barefoot in the sand

…that's how i spent much of my weekend.

splashing in the coldcold surf, putting little bits of beautiful in my pockets, laughing with the ones i love…

…and of course taking gobs of photos.

coming soon.

some living beauty

since there seems to be so much concern out there about the fact that I am receiving dead roses (!), i thought i'd post some photos of the live ones that surprised me on Monday.





the lilies are fascinating…watching them open and seeing how the pollen creeps up the stamen (is that what those things are called?) and then detaches itself. amazing how God has designed so many individual flowers to bloom and reproduce in such unique ways. there is so much to learn about creation and the Creator. i need to do some more research on my meet the artist thingy I want to do.

such a beautiful gift.

and I'm so grateful.

preserved

i love what happens to a rose when it dries. its colors fade and change, its petals crinkle and stiffen, and its beauty transforms from fresh and young and fleeting to something more lasting, though still fragile.

oh the dangerous places i go

I have a friend I meet at a coffee shop every few months and we hang out and read (her), work on the laptop (me), knit (her) or embroider (me) and talk in short snatches in the silent spots between songs by whatever band shows up the night we are there.

We met up last night at Boulder Coffee Company and she got some knitting done and I got some crewel work done and no one crashed through the window. Which is something to be grateful for. Not that we were ever there when it happened before, but hey…we could have been!

If you're like me, and you don't always feel like following the links to get more of the story, this coffee shop has been hit by some vehicle or other 4 times since it opened less than three years ago.

I got a lot done on the project I've been "working on" for the past few months. I had misplaced it, you see, as so often happens to things that I own. I think sometimes they're avoiding me, so I let them be. they'll come back when they're ready.

on my way home

I think perhaps this leaf hurled itself at the thorny branch sometime last November, and has been holding on in a death grip ever since.


I have a mild obsession with dried flowers…this teeny guy was swaying in the wind, but I really love the soft dreamy quality of the image that resulted.


This green is one of my favorite colors…the green of new leaves buried in the middle of the bare grey trees of early spring.


from above, these blue beauties just looked rather sad. getting down in the dirt next to them showed their brilliant color against the green grass and made all the difference.



I saw my first robin this week on one of my walks home after work. The crocus are in bloom all over, and I'm looking forward to seeing tulips everywhere! I feel like so many other blogs I've been reading have already had their spring…so I'm glad it's finally hitting upstate new york. Though fall is my favorite season by far, I do love the newness of spring…and all those "re" words that go along with it: renew, refresh, rejuvenate, restore, regenerate…

just outside of my front door

a recent rainy day

I'm going to go ahead and say it out loud, for the whole world to see:

I like rain.

the smell of the air

the visual patterns it creates

the pelting on my window panes

the colors of the sky

the texture it adds to a still lake

the feel of a warm downpour on my skin in the summer

the sounds of a thunderstorm

Did you know that in the Bible the voice of God is compared to both thunder and the sound of many waters?

i'm not making this up

did you know that there is a national shortage of wire hangers? and your dry cleaner would like you to return any "unwanted" ones? and here I was pretty sure that these things were as fertile as rabbits.

there have been tips and tricks on getting rid of wire hangers in your closet for as long as I've been reading womens magazines with cleaning columns in them (since I was about 10, which probably means something isn't working, since I'm still rather messy). but I guess someone has been paying attention to all those tips, since those hangers have about been purged out of existence.

oh, the problems we face in America.

road trip

day trip to toronto, and some fun with my "old" camera.








we just spent a few hours wandering around the distillery district…a converted distillery that now houses restaurants, art galleries, artist studios & some artsy shops. we met sheila, a photographer and gallery owner who was a great encouragement to me to start getting my photography out there in some galleries.

we also almost made it onto some reality TV show that was filming in one of the galleries. i felt a little underdressed, so we scooted outta there before they could actually capture us on film!

coffee for two

Some really nice things about having someone to share a coffee break with:

1. I don't look like I'm being stood up.

2. Not having to pay for it myself.

3. The guy attached to that thumb you see up there.

4. I couldn't…okay, shouldn't…eat that whole piece of cheesecake by myself.

clockwise from top left: starbucks…one latte & one mocha…in the metro-mobile, denny's breakfast after the sunrise, good strong coffee at balzacs in toronto, and something to balance out all the peanut-buttery sugar at the cheesecake factory.

all things new

I started a tradition a couple of years ago of going up to the lake and watching the sunrise on Easter morning…or Resurrection Sunday as many prefer to call it. I grew up in a little church where we all met at the Edwards' house on Easter morning to watch the sunrise, sing some hymns and eat breakfast before our normal church service. It was something that I suddenly missed a while back, and I decided to start my own tradition.

I'm not normally an early riser, but there is something so amazing about watching the orange glow grow brighter and brighter and seeing the disk of fire push above the horizon. And watching it move up, higher and higher to light the whole sky.

a new day. with new mercies.

and this year, I had someone to share it with.



there will come a time when Jesus will make ALL things new. I'm glad He gives us sneak previews.

In the sunrise. In springtime. In new friendships. In healing. In brand new joy.

He restores and refreshes and makes things new. And he does it way better than some marketing joe slapping a "new and improved" label on the same old drink.

He re-creates. Because He can. And only He can.