From Small Beginnings…

OK, so I haven’t made it up Scout (yet) this week and I haven’t been out and about on any wonderful walks and there just isn’t a lot of ‘Spring’ happening yet but I have planted little wonder seeds and am watching the small beginnings emerge in the  greenhouse…



Here are two of my favorites.  The first, a little wild lupine from seed I gathered one very rainy day tromping down an old logging road and remembering the profusion of yellow blooms I’d seen earlier in the summer at that spot… OK so it’s a little like growing a mighty weed… but beautiful.  And yes, Jim, it will be moving to other quarters before it becomes invasive!

The second little seedling is a happy little licorice-scented volunteer that blooms crazy purple bottlebrushes.  I don’t ever seem to use ‘Anise-hyssop’ but I grow it for the love of the scent and the carefree blooms.  (Or should I say, it grows itself from the zillions of pepper-sized seeds it scatters).  My job is merely Protector from the weeding wizard!  So far, so good.



Meanwhile, out and about there are these sweet little fir cones forming bright wee bouquets…



…and Miss Ash, the broccoli look-alike, a young ash grown from seed but destined for destruction as a garden plot is being developed at its feet… and that will never do.  Poor ash.

And that’s the week’s findings in the horticulture department.  Blessings on all your seed-sowing.

--LS


“He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves [with him].” Psalm 126:6

Rhizomes Rising

[horsetail pic borrowed from random internet source]


Spring may be slow in coming this year but one sure crop is coming right along. We’ve had an education in rhizomes this week.  Horsetail are prolific in heavy wet soils such as ours and a scourge that is seemingly impossible to eradicate.  Jim found out why when he got do digging down, down, down for their origin--rhizomes…”A continuously growing horizontal underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.”  Two feet below the surface these tenacious ‘stems’ with their hard shell black nodes at intervals act like subterranean factories continuously supplying replacements for all the crazy bottlebrushes one weeds out up above.  But this year, at least for a little while, my potato bed will be horsetail free thanks to Jim’s tenacious rhizome ridding.

Ugly aren’t they?!

A much lovelier rhizome is one I miss seeing here.  It carpeted the woods of my childhood.  I had to ‘google’ this pic as I’m too many miles away to see if the Mayflowers have raised their umbrellas in ‘my’ little wood in time for Easter.  Perhaps it’s too early yet.  Anybody know?



What bit of nature reminds you of springtime? 

Here are some of my favorites:

Robins picnicking in the yard.  Their cheery chirrups are a sure sign that winter’s past.



And who can resent spring’s first dandelions with their bright faces?

T(This dandy fellow seems to be harboring a couple tiny spiders!)



My bleeding hearts have risen to fill their nook by an old stump…

Rhubarb doesn’t mind a cool spring. It always emerges with such enthusiasm!



In contrast, one of spring’s tiniest beauties… have not forgotten to bloom.


For they are ‘forget-me-not’s!

And that’s my bit of springtime blogging for now.  With the garden begging to be dug into there haven’t been many hikes this week. 

May your hopes keep rising unthwarted, like a hardy rhizome, 

fed by 'subterranean' joy. 

For Christ is risen and has overcome the world!

O death, where [is] thy sting? O grave, where [is] thy victory?…But thanks [be] to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. I Cor.15:55,57


--LS

First bloom!

The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of singing  of birds has come,
And the voice of the [bullfrog] is heard [in every roadside ditch] in our land.(Song of Solomon 2:12)
--LS
Spring is taking its sweet time this year—still pretty shivery out!  But the birds are singing their hearts out--I love that!  The salmonberry are a little behind but I spotted this bloom while out walking yesterday…Next week will be our Easter Break so maybe I’ll get out and turn some earth in hope of warmer days coming.  Gardening is such a faith thing, resting on the promise of God that “while the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Gen.8:22

Sea Isle Scramble

Had a wild and wavy sail—my first of the season--out to our favorite string of islands. Then like a couple of mountain goats we scrambled and clambered our way around the perimeter, as close to water’s edge as the rising tide allowed… Found out I’m neither as brave nor as agile as I remember being.  Could be I’m getting to be an old goat?!  But it was an adventure and we came away unscathed with a few pictures to show and tell…

Cormorants sunning as we approach…


Our destination and starting point for the circuit scramble…


Sunshine arrays  the sea in sparkling diamonds…


Textured and tinted rocks underfoot—to hop, skip, and jump



And surprise! a cactus has made its home in such an unlikely place reminding us of days long gone…




OK so I’m a chicken.  This wee lighthouse doesn’t look so high from here but I’m remembering the water tower I climbed as a fearless youth and the feeling I got when I looked down and my legs didn’t want to move to descend the ladder…





A hillside of ‘caribou lichen’…

And high on a bluff overlooking a quiet cove we found this remains from some gull’s feast—biggest moon snail shell I’ve ever seen!  And now added to my collection…


Finally we finished the circuit and found ‘Bobby’ now afloat with the rising tide, waiting to return us to our sailboat for a quick sail home in the prevailing Northwest wind…

THE LORD reigns; Let the earth rejoice; Let the multitude of isles be glad!  Ps. 97:1

New!

Until summer comes, spring is decidedly my favorite season.  I love to watch new life emerge.


Shooting upward,


Bringing beauty from death.


This pussy’s having a bad hair day, but her transformation’s not complete.



The forsythia dances into spring more gracefully…



and the freshly hatched bugs take notice!



Here’s Miss Lilac-to-be:



and the wrinkles of a newborn alder leaf…



Best of all, the sun has appeared to a background chorus of robin chirp and frogs playing bass.  It is good to be alive on such a day—reminded of the promise of a whole new life yet to come!



“[God] will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away…”BEHOLD I AM MAKING ALL THINGS NEW.”-- Rev.21:3-5


--LS