All things purple…

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…

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It would appear that my new daughter-in-law and I have this taste in common…She not only loves my son, DSC_7862

she likes the color purple!

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

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

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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…bee maid

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.P1150630P1150633P1150642P1150628

In the shade of these bushes a volunteer grows sprinkled in bee-inviting purple…P1150644 and a giant hosta blooms in sensuous loveliness…P1150646

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

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Tirelessly bumbling, they do not pose for pictures…

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A quiet anemone waits at their side for her chance to bloom.P1150680

 

P1150685The 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…

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…while another tiny purple thing invades our lawn this year for free!P1150712

Now we’re on our way to the vegetable garden, seen through a lattice-work or purple:P1150693

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

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But making up for their poor show are the burgundy bush beans–blooming in purple and easy to spot for picking:P1150741

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[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]P1150746Kale Chips

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?

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Ahh, a few late chive blooms…P1150744

And way out back the blackberry bramble has a winner for the first-purple-berry contest. (Aren’t blackberries truly purple?)P1150765 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?P1150782

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….

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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!

P1150611I 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

The Heart of Winter

Every time we make this trip, I marvel how far a day’s drive can take us,
and how different the trip would have been not so many years back, in the days of wagon trains…

We’ve travelled back into the heart of winter …

 

P1130651P1130655P1130657snowy hillside

 

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…but for a good cause!

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We finally got to meet our newest grandson…

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And it’s always time to catch-up with the rest…

 

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I wake up earlier here (hmm… I wonder why?).

The house is louder and busier…

And the morning view from my window not what I’m used to…

(Houses, lots of houses…)

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But it’s good to be plunked in the middle of this busy, happy family!

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And to cherish the moments…

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–LS

May you see your children’s children! Ps. 128:6 ESV

The Best of 2013~~

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The pages of another calendar have become obsolete.

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The seasons have cycled ‘round once again through a familiar succession of blooms…

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to the less familiar territory of settling into being just the two of us again…

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P1110582P1130447…after 30 years.

With our last child leaving home, my homeschooling career ended.P1100730straitP1120393Rachel

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My own travels took me to the two largest states in the Union this year—Alaska and Texas…

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…in pursuit of family, the best reason to travel!

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Boating was minimal for us this year.

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“Chase Me” has changed hands and been fitted with new sails for racing that proudly bear the name of our first grandson, Chase, born four years ago when we purchased and christened this Cal28.

Her new owners love her and eagerly relate their latest exploits every time we bump into them around town!

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Ironically, No sooner had we sold our sailboat, then we joined our progeny for a house boating vacation– hopefully just the first of many happy reunions, now that we’re all so grown up!

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And the year concluded with my Grandmom quiver expanding to include one more little guy–Cedrick!
whom we have yet to meet…  Cedrick1

A New Year’s priority is to travel to see him and his happy siblings!

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What else will the year hold?

P1120692 Can’t quite see from this vantage point…

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Hopefully more rides…P1110420crop

more moments for reflecting…P1110910

more noticing the small things that brighten a day…P1120911

And always, the glorious hope of better things yet to come!

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May your New Year be crowned with blessings
such as only the Giver of all good things can give!

–LS

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world…”Ephesians 1:3-4 KJV

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” Titus 2:13 KJV