Of August Days

Snaring some frames to cherish long after August's adieu...

even if this barely skims the surface 

of one of my favourite months! 💖🙏

Of kitchen saunas while an honest canning day’s work bears

Jarred gratitude for veg and fruit in answer to spring’s prayers...

Of splash-filled pond, finch on a frond,

of dew-drop-dazzled morn...

Of cob-wide grin and buttered chin while crunching yellow corn...

Of dinner dreams where Option gleams with oh, so much to choose...

Why so many food-photos??

Because August is a month of extravagant menu options!!

Of monotone cicada drone and cricket cheep-cheep-cheep

Of lazy breeze ruffling lush trees with lyrics half asleep

Of kitchen saunas while an honest canning day’s work bears

Jarred gratitude for veg and fruit in answer to spring’s prayers

Of splash-filled pond, finch on a frond, of dew-drop-dazzled morn

Of cob-wide grin and buttered chin while crunching yellow corn

Of pots that boast a flavour-host of garden-garnered hues

Of dinner dreams where Option gleams with oh, so much to choose

Of thankfulness to God who blesses seeds with sacred spoil

Garden and field billow with yield; treasure from vaults of soil

Of rain-song thrills as mercy spills and parched landscapes are drenched

Where puddles lie like scraps of sky on vistas, kindly quenched

Where zinnias stream and cosmos gleam like gems in August’s crown

Where gladness gapes at nature’s capes, God-stitched and gently thrown

O’er hills and dells, while wonder swells in souls, speechlessly awed

By poetry of chicory, Queen Ann’s Lace, goldenrod

…by cloud-pied blues as sky-wide views unfurl God’s glory-show

By hummingbird, with wing-span blurred while darting to and fro

By honey bees with sticky knees, by butterflies that waft

From fount to fount, too quick to count the number of pitstops

While artists stare, seeking to snare some loveliness to frame

And gently tease to galleries no brush or pen can claim

A dust-sweet blaze of August days, that flare and fade with ease

To tug and smart in works of art entitled Memories

© Janet Martin

Where zinnias stream and cosmos gleam like gems in August’s crown...

…by cloud-pied blues as sky-wide views unfurl God’s glory-show

By hummingbird, with wing-span blurred while darting to and fro

By honey bees with sticky knees, 

by butterflies that waft

From fount to fount, too quick to count the number of pitstops...

An August Aria

Earth is a garden billowing with threshing days...

 and flow’rs...

The kitchen is a paradise of aromatic thrill

Of vinegar and pickling spice, garlic, pepper and dill...

Earth is a garden billowing with threshing days and flow’rs

While a keen scythe is winnowing sweet summer of its hours

The kitchen is a paradise of aromatic thrill

Of vinegar and pickling spice, garlic, pepper and dill

The afternoon-sun scorches rural vistas with its blaze

While we seek north-faced porches to escape its sizzling rays

The landscape like a giant bolt of fabric unfurled, lies

In rippling sweeps/heaps of green and gold beneath heat-hazy skies

…a stage where cricket-minstrels hide to play their ceaseless tune

Tugging at heart-strings gently tied to dusk’s rose-tinted moon

And wafting softly on the air, fond good old days renew

In children’s voices falling where once we were children too

© Janet Martin

 

August Celebration

It was a brooding, gray backdrop kind of day...

Where yon billow broods and breaks,

Where the shower spills its lakes...

Where the flower-bower-toast

Thrills us to the uttermost

Where the planted furrow brims

With fruition’s harvest hymns...

(Farmer-patience is tried this year due to much rain!

The neighbor's were able to salvage the last of the straw just before today's soaker!!)

Where dust, threshed from wheat and rye

Wafts between the earth and sky...

Where cricket-minstrels repeat

Repertoires of tweet-tweet-tweet... 

Where garden has Cook beguiled

With dinner-buffets, run wild...

Last night's supper bottom right corner...grilled zucchini-rounds

topped with browned ground beef-green pepper-red onion medley

Where yon billow broods and breaks,

Where the shower spills its lakes

Where the flower-bower's toast

Thrills us to the uttermost

Where the planted furrow brims

With fruition’s harvest hymns

Where the hand of God anoints

Earth in exclamation points

Where wonder and worship meet

In climaxes, simple-sweet

Where delight and sadness spar

Where hello and farewell are

Where we revel in the bliss

Of the afternoon that is

While the gate to twilight’s star

Waits to swing softly ajar

Where dust, threshed from wheat and rye

Wafts between the earth and sky

Where cricket-minstrels repeat

Repertoires of tweet-tweet-tweet

Where garden has Cook beguiled

With dinner-buffets, run wild

Where bravado cannot stay

What no wish can keep at bay

Where hollyhock bistros buzz

With busy bee biz, because

Where each honeyed moment drips

A sparkle of August slips

From lips, fingertips, and sighs

Where before our very eyes

Heaven lends to earth a hint

Of what waits beyond Time’s stint

Where we cannot comprehend

Awesome August without end

Where goldenrod wicks are lit

Just for the sheer joy of it

Where, beyond four-seasoned tide

Rolls a summer countryside

Where death never enters thought

Mum blooms with forget-me-not

© Janet Martin

Tonight's supper...

Green Bean Casserole

2 of my bean jars didn't seal from canning this year

and because I prefer canned beans for this dish, it was the perfect side!

Comfort food on a very fallish feeling evening!

(I also use milk rather than sour cream)

Zucchini Casserole

I added a bit of ham to make it a one-dish meal

(for a 9X13 pan I used 2 more eggs and added a generous tbsp. of melted butter to the olive oil)

another recent meal fav using Swiss chard

Feta was a splurge extra 😊😋

August/Summer Thrills...

 Glimpses of inspiration in no particular order...

Flower- bouquets...

backyard getaways...

Leaf-jewelry, the kind that drips and glimmers in the sun...

The belly of the sky, bulging with clouds ready to break

And then they do, and oh what lovely music raindrops make...

(first video is a humorous look at what happens when I try to record something😅😂)

sorry if you get a bit sea-sick on this one...

Ps.85:12

The LORD will indeed give what is good,

 and our land will yield its harvest.

The pure and undefiled delight of watching gardens grow/glow

The stillness of a starry night, a fresh-brewed cup o’ joe

Or Windsong wafting through treetops flushed with first light of day

Or twilight softly falling blue, and brushing day away

Or splendor of the heavens as they declare faithfully

Without a word, God-given glory for the world to see

A brand-new day not tasted yet, but bursting at the seams

With moments we have never met to whet fresh hopes and dreams

The fortune, oft forgot, of commonplace workaday beat

The pleasure of a great big pot filled with good things to eat

The belly of the sky, bulging with clouds ready to break

And then they do, and oh what lovely music raindrops make

The readiness of laughter to combat life’s kick and punch

The sparrow’s friendly chatter, first-tomato-on-toast lunch

Leaf-jewelry, the kind that drips and glimmers in the sun

The air, pungent with pickling spice when pick-scrub-slice is done

Flower bouquets and backyard getaway with book and tea

The sense that every summer day is special as can be

The felled field, bowls brimming with holy answers to our prayers

The ever-earlier dimming of day, goldenrod flares

Where roadside August-arboretums humbly steal the show

Sunflowers beam, peaches and plums drip, joy-cups overflow

Composing hymns of thankfulness for gifts that August/summer spills

To kindle simple happiness that thrills and thrills and thrills

 

© Janet Martin

 bowls brimming with holy answers to our prayers...

A brand-new day not tasted yet but bursting at the seams

With moments we have never met to whet fresh hopes and dreams...

The sense that every summer day is special as can be...

Wishing you a whole new day of beautiful August thrills!

I'm off to the not so thrilling task of much-needed sticky-floor scrubbing😅