Like Whispers or Hope's Great Passageway...

 Yesterday, (Sunday morning) while together,

 our church-family received the sorrowful news of the sudden passing of another of our members, 

A beloved husband, dad and grandpa!
We will miss you Clayton, but are comforted to know your cares are past!

The song that long spilled from leaf-flowers fair

Is growing softer in its changing keys

As orchestral estrangements ride the breeze

That gallops through the trees like steads of air

To scatter in its wake a lake of leaves

‘There is a time to plant and to uproot’

The husk of dawn to dusk shucked underfoot

Like whispers that love celebrates and grieves

And none retrieves, but like a surging sea

That rolls toward the shore; Time takes its toll

While flust'ring our clear path to the goal

As we are propelled toward what will be

On a forceful, unpredictable tide

Oh, God our help in ages past, abide

The canopy of variegated green

That lured us from heat-rippled field and street

And drew us to its cooler, grassy seat

Is red and gold with blue holes worn between

…and we are at a loss for words it seems

To perfectly and properly express

This tug-of-heart that vexes happiness

And like the frost-kissed tree, undresses dreams

Insisting that we take a closer look

At often quick and easy reasoning

As tick and tock applies its seasoning

Of fallen leaves, like whispers in a book

Where Aftermath and Imminence collide

Oh God, our help in present-tense, abide

The future is a far and foreign world

The past, places and faces we recall

...as tender tears in soft surrender fall

Like whispers into gentler thoughts unfurled

Because as seasons pass we start to see

The subtlety with which a life is spent

Where everything we have is simply lent

And all relinquished in eternity

Breath seized by death; veil lifts at curtain-close

Sod, sea and sky dissolve into a mist

And all that was before does not exist

As we behold the Destiny we chose

Oh God, o’er Hope’s Great Passageway preside

Oh God, our help in days to come, abide

© Janet Martin

 There is a time to weep...

Ecc.3:1-8

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

Autumn Supper Hour (or ten minutes ;-)

 It takes a  lot longer to make a meal appear than disappear, huh?!!

I would like to start a what's-for-supper weekly post.

and the plan was to do it last night but that didn't work out

so here it is, the morning after...

I got a Pampered Chef pizza stone recently and finally had a chance to try it out! YUM!!

(google a pizza dough recipe that works into your time-frame) 

Also, had to settle for cheddar cheese instead of mozzerella because I didn't have any on hand. 

(Pizza is one of the most versatile foods I can think of!)

With the leftover pizza dough I made a few cheese rolls so we had the option of rolls or pizza with bean soup I prepared earlier in the day after cooking a ham bone the day before.

Skim fat then to the broth I added in proportion to pot and broth-batch-size,

a lot of thinly sliced onions, thinly sliced cabbage, some chopped celery, 

precooked black beans and navy beans, a handful of chopped parsley, 

a hefty pinch of black pepper and some bay leaves...

(for extra flavour I added a few envelopes of onion soup mix as well.)

I would love to know what extra seasonings would work 

with this combination so that I can keep it 'pure'!

(I added no salt because ham broth and soup mix is salty)

Add water, in proportion to batch size for desired flavour and consistency.

The delight of the supper crowd, (aka Matt and Victoria) was SO worth the effort!

Made supper feel like a simple celebration for a work day completed...well almost. 

(there's always the cleanup after.)

this is what yesterday's day-end felt like...

The rush of rain has eased; the trees bedazzled with its gems

Blue and gray weave a brooding blanket tossed across the day

The colours of October flare and dim on wooden stems

As twilight layers deepen and fold outdoor worlds away

Suppertime, like a simple celebration, warms and cheers

The lights of home beckon and draw our weary loved ones back

The Thing that turns us older as it spins laughter and tears

Is sweeter round a table where dusk trails night’s veil of black

…and makes us count the simple blessings that haste overlooks

It wakes a wordless hymn where time is both tender and brusque

And stirs an ache for pages sealed in fond echo-bound books

Yet makes us more aware of what slips through us dusk by dusk

The day is gathered in; darkness harvests earth's gold and red

We bow our heads in gratitude where swift the seasons roll

Thankful that Time slows down a bit in bowls of soup with bread

As supper’s simple celebration warms body and soul

© Janet Martin

After watching some pizza-dough-tossing videos I decided I'd like to learn to toss it like a pro!

Ha-ha! practice is required if you don't want to look like a snowman! 

Here is one video to teach the art of tossing a pizza crust

(note; some say never use a rolling pin to roll out the crust but rather just press with your hands)

I've tried both ways and the pizza disappears regardless! 😉

  

For The Summer That Was...Happy First Day of Fall

Instead of ice-cream with a cherry on top it's

sun-showers with a rainbow on top!

After the sun-sweet sweep of flower-hours fades and falls

Prey to time’s ways that treat our gaze to seasoned beck-and-calls

After warm lithesome laughter melts like waves upon the sand

Summer becomes an echo wafting soft across the land

The exodus of such a love should have a grand parade

To show appreciation for the memories we made

But somehow summer always seems to slip into thin air

While we are busy looking, running over here and there

Did she just drift up, up like thistle-seed and disappear

Or did she slip from earth’s cheek like a tiny, shiny tear

She is so much like family we wish that she would stay

But I guess her successor always brushes her away

Let’s give her, just for old time’s sake one more round of applause

Let’s blow a kiss and thank her for the fine summer that was

Then let’s be brave and buck up for what we know waits to be

All good things must come …oh! Look at that gorgeous autumn tree

© Janet Martin

There is no denying it...Autumn is making it's presence known in short order.

Colorful trees begin to catch our oohs and a-ahs off-guard
and captivate our reluctant pleasure...

tonight wears a chill as it tucks fall's first day beneath a wet wing.

We enjoyed a few rousing rounds of rainbows as well on this first fine fall day!

Autumn-dreamer's Dirge

 Compared to last Monday's mad dash to get the yard, driveway, garage and rain-gutters

 cleared of leaves that fell at inevitable last

 ...this Monday feels like a soft, white sigh...(but oh, what an ocean-surge a sigh can hold:)

Gone, the green-some chatter

Of the leafy tress

Tapestry of tatters, love

Tucked beneath whiteness

Gone the gloomy bearing

Of the tree-line doffed

Naked branches wearing, love's

Whispers white and soft

Gone, dusk’s musky, mellow

Lisping lullaby

Farewell turns to hello, love

Falling from the sky

Gone, the flowered garden

Filled with colors bright

Winter’s wizened Artisan

Chooses white on white

Gone, the yawning pleasure

Of a sun-drenched chair

Vault of ice-white treasure, love

Sparkles everywhere

Gone, the tide of tatters

Strewing yards and streets

Summer’s sigh and chatter, love

Sleeps beneath white sheets

© Janet Martin