Portrait of October

(still waiting for weather and freedom to work together amiably,

 for a colorful woodland wander/wonder trek.)

These shots were taken on a hike on Monday

 but the trees had not reached their peaks in colours yet

October’s trees are knitted scarves unraveled leaf by leaf

In rivers ruddy fleets embark to ports unmarked, unknown

The aftermath of flowers reminds us that life is brief

Its path of hours more than roulette wheels of dust and stone

October’s artist brushes fleeting frescoes, russet- gold

Where one day the world blushes and the next its colors thin

A sentimental charmer and a body growing old

A Beulah Land for farmer as harvest is gathered in

October’s wind chills to the bone and thrills through heart and soul

It riles the woodland’s dappled domes until they disappear

A Romeo, a scavenger, a tide that takes its toll

From glory to surrender, leaf by leaf and tear by tear

October’s days run wild with ways to spark wonder and praise

Earth’s hills and valleys set ablaze; awe unstoppers its flask

Outpoured where autumn’s Magnum Opus astonishes gaze

While we shoulder the onus of each season’s tender task

October’s umber halls are decked in melodies undone

Where summer’s ballads spilled unchecked through night, morning and noon

But now the bow as it is drawn across strings, season-spun

Begins to slow the tempo on a cello out of tune

© Janet Martin

Autumn's Rainy Goodnight Serenade

 'Simple and quite ordinary but sometimes utterly stunning.' 

from Brenda @ It's a Beautiful Life

The above comment from today's post at Brenda's blog

 aroused a wild desire to draw from the simple and quite ordinary evening, something

(okay, maybe this isn't utterly stunning) 

but something to remember it by...

the beauty of simple things~

The harmony of supper-hour traffic homeward bound through autumn rain evokes a sweet and sentimental tug where gleaming decoupage of leaves, like lamplight on the ground enchants workaday weariness with something like a hug

The lowering of lullabies as dusk begins to fold autumnal red and gold into umbral, blue-gray manteau

Seems to reflect idyllic scenes from simpler days of old as daylight slips and drips into frameworks of long ago

Raindrop tap-dancers dapple driveway, street and promenade, punctuating farewell with silver exclamation tears while we delight in Autumn’s Rainy Goodnight Serenade until the world above and all around us disappears

© Janet Martin

or this...

The harmony of supper-hour traffic homeward bound 

through autumn rain evokes a sweet and sentimental tug 

where gleaming decoupage of leaves, like lamplight on the ground 

enchants workaday weariness with something like a hug

The lowering of lullabies as dusk begins to fold 

autumnal red and gold into umbral, blue-gray manteau

Seems to reflect idyllic scenes from simpler days of old 

as daylight slips and drips into frameworks of long ago

Raindrop tap-dancers dapple driveway, street and promenade,

punctuating farewell with silver exclamation tears

while we delight in Autumn’s Rainy Goodnight Serenade 

until the world above and all around us disappears

© Janet Martin

Pumpkin Pilaf and Meeting Jesus

This dish Pumpkin Pilaf with Dry Fruits on Campfire

from Country Life Vlog

inspired last night's supper!

So, no recipe...

I just tried to imitate what she did, 

the huge difference being, mine was not cooked on a campfire...

The result was pure delight!

SO good😋

(I missed a picture of one step)

After soaked rice, sugared, spiced pumpkin and boiling water-soaked raisins

 are layered in the pan make a sauce of melted butter, white sugar...

Add milk or light cream and boiling water to pan, 

enough liquid to make enough sauce to barely cover pilaf...

Bake at 350-375 till rice and pumpkin are cooked!

Life is like a buffet with lots on display

to whet desire's appetite and keen delight!

This morning's Daily Bread Devotion

challenges us to 

'Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:4

Just between you and me

Oh, wouldn’t it be grand

If we would find felicity

In love’s greatest command

And wouldn’t it be nice

To train our taste and touch

To glory in the sacrifice

Of second miles and such

The common bond of need

Makes us like family

Where we all shoulder word and deed’s

Responsibility

The common bond of grace

Levels the playing field

Where delight and desire chase

What soon turns into yield

Just between you and me

Let’s picture if we can

Beneath the faces that we see

Jesus as fellowman

Ah, suddenly want's wish

We'd reevaluate

Embarrassed by the empty dish

Beside our heaping plates

Just between you and me

Oh, wouldn't it be grand

If, as we/He reached out we would see

The nail-scars in His hands  

© Janet Martin

Matt.25:40

And the King will answer and say to them,

 ‘Assuredly, I say to you, 

inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, 

you did it to Me.’

Like a World-wide Barge

Isa.26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace,

Whose mind is stayed on You, 

Because he trusts in You

In case you missed a few of the previous posts, an update:

My brother Lewis and his wife are passing through some storms of life.

Their almost 15 yr. old daughter suffered extensive injuries

 in an accident on the weekend.

While they stayed with her, Lewis's wife's mom passed away 

last night after a battle with cancer!

My sister-in-law suffered the angst of a mother wanting to be with her daughter,

and of a daughter wanting to be with her mother!🙏💔

Tango of mango and merlot, cotton-candy pink

Draws a world of eyes toward dawn’s mercy-immersed brink

Where time's twirl, so full of troubles takes its tender toll

On the body (but the chariot of the deathless soul)

Often we are prone to cater to Self’s dying dust

Rather than our Creator in whom we may trust

He is faithful though we do not understand His ways

Never does He break a promise (this world oft betrays)

Yet we are prone to seek answers not found in His Word

Doubting His love-letters because acumen is blurred

He, who unfetters each morning, like a world-wide barge

Bearing on life’s sea of learning (His most precious charge)

Once again, we embark where uncharted highs and lows

Wait to test our ways of thinking with what grace bestows

As tangos of mango, merlot, cotton candy pink

Fade, never the Giver’s love (no matter what we think)

© Janet Martin

His Love Cannot Fail

Poem-tation

pōəm -ˈtāSH(ə)n/ Definition: Temptation to compose poem😉😊😍

Watching Tot chase bubbles reminded me a bit

of Poet chasing Poem...

The art of poem-tation seeps through every shade of sky

It vexes concentration in each leaf that flutters by

Four seasons worth of beauty with life’s troubles juxtapose

To cheer the thorns of duty with an unrelenting rose

The tug of poem-tation surges from dawn’s teeming brink

The clockwork of creation hoists premieres streaming with ink

Disparity twixt hand and heart, resumes its rivalry

Where charity pursues the part that authors poetry

The joy of poem-tation reels beneath the wheels of grief

A constant invitation to pursue hues veiled beneath

What meets the eye to stoke the sky and tint the glint of blooms

Soon lowered like a lullaby to stubble-stippled tombs

The wink of poem-tation is both flirtatious and grim

The fruit of inspiration bends the lyric-laden limb

Where words threaded together should do more than lilt and rhyme

Ah, pray they cheer and help us weather ups and downs of Time

The dust of poem-tation is stirred by a breath of breeze

That sparks a celebration shimmering in poplar trees

Rousing the strange impression of a river rushing where

Time’s four-season succession flows through shores of leaf and air

The prize of poem-tation dangles like a pendulum

Hope’s eager expectation wonders if the words will come

How cautiously Want clutches at inklings that start to drop

Lest, as soon as Thought touches it, like bubbles…

Poem

Goes 

‘Pop’

© Janet Martin

Soon lowered like a lullaby to stubble-stippled tombs...

A Teeny Prayer and Prayer Request (updated)

My niece is conscious and cognitively healthy! (mentioned here)

Praise God

She has a long road to recovery ahead but has youth on her side

and with that, the hopes of full recovery!

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

The above hymn is extremely near and dear right now

More on why when it is mine to tell...

In the meantime can you pray without ceasing for my brother and his wife?

***Their injured daughter is not the only very heavy cross they are bearing today...

***update. My brother's wife's mother (Erma Bauman)  passed away this evening

after a battle with cancer.

Sometimes a poem 

is a prayer

Sometimes a prayer, 

a tear

Dear God, you understand 

what-e'er

We entrust 

to Thy ear

And though we do not 

know the why

or what yet 

waits to be

Your grace,

 sufficient in supply

will satisfy 

the plea

Amen

Janet💓🙏

Praying the words to this song over them as well...

He Giveth More Grace-Don Moen

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase

To added affliction He addeth His mercy

To multiplied trials His multiplied peace

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure

His pow'r has no boundary known unto men

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again

When we have exhausted our store of endurance

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources

Our Father's full giving is only begun

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure

His pow'r has no boundary known unto men

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again

His love has no limit, His grace has no measure

His pow'r has no boundary known unto men

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again

Life's Learning Curves

Imagine if we had visual signs to warn us 

when we are about to make a bad turn

on the road of  life...

I'd like to think they would make us at least think twice, right?

Dawn always looks so lovely and innocent...

Who knows what waits to rush its gates

and meld into The Road of Life...

No matter who we are, as we travel on the road of life

we are bound to meet them; learning curves.

Sometimes we are kindly spared catastrophe.

Sometimes we are not.

but there is a silver lining if we learn from these curves;

if we become a little slower to leap (to conclusions)

A little more willing to wait (for answers)

A little more like an owl...wiser😔

A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he heard, the less he spoke;
The less he spoke, the more he heard;
Why aren't we all like that wise old bird?

Author: Unknown

I didn't see a wise old owl in an oak yesterday

but I did get a few nice pictures of what I learned today are 

Double-crested Cormorants

Sometimes life’s learning curves can overtake us by surprise

Where oft we underestimate the hurts that make us wise

For better or for worse, want’s hunger is riddled with traps

Where consequence lasts so much longer than good judgement’s lapse

Sometimes life’s learning curves seem to take a quick, cruel twist

But we, by God’s mercies accrue more catastrophes missed

Yet, when the recompense that follows choice is stark and swift

What looks like loss at first allows us to gain wisdom’s gift

Sometimes we owe life’s learning curves a little more respect

Where what we think we know deserves a meeker intellect

God’s goodness bound to overthrow that which hinders His peace

Because the grace whereby we go is earnest in its lease

Sometimes life’s learning curves are blessings in bitter disguise

Because, sometimes scenery blurs discernment’s keener eyes

Then, sometimes Someone tips the cart by foolish impulse led

To turn ‘It’ (us) purer in the heart and wiser in the head

© Janet Martin

James 1:5 - 

If any of you lack wisdom, 

let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, 

and upbraideth not; 

and it shall be given him.

Proverbs 1:7 - 

The fear of the LORD 

is the beginning of knowledge:

but fools despise 

wisdom and instruction.

A Celebration of Thankfulness (in both the bitter and sweet)

Happy Thanksgiving!

(I apologize in advance for the long post,

a few days in the 'making')

This Canada Thanksgiving weekend groans 

with love's bitterest and sweetest tokens...

On Friday morning I visited my sister 

recovering from a surgery ...sweet sister-fellowship💗 

On Friday afternoon I watched grandchildren 

while my daughter and son-in-law went to a visitation 

for a young man who drowned in a boating accident ...bitter😢

When they returned home we tossed all to-do lists to the wind

and made a campfire supper to enjoy the gorgeous autumn evening 

and each other's company...life is precious! ... sweet💖

(the idea came from a pretend fire earlier)

This pretend-fire idea came after delighting in the 'magic beans'/ pole beans

plucked from the vine on the arbor and deciding to make 'bean-soup'...

Saturday was a flurry of food-prep/cleaning 

for Saturday night Thanksgiving dinner ...sweet😘😋

Sunday morning Jim took some of our family to the airport 

only to discover some MUCH needed document was missed.

The decision was made that he would try to get home and back before the flight leaves

or someone would be left behind and need to fly out today.

While he was driving back and every precious minute mattered

he got a text saying the flight was delayed and all turned out well ...sweet!! 🙏

Yesterday, Sunday afternoon my 14 yr. old niece (my brother Lewis's daughter)

was involved in an accident

and she is in a medically induced coma at Sick Kids in TO.

to reduce stress from internal injuries. ...bitter!

Please pray!

But during bitter or sweet God is the same; always good and

we thank Him for His faithfulness.

The song at the end of this post

 was shared at our Church service yesterday morning;

part of  an amazing testimony as a couple shared a recent 

heart-rending, miraculous account

 of God's faithfulness in their lives

You can listen to it here;

click on Sunday Service October 10. 

 the testimony starts at 19:05 mins. in the recording...

It is Autumn and the earth is full of God's glory!

Isa.6:3

... “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; 

the whole earth is full of his glory.”

Autumn’s aria escalates in treetop-orchestras

A melody sweeps through landscapes beneath breathless applause

Where humankind is smitten by glimmers of majesty

Who authored earth and heavens at creation's ‘let there be’

Whose divine providence instills the crux of buds and seeds

A wondrous fount that spills to fulfill mortal’s basic needs

The earth and its fullness thereof belongs to He who bends

The land’s four-season treasure-trove with bounty’s dividends

Where, as we contemplate the ways of God’s mercies renewed

This day that He has made overwhelms us with gratitude

For granted humble honour to partake of heaped buffets

Not with indulgent manner but with thankfulness and praise

Creation thunders with the evidence that grace bestows

Where wonder upon wonder’s undercurrent overflows

And steals the show with Master-pieces on public display

Then, leap for joy for none can keep God’s handiwork at bay

And let the colors of the season soothe and percolate

To bind the wounds where mind and reason cannot mediate

The world is full of ways to worry or to trust and pray

Time is in such a hurry to turn into yesterday

Then linger in the bowers where beauty bares nature’s soul

Where autumn’s garden flowers overhead while petals toll

To waft, breath-soft beneath our feet to thrill us once again

Enchanted by the bittersweetness of autumn’s amen

Let’s vow to love each other even if we disagree

Let’s cherish words like sister, brother, mom, dad, family

Let’s count the ways of happiness rather than what we lack

Be filled with praise and thankfulness, not vile, verbal attack

Let’s bow our heads and thank the Lord, who made Heaven and earth

For love and forgiveness outpoured; for salvation’s rebirth

Let’s live a life of gratefulness for God is in control

His everlasting faithfulness to strengthen and console

Then come what may, upon Time’s ever surging-ebbing tide

God is our advocate each day; His mercies will provide

And though our thankfulness may flow from hearts by sorrow torn

God’s loving kindness will bestow hope’s flower to the thorn

Autumn aria crescendos, then dwindles leaf by leaf

Scattering summer’s mementos like tears of joy and grief

Capturing the attentions of we, who identify

With the shifting dimensions of beauty that meets the eye

Aware that we behold but glimpses of God’s mighty ways

We raise our hearts and voices with glad thankfulness and praise

© Janet Martin

Goodness of God

Grand-sonny on a stump-and-tin-pail drum set...sweet💕😘