Run the Earth and Watch the Sky: June 2012

owls and books and words and things...

I need to hear the throbbing tones
Of birds instead of telephones
And sit beneath while leafy trees
Are mimicking the mighty seas
Fine art is singing all around
In bird-foot-tracks on dusty ground
In bark designs like poetry
I must explore to rightly see

In other words, the town scenery, though pleasant, is not lending itself to a great deal of writing-inspiration. I like to watch the clouds, the stars, the vast expanse of sky that I cannot fathom, and remember that I am small and there is an infinite amount to learn. Not only in time and space, but also of the incomprehensible Creator. And then I like to explore; I like to roll over and see the little blades of grass, and the ants crawling about between them. I like to study the giant trees around me and marvel at their mighty bark, their girth, their lines and colors; God's intricate care for little things, down to the subatomic particle.

But I haven't made much time for that recently, and many other things fill the hours and days. I spent some great time with my friend Hannah; we talked and we laughed and we swapped some new stories, and quite a few old ones. On one of the hotter days we went to the pool, and I got sunburnt of course. We've been enjoying Ben's baseball games, and cheering those guys on. They won their last four games! We played a great deal of Scrabble and Boggle as well, and listened to The Two Towers while crafting. These are some pictures of what my fingers made while my mind was on middle-earth.

Owl earrings!

Independence hall... and an Eowyn-inspired archer-lady.

~ little owl-guys

Tintin ... Sally ... some owls.

We've been harvesting lettuce, spinach, and arugula from the garden, and the rest is coming along nicely: the beets, tomatoes, squash. Today I made almond-flour apple scones, which are greatly enjoyed with honey and a glass of milk. I very much enjoy cooking and baking gluten-free, and there are some great recipes out there to use, most of them easy to tweak to your particular needs or desires. Elana and Michelle are two of my favorites.

And these are some lovely dishes I found at the thrift-store.

My package came from Lanier's Books today!

Hoorah--Thank you Miss A!

And my very, very happy ship-quilt that Motherdy found. (Thrift-store again--Yay!)

Beauties

"There were about half a dozen men and Shasta had never sen anyone like them before. For one thing, they were all as fair-skinned as himself, and most of them had fair hair. And they were not dressed like men of Calormen. Most of them had legs bare to the knee. Their tunics were of fine, bright, hardy colours--woodland green , or gay yellow, or fresh blue. Instead of turbans they wore steel or silver caps, some of them set with jewels and one with little wings on each side of it. A few were bare-headed. The swords at their sides were long and straight, not curved like Calormene scimitars.

"And instead of being grave and mysterious like most Calormenes, they walked with a swing and let their arms and shoulders go free, and chatted and laughed. Onde was whistling. You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly and didn't give a fig for anyone who wasn't. Shasta thought he had never seen anything so lovely in his life."

--The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

an arch of giant lilac-bushes~

"The herb border ran wild, and the air smelled wonderful, the breezes aften stirred the piney, mossy smell of the forest with the sharp smell of herbs, mixed in the warm smell of fresh bread from the kitchen, and then flung the result over the meadow like a handful of new gold coins."

--Beauty, Robin McKinley

Odd perhaps, to take so many pictures of these houses, but I think they are lovely, and the lighting on my walk that morning was irresistable for taking pictures. I thought it gave a fairytale-ish quality to the trees and old victorian houses.