may in the orchard

For almost a hundred years this bride and her bridesmaids turn up every May. Our collection of a dozen or so apple and pear trees are gnarled and aged but show up beautifully adorned at the beginning of each new spring.

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

That swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

The which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends He will,

But which it only needs that we fulfill.

Robert Frost

blacksmith shop

There was a time when this building was painted with pride.

It stands empty, damaged and dying, awaiting disassembly. A blacksmith shop, remnant from the time when our hamlet was new. It really is too far gone to be salvaged.....

blooms in pink

blossoms of blue

tales from the travelers three

Norah was gazing upwards at an unusually bright moon, "I can see all the buggers on it!" (craters)

May we always take the time to look heavenward

and give thanks for the gifts of the fourth day!

Celestial Paths

Oh! Thou who taught my infant eye

To pierce the air and view the sky,

To see my God in earth and seas,

To hear Him in the vernal breeze,

To know Him midnight thoughts among,

O guide my soul and aid my song.

Spirit of Light, do Thou impart

Majestic truths and teach my heart:

How vain my powers, how weak my frame;

Teach me celestial paths untrod-

The ways of Glory and of God.

George Crabbe

******

"Well" said Tommy, insisting that he needed bubbles in the bathtub for his boat to float on, "The Dawn Treader was floating in the white lilies".

"Well" said Marten, insisting that he did not want bubbles in the bathtub, "Sometimes the water was actually very clear- and they could see little people on the bottom of the ocean". (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Narnia)

daffodil

It is not the beauty of the flower alone - it is the surrounding colours that enhance it.

two by two