Gardens, wild life , and books

I can feel the heat rising as the weather reports predict. We've had cool , glorious days this week but  now we are  bracing ourselves for 100 or above.  WATER.


Much activity this morning:
 A deer scurried away as I was heading to my neighbors blueberry bushes.   I'm sure he was having a treat and  also  the birds.  As I was watering the garden , a heron took flight over the trees off of  the creek at the back of our yard.( reminded me of a scene in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel where a white heron takes flight. Gorgeous filming ) 
 I don't know why that thrills me.  I  live in suburbia on the outlays of a city.  As I watered, I prayed for the weekend here and  those back home. 

Keep cool wherever you are. 
It is summer and as Emily wrote:


A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me.

A something in a summer’s noon —
A depth — an Azure — a perfume —
Transcending ecstasy.

And still within a summer’s night
A something so transporting bright
I clap my hands to see —

Elizabeth Jenkins

She is the last surviving founder member of the Jane Austen Society, and probably the last surviving link with the Bloomsbury Group. 

Ever heard of her?

Melissa is reading  The Tortoise and the Hare. It is her only novel in print.

So , I went  online to see if it was IN the library. No.

So, that  sent me to see who Elizabeth Jenkins was. 

That line above is from here.

Novelist Elizabeth Jenkins has written a memoir at the age of 100. Here Ruth Gorb chats to her about her loves and life in Hampstead

Her memoir really looks good. I love reading how they learned, lived ( like the post below), and  their personal thought.
I love books of letters too.

“Do I still read? Good gracious, what else would I do?’’ she says.

  Her biography, Elizabeth the Great, was hailed as a classic, as was the biography of Lady Caroline Lamb, although she says she could never now write with sympathy about such a character.


Elizabeth died in 2010.
Thanks Melissa!

Summer routine depends on the weather. Today is gorgeous for working in the garden.

The windows are open and if you live in the South , you know what a gift that is!

Here is what writers do from a blog called 

Daily Routines

How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days.

C.S. Lewis

We now settled into a routine which has ever since served in my mind as an archetype, so that what I still mean when I speak of a "normal" day (and lament that normal days are so rare) is a day of the Bookham pattern. For if I could please myself I would always live as I lived there. I would choose always to breakfast at exactly eight and to be at my desk by nine, there to read or write till one. If a cup of good tea or coffee could be brought me about eleven, so much the better. A step or so out of doors for a pint of beer would not do quite so well; for a man does not want to drink alone and if you meet a friend in the taproom the break is likely to be extended beyond its ten minutes. At one precisely lunch should be on the table; and by two at the latest I would be on the road. Not, except at rare intervals, with a friend. Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world; and talking leads almost inevitably to smoking, and then farewell to nature as far as one of our senses is concerned. The only friend to walk with is one (such as I found, during the holidays, in Arthur) who so exactly shares your taste for each mood of the countryside that a glance, a halt, or at most a nudge, is enough to assure us that the pleasure is shared. The return from the walk, and the arrival of tea, should be exactly coincident, and not later than a quarter past four. Tea should be taken in solitude, as I took it as Bookham on those (happily numerous) occasions when Mrs. Kirkpatrick was out; the Knock himself disdained this meal. For eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably. Of course not all books are suitable for mealtime reading. It would be a kind of blasphemy to read poetry at table. What one wants is a gossipy, formless book which can be opened anywhere. The ones I learned so to use at Bookham were Boswell, and a translation of Herodotus, and Lang's History of English Literature. Tristram Shandy, Elia and the Anatomy of Melancholy are all good for the same purpose. At five a man should be at work again, and at it till seven. Then, at the evening meal and after, comes the time for talk, or, failing that, for lighter reading; and unless you are making a night of it with your cronies (and at Bookham I had none) there is no reason why you should ever be in bed later than eleven. But when is a man to write his letters? You forget that I am describing the happy life I led with Kirk or the ideal life I would live now if I could. And it is essential of the happy life that a man would have almost no mail and never dread the postman's knock.

Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

Thanks Tonia, who is walking 5 miles like Lewis did.

Gratitude

I hear rain now. 
I almost watered the garden early this evening but knew that THAT was not the time to water. Here is the rain. Thank you Lord.  Gratitude.

I worked on my Gratitude list yesterday in my journal.
A wedding. ( another one!)
A conference with this artist.
 A dinner for this teacher  with my students. 

Each  seemed surreal at times. 


The newlyweds came through town this past weekend , oh my ~~ what fun! The funniest story  from the cruise (to the Bahamas) : " when I was served duck, the waiter said HERE'S your quack, quack."
 Reminded me of  the movie Julie and Julia , one of my favorite movies. This son said he wanted to taste duck so we got some to cook and taste! 

On another note for book lovers, I finished  books by two South Carolina authors; The Secret Life of Bees by Susan Monk Kidd and A Song I knew by Heart by Bret Lott. 

 

Today feels like Friday!

Everyday this week and last week and the week before felt like friday : the day that ushers in the weekend. So all those weeks felt like a long , long weekend.  Today feels like Friday. This morning was  garden time: planting some green and red peppers  and watering, watering. Summer heat came with the solstice. Now cleaning and then will take a swim. But I'm stuck on this author:

                    Janet Marsh, studio on the River Test, Wherwell, Hampshire





Nancy had posted a  wonderful book that I found and arrived in the mail. I'm reading it and fascinated.

The gorgeous illustrated and written book ( from the Itchen Valley in Hampshire)  gave me curiousity  to look up    Janet Marsh and follow a trail on the internet:

March House Books  

One day, when we’ve saved enough pennies, we’ll actually walk through the door, and buy all the things that we’ve longed for – but just now, we are both rather poor!

plus their website 

The World From My Window
writes about life in a typical English village - or tales from England's rural underbelly!

The Children's War  
books about WWII 


Janet's books:

  

Cookbooks on my table

From Tupelo Honey Cafe in Asheville, NC. Blog is here. 





These two are the BBQ Queens but this book is  also from the garden to the grill. Lots of grilled veggies and wonderful sauces. 

Want to look at this one:

A UK  blog: Otter Farm Blog ,  who is involved at River Cottage:

Did you know this author's daughter married....

                                          see this illustrator~~ one of my favorites who I collect

•  

In all, she authored 38 published books. You can read more about her ideas on storytelling in The Way of the Storyteller and How To Tell a Story. It’s not too surprising that her own daughter grew up to marry another writer, none other than the famous Robert McCloskey of Make Way For Ducklings, One Morning in Maine, and Blueberries for Sal. He actually illustrated Ruth’s popular book Journey Cake, Ho! and her granddaughter, Sarah, is Sal.

Read the whole blog from Liz at Living Books Library

Here is Leerie  at Gutenburg Press

Silence and Art

"The Great Wave, Silence and Song: Capturing the Forces of Nature.”

There was discussion of Makoto Fujimura’s work, two pieces of which were on display in the gallery—vibrant abstract paintings of mineral pigment and the translucent gold leaf that has become his trademark. 

Divine grace is arguably the central thematic current that pulls much of Fujimura’s work, and the spiritual ambience at play on the canvas is, in person, unmistakable and breathtaking. But there was more than just the artwork on display that lent Saturday evening’s talk an aura of the metaphysical.

 From the Chelsea Music  Festival in NYC. 

Mr and Mrs......

Marriage!

 

Brandie & Evan

Back in town for the wedding week

Back from the Childlight Conference and this is the wedding  week. You think all is taken care of but it is the week  suitcases get packed, lists are checked , and errands still are being run. We are going up to the NC mountains for this wedding.

It was surreal to be with Makoto Fujimura.
Yes, with him, my husband and my daughter.
( no verb in that sentence!! ) More on that but it is the week of a son's wedding !!!  

bowtie from The Cordial Churchman

at the Children's Museum in Rock Hill, SC with the pony tail of my daughter, a friend/ artist from my church and Mako looking at the design. 

at Dominique Verechia & Carlee Lingerfelt's studio in Rock Hill, SC

lunch at the Crotts home with Makoto

Today's WORD A DAY is REDOUND. I meditated on  this verse last week and again this week :  James Moffatt's version of Eph 1: 8- 13:

So richly has God lavished upon us his grace, ...................to make us redound to the praise of his glory by being the first to put our hope in Christ. 

 ( Can you believe this is TODAY'S WORD!)
A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

redound

MEANING:

verb intr.:
1. To contribute to (someone's credit, honor, etc.).
2. To come back upon

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old French redonder (to overflow), from Latin redundare (to overflow), from red-/re- (back) + undare (to surge). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wed- (water, wet), which also gave us water, winter, hydrant, redundant, otter, and vodka. Earliest documented use: before 1382. 

I am redounding!

 ( colors for the wedding : cornflower blue and sunflower yellow) 

Friday

I've had my head stuck into Charlotte Mason's series this week as I get ready for Childlight USA next week. 

So do you find yourself in books, blogs, facebook, twitter ........ then you have an afternoon coffee/tea ( I had a tea latte) yesterday and realize how special it is to talk. Eye to eye.
 A dear friend who we skype in to our Book Club is home for a month from Austria. ( missions) You know the times when God is in the presence like He did say: when two or more are gathered. That was yesterday. 

I will see a few more blogging/CM friends ( do any of the others have blogs?) next week. Last time that the conference is closeby in NC. We will have much time with the keynote speaker: Makoto Fujimura.
                                                                     

Have you heard his Graduation Speeches from last weekend at Biola University? Here and here. 

                                       Columbine Flowers