Friendship

It was so much fun to come onto my blog and see a comment from a friend about "The Landing" posting. Tami raises healthy animals, whether they be birds, dogs, cats or a variety of other creatures great and small. I thought what she wrote about birds was very interesting and wanted to share it here.

Vicky, I am always pleased to see you have added something to your blog! I love your new look!(This is a picture of Java at 3 years old.)

I thought I'd add something that you might not know, but which I find absolutely enthralling about Amazons regarding the subject of scent. Each Amazon produces its own unique aroma when they are very happy and content. It is described by some owners as a floral scent, and by others as a rather musky scent, but most find it very pleasing. I noticed when I held Java or Kiwi,that they had a wonderful aroma, but it meant so much more to realize it just comes in those special moments when they are feeling very happy or loving, and those moments come when they are sitting on my hand or when I draw near to their cage to visit them! They do not emit this aroma when they are playing or actively prowling around the room, only when they are sitting quietly with me. It always amazes me the way God has implanted in His Creation, those things to illustrate tiny facets of His Word to us. What a beautiful way to illumine the verse that says that we are a fragrant aroma of His Presence in every place. Is it that same feeling of love and contentment in us, that produces that aroma for others to know Him? If so, it makes me more determined to take the time to sit in His presence, bask in His love, and allow His aroma to penetrate my being. Tami

Tami and I have corresponded for many years. At first we sent letters back and forth the old fashioned way. I looked so forward to the arrival of her letters and when I saw one in the mailbox I would race home and settle in for an enjoyable and leisurely reading. Tami's letters are always special because they are thought provoking, profound without being cumbersome and sparkling with her special wit. We each saved our letters and now enjoy reviewing them. We are continually astounded at how the Lord was uniting us through the miles by giving us the same insights on the same day. Often we would be thinking the same ideas without the other one knowing about it until days later when we communicated. We have always wanted to combine our friendship into a "joint venture" by linking our communications as if they were letters sent back and forth through the mails. Perhaps that time is just around the corner now.

Today, we still have to communicate through long distance, but now of course we communicate via email or computer chat programs. The link to Tami's blog is www.thesilvertrunk.blogspot.com

Summer Bounty

"He chooses our inheritance for us..." Psalm 47:4

It doesn't seem like we've had enough summer. And here it is, harvest time already. The tomatoes are red and fragrant on the vine. Green, purple and jalapeno peppers are everywhere. And the sweet corn! Oh the sweet corn is magnificent. As far as I'm concerned, summer is the best time of the year.

Bernie bought a red scooter to drive back and forth to work. On fresh sunny Sunday afternoons we ride out to tour the countryside and learn some of the back roads in our newer territory. We marvel at how different things look on a scooter than they do in a car or walking or even on a bicycle. The scents are heady and concentrated. There is the grassy warmth of newly mown hay and the intense aroma of lilies blooming in orange richness in the ditches. Farming has changed dramatically in the past 40 years with the result that there is less livestock on family farms. I miss the earthy smell of animals on our afternoon scooter rides.

As a child when I would go out into the pasture to round up the cattle for milking, I'd saunter down the lane, past the cowyard, and smell the pungent aroma of future fertilizer. A farm child learns to distinguish the difference between the smell of cattle, hogs, horses, or chickens. There was also the unmistakable oily smell of bats who had hijacked the upper regions of the house. I miss the farm smells - and I miss the trill of the meadowlark in the fields where I laid in the grass making cloud pictures or as I strolled down the road on my way to the corner creek. Yes, I greatly miss the meadowlark - yet everytime I am blessed enough to hear one, I always thank God for the pleasure of hearing one again.

Diane Ackerman, in her book A Natural History of the Senses says, "One of the real tests of writers, especially poets, is how well they write about smells." I believe it! It is uncannily tough to put words to what is passing through your nose and into your heart. It seems that an aroma has the ability to penetrate the heart so as to leave a lasting impression of place and time forever imprinted in our brains. Smell that smell again, and you are instantly transported to a special moment in your personal history. I am going to work at learning how to put words to scents that waft around me. This will be my new challenge for this season.

Graphic made using tutorial by Sandy at DaBratz Designs Membership

Restful Delight

The lilacs are in bloom. Birds are busily building nests. And I've been playing the peeping Tom, sitting in the sunshine observing the activity around me.

Our crab apples are also in bloom, not as wonderfully full as last year since this is their off-year, but still the fragrance filling the air is enough to send me into raptures. Kipling wrote that "Smells are surer than sights and sounds to make your heart-strings crack." I'm always amazed at how smells evoke a memory or a taste. I remember Marie Fritcher's homemade blackberry pie always tasted like my grandmother's attic smelled. I never figured out how that could be - but it was a fact!
A wren couple has taken up residence in "CrabApple Inn" which swings from a branch of that tree. Mrs. Wren is a wee pert beauty. I saw her bobbing in and out of the Inn door yesterday while her husband perched on a branch at a safe distance practicing his musical riffs. I decided that she was doing some serious decision making - probably picking out paint colors and carpet samples while her husband wisely remained passively supportive.
Apple blossom petals drifted to the ground as wren notes eddied around them. It was like watching a ticker tape parade for Spring.