Fresh water is essential for the health of backyard birds in the winter. In cold weather my usual birdbaths are retired to prevent ice damage. To offer the birds water I spent two dollars at the local dollar store. I use an oil drip pan, on top of a deli tray for stability, and place this set-up on my bird bath fixture. It works great. To keep the water flowing through icy temperatures and snow I pour a pitcher of water on top about three times a day. Even in heavy winds the plastic birdbath holds firm.
Here’s a dove during yesterday’s snowstorm, getting a drink from the makeshift birdbath. I hope you can see through my window screen. No matter how quietly I try to sneak that window and screen up to photograph the birds, they are always wise to me, and quickly fly away.
*Added this tip after posting: My water pan (oil drip pan) is a 5. This plastic is considered safe for food storage. More info can be found here: Which Plastics are Safe for Food?
Valentine’s Day is a spot of brightness in the middle of winter, yet I often shortchange the house of decorations to celebrate this special day. This year I found a satisfying, but also easy and inexpensive approach to create a bit of February cheer.
I cut about 25 paper hearts out of red-toned paper, punched a hole, used leftover Christmas ornament hooks, and hung them on a lightly twisted ribbon of burlap. A little hint here: you can NEVER have too many ornament hooks. I use them for so many projects throughout the year. They are durable, near weightless, and can be twisted into so many shapes and sizes. I always keep a bag of them in my desk drawer. The green wire hooks are my favorite.
I also found some old cardstock tags I had crafted years ago with swirls of words and twirly lines. The pressed flowers I glued in place with rubber cement have faded, but still are holding on firm. I hung these on drawer pulls, clocks, light fixtures—anywhere an almost weightless tag could hang. I’m pleased with my easy and LOVE-ly decor. Happy February!
“As roses are ready to shed their perfume, so may we be eager to praise God—“
Before the pandemic arrived, one of my favorite wintertime activities was visiting the conservatory at Longwood Gardens. I haven’t been there since all this craziness consumed the world. The gardens have procedures in place to allow visitors once again. If I make a reservation, I will be able to leave winter behind when I walk through the doors into garden bliss. The fragrance, and a sweet humid heaviness in the air, are what I crave most at this time of year.
As is the case in most of Spurgeon’s sermon on John’s Doxology, his descriptive words, likening roses shedding their perfume to our praise for our Creator, fill me with renewed purpose to praise my Father in Heaven even more.
” I long that our hearts may be like Eolian harps through which each wind as it sweeps on its way makes charming music.”
Johns Doxology – Charles Haddon Spurgeon
This spontaneous outburst of John’s love is what I am going to preach upon this morning. First of all I shall ask you to consider the condition of heart out of which such outbursts come, and then we will look more closely at the outburst itself; for my great desire is that you and I may often be thus transported into praise, carried off into ecstatic worship. I long that our hearts may be like Eolian harps through which each wind as it sweeps on its way makes charming music. As roses are ready to shed their perfume, so may we be eager to praise God; so much delighting in the blessed exercise of adoration that we shall plunge into it when colder hearts do not expect us to do so. I have read of Mr. Welch, a minister in Suffolk, that he was often seen to be weeping, and when asked why, he replied that he wept because he did not love Christ more. May not many of us weep that we do not praise him more? Oh that our meditation may be used or the Holy Spirit to help us in that direction!
Summer of 2020 was a strange time, but I was still able to garden, swim at our local pool, and find time to try out a few new ideas. One of those projects was creating scented alcohol.
Most of the articles I read spoke of creating your own perfume, but I only wanted to preserve the scent of summer to remind me of my gardens. I used moonflowers and nicotiana in my white-flowered blend. In another blend, I used anything and everything that smelled good without looking up information first to see if they were toxic. Smelling a fragrance is usually not dangerous, but rubbing an alcohol with an essential oil infused into it onto your skin could be life-threatening if the plant or flower is toxic. If I was hoping to create something I could put on my skin, I would make sure I used only flowers and leaves that were both fragrant and edible.
The project was simple. I bought some vodka, a very inexpensive blend, which although it had no fragrance of its own, was so cheap, it assaulted my nose every time I smelled it. The harshness did eventually disappear, but when I try my scent-making again, I will use a better quality vodka.
I used mason jars. The plastic lids I have for them create a great seal. I filled the jar with some vodka, added clean flowers, and let them sit. In fact, the flowers in the photograph are still in the vodka. The alcohol helps preserve their form and color. Eventually, the nose-wrinkling properties of the vodka disappeared and a slight scent was present. I strained the first batch of flowers out after a week or so, and added more. I kept this up over a period of several weeks. Now, in mid-winter, I enjoy smelling the perfumed vodka (called an absolute) created from summer’s flowers and foliage.
Now is the time to plan out flowers and plants to place in your garden if you want to create a scented alcohol (absolute) of your own. A few I used were: moonflowers, nicotiana, scented geranium leaves, pansies, alyssum, lemon balm, lemon verbena, rose petals and others. A few of these are non-toxic, but some are poisonous. This year I will create a non-toxic blend and see if it will work as a perfume.
Our hearts should be like beacons made ready to be fired ~C.H. Spurgeon
Did you know a flame casts no shadow? I didn’t want you to be in the dark, as I was, over this strange but true fact. I enlightened my husband, and we experimented with a candle flame. Sure enough—no shadow, just a dancing reflection of light where the shadow would have been.
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” I John 1:5
Our Father in Heaven is light, there is no darkness or shadow in Him. He lights our pathway to eternal life in heaven through His Son Jesus Christ. His invitation is for you—and for me—“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. ”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
The Words of Charles H. Spurgeon in John’s Doxology:
“Our hearts should be like beacons made ready to be fired. When invasion was expected in the days of Queen Elizabeth, piles of wood and combustible material were laid ready on the tops of certain hills, and watchmen stood prepared to kindle the piles should there be notice given that the ships of the enemy were in the offing. Everything was in waiting. The heap was not made of damp wood, neither had they to go and seek kindling; but the fuel waited for the match. The watch-fire was not always blazing, but it was always ready to shoot forth its flame. Have ye never read, “Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion”? So let our hearts be prepared to be fired with adoring praise by one glimpse of the Redeemer’s eyes; to be all on a blaze with delightful worship with one touch from that dear, pierced hand. Anywhere, wherever we may be, may we be clad in the robes of reverence, and be ready at once to enter upon the angelic work of magnifying the Lord our Saviour. We cannot be always singing, but we may be always full of gratitude, and this is the fabric of which true psalms are made.”
Read the full sermon here: John’s Doxology
As I grow older, I want to be a person who rambles on less, choosing instead my words with care. For instance, a good example is the pressed flower card I’ve pictured above. On closer examination of the background page I noticed I had not read through the paragraphs from ‘Alice in Wonderland‘ and at the top was a phrase about an ignorant little girl. How careless of me, I would feel awful if someone bought this, or if I gave it to a person dear to me, and found out afterwards they wondered if what initially seemed good was really a backhanded insult.
I will probably make more cards in the Spring, but this time I will read every word on the page before I create the finished product. I won’t throw this card away. I still feel it is beautiful, and I will frame it, and place it in my work area, a reminder that insult disguised with beauty is still an insult underneath.
The more the words, the less the meaning, and how does that profit anyone? ~Ecclesiastes 6:11
These cards are easy to make. Use old classic books you don’t mind cutting up, and a background color. Cut the background color to 4.5 x 6.5 inches, the book page or upper background to 4 x 6 inches. If you don’t have pressed flowers you can use garden catalog flowers to create your design. Fun to make…and a handmade card is always a joy to receive. To make a card out of card stock cut the sheet to 10 inches by 7 inches. Sometimes folding the card is difficult. It’s always a good idea to measure across five inches, place a ruler where the fold will go, and run a credit card along the ruler on top of the cardstock. This makes a small indentation that helps create a crisp, non-wrinkled fold.
Sometimes I don’t need to add any words of explanation. Here are recent headlines concerning our outgoing president, and our newly-inaugurated president.
There is a link to the official government page included with the Christian Headline article. The link did not work for me. I checked two other sources of the same proclamation, and their links were broken too, so I am assuming that the statement was removed.
I don’t know when I have prayed more than in 2020, and now I have carried the prayer over into 2021. This is a good thing, although the good has been prompted by a lot of bad. I combine my prayer with praise, with singing, sometimes with deep sighing for want of Jesus to meet us in the air. I pray as I go about my daily tasks. I pray when I wake up in the night. I pray when I walk around the block. I pray because the condition of the world concerns me—sometimes even frightens me, and I go to Jesus first for I know there is no other way. As Spurgeon says in this third paragraph of ‘John’s Doxology,’ “we may ‘pray without ceasing,’ if our hearts are always in such a state that at every opportunity we are ready for prayer and praise; better still, if we are prepared to make opportunities, if we are instant in season and out of season, and ready in a moment to adore and supplicate.”
Have you ever startled a bird at rest? They startle us right back with their instant uplift of wings and flight. I love Spurgeon’s analogy that tells us this is how our prayers should take wing. At the slightest nudge, good or bad, in this time of worldwide sickness, unrest, and rapid changes, we must see ourselves as Christ’s First Responders here on earth. When a flock of birds takes to wing the sky is filled with them. If we all pray together, if our prayers take wing heavenward, we will be in one accord.
Here’s a sweet oldie for your Sunday.
Paragraph 3 of John’s Doxology:
“This explains to me, I think, those texts which bid us “rejoice evermore,” “bless the Lord at all times,” and “pray without ceasing”: these do not mean that we are always to be engaged in devotional exercises, for that would cause a neglect of other duties. The very apostle who bids us “pray without ceasing,” did a great many other things beside praying; and we should certainly be very faulty if we shut ourselves up in our private chambers, and there continued perpetually upon our knees. Life has other duties, and necessary ones; and in attending to these we may render to our God the truest worship: to cease to work in our callings in order to spend all our time in prayer would be to offer to God one duty stained with the blood of many others. Yet we may “pray without ceasing,” if our hearts are always in such a state that at every opportunity we are ready for prayer and praise; better still, if we are prepared to make opportunities, if we are instant in season and out of season, and ready in a moment to adore and supplicate. If not always soaring, we may be as birds ready for instant flight: always with wings, if not always on the wing.
Arborglyphs, dendroglyphs, silvaglyphs or modified cultural trees is the carving of shapes and symbols into the bark of living trees. ~Wikipedia
Arborglyphs, what a great word. I love blogging when I learn something new through researching a post. Who would have guessed there was a name for the carvings found scratched into the bark of living trees? I wonder when the first man carved an image into the bark of a living tree.
It would be interesting to know the history of the couples who chiseled their initials into the tree. Are they still together? Do they visit the tree and reminisce? Is it a place of happy sentiment, heartbreak, or both? Only the dozens of blade-wielding risk-takers know the real story. *
These trees are still growing alongside the pond at Bethel Mill Park in Sewell, NJ.
In the town of Richland, New Jersey, between the Delaware River and the Jersey Shore, on Route 40, there stands a tree. Carved into a 235 year old oak tree that died in 2015, are scenes of trains, sawmills, clocks, homes, weathervanes, farms, chickens, people, roadsigns, etc. It’s an amazing sight.
The 235-year-old oak tree, centerpiece of the park, died in 2015. Instead of chopping it down, Richland hired chainsaw artist Brian Ackley to carve the town’s history into the tree’s trunk and branches. He expects to finish later in 2017, in time for Richland to celebrate its 150th birthday. ~Roadside America
We found this place on the return trip from Ocean City. Since Route 55 has been finished, no one travels the ‘old’ way ‘down the shore’ anymore. In the age of the pandemic, leisurely drives are making a comeback. It had been near two decades since we were on this road. We found a few surprises, the most interesting, The Richland Oak.
I’m so glad I found the site Roadside America. Who knew that near this old oak tree are also musical robots. I’m going to have to take a few moments tonight and browse all the interesting places for a drive in my area. Put some towns near you in the search bar, and find things you never knew were near to you.
When I went to a favorite pizza restaurant recently they took my temperature on the back of my wrist/upper hand before I was allowed to enter. When I went to the dentist last week, they took my pulse, and my temperature, using my hand and forehead before I was allowed to enter. Just saying…read your Bible…be aware.
The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed. And the second beast required all people small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark—the name of the beast or the number of its name— ~Revelation 13:15-17
Edited on 1/24 – Rereading this post I realized I was assuming (perhaps wrongly) that most would read between the lines and know I meant we are being conditioned to offer hand or forehead for a scan. It’s all about being conditioned! Check out this link for an in-depth, biblical perspective concerning the ‘Mark Of the Beast.’ End Edit.
Of course, they will say, it’s moral, for the ‘good’ of your neighbor. To do otherwise would make me ‘evil’ and ‘immoral.‘ Be aware.
Blogging Friends, check and double-check your post content. For a time, mysteriously, my quote was deleted. When I attempted to edit in the new block editor, there was a note that the content was questionable. It took me quite a while to get my Bible quote back in the post.
“Now, in the matter of this bursting out of devotion at unexpected times, John is one among the rest of the apostles. Their love to their divine Master was so intense that they had only to hear his footfall and their pulse began to quicken, and if they heard his voice, then were they carried clean away: whether in the body or out of the body, they could not tell, but they were under constraint to MAGNIFY THE SAVIOUR’S NAME; whatever they were doing they felt compelled to pause at once, to render direct and distinct homage unto the Lord Jesus by adoration and doxology. Observe how Paul breaks forth into doxologies: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” Again: “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” The like is true of Jude, who cries: “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” The apostles overflowed with praise.” ~Charles Haddon Spurgeon (John’s Doxology)
Bible Portal lists over 200 names of Jesus. I enjoyed reading this list of the names of Jesus. I thought of a few that were missing, but all in all it is a pretty comprehensive list. I also felt uplifted as I created my own visual poster for this post using a few of the names most meaningful to me, and also those I consider most important.
Spurgeon’s sermon, combined with scripture, brings a burst of joy and faithfulness out of me. I hope to magnify the name of Jesus through all my life. I hold each of his beautiful names dear to my heart.
My Moringa trees grew from seed, in dollar store buckets, to about four feet in height throughout last summer. I loved the look of the leaves, and even better than just being beautiful on the tree, they pressed perfectly between the pages of books.
In the Autumn, I waited too long to bring them indoors. They endured a bit of cold weather. When I brought them into the house, and put them in their winter resting place in the basement, they immediately dropped all their leaves.
I cut the branches way back with hopes they might send out some shoots, and I’ve been rewarded with a bit of green. The foliage is rather sad in appearance in comparison to what grew outdoors, but I have hopes all it will take is a few hot days on the back patio to bring them back lush growth once more.
January 2, 2021 was a good day to visit the Ocean City Boardwalk. Because an early January weekend visit has become a tradition for us we weren’t surprised by the crowds.
Masks are mandated for indoors in our state, but outdoors some wear them, and others do not. This is the line of people waiting in the cold temperatures for…
..what we think is the best pizza ever! Just like their sign says, Manco and Manco pizza is the ‘Best of the Best.’
I love to read the beautiful words of praise Charles Spurgeon preached. One of my favorite sermons is titled, John’s First Doxology.
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 1
JOHN’S FIRST DOXOLOGY
SEPTEMBER 2, 1883,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT EXETER HALL.
“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” ~Revelation 1:5, 6
JOHN had hardly begun to deliver his message to the seven churches. He had hardly given in his name and stated from whom the message came, when he felt that he must lift up his heart in a joyful doxology. The very mention of the name of the Lord Jesus, “the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth,” fired his heart. He could not sit down coolly to write even what the Spirit of God dictated, he must rise, he must fall upon his knees, and he must bless, and magnify and adore the Lord Jesus. This text is just the upward burst of a great geyser of devotion. John’s spirit had been quiet for a while, but all of a sudden the stream of his love to Jesus leaps forth like a fountain, rising so high that it would seem to bedew heaven itself with its sparkling column of crystal love. Look at the ascending flood as you read the words, “Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Truth is timeless. Beautiful praise for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is timeless. I like to read this sermon out loud, but I must confess, in the midst of the praise of these paragraphs, I become so touched and blessed by the Holy Spirit, I rarely reach the end of even one paragraph without breaking down into tears of joy.
I don’t know when the idea to share this sermon, over the course of a year of Sundays, came to me, but it did, and so through 2021 I hope to share a portion, and perhaps a short comment, on what the words mean to me.
‘—Fired his heart—‘ I hope my own heart is fired this year of 2021. In the midst of what seems to be so much encroaching evil I want to turn my eyes toward the Lord Jesus Christ even more. When I feel the power of the Lord Jesus rest upon me, I must do as John and Spurgeon did, I must adore Him. I must share the Good News. I must let my joy in him ‘leap forth like a fountain.’
I ask you to read the words of John and Spurgeon out loud. We can all add some praise into the cacophony of so much contemptible negativity and attempted mind-control. The best defense against evil is praising the Lord and calling upon His Holy Name. Amen.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
~Romans 15:13
I love the way this verse from Romans reinforces the same joyful message as ‘Carol of the Bells.‘ This song, by whoever performs it, and whatever the accompaniment, seems to exude amazing energy. That’s how I want to go into 2021…with energy! I don’t want to be fearful, or without confidence, and I want to pray, sing and rejoice in the Lord Jesus every day. I hope your 2021 will be blessed, peaceful and full of energetic JOY!
Hark! how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say
“Throw cares away.”
Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold
Ding, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling
One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From ev’rywhere
Filling the air
Oh how they pound
Raising the sound
O’er hill and dale
Telling their tale
Joyf’ly they ring
While people sing
Songs of good cheer
Christmas is here
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
Merry, merry, merry, merry Christmas
THE HOLLY AND THE IVY (traditional English Christmas Carol 15th – 16th century)
“Christians consider holly symbolic of Jesus Christ in two ways. The red berries represent the blood that Jesus shed on the cross on the day he was crucified. Legend states that holly berries were originally white, but that the blood Christ shed for the sins of humankind stained the berries forever red. A holly’s pointed leaves symbolize the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’ head before he died on the cross.” ~How Stuff Works
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. ~Acts 4:12
THE HOLLY AND THE IVY
The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown,
Of all trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown:
O, the rising of the sun,
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ,
Sweet singing in the choir.
The holly bears a blossom,
As white as lily flow’r,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
To be our dear Saviour:
Refrain
The holly bears a berry,
As red as any blood,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
To do poor sinners good:
Refrain
The holly bears a prickle,
As sharp as any thorn,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
On Christmas Day in the morn:
Refrain
The holly bears a bark,
As bitter as the gall,
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ,
For to redeem us all:
Refrain
The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown,
Of all trees that are in the wood,
The holly bears the crown:
Refrain
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ~Colossians 3:16
When I researched the lyrics for this Christmas carol, I found two versions, one signifying men as the recipients of the words, and another set of lyrics with the song sung to friends. Whatever way you choose to sing the song, the message remains the same, “Jesus Christ was born to save!”
Gaudenzio Ferrari – Musizierende Engel (1530-1540)
GOOD CHRISTIAN MEN, REJOICE! – Medieval Latin Carol – translation by John Mason Neale (1853)
Good Christian friends, rejoice
with heart and soul and voice;
give ye heed to what we say:
Jesus Christ was born today.
Ox and ass before him bow,
and he is in the manger now.
Christ is born today!
Christ is born today!
Good Christian friends, rejoice
with heart and soul and voice;
now ye hear of endless bliss:
Jesus Christ was born for this!
He has opened heaven’s door,
and we are blest forevermore.
Christ was born for this!
Christ was born for this!
Good Christian friends, rejoice
with heart and soul and voice;
now ye need not fear the grave:
Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all
to gain his everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save!
Christ was born to save!
