Friday, 26 April 2013
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Magnolia
We are blessed with a beautiful magnolia tree outside our house in the front garden and in front of that on the kerb some variety of cherry tree and right now both are blossoming magnificently. It's a wonderful sight and the bees seem very keen on it all although they show a marked preference for the cherry tree, partly I think because of the profusion of flowers very close together. Anyhow, I managed to get some photographs today and I thought it might be cheering to see them.
Expect the next post to come from deepest Sussex as I am off on my holidays to a farm - with sheep!
Expect the next post to come from deepest Sussex as I am off on my holidays to a farm - with sheep!
Thursday, 18 April 2013
A time of firsts
I am sadly aware that I have slipped well behind with my blogging, this is mainly due to life appearing to move at a far faster pace than I can keep up with and to feeling very tired, not that I should be surprised about that, it does go with the territory. In the meantime I have been watching an astonishing number of spring firsts emerge as the weather has finally warmed up a little.
We have had the first blossom on lots of the trees - wild and flowering cherry, plum and magnolia all out together - cherry and magnolia shown here outside our house.
The first cowslips flowering, they have taken to the garden, from the two plants put in a few years ago we now have nine in the garden, in addition to the couple we have given away. My dad is a great advocate of the cowslip and I do love their cheery flowers, yellow is so sunshiny, although we also have the genetic rarity of a red cowslip.
The first bees emerging, I adore watching the bumble bees proceed from flower to flower. They are nigh on impossible to photograph however. This year there have been many flowers out awaiting them, including the lungwort, not the world's most prepossessing plant perhaps, but a hit with the bees over many weeks. The other evening the cherry tree pictured above was abuzz with bees, such a joy to see.
The first fritillary of the year, part of the William Morris theme to the garden, fitting in with the period and style of the house.
The first days of sunshine and sitting outside, watching the birds and remaining still so that they will approach and feed while I am there. As always the robin is first down, often coming very close in the holly bush to see what I am doing and to twitter softly and sing, but blue tits, dunnocks and even the gold finches have been joining him. I love seeing both robins together at this time of year, one has started feeding the other with choice titbits and various birds have been spotted with nesting material.
All this has brightened a tough few weeks, with spiritual and physical struggle all ongoing. On the knitting front (this is supposedly a knitting blog after all), I have finally finished a cardigan, but not managed to photograph it, and started a new one, double v, from an Interweave knits magazine a couple of years ago, in Vinni's Colours Nikkim, which being a cotton can be hard on the hands. The colour is wonderful though, called peacock, it is rich and deeply saturated. Hopefully it will not take as long to knit as the last cardigan, which I started last May.
Onwards and upwards as they say.
We have had the first blossom on lots of the trees - wild and flowering cherry, plum and magnolia all out together - cherry and magnolia shown here outside our house.
The first cowslips flowering, they have taken to the garden, from the two plants put in a few years ago we now have nine in the garden, in addition to the couple we have given away. My dad is a great advocate of the cowslip and I do love their cheery flowers, yellow is so sunshiny, although we also have the genetic rarity of a red cowslip.
The first bees emerging, I adore watching the bumble bees proceed from flower to flower. They are nigh on impossible to photograph however. This year there have been many flowers out awaiting them, including the lungwort, not the world's most prepossessing plant perhaps, but a hit with the bees over many weeks. The other evening the cherry tree pictured above was abuzz with bees, such a joy to see.
The first fritillary of the year, part of the William Morris theme to the garden, fitting in with the period and style of the house.
The first days of sunshine and sitting outside, watching the birds and remaining still so that they will approach and feed while I am there. As always the robin is first down, often coming very close in the holly bush to see what I am doing and to twitter softly and sing, but blue tits, dunnocks and even the gold finches have been joining him. I love seeing both robins together at this time of year, one has started feeding the other with choice titbits and various birds have been spotted with nesting material.
All this has brightened a tough few weeks, with spiritual and physical struggle all ongoing. On the knitting front (this is supposedly a knitting blog after all), I have finally finished a cardigan, but not managed to photograph it, and started a new one, double v, from an Interweave knits magazine a couple of years ago, in Vinni's Colours Nikkim, which being a cotton can be hard on the hands. The colour is wonderful though, called peacock, it is rich and deeply saturated. Hopefully it will not take as long to knit as the last cardigan, which I started last May.
Onwards and upwards as they say.
Saturday, 30 March 2013
52 Weeks of Happy - week 13
It has been yet another marathon week filled mainly with a heady mix of toothache and anxiety. All in all this has been a horrible month and I shall be glad to see the back of it, maybe April will be better?
1. Good Friday - Jesus Christ died to set us free, the best good news ever.
2. Tulips - beautiful Easter flowers from a friend
3. The Girl in Blue - by P.G. Wodehouse, my new audiobook, a delightfully complicated confection involving a large cast of improbable characters and read by Graham Seed, aka. ex-Nigel from The Archers. It's so lovely hearing his voice again. I find audiobooks a great accompaniment to knitting and a good one can draw you in completely. It is not just the quality of the book that matters but also the reader. As someone who has listened to a great many P. G. Wodehouse audiobooks I can recommend those read by Jonathan Cecil and Martin Jarvis (who has done the world a great service by his readings of the Just William stories).
4. Isaiah 41.10 - a verse I found in a list on the Desiring God blog, just when I needed it to help me with dentist related anxiety.
1. Good Friday - Jesus Christ died to set us free, the best good news ever.
2. Tulips - beautiful Easter flowers from a friend
3. The Girl in Blue - by P.G. Wodehouse, my new audiobook, a delightfully complicated confection involving a large cast of improbable characters and read by Graham Seed, aka. ex-Nigel from The Archers. It's so lovely hearing his voice again. I find audiobooks a great accompaniment to knitting and a good one can draw you in completely. It is not just the quality of the book that matters but also the reader. As someone who has listened to a great many P. G. Wodehouse audiobooks I can recommend those read by Jonathan Cecil and Martin Jarvis (who has done the world a great service by his readings of the Just William stories).
4. Isaiah 41.10 - a verse I found in a list on the Desiring God blog, just when I needed it to help me with dentist related anxiety.
fear not, for I am with you;So rich in promises and just exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it. God is good at that and I do tend to find that I need reminding of His promises, I am hopeless at remembering on my own. The original blog post is well worth reading - Nine Reasons Why You Can Face Anything
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Tuesday, 26 March 2013
A bit of admin
Having seen increasing comment about the imminent demise of google reader I have signed up for bloglovin. I do not personally use google reader for my blog reading myself, but tend to read them in the dashboard part of my own blog (unless that is google reader too?), but I thought it was a good idea to get a presence on there.
Sunday, 24 March 2013
52 weeks of happy - week 12
It has been a bit of a miserable week, well, miserable few weeks, so all the more reason to look for the positives that have been there. This project is helping me to see that there are good things in my life, so it is working in that respect, even if it does take quite an effort for me to keep it up.
1. Frogspawn - we have a small pond outside the back door that is able to support a community of somewhere around half a dozen frogs who appear as if from nowhere at this time of year to spawn in the pond and who can be seen on summer evenings out catching insects. Watching the frogspawn grow is always fascinating and has become part of the cycle of the year. With considerable diligence my sister has managed to get some good shots of the frogs and frogspawn and she has kindly allowed me to share her pictures.
2. Lunch out - at the pub with my sister, a quiet relaxed lunch and the discovery that the pub now does sweet potato chips.
3. Sock knitting - one of a pair finished, the second on the back burner while I make some swap socks. Unfortunately I cannot share pictures of the swap socks yet, but I am pleased with them so far, it is going to be hard parting with them. The on hold socks are Elm by Cookie.a in some sock yarn beautifully dyed by Countess Ablaze.
I also finished another pair of the baby bootees that actually stay on, though I am slightly worried that one of them looks a bit bigger than the other, hopefully they will still work to keep a baby's feet warm? They took longer than they should have done as I cast on too few stitches on the second bootee and had to start again.
4. More bird watching - there have been a lot of them around this week because of the cold weather and they are fascinating to watch. My sister got some photographs of them too, the robin in particular was keen to pose, they are such little attention seekers.
It is not always peace and harmony among the birds though.
1. Frogspawn - we have a small pond outside the back door that is able to support a community of somewhere around half a dozen frogs who appear as if from nowhere at this time of year to spawn in the pond and who can be seen on summer evenings out catching insects. Watching the frogspawn grow is always fascinating and has become part of the cycle of the year. With considerable diligence my sister has managed to get some good shots of the frogs and frogspawn and she has kindly allowed me to share her pictures.
2. Lunch out - at the pub with my sister, a quiet relaxed lunch and the discovery that the pub now does sweet potato chips.
3. Sock knitting - one of a pair finished, the second on the back burner while I make some swap socks. Unfortunately I cannot share pictures of the swap socks yet, but I am pleased with them so far, it is going to be hard parting with them. The on hold socks are Elm by Cookie.a in some sock yarn beautifully dyed by Countess Ablaze.
I also finished another pair of the baby bootees that actually stay on, though I am slightly worried that one of them looks a bit bigger than the other, hopefully they will still work to keep a baby's feet warm? They took longer than they should have done as I cast on too few stitches on the second bootee and had to start again.
4. More bird watching - there have been a lot of them around this week because of the cold weather and they are fascinating to watch. My sister got some photographs of them too, the robin in particular was keen to pose, they are such little attention seekers.
It is not always peace and harmony among the birds though.
Saturday, 23 March 2013
Facing failure
Some days, some weeks even, I feel like a failure: an utter, miserable, lowest of the low, out and out failure. Now is one of those times. Life seems dismal, I feel frustrated by my own ability to make the same mistakes again and again and I feel stuck. Prayer is hard, a fight and a battle, to focus, to find the words, even sitting quietly before God is a challenge. I find myself not wanting to pray, which is a feeling I hate. I hate that I do not want to spend time with God and hate how that must make Him feel. The world seems like a bleak place and change seems impossible.
I am trying to persevere, as the Bible urges us to again and again, but it feels so hard and yet in saying that I feel like such a wimp. Surely I knew before I began that following Jesus was hard? He warns of it, "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10) and "In this world you will have trouble." (John 16). So why do I moan and whine and protest when things are hard?
I find it so hard to put aside my pride and admit that I cannot do this on my own, to accept my own inadequacy and that ultimately I cannot save myself. It is at this point that I turn again to Jesus, to the cross, to give in to grace, something so simple, yet so hard.
But I still admit that I cannot yet rejoice in trials and sufferings, although I can overall see the good that has been coming out of the hard times. Sometimes the hard times are when I am closest to God, but the hardest hard times are when I find it hard to approach God and when my sense of failure becomes overwhelming.
Father help me to persevere.
Forgive me my failings.
Thank you for the cross.
Help me.
Help me to find strength in my weakness.
I am trying to persevere, as the Bible urges us to again and again, but it feels so hard and yet in saying that I feel like such a wimp. Surely I knew before I began that following Jesus was hard? He warns of it, "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me." (Matthew 10) and "In this world you will have trouble." (John 16). So why do I moan and whine and protest when things are hard?
I find it so hard to put aside my pride and admit that I cannot do this on my own, to accept my own inadequacy and that ultimately I cannot save myself. It is at this point that I turn again to Jesus, to the cross, to give in to grace, something so simple, yet so hard.
But I still admit that I cannot yet rejoice in trials and sufferings, although I can overall see the good that has been coming out of the hard times. Sometimes the hard times are when I am closest to God, but the hardest hard times are when I find it hard to approach God and when my sense of failure becomes overwhelming.
Father help me to persevere.
Forgive me my failings.
Thank you for the cross.
Help me.
Help me to find strength in my weakness.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)