Heads Up

The winter wheat is currently in grain filling.  I love that ladybugs are in full force protecting our crops from aphids.  They are so big and bright this time of year and I thank them for the beneficial effort they put forth.

 

Birds of a Feather

Took a nice walk after work.  The scorching sun was behind a big bank of clouds and so I took the time to take a stroll and enjoy the early evening.   Production in Central Oregon is at an all time high.  Bluegrass is ready to harvest, irrigation is running 24 hours a day.  I love early summer when crops are green and irrigation shimmers in the sunsets.  Two months from now, water will be shut off and harvests will be complete. 

Unity

Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

A Good Year

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.  ~Emma Goldman

 

Agriculture

Agronomist:  n.
Application of the various soil and plant sciences to soil management and crop production; scientific agriculture.

I am an agronomist.  I work with soil, plants, and water.  Every day I see the impact of earth providing for each of us.  I try to educate and encourage, to investigate and solve, and to live with what God gives us.

 

I've always wondered about the red poppy that adorns lapels.  The red poppy had become a symbol of death, renewal and life. The seeds of the flower can remain dormant in the earth for years, but will blossom spectacularly when the soil is churned.

In Flanders Fields

By John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row by row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard among the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

                    In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If yea break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

                    In Flanders fields.

Moon Shadow

Moon shadow,
He's there but barely visible,
Moon shadow,
When I'm scared and fairly miserable,
A watch for me he'll keep,
So I might fall asleep.

He's the only friend I need,
He'll always follow when I take the lead,
Beside me now he'll lay,
I can close my eyes and I know he'll stay.
~Kate Rusby

Bowl Full of Peonies

Flowers... 

are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty 

outvalues all the utilities of the world. 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844 

 

My peonies are in full bloom, so many the plant is hanging near the ground.  I picked only 12 of them and 20 more are left.  They smell delicious.

Guides

A friend of mine, visiting the Guide Dog Training Centre in Forfar, was astonished to see a beautiful Persian cat ambling quietly through the entrance hall, seemingly without a care in the world.
But Mr. Bob Forrester, who's in charge of the center, smiled back.  "Oh, we've lots of cats here, " he said.  My friend was mystified until Mr. Forrester explained.  When a guide dog leads it blind master along a city street, through the quiet park-indeed, anywhere at all-it's mind must be on its task every moment.  Never must its attention wander for a second, whether to passers by, a dog, or especially a cat.
So, from the day they go to be trained at Forfar, the dogs are brought face to face with cats every turn.  At first most of the dogs are desperate to give chase.  But gradually they learn to live with them.  And when the guide dogs leave the center with their new masters, many of them actually like cats.
A bit like life, isn't it?  Many of us think we'll never see eye to eye with some people.  Yet when we get to know them better, we may not only discover we get along with them tolerably well, but find true friends in them.
~Francis Gay from "The Friendship Book 1972"

Sky on Fire

Tomorrow

How I wish I had been kinder

And more patient yesterday.

How I wish I had been gentler ~

Had a little less to say.

Mindful of regret and sorrow,

Let me wiser be tomorrow. 

Dr. Ruppel

My sister and I bought this clematis at the Seattle Flower show.  

When we saw the name we both laughed as it reminded us of our childhood neighbor Dr. Ripple who spent many hours in retirement visiting with my dad every afternoon.

Doc's ongoing struggle with Parkinson disease makes him fragile like the petals of the plant.

As I leave the house each morning, I'm reminded to life each day to the fullest.

Bird on a Wire

Doors

A door opens to me. I go in and am faced with a hundred closed doors. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943

Walk

 

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.  ~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains:  The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

Lakes

 

The lakes are something which you are unprepared for; they lie up so high, exposed to the light, and the forest is diminished to a fine fringe on their edges, with here and there a blue mountain, like amethyst jewels set around some jewel of the first water, - so anterior, so superior, to all the changes that are to take place on their shores, even now civil and refined, and fair as they can ever be.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Succulents

 

Sempervivum tectorum

 

Hen and Chicks

 

Rubbery Rose

Coasting Along

 

A person should go out on the water on a fine day to a small distance from a beautiful coast, if he would see Nature really smile.  Never does she look so delightful, as when the sun is brightly reflected by the water, while the waves are gently rippling, and the prospect receives life and animation from the glancing transit of an occasional row-boat, and the quieter motion of a few small vessels.   

But the land must be well in sight; not only for its own sake, but because the immensity and awfulness of a mere sea-view would ill accord with the other parts of the glittering and joyous scene.  ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

Pink

 

 

I don't know if I can yell any louder

How many time I've kicked you outta here?

Or said something insulting?

Da da da, da da

I can be so mean when I wanna be

I am capable of really anything

I can cut you into pieces

But my heart is broken

Da da da, da da

Please don't leave me

Please don't leave me

I always say how I don't need you

But it's always gonna come right back to this

Please, don't leave me

~Please Don't Leave Me by Pink

14 Days

 

A bird does not sing because it has an answer.  It sings because it has a song.  ~Chinese Proverb

14 day ago the first egg hatched.  I can't believe how big the robins have grown in two weeks.  Amazing how they started out so small, no quills, no feathers and right after I took this photo the eldest chick flew from the nest.  You could tell she was just learning because she sat on the edge of the nest for probably 30 minutes getting up the courage.  She only flew 10 yards but what a leap of faith.    You should have seen the joy as she hopped around on the grass for the first time.  I bet the feeling was weird on her little feet.  10 minutes later she was back in the nest, probably encouraging the others to take a spin.  God sure knows what he's doing!