CFFC: Man-Made

Architecture should speak of its time and place, but yearn for timelessness.
– Frank Gehry

Amazing what you can find in a simple 20 minute walk!

Ah, to build, to build!
That is the noblest art of all the arts.
Painting and sculpture are but images,
Are merely shadows cast by outward things
On stone or canvas, having in themselves
No separate existence. Architecture,
Existing in itself, and not in seeming
A something it is not, surpasses them
As substance shadow.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Happy Wednesday!

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge: Man-made

CFFC: Sense of Smell

Tags

CFFC, flowers, nature, Photo Challenge, photography, River scenes, trees

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. Anne Frank

Water

Flowers

Fresh Air

Some old-fashioned things like fresh air and sunshine are hard to beat. – Laura Ingalls Wilder

Happy Wednesday!

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Smell

 

 

 

CFFC: Sense of Taste

Tags

baking, birthday, cake, CFFC, cookies, cooking, food, food photography, Photo Challenge, photography

People who love to eat are always the best people. – Julia Child

Cookies are made with butter and love.

Only the pure in heart can make a good soup. – Ludwig Beethoven

If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn’t have given us grandmothers. – Linda Hemley

A party without cake is just a meeting!

Strawberries are what make life taste wonderful. ― Anthony T. Hincks

Because everything is better with bacon, right?

Happy Wednesday!

This is my post for Cee Nuener’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Taste

Royal Albert Morning Glory

Tags

#whatsinmycup, flowers, tea, tea cups, what's in my cup

When you arise in the morning, think what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. – Marcus Aurelius

This tea cup reminds me of my Nana J.
She was an avid gardener and she loved the colour blue. She was also a tea drinker!!

Royal Albert‘s Morning Glory tea cup was one of a six teacups in the Flora Series. The other patterns were Alberta Rose, Dogwood, Jasmine, Rambler Rose and Trillium. The cup shape is Gainsborough, which … This Morning Glory pattern was produced between 1975 and 2001.

A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. – Walt Whitman

Happy Mother’s Day – Happy Monday!

 

 

CFFC: Sense of Hearing

Tags

nature, Photo Challenge, photography

 

It’s Spring. Birds are trilling in the trees, woodpeckers are knocking themselves silly, and the frogs by the pond are thrumming in a monastic chorus!

Sometimes you don’t have to go much further than your own backyard.

The Birds

 

The Bees

And One Little Froggy

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it. Let’s fall in love. Cole Porter

Happy Wednesday!

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Hearing

CFFC: Sense of Touch

Tags

CFFC, flowers, garden, nature, Photo Challenge, photography, snow, tea, trees

Nature invites us to experience it with all of our senses, including our sense of touch. Silky and smooth, hard and rough, hot or cold, fluffy, furry or fuzzy. Well, maybe not everything should be touched – poison ivy and bumblebees, for example. Even isolated at home, there are wonders in nature to be savoured, if you take the time to look for them.

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. – Hal Borland

Moss is popular for her unusual beauty, but what distinguishes her is that she is accessible and down to earth. – Rita Clifton

Green moss shines there with ice encased; The long grass bends its spear-like form; And lovely is the silvery scene When faint the sun-beams smile.    –Robert Southey

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight, stand like druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Happy Wednesday!

This is my post for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Touch

Wilderness Wednesday: Evening

Tags

CFFC, Photo Challenge, photography, sunsets

Softly the evening came with the sunset. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge: Sense of Sight.

Friday’s Tune: The Stand

Tags

faith, Friday's Tune, music

You stood before creation
Eternity within Your hands
And you spoke all life into motion
My soul now to stand

I started a little light reading this week: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching on the Isaiah 40-66 by Paul Hanson. OK. maybe not so light. But Isaiah is one of those books of the Bible that has blessed me in different seasons of my life. Sure, it’s a book filled with “doom & gloom”. The Israelites were a nation that had been invaded, subjugated and scattered.  They had chosen to follow their own paths, to compromise their faith, and to ignore God’s pleas to return to Him. It’s heady stuff. But as in many books of the Bible, there are treasures hidden in its pages. I love digging for treasure.

By chapter 40-ish, Isaiah begins to speak on God’s plan to redeem His people. His intent had never been to abandon them to their circumstances. Before the exile, the temple had been the centre of their worship, but the temple was destroyed. Isaiah reminds them that God alone should be the centre of their worship.  Isaiah 40:25-26:

To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:  Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,  not one of them is missing.

Hope for deliverance starts with a reverence for the Creator. In the presence of God’s majesty, I feel very small and insignificant. But if He calls the stars by name and cares for each one, how much more will He care for me?

During this pandemic, I sometimes feel like I’m in exile. It’s easy to focus on what I’m missing (and who I’m missing), and to be discouraged in the waiting. I am thankful for the reminder that, just as God didn’t leave the Israelites, He isn’t going to leave me. Regardless of where I am, He is the still the centre of my life. Tonight I am going to look to the stars and reflect on all that He has made.

Happy Weekend!

Lyrics   YouTube

Copyright: Joel Houston © Universal Music Publishing Group, Capitol Christian Music Group

Photo: I Stand: Photo by Greg Rakozy, http://www.unsplash.com, https://unsplash.com/photos/0LU4vO5iFpM

Wilderness Wednesday: Neighbourhood

Tags

animals, barns, classic cars, cows, dogs, nature, neighbours, photography

Just walking in the neighbourhood… I gotta work off the Easter cupcakes somehow! 😉

 

 

I dressed and went for a walk – determined not to return until I took in what Nature had to offer.  Raymond Carver

Happy Wednesday!

Royal Winton – Summertime

Tags

tea, tea cups, what's in my cup

One benefit of summer was that each day we had more light to read by- Jeanette Walls, The Glass Castle

It’s another gray day – perfect for getting lost in a good book, or closing your eyes and dreaming of summer. And tea. It’s a perfect day for tea…in a pretty teacup that recounts warm and sunny summer days.

In 1885, the Grimwade brothers started their pottery firm, and over the next several decades built up a reputation.  Most prominently , they were known as Royal Winton. Grimwades never applied for or received permission to use “Royal” as a prefix in their name. But in 1913 King George V and Queen Mary toured the numerous factories belonging to the firm.  Queen Mary happily purchased a Winton tea set in the new Queen Mary Chintz. In time, Royal Winton was viewed as the “Rolls Royce” of Chintz!

This pattern is called “Summertime” and the backstamp on this tea cup indicates that it was made between 1934 and 1945.

Summertime was called a floral fantasy when it was first introduced. It is a white background with scattered roses in various shades of pinks and yellows.

Summertime is always the best of what might be. – Charles Bowden

Happy Monday!