GARDENING – Page 6 – Skelton Sketches

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

All things purple…

Posted on July 24, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

Ever since I was a brown-haired pigtailed girl I have loved purple. In those days I had a very bright purple stretchy top I wore on select occasions–mostly keeping it in my drawer for just the right day. These days my tastes in purple are more subtle, tending to a conservative plum–or sprinkled with gray paisley to match my wisdom-frosted head…

It would appear that my new daughter-in-law and I have this taste in common…She not only loves my son,

she likes the color purple!

Their June wedding pictures floated through cyber-space to us this week

(All my chillun’s and grands, and my mom too!)

But where was I… yes, the color purple.

No fashion quite compares with the wild and endless beauty of the flowers of the field. Not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like these. So getting back to nature…

The view out my front window these days is of hydrangeas putting on their best purple show ever! I bought these flamboyant bushes when they were scarcely a foot tall and just plain old green. But their tag promised they would bloom in my favorite hues. I have not been disappointed.

In the shade of these bushes a volunteer grows sprinkled in bee-inviting purple… and a giant hosta blooms in sensuous loveliness…

Just around the corner of the house in west-facing heat, the oregano is alive with bees!

Tirelessly bumbling, they do not pose for pictures…

A quiet anemone waits at their side for her chance to bloom.

The lavender is nearly spent now. I used it once this summer to flavor lemonade…

A tiny bacopa is not to be missed, I bought her at the store…

…while another tiny purple thing invades our lawn this year for free!

Now we’re on our way to the vegetable garden, seen through a lattice-work or purple:

The sugar peas did pitifully this year, too hot, too persnickety, and just one sweet pea flower bloomed–the purple one of course!

But making up for their poor show are the burgundy bush beans–blooming in purple and easy to spot for picking:

[Did you know they turn back to green while cooking? What a disappointment…but not for long. They are delectably tender eating!]

Scattered all throughout my garden is the ubiquitous kale. Once you’ve grown it and let it go to seed in your garden, you will never lack this purply-veined antioxidant–perfect for munching in the form of kale chips! [How-to here]

Well we have meandered now past the zucchini (they are not purple!) and with one hand full of beans and two chubby zucchini tucked in the crook of my arm, it’s getting harder to juggle a camera…

What have I missed?

Ahh, a few late chive blooms…

And way out back the blackberry bramble has a winner for the first-purple-berry contest. (Aren’t blackberries truly purple?) No rush for these. They flag the departure of summer and we’re not in a hurry for that.

And what about this almost purple pear?

Next to her stands the tree whose name is a shade of purple. The plum tree is dreaming of sun-ripened prune plums…But alas, she bears only blushing wanna-be’s today….

And the tour of all things purple is complete. Thanks for joining me–would love to have you here in person ( :

–LS

Purple…fit for a King!

I will extol you my God and King and will bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise Your Name forever and ever…. Ps.145:1,2

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Mt.6:28ff

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P.S. Note to faithful readers who, having read: Feeling Brown* are perplexed at this disclosure of my love for purple (My own daughter was surprised!). The child in me still loves purple ( :

*http://dawnskelton.blogspot.ca/2012/09/feeling-brown.html

A few of my favorite…Summery Thingz

Posted on July 18, 2014April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

Mellow mornings when the sun slants through the blinds turning everything to gold…

Quiet afternoons spent out back reading in the sun, (or dappled shade). Hmm… I’m sure I heard a bear, but I can’t see him. Can you?
… or watering the jungle that my garden has become

Fresh cut flowers from my very own garden…especially the ones planted there from seed. Miracles of a sort.

Homegrown cherries! We got a handful this year from our young tree that dukes it out with the deer every spring. And another handful from the wild cherry tree that sprang up in the old compost pile…

Making Currant Jelly from our own bush…

to go on hot homemade bread from home ground wheat. Next time we’ll try grinding our own homegrown wheat!

We just discovered we could thresh it ourselves! (Thanks to Rachel’s perseverance!)

Getting to make one more childhood cake, for the 19 year old that loves teddy bears still…

Evening bike rides when the sun has simmered down and there’s no rush to be anywhere…or to beat any KOM’s (‘King of the Mountain’ on STRAVA). Time to stop at the wharf and strike up acquaintances while the ferry comes in over the shimmering sea…

And did I say FLOWERS?! more fresh cut flowers? brought inside to celebrate summer (and a birthday)?!!

Ahh and blueberries. I love picking blueberries, especially with daughters. It’s been extraordinarily and wonderfully SUNNY and HOT this month and the blueberries have loved it as much as I. So in record time this morning we had our gallons of berries (from a local U Pick)…

…and in just a little more time we had a pie!

We weren’t the only ones looking forward to a bite. As we were happily downing pie a la mode, who should we spy through the screen door, emerging from the woods out back, but a hungry bear. He must have sniffed it through the open door and come venturing to see if there was any for him!

He seems to have taken up residence in our little wood this year, but I generally yell and flail before I think to catch a picture. This time, before we scared him away, I popped out the door for a picture!

Fortunately, he was more afraid of me than I of him. I got my picture but he got no pie.

Ahh, the wonderful business of summer!

–LS