Farmers Market Goodies

I have a new addiction: shopping at the Farmers Market three minutes from our home.
Today I bought a dahlia bouquet, rainbow chard, radishes and sunny yellow zucchini. You can see them in these photos.
The Saturday before Fathers Day I also bought purple kohlrabi and lavender color radishes and home made horseradish mustard, a surprise for my husband for Fathers Day.
I like kohlrabi so much I bought some two weeks in a row; I peel it and eat it like an apple. It is good plain or with a little salt and is especially delicious when purchased from a farmers market, where it is freshly harvested.
All organic and grown locally. A feast for the eye and soul, and the veggies are tender and fresh.

Moments in my garden

I like to step into my garden when I am alone and when it is quiet.
The birds are often singing abundantly so it is not really quiet; I mean quiet from man made noise.
The hummingbird chirps. It wants me to spray droplets of water in the air so it can drink and bath, while I hold the hose up high, trying not to move.
I feel God there in the garden, and everywhere.
The green things are pulsing with life.
Strawberries turn pink, then red and sweet.
Overlooked bok choi dies back but not before forming tiny yellow flowers with a promise of seeds.
Cilantro bolts and goes to seed.
Green tomatoes promise to turn red and succulent.
My heart and soul are nourished in this modest garden.

I took this photo of a garden created in honor of my dad, located at a favorite golf course.

Collywobbles, Infrangible, Widdershins and more

I collect words that are new to me, that have a fun look or sound, and/or that make me smile.
I am a writer and hope to use these words in my writing some day.
My best sources for these words are when I read British authors and also when I read Marcel Proust.
From Proust's "Swann's Way" and "Within a Budding Grove": serried, ineluctable, evanescent, infrangible, hierophants, fulminate, mendacity. Marmorean, sapient and stoup.
Thank you to Marcel Proust and his gifted translators. I prefer the edition translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin.
A few of these words I already knew but haven't used in a book or article or poem yet, including mendacity and fulminate.
Other words in my collection: twee, wrackspurt, nebuly, widdershins, ebullition and the wonderful collywobble.
These are just some of the highlights of my list.
Please leave some of your favorite words in the comments so my list will grow.

Happy Father's Day

I was blessed with a great dad. You can see here the great start I had with him.

"What a blessing it is for parents to believe in their children." -- Billy Graham

Christianity, Love, and Islam

This photo is of Rumeli Hisar in Istanbul, and the college I attended there is located on the hill right above it so we students had a great view of this fortress.

I have many favorite Scripture verses, and one I especially love is:
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
1 Corinthians 13:13
Jesus talked about love throughout his time here on earth, and love infuses the church I attend.
A gal new to my church told me "What attracted me to this church is its emphasis on love."
I chose to attend college in a Muslim country for a year and grew to love the people, the beautiful architecture of their mosques, and the many ancient sites like the Rumeli Hisar and Side and Antalya on the Mediterranean coast.
Influenced by the art I saw in Turkey I changed my major to Art History and wrote my senior thesis titled "The History of the Development of the Mosque."
Since the USA was attacked on 9/11 I have studied the Muslim religion more closely, and learned that it was started by a man who became a warrior and military leader and in line with its origins it does not have the focus on peace that Jesus preached.
Two excellent books on this topic are "Unveiling Islam" by two brothers, Ergun and Emir Caner, who were raised as Muslims and converted to Christianity and "What You Need to Know about Islam and Muslims" by George W. Braswell (B.D. Yale University and PhD. UNC).
By reading these and other books, which have extensive quotes from Islam's Koran (or Qur'an) and the Sunnah and Hadith, we can get a better understanding of events in the news today.

Delightful, graceful Canterbury Bells

The Canterbury Bells I grew are in the glass vase, with some sweet peas of a similar color.
I adore Canterbury Bells, and planted two small plants in 4 inch size containers two years ago. The first year they form a low clump, and the second year they grow 2 feet to 3 feet tall and are loaded with the violet blue flowers. The flowers are 1 to 2 inches long.
Canterbury Bells can be grown readily from seed (I read this), and come in white, pink, blue and purple. Their Latin name is Campanula medium, also called Bell Flowers.
I took the first photo below on May 30 when they are in full bloom. The next two photos were taken as they began to bloom in mid-May. I have seen a few bees go inside them and fly away happy.

My Reading This Week

I do love me some reading. Are you with me on this?

This is a painting by Fragonard.
I almost time travel when reading certain books. In that way I recently returned from Egypt in 1922, whilst reading "The Visitors", a novel by Sally Beauman, with a 12 year old girl as the center of the story, and the discovery of King Tut's tomb the exciting story line. I give this book five stars and reviewed it on Amazon.
Although fiction the author did a lot of research and many actual historical figures are in the novel, including Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter, two men who toiled for years looking for the tomb.
There is even a connection to the Downton Abbey series, since Lord Carnarvon and his family lived in Highclere Castle, the estate where Downton Abbey is filmed.
Now I am reading "Destroyer Angel" by Nevada Barr, a book that is very fast paced and that I don't want to put down. Two women and their two teen daughters are kidnapped by thugs while on a wilderness trip, and Anna must try to save them.
Soon I aim to read "The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar" by Martin Windrow, a true account of a man and his owl, and "Have a Nice Guilt Trip" by Lisa Scottoline and her daughter, Francesca Serritella, which sounds like it will induce laughs. I hope so.
What are y'all reading?
May 28, afternoon. I was sad to hear that Maya Angelou died today. To honor her today I bought the 4th book in her autobiography, "The Heart of a Woman", and the few pages I read show it to be fascinating. She was someone I would love to have lunch and a chat with.