My Day-Before-December Garden

We've had a rather warm, wet fall, and this morning when I took Evan to school, I found these valiant little flowers blooming away to welcome the winter. A rosebud appeared a while ago and I've been watching it, hoping it might survive. The frost never came, so I present for your enjoyment a bit of lively botanical rebellion among the moldering leaves. These plants are not near each other in my garden, so each one stands alone against the inevitable change of seasons. It has happened before, in our unique climate, that I have had fresh flowers on my Thanksgiving table, so this is not a complete anomaly. On a grey November day, however, even if it is 65 degrees at 8 am, it brings a smile to see flowers blooming.

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After the Storm

We had an apocolyptic storm last night with torrential rain, wind, lightning, thunder, the works. Then it blew out and as the front left, the timing was perfect for the sun to be dipping below the edge of the clouds to set. As is often the case after a storm, the sunset was incredible. An entire half hour of spectacular, ever changing color and light. Here is a little photo essay. This is the sun through the neighbor's trees and looking down the end of the street.






Here is the play of light and shadow to the east as the sun just came under the rim of the storm front. The trees in the foreground are dark and the ones in the back are totally effused in an ethereal golden light that is the closest I can get to alpenglow out here in the flatlands of the east. I'll take it though.







Here is the clearing storm get set ablaze by the sinking sun. I love the sihouette of the trees in front of the drama of the tempest's exit.







The fading blue sky contrasts with the glowing clouds. These pictures just pale in comparison to the real thing. I feel like Emily in Our Town. I just want everyone to enjoy every sunset, every day! Do you realize the beauty outside your window! I know there's not always time, but oh, what a gift to savor every day.







This is another feeble attempt to capture the million different colors of gold the sun turned the sky.










And now the finale. The sky was like this for maybe 2 minutes and then, poof, nothing but grays and blues and darkness. This is on the dark side, but oh, the colors! The reds were so different from the golds of the previous 5 minutes, and the clouds converged in waves as the front passed overhead. The sun catching them from underneath made me feel like I was looking at some magical upside-down sea.






Thank you for your indulgence in my romantic flights of fancy through the sunset. I am renewed every day by the beauty around me, and this was just too good not to share.

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Beauty and Bounty of the Farmer's Market

Well, these are not artistic photos of produce, but it all looks really pretty on my table. I found wonderful colored cauliflowers in purple, orange and the lovliest green. I found brussels sprouts still on the stalk, giant sweet potatoes and potatoes still dusty from being in the ground a few days ago. I love buying local stuff that really is local stuff. I am trying sooooo hard to get my eating to a higher plane. My main birthday present to myself is to lose some weight, and enjoying this kind of beauty is really helpful for me. Haven't written much, but life's been crazy. Now that Stitches is done, things have settled down a bit. The fall continues to hang on and be absolutely beautiful. Last Sunday it was grey and blustery on the way home from church, but the trees on the side of I-95 were the exact color to simply glow against the seemingly drab background. I quite enjoyed the drive with the beautiful leaves standing out in really beautiful contrast to the neutral sky.

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Twenty Years Marked

Here's Eric and I down in Williamsburg by the Pond next to the Governor's Palace. We had a lovely couple of days and I have to say that this is absolutely my favorite picture EVER of Eric and I. I love the setting, Eric looks good, we look like ourselves and I think it shows the peaceful sort of comfort that can come if you just keep working on a relationship.

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All-nighter

When a mother leaves home without her children for any reason, the process can be compared to a space shuttle launch. The preparation involves huge effort focused on escaping from gravity's pull. Most of the fuel is used up for that purpose. Arranging everything so Eric and I can get away tomorrow for exactly 48 hours has taken two weeks of unrelenting effort. But, like the space shuttle, once we break free of the earth's atmosphere, we will be floating free and settle into an orbit that will allow us to enjoy ourselves knowing that everything is just fine down on the surface of the earth. My support network is just about as large as mission control and how grateful I am for Johnathan, my mom, and everyone else that is helping me out. So, tonight as I wait for seminary handouts to print and wrack my brain to come up with something interstesting enough to keep them all awake tomorrow, I thought I'd just relax with a little blogging. I still have two more loads of laundry to do so I am probably just going to stay up all night and sleep in the car. Eric likes to listen to music or the news, so he won't mind. Then, we will be in beautiful, glowing-with-fall-foliage Williamsburg, ensconced in the lap of luxury at the Williamsburg Inn. It's our twentieth anniversary so we are seriously splurging.
Seminary went well this morning and in exactly 5 hours and 30 minutes, we will play catch-phrase to end up the week. This morning, as I was taking Evan to school, the sun was just peeking over the rooftops and through the trees and this is what greeted me from across the street as I walked out the door. To me, it is a little reminder that God is indeed good and that he knows my needs. Seminary is so frustrating sometimes, and asks so much of my family, with little evidence of any success, but then the Lord gives me a moment like this to warm my whole soul.

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