Showing posts with label bird-watching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bird-watching. Show all posts

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Of Learning Curves and Growing Pains

'Live and learn' has become 
an oft-repeated mantra in my life!
Fumbles and stumbles to teach me
what I thought I already knew/learned...
On the bright side, it keeps life from becoming predictable, doesn't it?!
And often reminds us of the loving-kindness and patience of God!

On the cusp of Dusk-dimmed vistas waits a whole new ‘live and learn’...





Due to the lack of sunshine in the past month in southern Ontario,
when it suddenly made a late-day appearance
I couldn't resist putting supper-prep on pause and dashing out to the fields
behind my neighbor's barn!
Sub-zero temps made recording challenging because I couldn't be without mittens
for more than 30 seconds! But the chill added to the exhilaration!!


No one is like you, Lord;
you are great,
and your name is mighty in power.

Then, just like that it's morning once more...
a gray one, dappled with colorful birds...(pics below)

Daylight drives afar the darkness of the heavens; mercy reigns
Once again, we face the grace of learning curves and growing pains
For Time never fully severs us from ties of ‘no return’
On the cusp of Dusk-dimmed vistas waits a whole new ‘live and learn’

Soft, dawn’s lofty lintels flower, filling bowers with Today
Pray God’s armor thwarts the charmer bent on luring us astray
Pray the fight twixt wrong and right draws us to He whose love/truth sustains
He who knows the highs and lows of learning curves and growing pains

No matter how high on ladders of success, Faith plants its prayer
Always still, another hill to climb, another hurt/cross to bear
Sudden swerve on Learning’s Curve, or fresh onslaught of Growing’s pain
And Day’s Light to pierce night’s Darkness and God’s mercy, new again

© Janet Martin

So, here's to a new day of living and learning 
to be kinder, humbler, holier, not on our own
but through Christ in us!

Ephesians 3:16
I ask that out of the riches of His glory 
He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

Philippians 4:13
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength

and as mentioned, bird pics!








Monday, January 15, 2024

How The Plump Dove Fluffs Its Feathers (among a few other observations)


Happy, happy halfway through January 2024!!

Ps.145:9-10
The Lord is good to all; 
 he has compassion on all he has made.
All your works praise you, Lord;
your faithful people extol you.

How the plump dove fluffs its feathers with no need for looking glass...


How, if we look, we find much to be tenderly thankful for
How a good book adds a touch of passion to commonplace chore...
(more about below book Here: Homemaker's Prayer)


How a cup of tea is like a gentle, pick-me-upper hug...


How snow-stenciled scenery always gives my heartstring a tug...



How the plump dove fluffs its feathers with no need for looking glass
How love’s sentimental tether binds the present to the past
How spring, summer, fall and winter, Beauty cheers thought’s countenance
And how prayer’s flight is unhindered by season or circumstance

How we are awed, sweetly speechless by Nature’s Grand Orchestra
How God teaches and beseeches mortal worship through its law
How the creature is no match for the Creator; never was
Never will be; He is greater and deserves endless applause

How the measure of God’s pleasure steals the show without contest
How each new day grants the treasure of a fresh and untried quest
How laughter’s melodic mettle fills the air with seraphim
How the song of the tea kettle is my favorite kitchen hymn

How, if we look, we find much to be tenderly thankful for
How a good book adds a touch of passion to commonplace chore
How a cup of tea is like a gentle, pick-me-upper hug
How snow-stenciled scenery always gives my heartstring a tug

How in spite of so much sadness, gladness survives trouble’s gall
How, despite shape, height or status love is still One-size-fits-all
How a morning always rouses what has never been before
Mercy’s renewed summons wows us with God’s faithfulness once more

How, the howl of younger hunger slowly but surely succumbs
To a wizened, humbler wonder satisfied to savor crumbs
How at last we learn the secret to happiness, fit for kings
Not in gimme-gimme-reaches, but in joy of simple things

How, through loss we gain awareness of phrases like you-and-me
Cherishing the fragile rareness of fine words like ‘us’ and ‘we’
How, here we are cradled briefly between two eternities
One, that concerns the Soul chiefly, one of Bygone centuries

How an almost-poem’s tempo keens the poet’s appetite
How ink-swirls compose mementos of rhythm and rhymed delight
How the Bard, kindly encumbered with God’s charge to dredge blurred deeps
Probes the place where Ballad slumbers or Elusive Poem sleeps

How the Finesse of Forever wakes us to the wealth of Now
How the howling gale of winter makes home palatial, somehow
How we chuckle while the weather throws tantrums that never last
How the plump dove fluffs its feathers ready to face one more blast

© Janet Martin

(Below, the cardinal and Blue Jay pics are from my mother-in-law's house yesterday)


How spring, summer, fall and winter, Beauty cheers thought’s countenance...






Bird-watching bliss these days as the cold temps 
and snowy weather brings a feeding frenzy!









Tuesday, January 9, 2024

What Trustworthy Reason To Rejoice



On this wild and wooly Canadian winter morning...
a love song!

Sweet and sobering Psalm 25 helped inspire this poem.

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him,
Ps.25:14



What wondrous reason to rejoice
Hope sets my heart ablaze
And beckons me to lift my voice
In hymns of gladdest praise

What awed expectation holds dear
Which He reveals to all who fear

What countless reasons to be glad
In spite of sorrow’s woe
Because of the sorrow God had
Because He loves me/us so

He, whose love is mighty to save
Set my captive soul free
His Son to ransom me

The blood of Jesus washed away
Sin’s curse; nothing else could
Now each day grants a chance to pay
My debt of gratitude

…with joy and hope's trust-worthy praise
Where endless reasons brim
To live a worship hymn

...and never let love's gladness cease
Through wayward wish or whim
To all who trust in Him

© Janet Martin

Psalm 72:19
And blessed be His glorious name forever;
 may all the earth be filled with His glory.
 Amen and amen.




Due to the gale more birds are opting for ground-cover today😂😅


One mourning dove (middle top) is getting his feathers ruffled as he applies his brakes😂😁










Monday, May 16, 2022

Earth's Exhibition of Glimpses...


Hate, war, sickness, sorrow,
greed, pain, apathy,
hearts hardened against God,
could destroy all hope of  present joy
but for the hope of the home of the soul
and the greatness of He within we who believe
so much greater than he that is in the world!

We cherish each gift of present joy
(like a foreshadowing of eternal joy)
 to balance love's ever-present sorrow)


My daughter just sent me the above photo of big brother's
good morning kisses to baby brother.
(and I weep as I pray for the families afflicted by war)

Earth's beauty (be it babies, birds or blooms)
 without Heaven's hope is futile.

Birds continue to delight...today,
a very rare and special visitor, a bluebird/indigo bunting? 

...and goldfinch


...and our resident downy or hairy woodpecker (absent for a while)

we are still thrilling to see the orioles
(sometimes our place seems to just be a pitstop on their way)



and a mediocre shot of a rose-breasted grosbeak
who eats his supper each evening around the same time we do


Chipping sparrow...


Song Sparrow...

mourning doves...


We rejoice to receive a much-needed rain!




The beauty of the earth exhibits Heaven’s Majesty
The work and word of God is man’s Supreme Authority
Nothing exists but what His favor fashions and allows
Surely at the sheer thought of this our haughty boasting bows

…Faith looks toward a rich reward beyond kingdoms of dust
Bestowed by He who shed His crown and gave His life for us
And wove Redemption’s royal robes with love’s bloodstreams outpoured
Not from goats, rams and bullocks but from Jesus Christ our Lord

There is no common cure for hearts hardened against God’s grace
Against the loving kindness of Jesus who took our place
Though sinless, to become sin’s sacrifice once and for all
The King of kings shed His own blood; no common animal

Sweet consolation for life’s tribulation, who could find
Without the goodness of God who is faithful, just and kind
Without hearts softened as belief begets wonder and joy
Without His promises that no enemy can destroy

Each desperate heart-cry would be too much to bear, but for
Faith’s hope, after salvation opens eyes to so much more
Where earth’s beauty exhibits but a small glimpse of the whole
As we press on until we see the Saviour of the soul

...until we behold He who held us through the storm and strife
Until once and forevermore we pass through death to life
Until The One to whom we pray and pray and pray and pray
Unveils His face, where, by His grace, all tears are wiped away 


© Janet Martin

Heb.4:11-13
Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, 
so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 
13Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; 
everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him 
to whom we must give account.…





  

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Beautiful Pause...

Mystery guest (ID help welcome!)
A bird expert has suggested that it looks like 
a female Brown-headed Cowbird!
Thank-you!


Mourning Dove

Downy Woodpecker

Juncos 


Goldfinch and chickadee


The nuthatch wouldn't sit still long enough
for me to get a clear shot...

...and the cardinal got away before I could get a photo!

A feathered flurry of delight
Brings laughter to an afternoon
Soft-pillowed in billows of white
As music notes in nature’s tune
Are muffled by the gale that sweeps
Across the countryside and lane
Where summer songs wait, sound asleep
Beneath a snowflake counterpane

…and it is beautiful to pause
To ‘look at the birds of the air’
And feel a bit better because
Of Who bestows to them, kind care
And to remember what He said,
'Are you not of more worth than they?'
And trust Him for our daily bread
And every other come-what-may

© Janet Martin

Matt.10:31
Do not fear therefore; 
you are of more value than many sparrows.

...then, just as I finished posting I looked up
and lo and behold, I espied a flash of red!
Mr. Cardinal was back
(a bit of a rarity at our feeders)
 but all I could capture
 was the top of his head and few tail-feathers😅




oh, and the nuthatch seems more relaxed this morning too😊

One of the first country songs I recall from my early teen years!


 



(one of the first songs I learned as a child)