Tag: ordinary

Come Tour with Me

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Our yard and garden are glorious in summer display here at the end of July. Come tour with me and see the details of flowers and veggies. Beloved Spouse does the planning, planting and tending of the vegetable garden. Honored Mother is responsible for the flowers. Between the two of them, they have nearly 100 years gardening experience between them. When I walk in the garden I notice lots of small things. Won’t you come with me?

Let’s start with the pathway past the flowers to get to the veggies.

Let’s start our tour here on the patio at the base of the steps (coming down from our deck)

The pots at the base of the stairs are filled with a riot of red geraniums surrounded with a cloud of white and blue lobelia. To your right is a small garden with a climbing clematis. In spring the frothy pink peonies nod like debutantes swishing down the spiral stairs to the ball.

Dear Sister and her husband came to visit just before Mother’s Day and so they gave the “tie-dye” colors hanging basket to Honored Mother. The humming birds are terribly conflicted… the feeder or the flowers?!

If you could smell this rose you would nearly swoon. It is called “Double Delight.” Isn’t it a feast for the eyes? And if you were here, it would “swak” you in the nose with the dense spicy aroma of ‘rose’.

The pink rose is called “Belinda’s Delight” and I love to see it because it reminds me of a friend named Belinda who just happens to be a serious gardener (and amazing quilter). Both are beautiful.

I’m not sure of the name of this rose, but its color makes me dizzy with its intensity. It looks nearly ready to burst into flame.

You will only see the remnants of the blue delphinium this late in July, but if you’d walked this path about 3 weeks ago you would have seen the stately blue stalks swaying in the breeze.

Beloved Spouse has an amazing way with veggies. Our youngest grandson seems wired and eager to follow in his Grampa’s footsteps. Last summer when he was here to visit he came to Grampa several times a day hoping to get permission to pick –“Grampa, those cucumbers seem like they are ready to harvest.”

And now for the vegetable garden. Begin with a peek-a-boo with the cucumber blossoms. They are flanked by pots of marigolds and red verbenas that guard the garden shed.

The yellow squash are beginning to ripen. They love to stay in the center of cool below the broad leaves.

Our tomato plants are loaded with blossoms this year and there are lots of tomatoes growing bigger every day. They will probably begin to seriously ripen toward the end of August.

The chard is such a trooper. It grows and grows no matter how many times it get trimmed for the kitchen steamer kettle. The colors of the stems amaze me.

From low to high and across the way, our gardens are full of joy.

I stop to gaze at the fascinating rhythm and symmetry of the parsnip leaves. We are eager for the harvest. I love the nutty flavor. I know many folks find it a bit strong-flavored, but you really should give it a try, just cooked to tender (not to mush), lightly buttered and dashed with salt and pepper. Ahhh! Tongue’s joy.

Last stop in our tour is to look up to the (volunteer!!) sunflower plants. They are so commanding. I think they are 12 to 14 feet tall.

As we start back to the house, you can gaze across our coneflowers, petunias, daisies and sweet peas (climbing the black windmill).

Back to the patio. Have a seat and enjoy it all.

Now our tour is done, stop and have a sit in the flamingo pink chair. There are actually two of them and our standing joke is telling of the day they arrived from the big box home store. Beloved Spouse took one look at them and asked “where are the flamingos?!” (Nothing would do but for Beloved Mother and me to snatch up several yard ornament flamingos… among other garden what-nots)

Thanks for coming along on my tour!

QUESTION: What is your favorite kind of garden?

Small Things

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

We just returned from a trip to Central Oregon with a stop in the Wine Country of Walla Walla. It was a beautiful, eventful trip loaded with so much fun and love. Family, family and lots of “new” family, especially at a wedding reception for Great Nephew which gave us lots of “new” relatives with which to become acquainted. But there is always time for art. While waiting for the festivities to begin, we socialized with Sister and Brother In-law at RV camp. And ART-TIME! I painted rocks while enjoying coffee and company in morning sun. Small things as subject matter suit the tools I packed for this trip. Rocks are pretty unremarkable. “Small things” that get ignored by most of us most of the time. But, in the effort to make time for art, I decided to paint these small things.

preparing to paint on the picnic table- coffee cup at the ready

I took three rocks from the RV pad, pulled out my little paint kit and travel sketch book. Nothing spectacular, but it was a really good exercise in seeing the various values (lightness and darkness) of the grays. And it is quite amazing how various a non-descript color like “gray” can actually be. Tricky time trying to find the right “blueness” or “green-ness” to make distinctions in this little water color.

“small things”- rocks to paint
rocks- sketched and painted

What do you think of the sketch on the left and the watercolor on the right? I realized that it would have been better to use hot press watercolor paper. The rough texture of the cold press paper made getting smooth shadows and clear delineation of detail difficult.  The way to remember the difference between hot and cold press is imagining trying to iron a shirt with a cold iron. Wrinkles remain. Hot iron—wrinkles removed and a smooth shirt is your result. Same with paper. When it is made, the paper is sent through rollers to flatten it. Heat and extra pressure create a smoother texture in the “hot press” paper compared to the “cold press” which receives a much gentler, cooler rolling. And “rough” watercolor paper gets barely any pressing so its surface is very “rugged.”

This painting rocks made me think of a Bible verse about “despising the day of small things.” Rocks are so unremarkable. Most of us never notice or give them any thought. Since I wasn’t sure where the remembered verse is located I just looked it up. Reading it in context stirred interesting ideas in my mind. In Zechariah chapter 4, God’s messenger angel is speaking to Zechariah giving him a vision message for the people of God. Zechariah is shown golden lampstands flanked by olive trees. When asked about the vision, Zechariah declares he doesn’t know what it means. The angel replies and declares that the symbols represent the coming Messiah. The Promised One’s beginning will be small but will result in Him- the “Capstone of the Temple of God” dwelling among men. And the question is put: “For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zechariah 4:10)  I take it to mean that although our Savior Jesus’ entry into the world was small and seemingly inconspicuous, He is great and the LORD of all.

Upon reflection I see Jesus– so very different than my non-descript rocks and my life which is so insignificant in the scheme of the world. In spite of His Greatness, He has made me His own and so I dare not “despise the day of small things.” I will count my belonging to Him, small as I am, a very great thing!

This is one of my most cherished Bible verses. What an amazing declaration from my Heavenly Father!

Question: What small things do you “despise” (not appreciate)? How big is Jesus to you?

Unlikely Beginnings

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey
The gardeni springing to life from unlikely beginnings

A few days ago I made an early morning wander through our yard and marveled at the tiny buds of lettuce and green beans bravely pushing above the brown earth. Amazing isn’t it, that plants and flowers emerge to full-blown beauty from seemingly insignificant, nearly invisible and unlikely beginnings.

Lettuce seeds are very small and completely camouflaged when they are dropped into waiting rows in the dirt. How can that wee bit of organic “crispy” yield such a huge, harvest of summer salad? And the carrot seeds- equally tiny, equally unpromising give us what Beloved Spouse, THE family gardener, calls a “tonnage crop.” We eat so many pounds of carrots all winter it is astonishing when compared to the few grams weight of seed that was planted.

And then consider the flower beds’ denizens. Iris, columbines, daisies, tulips, and hostas all withered and disappeared over the winter. The thumbs of flower beds poking into the matted brown remnants of lawn are punctuated only by gawky dead twigs of rose bushes. Shapeless mounds of rumpled brown and gray earth–tattered remains of last summer’s glory–seem unlikely to have any life, let alone beauty within. Then comes spring. Warmer days, sunshine and gentle rains bring the tiny signs of life from the barren clods. Tulip, iris and hosta nubbins poke up. Little green knobs declare that columbines and daisies are wakening to a new and glorious season. THE gardener, decked in warm jacket against the bite of early spring wind, has shoveled, hoed, raked and planted the rectangle of organic detritus into rows. Wee bits of life promised in seed-packet pictures have been deposited and now are marching in hopeful green rows. They are soldiering their way to vegetable profusion.

So it is with our lives. Often great accomplishments start in small, nearly invisible ways. Consider the small box Beloved Spouse has. It is a rough cardboard shipping container—with “garden stuff” written on one end with magic marker. It contains a big collection of seed packets: opened and unopened. Packets are dated from this year and several previous years’ plantings. The opened ones have made their way to the garden rows and the unopened ones linger in the box with “I’m not sure why I bought this variety” or “This is a great kind of cucumber- I don’t want to forget which kind I used.” Each packet contains hundreds of un-used possibilities. Similarly, our lives have many seeds of creative projects that we overlook, discard or deem unworthy of our time and effort.

I’m pondering several things as possible “new crops.” Calligraphy projects to letter, books to write, and quilts to make. The ideas are tiny and seem pretty un-promising just now. If I plant them into the days I have been given, water and tend the little seeds of inspiration, who knows what kind of yield I may see.

QUESTION: What project or plan is lying in your subconscious waiting to be planted?

Ordinary Things

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

“…you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all your undertakings.”

Day before yesterday was crazy! It started out so “ordinary.” I spent the morning getting groceries and running errands–which is a several-stop, not-my-favorite project. Bright Spot: At home I was able to gobble lunch and make some scones to share with my dear Art Friend. She came to give my preps for an upcoming art event “once-over” (Bless her heart!) As she departed I scurried out the door to the dentist with beloved Mother in tow. Ok. That wasn’t tough, I love my hygienist and just getting teeth cleaned is not bad. On our way home, at a very busy intersection, waiting for the turn-lane light to go green I realize smoke is beginning to billow from under the hood of my car. The temperature gauge is at full HOT!!!  PANIC MODE! Think fast!!

Bright Spot: My bank was literally kitty-corner from this scene of descending disaster. So, in moments I was able to pull into the parking lot, stop the engine and think what to do next. An attempted phone call to the roadside assistance company yielded a frustrating “we are experiencing higher than average call volume, please continue to hold.” 10 minutes of that and “beep”— hang up, this isn’t working. Then I remember that my banker (who is also my neighbor) is probably at or near the end of her working day. I’ll give her a call to maybe get a ride home. Bright Spot: I give her a call. “Yes! I’ll pick you up… I’m only a few blocks away.” What a God-send!

So, at home, too late to call the repair shop or tow service so Deeply Appreciated Auto will have to spend the night on its own at the bank.  Bright Spot: I’m able to give the remaining scones to wonderful, helpful neighbor/banker/friend for her help saving my hips from serious trouble.

This auto trouble was a catastrophic radiator leak. Bright Spot:  Upon reflection I was able to praise God for when, where and how it happened. Given my earlier-in-the-day travels the outcome could have been a much greater magnitude trial.

The next day was spent sorting out the tow and repair situation while continuing to work on book, Art Tour and blog projects. Oh, but I needed to pick beans! So, my focus shifted to a few quiet minutes in the garden thinking about God and His wonderful ways. Deuteronomy 12:18 “…you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all your undertakings.”

Daily, ordinary, little things are to be causes of our rejoicing in the LORD. So, I am determined to rejoice in the troubles. Look for those “Bright Spots” and give God the praise for His wonderful ordering of my daily “ordinary.”

QUESTION: What has happened in your “ordinary” day that you can see God’s work and praise Him? Will you share with me?