medium potatoes, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced (I like a big onion)

Apple slices (the recipe says this is optional, I always use a whole big apple)

1/2 C. water ( I always have to use more)

Procedure

Slice kielbasa into 1/2 inch slices. In large skillet- preferably a big black cast iron one- over medium heat, brown the kielbasa in butter. Obviously I use an electric skillet and keep the heat too hot, hence the need to use more water.

Add all other ingredients and mix them well. Cover and reduce heat to low. The dish is done when the vegetables are tender. Season to taste.

I always cook according to the recipe the first time, haven't really looked at the original recipe again until today.

Hope you meat eaters try this at least once. I think you will like it.

SUNDAY STROLL-ALONG THE EDGES

Today I am strolling around the edge. Out in front are a couple of hanging baskets of Calibrachoa. To me they look like tiny petunias.
Out along the west side are the Rosa Rugosa, at least that is my hazarded guess. Our neighbor gave us the start. When the wind is right we can smell them at the house some 100 feet away. They have lots of thorns and big hips that are full of Vitamin C and used in teas.

The woods to the south are filled with wonderful trees including a gazillion Sassafras. The small twigs can be used as a toothbrush when you peel back a little bark and fray the end. It has the taste of root beer.

In the old garden area under the 'gone wild' peaches are these interesting wildflowers that I am considering to be either Lyre leaved Sage or Penstemon and then again something else all together.

Here are the 'wild peaches' that never get very big but are tasty to us, the birds and insects.

The woods are full of Mountain Laurel. This is the wondrous bud. Click it bigger to see the neat geometric shape of the buds.

Right now the buds are beginning to open and the clusters become delightful to behold when the flowers are fully open.

I include this Honey Suckle vine to show the tangled gnarly mess that nature sometimes creates.

Around the edges of the woods in the sunshine there are many blackberry patches to be found. Wild berries always seem to taste sweeter. It may have something to do with the difficult nature of picking them and the danger of snakes in the thickets.

Our property is backed up by my nephews place and these last two pictures are of the creek that runs through the south side of our woods and past their home on the way to the lake.

I hope you enjoyed the walk about and if you would like to continue with another stroller head on over to Aisling's place.

GRACE NOTES

It is my personal belief that God and the force we call Life are one and the same. Even if we disagree I hope you see a little of my reasoning in this wonderful reflection . You see I believe that no matter where you are or go, God is there, the very fabric of creation.

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The same stream of life that runs through my veins runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measure.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth into numberless blades of grass and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean cradle of birth and death in ebb and flow.

My limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

And my pride is from the life throb of ages dancing in my blood at this moment.

Rabindranath Tagore

SUNDAY STROLL MEMORY LANE

Bill and Juanita, 1940

I know it's Mother's Day, but I can't remember one parent without the other. They are a matched set in my memory. They were both elegant as well as the salt of the earth. Graceful and full of fun. I will probably use these pictures again in June to honor my Dad.

Mother was stylish on a budget and made our clothes and we always looked good on Sunday at church or on the streetcar going downtown to shop. In my childhood I remember that she always wore a hat and gloves to complete her ensemble.

She was a Tennessee country girl who went to Detroit to earn enough money to send some back to her mom to support the younger brothers and sisters. There were 11 children in the family and Mother was the oldest daughter and the fourth child. She worked as a general maid and housekeeper for a well-to-do lawyer and his invalid wife. The lady keep a very elegant home and taught Mother how to manage and entertain in a fancier style than Mother had ever thought to imagine outside of novels and the movies. When Mother had her own home she always managed touches of elegance and refinement that she felt was appropriate for our lifestyle.

My whole life is defined by my mothers faith in God and her love of family. She read poetry to me and since she was so sentimental she would read poems of childhood such as Little Boy Blue, The Old Oaken Bucket, Rock Me to Sleep, Mother and so many other tearjerkers. She'd cry and so I would cry. We were a sight.! Today when I cry at a corny commercial on T.V. I invoke my mother's spirit and say Hello, Mother, come cry with me.

Mother had the knack for extending friendship. When she died at least five different women came to me and told me that Juanita had been her very best friend. I think my mother's finest attributes jumped a generation and her only granddaughter, my daughter "Aisling" has shown me the same lovely nature that I beheld in my mother.

Bill and Juanita, 1990

For other strolling stories visit The Quiet Country House.

GRACE NOTES

I love this picture, it came from some internet site. Wish I could give better credit to the photographer.

Thumbing through my book of quotes I see many themes but today I think I will just throw out random thoughts that have struck my fancy over the years.

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"Where there is no vision, the people perish."

Proverbs 29:18

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"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."

Einstein

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If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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If you only love enough, you could be the most powerful person in the world.

Emmett Fox

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Life can only be understood backwards, but, it must be lived forward!

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Silence is the language God speaks, and everything else is a bad translation.

Father Thomas Keating.

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Feminism

In 1913 Rebecca West wrote sardonically, I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."

From Backlash: Susan Faludi

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Dear God Let me seek the truth, but spare me the company of those who have found it.

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As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

The Book of Prayer

WILDFLOWER RIDE PART II

Our ride through the back roads continues now that I have looked up and given names to the flowers that I didn't know at the time. Basically I knew a Trillium when I saw them. These following flowers looked familiar but I now know for sure who they are. My main source of information was the fifth edition of "Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers. Where and when to find them."Here is the common but lovely and charming Meadow Parsnip.
Stonecrop is the only native sedum that is found in the Smokies.

Small flowered Galinsoga (Potato weed, Gallant Soldier) it is considered a noxious weed.

Common Mallow has been used as a medicine and is related to the Musk Mallow.

May I introduce you to the Hairy Buttercup. The petals are waxy.

Foamflowers are common on rich, wooded slopes up to about 4000 feet.

Wild Oats are also known as Small Bellwort and are seldom found in large numbers at any location. (I have seen small clumps in our woods )

Now the chore is to remember these names when I am out and about with other wild flower hunters. To have these names roll trippingly off my tongue would serve me in my imagined roll of elder herb woman or medicine woman.

SUNDAY STROLL

Almost all the leaves are open, even the Oaks are responding to the natural order of things and unfurling. Do leaves unfurl? I think so. It feels so good to step outside and see lush greenery up between me and the sky. The birds are in full courtship or brooding and Flutemaker swears he saw lightening bugs last night. This double tomato pot is my gift to Flutemaker. He has been curious about this style of growing tomatoes, so when I found these at the Monterey Garden Club plant sale I just had to get one for him. The bush tomato is on top and the grape tomato hangs out the bottom. It will be fun to watch them grow and produce.We are in the midst of rainy days and although our wildflower bed has been tilled we haven't sown the seeds. These sherbet colored flowers (Aisling tells me these are Wall flowers, I checked and I do believe she is right.) are from last year as well as the Sweet Williams in the back ground.
This bush has several names; Sweet Shrub, Carolina Allspice and Bosom Bush as well as some Latin name. The reddish brown flowers are profuse and have a spicy sweet smell. The 'Bosom' label comes from the country women who secreted the flowers in the bosom of their clothing as a inexpensive perfume.



Yellow Wood sorrel. I keep all weeds that appeal to me. They can stay where they show up or I'll move them into the herb garden. The books says the plant has a pleasant, acid taste. We'll see. The Dandelion will have to go. I don't like where it is at.
The Lilly of the Valley are fully open and scenting the air. They are also filling the area along the garage nicely.Field Daisies are my favorite. along with all my other favorites.


Check back with me this week to see the rest of my wildflower adventure as I have found what I believe to be the names of the flowers we saw that I had no quick name in my memory. Our wildflower drive was rich with wonderful flowers.

Stroll along in other gardens at The Quiet Country House.