Another Collection

I'm still thinking all over the place.

• Had a very odd (for me) night last night.  By 9:15 I was nodding, really nodding, over my book so we headed to bed.  My light was out by 9:40.  And except for one bathroom break at 11:30, I slept straight through until 6 a.m.  That's a fairly solid 8 hours of sleep.  Can't remember when I slept that long or that deeply.  And yes, I woke up a tad more chipper.  Sleep is wonderful.

• This article was enlightening.  I'm glad there are still critical thinkers out there.  And even more so that there are still those striving to have their hearts changed by Christ.

Changes

• The other morning heading out on the trail I saw the chair was back in place for sharing the plums from this yard's trees.  Sadly, there were no plums and later on the return trip, even the chair was gone (I did tongue-in-cheek wonder if someone took the chair).  I was hoping to carry a fresh-from-the-tree plum home for breakfast.😋  I don't, however, plan to pick any of the crabapples.  I remember eating them on the way home from school as a kid. They're beautiful to look at, not taste.

Love this tree.

• I'm always noticing trees.  I love them, their shade, their leaves, their colors, the way their bare branches (on the deciduous ones) look against the sky in the winter, the way they shelter the birds.  This particular tree has been one I look for every time I go down that street.  It's a stately old tree, and I was glad it was far enough back that it wasn't removed a couple years ago when they widened that street.  (The Husband always says:  "Change is certain, progress is not.")  There were plenty of trees like this that nearly canopied the street before they were cut down for the street widening.  Now it's just another ordinary street, not the lovely lane it used to be.  So I'm glad to still be able to greet this tree when I go by.

All gone.

• As has happened before, our haircut morning occurred during the local hot air ballon festivities.  They take off from a park between the haircutter and our home.  This morning they weren't flying very high - part of the fun of the balloon ride is the unpredictability of the air currents.  Probably 6 or so were coming down in fields, school yards and parks on our way home.  It was hard to find a good spot for a picture, there were lots and lots of looky-lou's like me trying to capture the scene.  Brought back memories of our own hot air balloon ride.  They are so fun!

So fun!

• And we made a quick trip over to our local IFA (Intermountain Farmers Association) to get advice and product for eliminating the nasty stink bugs that are plaguing our garden.  They're all over the corn and I suspect on the tomatoes as well.  This has been a less than satisfactory garden year.  Discouraging.  There's some kind of virus on the tomatoes, the stink bugs on the corn, the late late late start to the whole thing, the planting, growing AND the harvesting.  My only consolation: it seems like this is a common lament, we're not the only ones with these kinds of problems.  That'll be our chore for the morning - spraying the garden with both of our remedies and hoping there'll be enough corn and tomatoes left to harvest.

Pretty crabapples.

• And speaking of food!  Yesterday our grandson treated us to a frozen custard up at Freddy's - since it was national frozen custard day.  Tonight we're having fresh from the garden (we found a couple good ears) corn and the I'm-planning-on-them-to-taste-yummy ribs (the ones that are cooking to be tender at this very moment).   There'll be enough ribs for two dinners.  That's a favorite meal of mine:  any meal that covers more than one day of dinners.

I'm so grateful for the bounty (in my mind that word is synonymous with blessing) of the earth, the food that sustains not only our bodies, but our souls as well.  When our bodies feel good our souls pretty much do, also.  I'm grateful for experts who help us figure out our garden problems.  I'm grateful for my piano glasses that'll help me to do my best as I sub on the organ on Sunday.  I try to always be full of recognition for all the good Heavenly Father showers on us.