To the Future

Looking Forward

This promises to be an exciting week of sunshine, appointments, a concert, and a flight to a far away place.  I'm thankful for new beginnings.

I've been thinking about this song (the link tells the history) lyrics by Edward Hopper:

Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me

Jesus, Savior, pilot me

Over life’s tempestuous sea;

Unknown waves before me roll,

Hiding rock, and treach’rous shoal;

Chart and compass came from Thee;

Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

As a mother stills her child,

Thou canst hush the ocean wild;

Boist’rous waves obey Thy will

When Thou say’st to them, “Be still;”

Wondrous Sov’reign of the sea,

Jesus, Savior, pilot me.

When at last I near the shore,

And the fearful breakers roar

’Twixt me and the peaceful rest,

Then, while leaning on Thy breast,

May I hear Thee say to me,

“Fear not, I will pilot thee.”

Sad Day

Not too long ago, this home sold.  One of the first things the new owner did was cut down the tree.  They must not have seen it in fall. 

Covered Wagons and Log Cabins

On Saturday, at our church primary activity, we'll be celebrating Pioneer Day.  We're making covered wagons and log cabins.  And we're making butter.  I'm in charge of helping with the food activities, so I thought I should try it out to make sure everything works.

The materials needed for the covered wagons are in this "Friend" magazine under "For Little Friends" and "Marshmallow covered wagon."  I cut the caramel in half because it seemed a better size.  Also, you can buy giant marshmallows, but they are twice as expensive and may be too big for the cracker.  If we were going to make a smaller quantity I would have tried it.  Maybe.  The effect might be cooler.  I just used my standard milk and powdered sugar glue mixture to hold things together.

The log cabins that I found on line require milk cartons as a base.  I'm sure that would be a lot easier and look better than what I did.  The roof and waffle pretzels were an afterthought.  Hopefully the children will come up with better ideas.  I will probably also make chocolate glue for a different effect.

My son wanted rootbeer barrels.  After we bought them, I realized they might be cute on the covered wagons.  It's on the side in this picture, but I moved it to the back of the wagon.  It looks kinda cute there.

Zucchini Problem

My zucchini plants are not producing zucchini.  Unfulfilled expectations are discouraging.  I know it's not a fertilization problem. I have evidence of bee visits. 

The flowers are pretty anyway.  I saw a recipe for stuffed flowers.  Maybe I'll try it.

Exercise Helps

Sometimes, invigorating my body awakens my spirit.  Biking up and down hills and finding beautiful things in beautiful places can do that for me.  I saw four young turkeys as I was flying down the road to the lake park.  They took off into the trees before I had a chance to take a picture.  They were fascinating.

The lake park is under construction right now.  It feels like my life is under construction too.  While waiting for positive potential changes, it can be messy and difficult to be patient. 

I am amazed at how well they are anchoring things.  No chance even a very large person or a hurricane will tip this bench over.

I could have ridden past, but I decided to stop at the area where they launch boats.  It was peaceful there in that boat-free moment.

The ducks were fun to watch, the flowers were gorgeous, the bees made me think about being busy.

Then I saw two of these gliding in and out of the water.  What are they?  They look like long, skinny rats and swim like tiny otters.  Ferrets?  Watching them was amazing.

Noticing Things

We saw this brave little bunny on our walk this morning.  It let me get about 10 feet away from it before it scampered off into the bushes.

These cornflowers (aka hurtsickle) in someone's lawn look kinda cute.  They're usually tall and right by the sides of roads.

And here are a few more potential found letters. 

I'm not sure I'm going to use them all and some need cropping.

I like this little tractor.  Roger noticed if you turn it sideways it would make a nice lowercase letter B.  Hmm. I don't know if I should do that. 

Tractors are around because they are fixing up Oneida Shores Lake Park.  They're making a big new playground and new parking lots.  It's going to be very nice.