Messiah

After singing Messiah twice today I have strains of music running through my head.

"Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne"
"Since by man came death, by man came also the resurection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even in Christ shall be made alive."
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Amen"

That Amen chorus is so beautiful. I sang most of it in Mexico, but in the end we didn't perform it.

"Agnus Dei, qui tolis pecata mundi"
"Behod the Lamb of God, that takth away the sin of the world."

St. Augustine

How wonderful is it, to be taught by a dearly loved Saint? One who although is dead speaks through time and both worlds, in truths that are both hard to grasp in the finitude of our mind, and simple surprising astonishments, in order to instruct us in our learning of the city of God. This He Himself even foreknew that His servant Augustin would be speaking directly to us during a week of reading, laughing, prayer, intense thought, and submission to God. What am I speaking of, you wonder. Picture this: Schola. Nine alumni have traveled to our home. They will be staying for two wonderful weeks. We will read (already have been reading) out loud for seven hours a day. Two extra hours are our traipest hours. We eat three meals a day. We have been refered to as monks and nuns. We meditate and taste the words in our mouths. We ponder. We tire. In short, Lectio Divina, or the Rule of Faith.

More to come.

I got my first Tag thanks to Irish_Dancer!!

You know your are crazy about Gardens when:

1. you create blogs with names like An Avid Gardener and missgardener.

2. you stay awake at night researching plants pics like rudbeckia(see pic above), and daylilies.

3. driving around town, you recognize flowers, shrubs, and trees by name. "Hello, friends!"

4. you spend free time (what's that?) landscaping your South lawn.

5. you work for Fiddler's Ridge Farm.

Honoring the Men

Wives are called to honor and respect their husbands. As young girls, we may begin this to obey this by respecting our Dad andIhis judgment and honor him as his daughter. I have the most wonderful father in the world. He is kind to his children and loves his wife so much. I have never seen him angry nor upset with Mom. He talks to us and listens to us when we have troubles. He works so very hard to provide for our family. His work keeps him busy teaching 9 months long, then in the Summer he travels. He speaks at conferences, conventions, starts schools, develop curriculum, and teaches intensive Latin courses (which isn't only intensive for the students). He does all this and still has time to spend with his family. He sits long at the dinner table listening to us talk or laugh or tell stories or quote movies. He reads to us. He leads us in prayer and listening to God's word. He instructs us as we live each day. He watches movies with us. He takes our family camping. He taught me how to swim and shows us how to start a fire with gasoline without getting your eyebrows burnt. :-) With all of the work that he does, he definitely knows how to relax. He mows the lawn with Robert, plays catch with the boys, reads each night as he puts the boys to bed. He tells us stories, and recites poems (he would recite poetry to my sisters and me when we were little. We all liked Requiem by R. L. Stevenson, but loved Homer. Dad would recite line after line while we waited to hear our favorite, the syncopated line). He helped us memorize books of the Bible. He dances with us at Balls. He taught us all to shoot. And aim. :-)

To Dad, my father. Thank you for your love. May these next two weeks be refreshing to you and an enjoyment.

I just finished The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. The book is a wonderfully written story of Haarlem and the hiding of jews during the second world war. If you haven't read it, read it. Much better than the Diary of Anne Frank. Corrie ten Boom survived consentration camps only by miracles which she recounts in her book. She went on to travel world wide, preaching the gospel and telling the story of her imprisonment. She died in 1983. Jim Wilson was a friend of hers.
Well, we're off to go camping. For three days. So I'm taking another book. Zane Grey. See ya.

The Hobbit
I just finished reading the Hobbit to myself for the first time. I had never read it. The last time I heard it was when Dad read it out loud to our family. Sometimes it seemed wierd to be reading at my own pace, or sometimes I would hear Dad's voice for such and such a character. But nevertheless, without Dad reading it to me, I managed to finish it. In 3 days. Woot, as the cuz would say. It was so amazingly good! Tolkien is one of the best story writers that I've ever read. He creates a whole world filled with unadventurous hobbits who won't leave their holes unless Gandalf marks up their doors or sends them off without even one handkerchief. One of my favorite parts is when Gandalf takes the dwarves and Bilbo to meet Beorn. The well woven story entices Beorn to accept the 15 strangers into his home. Also, the encounter with Gollum is not over-rated; Tolkien is a master riddler.

Just Wondering

Before she left for Upstate New York, my roomate and I were talking one night about quick sand. What is it? Is it really bottomless? What happens when you fall it? Only now have I looked it up.

Quicksand is exagerated in movies. It is only a few feet deep, usually even less. It is ordinary sand that has been saturated in water to the point that friction between the sand particles is virtually nil. (There are different levels of saturation).
If you step in quicksand, it won't suck you down. If you move your arms or legs quickly, you'll cause a vaccum which is what you fight.

"When soil liquefies, as with quicksand, it loses strength and behaves like a viscous liquid rather than a solid, according to the Utah Geological Survey. Liquefaction can cause buildings to sink significantly during earthquakes.
While quicksand can occur in almost any location where water is present, there are certain locations where it's more prevalent. Places where quicksand is most likely to occur include:
- Riverbanks
- Beaches
- Lake shorelines
- Near underground springs
- Marshes "

The human body has a density of 62.4 pounds per cubic foot (1 g/cm3) and is able to float on water. Quicksand is denser than water -- it has a density of about 125 pounds per cubic foot (2 g/cm3) -- which means you can float more easily on quicksand than on water. The key is to not panic. Most people who drown in quicksand, or any liquid for that matter, are usually those who panic and begin flailing their arms and thus have to fight the vaccum they create. Don't panic; stretch out your arms and legs to cover more area and use very slow movements to paddle to a safe shore.

Isn't that cool? I know that is only touching on some of the info, but I'm tired so that's all for now, folks.

*info from Howthingswork.com

Heat Wave
"This is my island in the sun ... oi! oi!" (Muppet Christmas Carol)Work has been hot this week. Quite hot, in fact sweltering. The first part of the week I was at the Potlatch store. Now it generally takes 3 to 4 hours to water all the plants. On hot days we have to water twice. We didn't do much else those days.

I worked in Moscow today. Boy, was it hot! I watered plants most of the day. Around 2:45 it was too hot in the sun, so I retreated to the limited shade of the trailer. I finished reading An Ideal Husband in the afternoon. I don't like it as much as The Importance of Being Ernest. Wilde is an excellent writer, but AIH is more drama than IBE. IBE is ridiculously funny, ubsurd and very witty. AIH is similar to Lady Widener's Fan; the plot revolves around someone who is blackmailed with a scandal.

Next on my list to read is Tolkien. It's time to read him again.

What have I read?
These are the 25 most popular kids books at What Should I Read Next?

I liked it!

I didn't like it!

I want to read it!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling

Charlotte's Web - E.B. White, Garth Williams

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling

The Bad Beginning - Lemony Snicket

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

Sabriel - Garth Nix

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Watership Down - Richard Adams

Eragon - Christopher Paolini

The Giver - Lois Lowry

The Once and Future King - T.H. White

Abhorsen - Garth Nix

Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgomery

A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle, Keith Scaife

The Witches - Roald Dahl, Quentin Blake

Time Quartet - Madeleine L'Engle

The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery

A Little Princess: The Story of Sara Crewe - Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett, Robin Lawrie

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - L.Frank Baum

Take the 'What" have I read?' test now!
Eight different categories to try!
Buy your books at Amazon US or Amazon UK

Holy Sonnet X: Death, Be Not Proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which yet thy pictures be,

Much pleasure, then from thee much more, must low

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings and desperate men

And dost with poison, war and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die

I've always loved this one. While at work I have quotes running through my head and this one will often take precedence. I love the end quatrain and couplet. "Thou art slave to fate, ... desperate men ... poppy or charms can make us sleep as well and better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?"

p.s. Speaking of poetry, I have a friend who quotes Shakespeare without knowing it. Would that I could too.

Red Sox vs. Nationals
The phone just rang. Faith and I quickly read the caller ID ... "DAD!" I grabbed it first and answered it. Dad said "Guess where I am?" I heard an enormous applause and cheering. The Red Sox game! (Emily would be jealous). He said that he was sitting over left field by the Green Monster.

The above pic is of Fenway's Green Monster. The Green Monster is the wall in the background that was built in 1912 as part of the original ballpark. 1934 it was covered in tin and concrete and in 1976 again covered in hard plastic. It wasn't painted green until 1947. It is said that it was built high to protect the neighboring residential homes from fly balls.

The Green Monster is the highest wall in professional baseball, thus preventing home runs on many line drives that would have otherwise cleared the wall of other ballparks. When the ball is hit off of the wall the most common result is a double. If compared with other pro ballparks, the wall is shallow at 310 feet from the plate at the left-field foul line. This allows a high, but short fly ball to clear the wall for a home run.

Below is a pic of the wall now. The seats were added in 2003 and 2005. This is where, if I'm not mistaken, Dad was sitting.

Choir

Every Thursday night I go to church choir. Mr. Reagan spoke this evening reminding us that as the church choir we minister to the congregants. He said that he knew that we were called to be seperated and to sing specially as a choir apart from the rest of the congregation. But what that all meant he didn't know. The fact that he is willing to find out though is encouraging. I was reminded of a former choir director who seemed to know everything or nearly everything. He wasn't a know-it-all, but a joy to be around. And yet there was something about Mr. Reagan's semper reformanda spirit that is new. I'm excited to watch and be in choir as he directs us.

Cantate Domino, canticum novum.

Quoting misserinmarie

"Good writers are a dime a dozen: good story tellers are worth their weight in gold. "
~Len Bailey

Miss McIntosh is an avid reader. She reads and reads and frequently will review a book that she finished. Some of the stories that she reads are the sort that I've never really had my eye on, but then she writes good reviews on them and makes me want to read them. I hate to say that she is a good writer after that quote, but she is. And a mark of a good writer is the ability to draw in one's audience. Thank you, Miss M., for your reviews! I enjoy reading what you have to say!

An average day in my life

This is me ... at work. I work in a garden nursery. I work outside all day, every day in the Summer which does weird things to my hair and skin. This pic doesn't show the side affects of the gardener's life; it's deceptive. :)

Day 1

Odd that the day I upload my first blog is a day when I am not officially gardening. But that can be fixed ... tomorrow.