Tulips in October

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The steady greens are fading now, what lies beneath is showing through…

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Don’t you find it to be so with life as you age? 

A friend puts it this way:
“…we are in a new season of life. We’re in Autumn, when youth, like chlorophyll pulls back, drains out, revealing the profound pigments of wisdom and experience.” 

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The yellows and oranges rise to prominence as the energy-making greens are put to rest.

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But there’s something more going on when it comes to the brilliant reds and purples.  These are actually created in the fall.  Trapped glucose responds to colder nights and shorter days to produce red pigment.  The drier and brighter the fall, the deeper the reds.   

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P1080539 Let me be such a brilliant display of His glory in the fall season of my life!

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” II Cor 4:17

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For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Rom.8:19

And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit,

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even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Rom.8:23-25

–LS

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Heralding October

 

In all the recorded history of our town never has there been a September so rain-free as the one just past! And now October has come with a token rainfall and the sun lingering yet…

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We had our first frost this week and our first fire in the woodstove.  I’ve dug out my turtlenecks and my new woolie socks…

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We’ve commenced our fall birthday season with strawberry chiffon and black forest cakes and a whole quart of whipping cream consumed between the both of them!

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But for this morning I’ve come out to savor the brisk brightness of autumn and see what’s smiling in my garden…

I find honeybees harvesting last pollen and nectar from summer’s merry-golds…P1080400

Pole Beans hang on the vine fattening seed for spring planting.

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Other more exotic seed pods do likewise.  Here’s ‘love in a mist’…

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I stumble upon my fall crocus nearly spent from its blooming, its beauty almost overlooked.  And I am glad I came out to see the morning…

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Nasturtiums ramble brightly still, holding their faces to morning’s cold dew for a few more days.

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Jim’s homegrown Christmas trees, backlit by morning sun, await their season of celebration…

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While this year’s lone duet of wee pumpkins herald October.

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The neighbor’s grapes are plump and tart as ever.  Rachel tries her hand at jelly. We’re surprised to see the color green grapes produce!

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The firewood’s all dried and split, gathered in to clear the chopping lot  for next year’s logs.

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And I sit out back in the Adirondack, cherishing the gentled chill of this fine October morning… Whoops, roosting crows in the willow branches straight overhead are intent on making a mess of my meditations…must move on.

–LS

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” Gen.8:22

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Preparing for Winter…

Did you know bears eat grass?  Neither did I but there they were, Mama and her quadruplets.  This year’s litter was a big one, probably because practically everyone in our neck of the woods has fruit and/or nut trees in their yard!  Plenty to support a burgeoning populace of black bears.  Well, not really.  What ever happened to man having dominion over every living creature? (Gen.1:28) Now we give them our parks and our food too. Hmm.  It’s novel the first time or two but these chaps will be foraging for my fruit next year… sigh.  In the meantime they’re getting ready for winter…

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DSCF9993[Bear photos compliments of Jim]

And so am I.  Soaking up the sun and the silence every chance I get… treasuring this rarest of  Septembers—a gift of summer’s sun and warmth extended—and glad for the invitation to retreat with my Maker on this his footstool.

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool…” Is.66:1

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“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah”  Ps.46:10-11ESV

–LS