From a Flower-Frilled/Filled Lesson Book

Ps.65:9-13

You [c]visit the earth and water it,

You greatly enrich it;

The river of God is full of water;

You provide their grain,

For so You have prepared it.

10 You water its ridges abundantly,

You settle its furrows;

You make it soft with showers,

You bless its growth.

11 You crown the year with Your goodness,

And Your paths drip with abundance.

12 They drop on the pastures of the wilderness,

And the little hills rejoice on every side.

13 The pastures are clothed with flocks;

The valleys also are covered with grain;

They shout for joy, they also sing.

***

Gardening and life are a fine-tuned medley

of deep disappointment and darling delight!

***

Today's post is a medley of garden photos and quotes...

and a poem inspired by garden-blessings...

Long after final fruit is plucked

And cobs are shucked and gourds are gleaned

And herbs are hung to dry on rungs

Indoors, and the last leaf is weaned

Long after flower-stems are stripped

And fronds are clipped and furrows turned

I will reflect, time and again

On garden-lessons I have learned

...of disappointment and delight

For such is life; wonder and woe

Laughter, lament, beauty and blight

Patience, (for plants take time to grow)

…learning, that love is worth the years

Of work, of Waiting‘s by-and-by

That gladness grows sweeter through tears

Perfection, more than meets the eye

That it takes both the sun and rain

To make Growing Things flourish, oh

That life mingles pleasure and pain

Into love’s vintage afterglow

...that without the wise purpose of

The careful, cruel pruning knife

The plant will not be strong enough

To bear the waiting weight of life

  

Long after kale's last curl is culled

And frost, its temp’ring touch has wrought

I will remain humbly thankful

For lessons that my garden taught

...not in some, brick-walled lecture hall

But in a sun and breeze-kissed nook

Where crickets cheep and petals fall

From a flower-frilled lesson-book

© Janet Martin

Praise God From Whom All Blessing Grows...

This poem has been percolating in my soul for some time 💓🙏

Life is unceasingly busy with beauty/bounty of harvest among other things...

(including, much to our relief, the recovery of our pickup truck,

on Sat. night, after it was stolen from our back yard 

two weeks ago during a family reunion!

It will (happily) be returned in due time.

Thank-you to all who prayed and please continue to pray

 for the poor soul who stole it 😢💔)

Praise God from Whom all blessings grow as earthen wellsprings overflow...

The seed is rent with plume and root,

 the bough is bent with gleaming fruit...

The land, a patchwork counterpane of lush corn fields and gathered grain...

And gold-green sheen of soybean field aflutter with impending yield...

And in yon once-upon-spring-brooks, wild flowers beckon second-looks...

A rambling rush, where sight is awed by aster, teasel, goldenrod

Praise God from Whom all blessings grow as earthen wellsprings overflow

The seed is rent with plume and root, the bough is bent with gleaming fruit

The land, a patchwork counterpane of lush corn fields and gathered grain

And gold-green sheen of soybean field aflutter with impending yield

And in yon once-upon-spring-brooks, wild flowers beckon second-looks

A rambling rush, where sight is awed by aster, teasel, goldenrod

Praise God from Whom all bounty brims; happiness is hope’s harvest hymns

The creature’s quick complaint subdued by unmerited gratitude

As God, rich in mercy and love runs goodness through sod’s treasure trove

For needy likes of you and I whose worship lifts up glad reply

To He who gives us strength for toil as we gather seed’s sumptuous spoil

Or when praise is unlearned, still He pours unearned blessing lavishly

Praise God from Whom all blessings peal. Before whose throne we humbly kneel

To offer soulful stutters to the One who cares for me and you

Who loves to stun our ardent prose with the perfection of the rose

Who challenges the showman’s noise with dripping peachy-sweetest joys

Who strums the hidden parts of earth and orchestrates the art of birth

Who sees our hearts, knows how we are, yet still upends His blessing-jar

Praise God from Whom all blessing grows in reds, pinks, purples, greens, yellows

Each garden plot, (after the heat) a paradisiacal retreat

Each tree-tress like a mandolin breeze-balladeers get tangled in

Each woodland dark and whispering before fall’s stark unraveling

Each bower like a temple where we cannot help but bow in prayer

Each flower a masterpiece, oh, praise God from Whom all blessings grow

Each fruit and veg a five-star score of possibility galore

Each by God wondrously designed; each perfect after their own kind

Praise Him for healthy appetite and praise Him for each tasty bite

Of blessing only He can grant where our duty is to plant

Then trust Him for the compliments of sun and raindrop providence

Content to join the hymn that flows, ‘praise God from whom all blessing grows’

© Janet Martin

Praise God from Whom all blessing grows in reds, pinks, purples, greens, yellows

Each garden plot, (after the heat) a paradisiacal retreat...

Each tree-tress like a mandolin breeze-balladeers get tangled in

Each woodland dark and whispering before fall’s stark unraveling

Each bower like a temple where we cannot help but bow in prayer

Each flower a masterpiece, oh, praise God from Whom all blessings grow

Ps.66:1-5

Make a joyful noise to God,
all the earth!
2Sing the glory of His name;
make His praise glorious.
3Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds!
So great is Your power
that Your enemies cower before You.
4All the earth bows down to You;
they sing praise to You;
they sing praise to Your name.”

Life Is Poetry Waiting To Be Written or Eaten!!

The endless possibilities of garden-fresh fare

is pure culinary poetry!

So worth the toil 

when the soil is rich 

and the rain is plentiful

and the roots thrive!)

Makes the humble laborer

So glad to be alive!

Yesterday my neighbor dropped of a pint of raspberries

so I texted the clan and let them know 

there is a surprise dessert at Emily's house

for anyone wo can make it...

Cornstarch Pudding topped with raspberries and whipped cream

'or as the garden spills with fare and thrills the happy cook'

I had picked the currants just before leaving for the special Dessert evening so

this morning's question was,

What to do with a bowl full of black currants?

this! Black Currant Coffee Cake

Beets are constantly being thinned...

Roasted Beet and Feta Salad

(I used white onion instead of shallots)

Before the ink of one is dry another starts to brew

As surely as you catch my eye or as the sky is blue

Or as a bud bursts into bloom or a bird into song

Or morning into blush-brushed light and night into so-long

As surely as the cricket hails the middle of July

Or as a season scales the height of a year slipping by

Or as the colour of its cast crescendos ere it fades

Or as the valour of the past augments its promenades

As surely as love holds and must let go, ready or not

As surely as a sense of sorrow stirs a tender thought

Or as a breeze rolls through treetops like waves on lofty seas

Or as a pang of longing tugs at World of Memories

As surely as tomorrow is forever held at bay

Or as a surge of gratitude steals humbled breath away

Or as the flicker of a lily showcases the sun

Or as the shadow climbs the hill where one more day is done

...or as kerplop of a raindrop ignites a giddy dance

As dust devils are tamed and liquid diamonds lavish plants 

Or as a summer afternoon entangled in heartstrings

Wakens awareness to the whir of time's gossamer wings 

...or as the garden spills with fare and thrills the happy cook

Or as the tea is poured and feet pulled up, nose in a book

*Or as the gladness of a child hearkens to childhoods spent

Or as the ilk of life runs wild with laughter and lament 

As surely as the green of spring turns summer bronze and gold

Or as delight is overcome with wonders to behold

Or as the grace of God ignites a rush of poetry

Before the ink of one is dry, another starts to be

© Janet Martin

*It was so amusing to watch my grandchildren wild with excitement and curiosity

hovering at the 'Mystery Dessert (hiding in a big bowl with a lid)

while we waited till everyone was there to start.

...made me relive a little of my own long-lost childhood.

Oh, the excitement of out-of-the-blue guests and surprises. 

Esp. surprises you could eat!!

Wild with delight...

We could literally write a little book right now entitled

'If Big Brother Can Do It

So Can I!!'😅😂💗