804. I think perhaps it will be a bit longer before I can do as a I promised last night…

July 10, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Now that the adrenaline has stopped flowing and my aged body has fully realized the effects of jet lag, the loss of sleep on several occasions, and all the walking, climbing, and doing in the heat of the last 16 days, I can do little else at the moment but sleep and eat and sit. I have, however, managed to make progress on the unpacking, the dirty laundry, and the downloading of nearly 4000 photos. Unfortunately though it looks like it will be several more days before I’m able to read all your posts and make comments. In the meantime, I pray all continues to be well with you. Love, Natalie

But now the Lord my God has given me rest on every side, and there is no adversary or disaster. ~Kings 5:4 ✝

**I found this gorgeous rose in a Flower Market in Paris just down the street from Notre Dame.

777. Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting. ~Line spoken by the White Rabbit in ALICE AND WONDERLAND

June 20, 2015 by nataliescarberry

Summer makes a
silence after spring.
~Vita Sackville-West

Tomorrow is the summer solstice, and with its coming begins the worst of another long, hot Texas summer. Thus the silence after spring hereabouts is markedly pronounced as the heat all but stifles the breath out of anything that talks, hums, or buzzes including and especially “moi.” That’s why when I have to be outside to care for and attempt to keep my garden’s “babies” alive, the heat presses hard enough against my lips that what utterances I can muster are mostly profane mutterings. So not only am I thankful to be leaving for Paris next week but also that we’ll be spending 16 days in far more pleasant climes.

…give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18 ✝

**Image taken and posted by Mike Bizeau at: http://naturehasnoboss.com/2015/06/18/wabbit/

755. “I’m glad I am alive, to see and feel the full deliciousness of this bright day…” ~William Allingham

June 3, 2015 by nataliescarberry

In June, as many as a dozen species
may burst their buds on a single day.
~Aldo Leopold

By 1890, San Antonio, Texas, was a thriving trade center with population of 38,000.

In 1891 a group of citizens decided to honor the heroes
of the Alamo and Battle of San Jacinto with a Battle of Flowers.

The first parade had horse-drawn carriages, bicycles decorated with fresh flowers
and floats carrying children dressed as flowers.

The Belknap Rifles represented the military.

The participants pelted each other with blossoms.

Today it’s the largest parade in Fiesta and is second in size nationally
only to the Tournament of Roses Parade.

It’s fiesta time again in yard too!

Whenever I look out the windows, especially this time of year,
I think of these hispanic fiestas which are always so very colorful.

So I hope you enjoy this frenzy of oranges, reds, pinks,
yellows, blues, whites, and purples.

I don’t often post two entries in one day, but it’s getting awfully hot here
and some of my pretty blossoms don’t last too long in the heat.

This is what the Lord says to me: “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” ~Isaiah 18:4 ✝

669. Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy… ~Line from a song written by Carole King and David Palmer

March 11, 2015 by nataliescarberry

If I had a tale that I could tell you
I’d tell a tale for sure to make you smile
If I had a wish that I could wish for you
I’d make a wish for sunshine all the while…
~Excerpted lyrics from the  above named song
that was  recorded by John Denver

It was such a lovely sunshine-day,
The house and the yard couldn’t hold me;
A meadow I found, so on my back I lay,
And sang what my spirit told me.

It was such a lovely sunshine-day,
The house and the yard couldn’t hold me;
I climbed up a tree, oh, what bliss to stay,
Where only could peace enfold me.
~Edited excerpted lines from poem
by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson

Beautiful – beautiful morning outside,
Bright with the sunshine and glows in the sky.
Birdies are singing and dewdrops are falling:
It’s a beautiful morning outside.

Day after day in this wonderful way,
Nature is showing its wonderful face,
With sunshine at mornings, and cheers every where;
It is morning again in this world.
~Excerpted lines from poem
by Parmanand Mahabir

This is what the Lord says to me: “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest. ~Isaiah 18:4 ✝

**Both image via Pinterest

668. There is…an order of succession in the garden year which is deeply pleasing…seed time flows on to flowering time and flowering time flows on to harvest time… ~Edited lines by Susan Hill and Rory Stuart

March 10, 2015 by nataliescarberry

A little seed for me to sow…
A little earth to make it grow…
A little hole, a little pat…
A little wish, and that is that.
A little sun, a little shower…
A little while, and then – a flower!
~Mabel Watts

SEEDS
The seeds I sowed –
For week unseen –
Have pushed up pygmy
Shoots of green;
So frail you’d think
The tiniest stone
Would never let
A glimpse be shown.
But no; a pebble
Near them lies,
At least a cherry-stone
In size,
Which that mere sprout
Has heaved away,
To bask in sunshine,
See the day.
~Walter de la Mare

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” ~Genesis 8:22 ✝

** Image via Pinterest

663. Lord, you have set the powers of the four quarters of the earth to cross each other. You have made me cross the good road and road of difficulties, and where they cross, the place is holy. Day in, day out, forevermore, you are the life of things. ~Edited excerpt from Black Elk, Oglala Sioux

March 6, 2015 by nataliescarberry

To the four winds, that bring us the seasons of Life…

To the East
Where the Sun rises bringing to us a new day
A new meaning of life, a light in which to see
The path before us.

To the South
Where the warm air comes to us
Bringing heat and warmth, and
The seasons of spring and summer.

To the West
Where the Sun goes to bring to us darkness,
So as we may see the universe
And search for the answers
Of our life.

To the North
Where the cold winds come from
Bringing to us the seasons
Of fall and winter.
~Edited lines of Native American wisdom  by Larry Kibby

Lord, you are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago. ~Isaiah 25: 1 ✝

**All images via Pinterest

634. Bright reds – scarlet, pillar-box red, crimson or cherry – are very cheerful. There is certainly a red for everyone. ~Christian Dior

February 5, 2015 by nataliescarberry

If one says “Red” – the name of color –
and there are fifty people listening,
it can be expected that
there will be fifty reds in their minds.
And one can be sure that all these
reds will be very different.
~Josef Albers

Red
Red is a fading sunset on the horizon.
It’s a burst of flame;
A spray of the fire leaping towards us.

It’s the heat of the warm afternoon.
It’s a flickering flame of a tiny candle.
It’s the spark able to spread the wildfire of love.

Red is the color of heat.
It’s full of passion.
It’s bold.
~Sunny Summers

For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love. ~Psalm 33:4-5 ✝

**Images via Pinterest; collages by Natalie

526. Heat lingers as days are still long; early mornings are cool while autumn is still young. ~Po Chu-i, Chinese poet who lived from 772-864 during the Tang Dynasty

October 23, 2014 by nataliescarberry

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

 ~Excerpt from i thank you God for most this amazing… (65) 
by e.e. cummings, a poet whose peculiar syntax
and lack of or strange use of punctuation
conjures up as lasting and as memorable
images as this photo

I think it curious when I read another’s perfect description of my current reality, especially when it is one like Po Chu-i’s that was written so long ago and so far away from where I am. When it happens, I can’t help but wonder what the writer was like, what he was doing when not writing poetry, and what the landscape looked like that inspired his thoughts and rhymes. Was he young like the autumn of which he spoke, or was he like me, one who has weathered many an autumn. I also wonder if in China today the heat lingers again in Lady Autumn’s infancy. It’s certainly lingering hear in Texas in the 21st century. However, I’m not complaining because for some time now our early morns have been deliciously cool as have been the evenings that draw the days to an end. So cool in fact was it again this morning that after last night’s watering, droplets yet bejeweled the rose in the photo. That in and of itself is cause for thanksgiving since it wasn’t too long ago that all such surface water would have evaporated before dawn’s first light brushed away night’s obscurity. Actually, despite the lingering heat, this fall has been filled with more than a fair measure of splendor, a smattering of its usual intimations of holy mysteries, and now the first expected touches of nature’s autumnal poetry have been penned. Speaking of poetry, some poets like e.e. cummings write lines that challenge easy interpretation, but often poetry which defies easy understanding endures through the ages because the words and thoughts resonate in the deepest chambers of the human heart. Perhaps that’s why today I’m captivated by cumming’s poetic imagination as well as nature’s magical images and the Lord’s amazing genius.

The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4 ✝

480. Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. ~Henry David Thoreau

September 7, 2014 by nataliescarberry

Seasons knocking on the door
Each one with its unique lore

Springtime fingerpaints the earth
Spreading its immeasurable mirth

Summer’s heat bursts upon the scene
And each day the sun reigns as queen

Autumn casts a cloak of burnished hues
With copper tinged foliage as its muse

Winter’s kingdom wears robes of pristine white
While snowflakes whispered dance is quite the sight

Seasons stand side by side, natural neighbors
Observing each other’s seasonal labors.
~Edited poem by Kristen A.

He (G0d) made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. ~Psalm 104:19 ✝

473. When summer opens, I see how fast it matures, and I hope it will not be too feverish; but after the heats of July and August, I am reconciled, like one who has had his swing, to September and the coming of autumn. ~Edited and adapted quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

August 31, 2014 by nataliescarberry

August, with its masses of spent blooms,
August, with its humidity and cloudless skies,
August, with days too hot to relish,
August, torrid and dry in the blazing sun,
August.

And the locusts in brazen chorus, cry
Like stricken things, and the ring-dove’s note
Sobs on in the distance rim.
~Excerpt from a poem by Hamlin Garland

I(God) cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of the burning heat. ~Hosea 13:5 ✝

Thank you, Lord, that the seasons are ever-changing and that you always care for us!