a new video about Crocus (Issue 41)
and all I learned! and biophile, and vibrant, and a little view of my space, and a friend dies as I give blood, and some fun photos, and our new water feature.
All about Crocus
I did it! I have a new flower journal page up for Crocus. To read it all and see all the photos from previous years, click here. There are lots of photos!
I did not anticipate picking up my flower journal project so soon, but along came some blooms and my to-do list was interrupted big time. I live in a pinball machine.
Here is the new video (on YouTube) which shares my few little crocus and all I learned about the crocus.
Here’s a snippet list of what I learned that I share with you.
What is a corm?
There’s an Autumn crocus I must find and buy now!
The parts of a flower work just like our reproductive organs.
The Autumn crocus is the source of an expensive spice!
There are so many varieties of Spring Crocus that I need to be more intentional to buy some of the other species.
Mine this year are not so beautiful as in past years. I need to remember that when Fall planting time comes so that I can set myself up for next Spring.
The opening paragraph that comes second
Substack puts the first image in my post as the image that shows (unless I change it but who wants to take time to do that), so I am saying hello as my second section.
Okay, here goes:
Hello! Welcome to all the new readers. I am glad to see new folks signing up to read what little ‘ol me in the corner of my living room has to throw out into the wide world of overwhelming information to consume. I value everyone who takes time to read what I share. It makes me feel liked.
Some folks hit reply to the email and talk to me and some text me and some comment on Substack. However you want to talk back at me, I sure appreciate it.
I have to ask you a favor.
Please ignore all my typos. I am always embarrassed when I go back and read my own posts. Although no one points them out to me, and everyone probably gives me grace, I still feel embarrassed.
Hubby said after the last post when I was exclaiming about my typos how he had watched me type ferociously in what limited free time I had and then saw my errors and that it made it all “real” for him. So just look at my erroneous typing as it is just me being real, or real life.
A love of living things and nature - love this word!
I found inadvertently when I was search for something else This Biophile YouTube channel. She is kind of cool and in Missouri and teaches a lot about plants. Like I learned a lot about identifying Maple tree leaves in the above video. If you visit her, let her know I sent you there. She’ll probably say “who?” I wondered what “biophile” means, so I looked it up. What a cool word that describes me! It means a love of living things and nature, which some people believe humans are born with. Biophilia is the inborn affinity human beings have for other forms of life. Isn’t that cool!
I love learning new things.
Photography Challenge - Vibrant
I want to participate in these photograph challenges with
(who probably grows weary of me tagging him in my posts each challenge round), but I am finding it a struggle to really devote time to them as I would like. This round is to take a “vibrant” themed photo and I had all these ideas running through my head and no time to make them happen. I could not let the challenge go by without participating and time was out, so I grabbed my camera this morning and looked around for the most vibrant color in my house.So you see, I do not like bright and saturated colors! My whole house reflects my love for muted colors. I found the dog’s toys to be the most vibrant so I snapped a photo as they were in the dog bed. I thought Abominable was adorable the way he was looking up at me. Abominable is bigger than Miss Tizzy. See.
If you want to see why he is named Abominable, scroll down to the 2020 Christmas photo op and digital scrapbooking layout on this page.
Abominable is Ms. Tizzy’s favorite toy. She drags him around everywhere.
I do not have much color in my house. I do like white so much. Actually, I like white with splashes of color. I decided to take a second photo more pleasing to my eye for the challenge of my door next to my clock over the couch. I use this door a lot for flatlays. It moves around the house too. In fact, it was just in the kitchen until a few days ago. It had Christmas decorations on it for the holidays.
I decided to grab my camera and take a photo of the whole scene in my living room because it makes me happy. The blue blanket on the couch compliments the door.
Did you spy that the white changed from one photo to the next? The picture window in the living room gets hit with the warm morning sun which made the first photo a warm tint. The sunrise had moved just enough by the time I took the second one that the colors were normal tint. Photography REALLY does matter with regard to lighting.
The rocking chair is mine from when I was a little girl and I just love it. Sometimes I set a book or something decorative on it. The chair is my Great-grandparent Finlay’s. I painted it white (and its twin that’s in the bedroom) and reupholstered it several years ago. The embroidered bag says “laundry” and was stitched my Great-Grandma Finlay.
ALS STINKS!
………»»»»»and God Winks
I have not given blood in quite a while. I am the universal O-negative type that is much needed. My blood can be given to anyone, but I can only receive blood from other O-negative types.
I really want to help, but my last attempts caused me to pause my endeavors. The places where folks tap into my blood are not good and never have been. Every time, whether giving blood or at a doctor’s office, the expressions of “no way” in the faces of medical staff are consistently the same. I have ended up bruised up and down my arm for weeks in attempts to tap in.
And when they do tap in, the bag fills up to just ‘oh so much short’ of the top and it is declared that all is still good because they will use my bag of blood for science. How disappointing though to leave knowing you went through all of that and were not even able to help save a life.
I decided to try again last night. They almost sent me away. Actually, if I had gotten up and left after their initial response, I would have been sent away without even an attempt to draw blood. I knew that if they sent me away this time, I would never try again. “But that is what I am here for, to try again,” I said. “We won’t ever know if we do not try again.”
Divine Providence
I promised her that if my arm was black and blue, I would not be mad, especially if I left her with a full bag. As the drip began, I stopped and said a little prayer.
My appointment was at 6:45 p.m.
At about 7:30 p.m., about the exact time my friend died, the bag was full.
Here I had just given life and life was taken away.
I struggle to find words. My first word was “ironic” as in the exact opposite happened at the exact moment.
I am reminded of when my brother died. We had just finished up at the gravesite when I turned around to leave and I received a text that my granddaughter was born.
My second thought is God’s providence. I’ve had friends who call these instances “God Winks.” I do believe that God talks to me through circumstances, but then again, I am timid to admit it out loud. There are those who would balk at such an idea.
God’s providence is God taking care of his people and providing for them. We confess in the Apostles’ Creed that God the Father is the maker of heaven and earth. But God does not stop there.
Martin Luther, in his explanation of this confession, says, "I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them..."
In other words, we believe that the God who made heaven and earth is still very much involved in it. God’s preservation and governing of this world He created is called Divine Providence. He is not a "clockmaker god" who created the world, got it going, and then left it to work on its own. He did not set up some kind of laws of nature to let the world run on its own to take care of itself.
I do believe that when what seems like a coincidence when one person dies at the same time as someone is born, or another coincidence such as me giving life to others at the same time as a friend dies, is God saying to me, “Hey, let me remind you I am still here and I am still taking care of you and preserving this world I created. I am not far away.” That is God’s providence.
I recently found some old photos from 2008, 2009, and 2015 of some fun times with my friend who just died. She was so faithful to God and that is a comfort.
I selected just a few to share.
It brings smiles to my face to remember the good times we had.
My friend died of ALS. Her sister died some years ago of ALS also. Her sister suffered for 3 years. My friend suffered for a little over a year. It was so quick. I almost missed seeing her, but I did get to visit her about three weeks ago. It was hard to witness. All I can say is that ALS stinks. It’s stoopid.
I will follow you around with pillows
I was looking through folders for old flower photos for the website pages when I spied this from 2010. I have no idea what I was so sad about, but it cracks me up that hubby is going to follow me around with pillows to catch me when I fall.
Sometimes you just gotta try on the hats.
From 2018. Never before shared photos. I'm usually behind the lens.
I just happened upon these photos while looking for older flower photos for the website as well.
Creating our own garden river
These photos are not good, but you can get the idea. We have such water issues in our yard and surrounding yards. Remember this video last Summer where I realized the water was coming from underneath the ground into our yard, and not on top of the ground? I am attempting to give this water a path to take. We dug a ditch all the way across the garden bed and smooshed the dirt up higher against the blocks.
After we were done, I realized that it was just like our own little river in our garden! I do love rivers, but not necessary this kind of water feature!
When we got to the end of the bed, we made the ditch turn at the wall and then dug a path all the way down the wall to the side yard.
It was a lot of work, but now we will watch what happens the next time it rains heavily.
I am thinking both trenches we have dug will need to be converted to French drains, but at least the hard part of the digging will be mostly done. If we do not do a French drain, it may have to be lined somehow. I’m not sure how. I’m still thinking on it. Slow but sure. There’s always so much work to do.
In my last post, I shared about our “crape murder” in order to turn our crape myrtle into a tree-like plant rather than a bush-like plant. Here is our murdered plant. You can follow along on its journey with us.
Until next time,
Stay good,
Cheryl
Beautiful post, friend.
ALS is def stoopid.
Prayers for your heart continue as you go through missing a loved one remembering we do not mourn as those without hope.
Also, love the pic of Miss T with Abominable.
So sorry about the death of your friend!
Love the door!!