15 Words or Less Poem

Giant silver tulip glimmers in the sun.
Genetic engineering gone a bit too far?


For more 15 Words or Less Poems, visit Laura Purdie Salas.

They're Back....And So am I!

A few weeks ago, I posted a picture of the tiniest little shoots of my snowdrops. And then we got some more winter weather. But they are back now and fully blooming, along with some purple crocuses! I love these earliest harbingers of spring, don't you?

And speaking of back, we are back from our weekend with Emily in Ann Arbor, MI. And what a wonderful, wonderful weekend it was! The recital was perfect! I believe even she was happy with how she played. She had terrific attendance, especially from her church. Those people really support and love her which was a lovely thing for this mother's heart to see.

Actually, it was a wonderful weekend in so many ways. Remember I mentioned that it felt funny to be going to her apartment to visit? Kind of a role reversal feeling? Well, it was that but it was also just so comforting to see how much love and effort she put into making us feel welcome there. A glimpse of the things a Mom or Dad hopes for throughout all the years of parenting. More than a glimpse. I am still basking in it!

An Irish Quote

So I have come...
where the fields are sharply green,
where a wild beauty hides in the glens,
where sudden surprising vistas open up
as the road rises and falls;
and here I smell for the first time
the incense of Ireland, the smoke of turf fires,
and here for the first time
I see the face of the Irish countryside.
--H.V. Morton

Sunday's Hymn: Jesus, With Thy Church Abide

Jesus, with thy church abide,
Be her Saviour, Lord and Guide,
While on earth her faith is tried:
We beseech thee, hear us.

Keep her life and doctrine pure;
Grant her patience to endure,
Trusting in thy promise sure:
We beseech thee, hear us.

May she one in doctrine be,
One in truth and charity,
Winning all to faith in thee:
We beseech thee, hear us.

May she guide the poor and blind,
Seek the lost until she find,
And the brokenhearted bind:
We beseech thee, hear us.

Save her love from growing cold,
Make her watchmen strong and bold,
Fence her round, thy peaceful fold:
We beseech thee, hear us.

May her lamp of truth be bright,
Bid her bear aloft its light
Through the realms of heathen night:
We beseech thee, hear us.

Arm her soldiers with the cross,
Brave to suffer toil or loss,
Counting earthly gain but dross:
We beseech thee, hear us.

May she holy triumphs win,
Overthrow the hosts of sin,
Gather all the nations in:
We beseech thee, hear us.

Thomas Benson Pollock, 1871
Tune: Gower's Litany, John Henry Gower, 1891

Away for the Weekend

We're leaving tomorrow for Ann Arbor, MI. That's where our daughter, Emily, lives. Its about five hours away from the cottage. Usually, she comes here for holidays and vacations but this occasion is her big recital and that's occurring over there so we're doing the traveling. Its kind of an odd feeling to be the visitors at her apartment, her school of music, her church. We'll enjoy it, I'm sure, but it feels like a subtle change in roles somehow. Still, she's actually learned to cook this year and that part really has some benefits! Maybe I just have to sit back and enjoy some of these role reversals more!

Anyway, as far as blogging is concerned, I've got my Sunday Hymn ready to go at the appointed time but other than that, it'll be quiet at the cottage this weekend. See you all again next week.

15 Words or Less Poem

Who lives within the door of imagination?
Fairies, you say? Maybe in May.
In March, leprechauns rule.

Laura Purdie Salas is the hostess for 15 Words or Less Poems each Thursday. To read more poems or submit one of your own, visit Laura here.

Computer Mercies

I had a near catastrophe here at the cottage this afternoon. I spilled a full cup of tea as I set it down next to my laptop! You can't imagine (well, maybe you can) the rush of fear and anger at myself that I felt! How could I do anything so stupid and clumsy? I am not even sure exactly what happened--just that all of a sudden tea was splashed on my keyboard and screen and flowing underneath the entire laptop.

So I mopped up the excess with the closest towels I could grab and reached for the phone to call Andy. He's my go-to technology person and I had no idea what to do. All I could remember was a story Emily had told us of a girl at college who spilled hot chocolate on her laptop and tried to dry it with a hair dryer. And the outcome of that story was disaster.

Well, Andy said unplug it right away. I had done that not because I remembered the electricity and water thing in the heat of the moment but just to expedite the wiping up of the tea. Take out the battery was his next instruction. Done, with his help. Turn it over with it opened to let any excess tea (isn't it all excess in a laptop?) run out of the keyboard and leave it until he got home. That was a very long hour and a half!

I met him at the door with a splitting headache. He reassured me that chances are it would be all right, that sweet liquids like coke and hot chocolate are the worst. (I don't put sugar in my tea.) Then he walked into Charlie's room, where I usually use my laptop, and took it downstairs to his workbench while I finished getting supper on the table. He checked out the bottom and said there was no tea in there. The keyboard looked good. We took a break for supper.

Then he opened the part between the keyboard and the hinge for the screen. Some dampness in there. Oh, please God let my laptop live. Andy dried out the excess and took it downstairs again to use Charlie's stand dryer, a professional groomer model that has very low heat but a high volume of air, on it. Back upstairs for the test. All the settings were messed up but Andy fixed that in a few minutes and turned it over to me, fully functional! Thank You, God, for Your mercy in restoring my computer and thank You for such a capable and loving husband! I am blessed.

Sunday's Hymn: Arise, My Soul, Arise

Arise, my soul, arise,
Shake off thy guilty fears:
The bleeding Sacrifice
In my behalf appears:
Before the Throne my Surety stands,
My name is written on his hands.

He ever lives above,
For me to intercede,
His all-redeeming love,
His precious blood to plead;
His blood atoned for ev'ry race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.
Five bleeding wounds he bears,
Received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers,
They strongly plead for me;
Forgive him, O forgive, they cry,
Nor let that ransomed sinner die!

My God is reconciled;
His pard'ning voice I hear;
He owns me for his child,
I can no longer fear;
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And "Father, Abba, Father!" cry.

Charles Wesley, 1742
Tune: Lenox, Louis Edson, 1782

Chinese Garden

On my recent trip to Portland, Oregon to visit with my family, I went to the Classical Chinese Garden in downtown Portland. It is gorgeous! The Garden encompasses a complete city block and, once inside of it, you can almost forget that you are actually in a city. I've set this photo as my desktop and I thought I'd share it with my readers too.

15 Words or Less Poem

Flying on icy currents

Beyond gravity
Until she reaches up with cold, hard fingers.


Laura Purdie Salas hosts 15 Words or Less Poems each Thursday. Visit her to read others or add your own.

Square Root Day?

If you're desperately seeking something to celebrate today, look no further. Its Square Root Day! This big day only happens nine times in a century. Its when the day and month of the date are the square root of the year. Hence, 3/3/09, three being the square root of nine. So how do you celebrate a day like this? Well, you could eat some root veggies cut into squares, you could wear square-toed shoes or you could just walk around with a faint smile on your face waiting for someone to ask why. Or you could blog about it! How do you plan to celebrate this particular day?

I'm Home!

I'm home from my trip to Oregon to visit my family and am starting to feel back in my usual routine. It was a wonderful trip with lots of fun times shared with family. Then, when I got home, Emily was here for her "spring" break! I planned it so she'd be here to walk Charlie the last couple of days of my trip. For me, the fun continued right on through the weekend after my return so there was just no time to blog. Well, all the way through Saturday morning was fun. Saturday afternoon, Andy and I started installation of a new range hood and that project turned out to be a bit less than fun. (Still no time for blogging.) But its up now and tonight is the test of it! I am fixing steak on the grill pan...something that I had given up because our old microwave/range hood just wasn't up to the task.

Anyway...thanks for the good wishes on my little trip and I am slowly catching up on blog reading as well as posting. Its good to be home.

Sunday's Hymn: All Glory be to Thee, Most High

All glory be to thee, Most High,
To thee all adoration;
In grace and truth thou drawest nigh
To offer us salvation;
Thou showest thy good will to men,
And peace shall reign on earth again;
We praise thy Name for ever.

We praise, we worship thee, we trust,
And give thee thanks for ever,
O Father, for thy rule is just
And wise, and changes never;
Thy hand almighty o'er us reigns,
Thou doest what thy will ordains;
'Tis well for us thou rulest.

O Jesus Christ, our God and Lord,
Son of the Heavenly Father,
O thou who hast our peace restored,
The straying sheep dost gather,
Thou Lamb of God, to thee on high
Out of the depths we sinners cry:
Have mercy on us, Jesus!

O Holy Spirit, precious gift,
Thou Comforter unfailing,
From Satan's snares our souls uplift,
And let thy power, availing,
Avert our woes and calm our dread.
For us the Saviour's blood was shed;
We trust in thee to save us.

Translated from German version of Latin hymn, Gloria in Excelsis
Tune: Allein Gott in der Hoh', Geistliche Lieder, Leipzig, 1539
Arr. by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 1809-1847

Sunday's Hymn: Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
'Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

Bold shall I stand in thy great day;
For who aught to my charge shall lay?
Fully absolved through these I am
From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.

When from the dust of death I rise
To claim my mansion in the skies,
Ev'n then this shall be all my plea,
Jesus hath lived, hath died, for me.

Jesus, be endless praise to thee,
Whose boundless mercy hath for me—
For me a full atonement made,
An everlasting ransom paid.

O let the dead now hear thy voice;
Now bid thy banished ones rejoice;
Their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness.

Nikolaus L. von Zinzendorf, 1739
Translated by John Wesley, 1740
Tune: Germany, from William Gardiner's Sacred Melodies, 1815

Visiting Family

I'm leaving tomorrow to visit my family in Portland, Oregon! Its just a short visit and its only me going. Andy and Charlie will keep the home fires burning...and I will surely miss them! But there is fun planned in Oregon. Even besides the fun of seeing everyone!

So posting here will only be an automatic one for my Sunday hymn. Have a wonderful time while I'm gone, everyone! See you when I get back.

Quotes From the Cottage

...conscious guilt unfits a man for acceptably serving God. The essence of the service which God requires of His intelligent creatures is love. The man whose conscience is polluted with unpardoned guilt cannot love. He knows he has offended God; he knows he deserves punishment; he does not, he cannot, love the Being whom he regards as his enemy; he cannot seek his enjoyment in communion and fellowship with Him. Nothing can fit man for the service of God but what purifies the conscience from the pollution produced by these "dead works;" and nothing can do this but the blood of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
John Brown in Hebrews, p. 403

Its My Anniversary!

Yes, today is the one year anniversary of my blog! I'm not sure what to say about that. I guess I am thinking of the ways blogging has changed my life. I am definitely more attentive to details. I am certainly a better photographer and look at things in my everyday life with an eye to what comprises a good picture, something I never really did before. But even as far as a word picture, I look at things differently. Blogging has made me more aware of communicating the little things that make up my life to others. Whether they want to know about them or not!

And that is another aspect of my life that has changed over the last year. At first, and for a big part of this past year, my blogging was more for other people than me. I had sort of a crisis about that a couple of months ago and came to realize that this blog has to be mostly for me. Now don't misunderstand. I am thankful for each of the new friends I've made through blogging over the past year. And there are quite a few! But doing this blog for anyone other than myself over the long haul just won't make it. Its like trying to change who you are in order to make friends...or keep them. I can't keep it up for very long. So when I am writing about what I think or feel, or even the little everyday aspects of my life, ultimately, its for my own benefit. But benefit, I do! I have to think more clearly and logically and I fit the picture together for my own clarity. And the details of it do matter! In the process of writing things about my life, I learn about myself and my place in relation to my world...my family, my community, and most importantly, my God.

During that above-mentioned crisis, I did question why I blog and I was tempted to give it up. But I won't. Now that I've reassessed its rightful place in my life, I can see more clearly that it does have a right place in my life! A place that I'm not sure anything else could fill. So Happy Anniversary, Field Stone Cottage! I'm thankful for this past year of growing with you!

Sunday's Hymn: Rejoice, The Lord is King

Rejoice, the Lord is King:
Your Lord and King adore;
Rejoice, give thanks and sing,
And triumph evermore:

Lift up your heart, lift up your voice;
Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

Jesus, the Saviour reigns,
The God of truth and love;
When he had purged our stains
He took his seat above:

His kingdom cannot fail,
He rules o'er earth and heav'n;
The keys of death and hell
Are to our Jesus giv'n:

He sits at God's right hand
Till all his foes submit,
And bow to his command
And fall beneath his feet:

Charles Wesley, 1746
Tune: Arthur's Seat, Arr. from Sir John Goss by Uzziah C. Burnap, 1874

Baked Apple Pancake

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Here's what I fixed for my valentine, Andy, tonight for supper. Maybe there's a sweetheart at your house who'd like it too so I'm sharing the recipe.



2 cups apple matchsticks
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut apple into matchstick type pieces and mix with the sugar and cinnamon to coat it.

Use heavy cast iron skillet (my choice) or glass baking dish. Heat the butter in the skillet until is sizzles. Meanwhile, blend the flour, milk and eggs. When butter is extremely hot, pour batter into skillet. Let heat for a few minutes while you sprinkle top with apple mixture. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes or until light brown around the edges. Pancake should rise like a souffle. The secret is heating the butter until it sizzles. Enjoy!

15 Words or Less Poem

The barren rink awaits;
Even the Maple Leaves play indoors these days.



Laura Purdie Salas hosts 15 Words or Less Poems each Thursday. Visit her to read more poems or play along.