A Morning Song from the Meadow

Almost every morning I am greeted by a cheery flute like sound. No, it is not coming from my alarm clock but it wafts up from the meadow outside my window, from a little creature who is our state bird, the “Western Meadowlark”.

Every morning, rain or shine, he sings. The day’s weather might be foggy, frosty, or fine, but still he sings and his song is somehow uplifting to me.

So far I have never been able to see him, but I know from reading about him that he lives in the marshy reeds of the meadow near me. I have seen pictures of him, but have never yet been able to capture him with my own camera.

His daily consistency encourages me. As I listen to his song I often believe he is speaking to me to awaken and enjoy another day that the Lord has made. Whatever the weather, I imagine that I should rejoice and be glad for another day of life!

Thank You God, for giving me this unseen daily visitor who inspires me with his song.  I pray I can do the same for others through this blog post today.  

Western Meadowlark

 

The Western Meadowlark was chosen as the State Bird of Oregon in 1927. It is known for it’s distinctive and beautiful song.
It is truly one of God’s wondrous works.

For more information visit this link: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/western_meadowlark/id

Listen to a video recording of the Western Meadowlark’s  beautiful song at this link:
youtube=http://youtu.be/lvAUgFb1cLY

Wonderful Water

It covers  70.9% of the Earth’s surface, and is vital for all known forms of life
It is a colorless, transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid that forms the seas, lakes, rivers, and rain.
It is a basic molecule made up of two hydrogen atoms, and one oxygen atom.
It is a liquid, but can also be a solid or an invisible gas.
What is it?   Water of course!  

Water is one of God’s  wonderful works. It is our most precious natural resource.

Here in Portland we see more than our share of liquid water and sometimes even solid water in the form of snow appears.  We visit our beaches and enjoy the beautiful Pacific Ocean’s water.  We are fortunate to have the Williamette River right downtown and the Columbia River close by.  Our parks have pools, ponds, sprinklers, and fountains.  We have water parks, lakes and indoor skating rinks.  We enjoy our running water indoors from our faucets.  They supply us with drinking water, water for showers and baths, washing and toilets.
There is an abundance of wonderful water all around us daily, so much so that we might tend to take it for granted. Sometimes we might even complain about all the rain, snow or ice.

Yet, approximately one billion people in the world still lack access to safe water for drinking and over 2.5 billion don’t have access to adequate sanitation. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water)

Today, March 22nd,  is World Water Day 2012.  Let’s Celebrate by learning more about what we can do to help bring some wonderful water to those one billion people who have none.
According to the water.org website there are three things most of the world can’t do.  
Those three things are:  Take a Hot Shower—Get Clean Water from the Tap—Flush Away Yesterday’s Dinner.

Perhaps today, on World Water Day 2012, we can make a difference in someone’s life by doing something about that.  Visiting www.water.org would be one way to start.

Also, this Saturday, March 24th, Portland is celebrating World Water Day by hosting a 2012 Walk for Water & Fun Run.  This will be the fourth year where participants check in at OMSI and collect their water-gathering containers to haul water on the 3.1 mile walk around the Williamette River. This is meant to be a model of the water gathering that some women and children must do in some parts of Africa just to get water for their daily use.
For more information or to Register to Walk visit this link:  Walk for Water–-http://www.worldwaterdaypdx.com/

The Wonderful Douglas-Fir

“Free Trees”  the sign said.   
During this time of year, especially in a bad economy, that sign should be a welcome sight.  However, it’s posting on the day before Christmas Eve might not attract too great a crowd.  

Here in the Pacific Northwest evergreen trees are abundant and around Christmas time Christmas Tree Farms seem to spring up all over.  I love the look and smell of fresh evergreen trees and I have lovely childhood memories of many a Christmas where we would set up a fresh tree to decorate with lots of lights, ornaments and tinsel.  The smell of pine would scent everyone’s house for many days for back in those days artifical trees were hardly heard of.   

But…times have since changed and my apartment now has a small artifical tree in the corner and I spray pine air freshner or burn a pine-scented candle to get my fresh pine smell.  However, I do get to enjoy Christmas at my daughter’s home where there is always a freshly cut evergreen tree decorated by excited grand-children who are making Christmas memories of their own.

My love of evergreen trees would of course lead me to say that they have to be one of God;s wonderful works.  As much as I love the beauty of the fall colors and  wondrous turning of the leaves in Autumn trees, I would have to say that the evergreen tree is highest on my list of trees and living in Oregon I am glad that the Douglas Fir was designated our state tree in 1939.  

The Douglas-fir was so named in honor of David Douglas, a Scottish botanist visited the Pacific Northwest In 1824.  
He has been quoted as saying  “A forest of these trees is a spectacle too much for one man to see.”  He could have been speaking about a forest of evergreen trees,  for he introduced several  North American native conifers to Europe.and among them was the Douglas-fir which he introduced to Scotland cultivation in 1827.  

The Douglas-fir is also called Douglas tree or Oregon Pine and nationally,it is one of the most popular for Christmas trees. However, the trees are not just grown for Christmas.  They are actually the source of more lumber than any other species of tree in North America.  They are prized as one of the most valuable timber trees in the world,  for the timber from Douglas firs is said to be stronger than concrete.   

If you are fortunate to have a sturdy beautiful Douglas-fir as your Christmas tree this year I hope you will take a moment to just sit and look at it.  Enjoy it’s green beauty and lovely pine scent.  Realize it’s value and give thanks to God for creating such a wonderful tree for us to enjoy.  

Plant a Douglas-fir, or gift one to someone visit “Tree Beginnings” to order this “Green Gift”  
They have Douglas Fir Holiday Tree Gifts in Eco Boxes so you can plant a your own Christmas Tree

Seaside Museum exhibits World’s Biggest Douglas Fir Tree

Fragaria of Rosaceae

“Fragaria of Rosaceae“
one of God’s marvelous creations

“Doubtless God could have made a better berry (than the strawberry), but doubtless God never did”

William Allen Butler

It’s June, and that means it’s Strawberry and Rose Festival time here in Portland!
With the Rose Festival happening this weekend in Portland, we are also being invited to honor the Strawberry, as June is it’s month and time to shine, in Oregon.

Actually, the strawberry should feel right at home here in the City of Roses, being that it is a member of the rose family.   Fragaria, commonly known as the Strawberry,  is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae. This marvelous work of God,  the originial strawberry, is known as the Woodland strawberry and grows wild all over the Northern Hemisphere.  It serves as food to many animals in our forests, woods and plains.  It was first culivated in Europe where it eventually became the Garden Strawberry that we know today, a fruit that is much larger than the Woodland.

The Woodland strawberry’s fruit is strongly flavored, and is still collected and grown for domestic use and on a small scale commercially for the use of gourmets and as an ingredient for commercial jam, sauces, liqueurs, cosmetics and alternative medicine. [taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodland_Strawberry]

This month, Strawberry Festivals abound in mary areas, beginning June 5th in Lebanon, OR where they serve the “world’s largest shortcake”, to St.Paul Oregon’s Strawberry Festival at French Prairie Gardens June 11th thru 19th,  Gales Creek Strawberry Festival on June 12th ,and Dixie Mountain’s Annual Strawberry Fest on Father’s Day, June 19th.  This is the time that we should plan to enjoy these tasty strawberries perhaps with some shortcake, whipped cream or ice cream and attend at least one of these festivals that usually have lots of fun activities besides eating strawberries.

Just thinking about that plump, juicy, red fruit causes my mouth to water and most people I know feel the same. Since June is my birth month, I share a special affinity to strawberries and roses, and I surely do plan on enjoying both of them this weekend !  I hope you will make plans to do that also.

For more information visit these links:
Lebanon Strawberry Festival
St.Paul Strawberry Festival 
Gales Creek Strawberry Festival
Portland Rose Festival 
Oregon Strawberries

Remembering Our Wonderful Rivers

The song of the river ends not at her banks but in the hearts of those who have loved her. — (Buffalo Joe)

Des Plaines River Lake County, IL

A river is a natural watercourse.  Just as the song “Ol Man River” says “it just keeps movin along”. No matter what happens,  unless some natural disaster prevents it or a man made dam stops it, a river will always keep moving forward, flowing toward another river, or towards something bigger perhaps, like the ocean, a lake or sea.

Rivers are wonderful works of God and there are so many that they cannot be counted. There are thousands of rivers all over the world, all flowing forward, some fast, some slow, some big, some small, but they are all moving, constantly moving–forward. That is so inspiring to me, and I think we would all do well to pattern our lives after the rivers, to focus each day on moving forward, whether it be slow or swift.

I have many fond memories of rivers, having grown up very near to one.  My childhood home was very close to the Des Plaines River in Illinois and as a child I spent a lot of time sitting on it’s banks fishing in the summer or ice skating on it in the winter.
The Des Plaines is a slow moving river that begins in Wisconsin and flows through Illinois to meet the Kankakee River which eventually becomes the Illinois River that flows into the Mississippi River.

Rivers inspire me and I actually enjoy a visit to a river over one to the ocean.  Probably because a river seems more like a friend you can sit down and relax with. During the course of my life I have been fortunate to visit quite a few rivers all across our country. While living in Iowa I was able to enjoy the Iowa River, Cedar River and Mississippi River all which were close by and though each was different in its own way, the one thing they all shared was that forward movement that is so inspiring !

One summer my grandsons and I made it a point to visit one “Creek a Week”.  It was our part of our “Tuesdays Discovery Days”. Being that Tuesday was my day off from work, that was the day we would go on adventures. This particular summer we became intrigued by all the Creeks in Johnson County that seemed to flow out from the Iowa River, so we decided each Tuesday we would visit one, take a picture and explore. It was such a fun summer and even though we never did find all the many Creeks, we have many memories that are priceless.

Here in Oregon, we have the Williamette River which ranks 19th in volume among U.S. rivers.
It’s forward movement carries it to the Columbia River and then eventually to the Pacific Ocean.  I would suggest that you take some time to get to know this River that is in Portland’s backyard.  Visit it, sit on it’s banks, watch it flow, investigate the life it carries along, and give thanks for it’s constant forward motion.  Then, perhaps, make it a point to visit as many rivers as you can this year, just to see their beauty, feel their differences and note their purposes.  I am sure if you do, your life will be enriched by all these wonderful works of God–our Rivers !

As David Brower said in his Foreword to Oregon Rivers by Larry Olson and John Daniel:

“Witness for them. Enjoy their unimprovable purpose as you sense it, and let those rivers that you never visit comfort you with the assurance that they are there, doing wonderfully what they have always done.”

Williamette River Portland, OR.

Ol’ Man River

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ol%27_Man_River

Williamette Riverkeeper
http://www.willamette-riverkeeper.org/WRK/index.html

List of Rivers in Oregon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rivers_of_Oregon

Lovely Lilacs

I am thinking of the lilac-trees,
That shook their purple plumes,
And when the sash was open,
Shed fragrance through the room.
- Mrs. Anna S. Stephens, The Old Apple-Tree
This quote by Anna S Stephens speaks my thoughts as I sit at my dining room table enjoying my morning coffee.  Anna S. Stephens,(1810 – 1886) was an American Novelist and Magazine Writer who obviously loved lilacs.  I can imagine her feelings as she penned the words, most probably while sitting near a window overlooking lilac bushes, just as I am now doing.

I am sharing a moment in time, just as Anna did so long ago, and it is as if my beautiful lilac bush is speaking to me, inspiring me to write.

“Good Morning” it seems to say,
“Wake up and enjoy this day,
For my blooms are limited in their stay,
and these fragrant flowers I bring you in May,
will oh,so soon, be gone away”

Yes, lilacs are one of the wonderful gifts God has given us, and we can give thanks to Mary Foster for bringing them to Oregon so long ago when she and her husband traveled here on the Oregon Trail.

Mary brought one of the first lilac bushes to Oregon in 1843 and it still lives at the Philip Foster Farm in Estacada, Or. The Foster Farm is a National Historic Site because Philip and Mary Foster were early settlers who played an important part in Oregon’s history.
The Farm has several annual events of interest to all.
Visit their website for more information:  http://www.philipfosterfarm.com/

We can also thank Hulda Klager, who was known as the “Lilac Lady”.  Hulda loved lilacs and she began hybridizing them in 1905, 15 years later she had developed many new varieties and began sharing them.  Though she passed away in 1960 her lilac gardens live on at her now historic home in Woodland, Wa.
An annual “Lilac Days” is held there to view the 3-1/2 acres of lilacs that Hulda left for all of us to enjoy.
For more information visit their web site at:   http://www.lilacgardens.com/history.html

Lilacs are not only fragrant and beautiful, but they are also edible and can be candied to use as colorful decorations on cakes. They have a lovely lemony taste that would make any cake or cupcake a special treat.  The flowers or buds can be used in baking but also can be used to make fragrant lilac sugar, syrup or jelly.  Visit this link for some fun to try recipes:  http://greenbotanicals.blogspot.com/2008/05/lilac-flower-recipes.html

“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”

“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”

If you live in Oregon the song, “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach and sung by B.J. Thomas in 1969, might be an appropriate song to sing.

It rains so much in Oregon that sometimes we have a hard time giving thanks for it.
But I would agree with this unknown author, that, “Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain”  for after many days of drought in the Midwest one year, I actually found myself running out to dance in the rain when it finally came my way!
Rain is truly a blessing and is one of God’s most wondrous works.

Consider a raindrop…it can vary in size from 0.1 millimetres (0.0039 in) to 9 millimetres (0.35 in) that is pretty small!  Popular belief is that a raindrop is shaped like a teardrop,however, that is not true.  Raindrops are actually spherical and as they increase in size they become oblate. The largest ones often resemble a parachute in shape.
“Why are raindrops are different sizes?” It all has to do with clouds,condensation and particles.
USGS website explains it well.  http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/raindropsizes.html

As we see, even tiny raindrops are amazingly complex and truly wondrous creations.  Let’s remember this the next time we venture out into our rainy Oregon weather.  Let’s look up, give thanks and perhaps,become like a kid again by trying to catch one of those tiny droplets on our tongue !

This unknown author said it well:
“Sometimes I see myself as a child in a rain storm, running around trying to catch all the drops in his mouth.
I long for your adventures to be like the raindrops the child saves and not those which crash to the ground.”

For more information check out these links:

“Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raindrops_Keep_Fallin%27_on_My_Head

Rain   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain

Raindrops   http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/raindropsizes.html
                   http://www.dimensionsguide.com/dimension-of-a-raindrop/

The Tulips are Blooming !

Tulip Field in Hillsboro, OR.

The Tulips are Blooming !

In Portland’s back yard so to speak, off the beaten path, lies a field full of color. The color comes from Tulips.
Pink, Red, Yellow and White Tulips, they almost look like a rainbow on the ground.
Across the street a large Dutch windmill turns slowly. Spring has come to Oregon !As I stopped to take some pictures of the field vibrant with color, I was reminded of something my Dad used to always say: “Take time to smell the flowers” 
Well, today I wasn’t stopping to “smell” I was stopping to “look”.This action meant I was going to be late to my Writer’s Group meeting, but the tulips couldn’t wait, I needed to seize this moment because tulips don’t last long. 
As I took my photos, enjoying the spring air and sunshine, another car stopped and a couple got out to do the same.  Some of the passing cars honked at us or zoomed by too fast, but it didn’t stop us from “taking time to enjoy the view”.  As I got into my car to proceed on to my meeting I was glad I had taken 5 minutes of my time to use in enjoying God’s beautiful creation.  What better way to start the day ,and then to double the pleasure, I am now able to share it with you!  I hope you will take the time to “Stop and View the Tulips” today and be blessed by the wondrous, colorful works of God.

VanderZanden Farms, located on Jackson School Road in Hillsboro between Hwy 26 and Evergreen Road, sell cut and potted tulips, hyacinths, and peonies.  They are open 7 days a week 7am to 6pm from February to June 15th. but you need to visit soon if you want to catch the tulips in bloom because they don’t last long.