Flowers – Page 5 – Skelton Sketches

Where do Sesame Seeds come from?

Posted on September 10, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

I know where poppy seeds come from,

and sunflower seeds too. These flourish in my garden:

In past years I’ve planted flax seeds and seen them flower both blue and red…

but as I was falling asleep one night I wondered…

Where do Sesame Seeds come from?

I’ve never grown these.

So, I looked it up. On the Internet, of course. (Why do I keep that World Book set anyway?)

And now I know.

According to Wikipedia, they come from a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum! (would you believe!) “Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods.”

I read on to find that the sesame seed has been domesticated for at least 3000 years and there’s evidence that it was once a major crop in the Middle East. It’s drought tolerant and oil-rich, making it a favorite in places where nothing else will grow. India exports the most sesame seeds and Japan imports the most. And that’s the bare bones of where sesame seeds come from. Just in case you ever wondered…

And if you want to know just a little more…look here.

[Shutterstock photo]

If your curiosity knows no bounds, you’ll enjoy this lovely little blog post featuring eleven foods that grow in unexpected ways. The cashew takes the prize for The Surprising-est!

And with that foray into things unknown, I will return to my own familiar garden and the seeds growing there today!

–LS

And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.”

And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind.

And God saw that it was good. Gen.1:11,12 Amen! and Amen!

All creation sings His praise!

Carefree Bees…

Posted on August 20, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

My overgrown oregano patch has been just alive with bees this summer!

Their drone is the sound of summer.

“Busy as a bee” seems an apt idiom in view of their incessant buzzing about, so I had to chuckle at a poem that I discovered one morning this week.

Ignoring breakfast dishes I had plunked down on the couch to check out my new library acquisition—a collection of Ogden Nash poems titled I Wouldn’t Have Missed It. Actually, before I even decided to sit down with this book, I had burst out laughing in the middle of the kitchen just sampling Ogden’s word play. Oh my. I rarely get my elusive funny bone tickled like that. Laughter, the perfect gift for a serious soul; I felt like God had hand-picked the book for me! So I postponed dishes and read poems for the next happy while!

In this particular poem Nash wryly suggests that only man was created to live by the sweat of his brow.

“So far as I know, mankind is the only section of creation
That is doomed to either pers- or ex-piration.”

He goes on to playfully debunk bees’ apparent industriousness–

“And bees don’t do anything either, bees just have a reputation for industry because they are sharp enough to buzz,

And people hear a bee buzzing and don’t realize that buzzing isn’t any trouble for a bee so they think that it is doing more than it actually does.”

–and then he proposes the comical idea of a bee laughing. I love it!

“So next time you are about to expend some enthusiasm on the bee’s wonderful industrial powers.

Just remember that that wonderful bee would die laughing if you asked it to change places with you and get its brow moist while you went around spending the day smelling flowers.”

Ha! Now I must go smell some flowers and watch some laughing bees! ( :

Take time to smile today–and find something that makes you laugh. With God in control of the world, and watching out for our well-being we can afford the luxury!

–LS

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Rom.8:31-32

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The poem cited is: “Grasshoppers are very Intelligent” p.51 of I Wouldn’t Have Missed It—selected poems by Ogden Nash, 1972 (Thank God for libraries that don’t toss all their old books!!)

To read the poem in its entirety go here.
Or to find a chuckle of your own, check out this website: http://www.poemhunter.com/ogden-nash/poems/

Making Seeds…

Posted on August 13, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

Maybe it’s only after we have bloomed awhile…

and died to all that fresh-flung beauty,

that we hold seeds of wisdom to scatter for the next generation…

Macro-photos by Jim

Maybe the wisdom and fruitfulness of maturity–

–aren’t such a bad trade-off for the fresh beauty of youth…

That’s what I’m thinking this week as I collect seeds to sow and enjoy the season’s fruitfulness.

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The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair. Pr.20:29

A gray head is a crown of glory;
It is found in the way of righteousness. Pr.16:31

–LS

And for you, my reader, watching over the shoulder of my days, I pray “that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Col.1:9,10