When they give you ice therapy at the end this channel is on their television monitor. This channel is hilarious! Obviously you do not have ot watch the full hour, but it made me chuckle out loud and forget the pain of stretching!
If you are feeling poorly, this is bound to cheer you at least a bit!! Wish our cable company carried it! Maybe I can find it on YouTube app?
When our son was very young he coined a statement, “Beauty! It’s a beauty!” I decided it was too difficult to take photos of every lovely spring wildflower we saw. In case you have not taken a walk recently perhaps this might bring you cheer! You can put the name of the flower in your browser if you want to see a photo click on images there. What follows is my partial list from the Smoky Mountain Flower Hunt 2024.
Day 1
Fairy wand
Wild ginger
Showy orchis
Canada violet
Jack and the pulpit wilted
Solomon seal
False Solomon seal
Wild strawberry
Common blue violet
Crested dwarf iris
Foam flower
Flowering dogwood
Trout Lily
Yellow Violet
Blood root, no flower
Bluettes!! These might be my favorite. 1/3 inch each flower. Tiny, tiny.
Dog hobble
Day 2
Yellow Trillium
Purple phlox
Jack in the Pulpit, finally!!
Thanks to Merlin which identified the songs of:
Swanson’s warbler
Hooded warbler
Worm eating warbler
Day 3
Pink Lady’s Slipper
Didn’t need Merlin to hear the wood thrush and pileated at once!
Doesn’t get much sweeter than that.
Thank you Father for allowing us to travel to the spring flowers one more year! All praise to You for Your glorious creation. You do not have to share it with us, yet You do! All praise and glory to the Most High God. Amen.
Here is the cultivated iris that grows in our yard.
Bought the root years ago at a commercial Iris Farm
In the Smokies we found the Crested Dwarf Iris. We have seen this flower before. This year I seemed to see more of it than usual. Perhaps it had to do with the weather or time of year we visited?
Our wildflower book describes it as:
Plant 4-9″ tall and 2-1/2″ flower. This complex flower has three blue-purple (rarely albino) petals as a standard above three unique petal-like sepals. On each sepal is a yellow crest which leads pollinating insects toward the nectar hidden deep in the flower. The insect pollinators first pass beneath the stigmas (depositing pollen) then the anthers (receiving new pollen) before exiting this one-way flower near the stem. This elaborate system assures cross-pollination. Wildflowers of the Smokies by Peter White and 5 contributing co-authors
So I saw some crested dwarf iris and thought there a lot of those.
Then later I saw hundreds and a day after that I figured thousands and then it hit me.
How many millions of these bloom in these mountains that mankind has never seen?
The God of heaven and earth delights me with endless miracles of creation! A walk in the springtime yields blessing upon blessing. I am grateful, thankful and give praise and worship to the Most High God. Every flower is His.
The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets. 2 From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth.
for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine.
“Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, 15 and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
Have your heard a Thrush? Wood or Hermit I am never quite certain, but always enchanted!
We heard it as we entered the the Porters Creek Trailhead in Greenbrier.
This bird always gives me cause to stop and praise the Lord. He did not have to create birds with such majestic songs, yet He lets us hear them and enjoy His handiwork. When we lived on Siesta Drive I would hear one each summer. I even saw it in our front yard once. Since we moved to Platform Street I have not heard one, until the other morning!
I am blessed to listen To her anthem of worship Not often do I hear her A special treat indeed
Perhaps she will find A place nearby to nest Regardless, she blesses me here now
Straining later to hear her song Was that the now rare Bob White quail? As a child I would hear it on summer mornings Having lost its habitat it is now most rare here
I strain for Your voice Lord Above all the other songs Yours is the one I want to hear over me.
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17
Treasures in plain sight, and if you cannot spot them, they might be treasures within your hearing!
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 6:26 NRSVA
On our hunt 2013 for pink Lady’s Slippers Elusive wild orchids of the Smoky Mountain woods I was surprised to see this woman With a walker that rolled It also had a seat for when she needed to rest
At first sight, I thought “poor thing’ At second glance I realized It likely was harder for her to get here Than me, walking under my own pained power But she was here to see The same sights as me. We both smiled with satisfaction At this glorious creation.
As we parted she asked the Lord’s blessing upon me. She also posed the question “Well, what else are we going to do?” Yes, we cope as best we can Whatever condition life throws at us
Now in 2024, viewing the Lady’s Slippers at the exact same location I pray she too was able to come see them this year
I will not forget her lesson of joy Determination, fortitude, courage Doing what your soul needs done Regardless of what your physique May declare
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NIV
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
One of our favorite adventures is wild flower hunting in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We use to try to go every other year. We have gotten away from that practice. We decided to return this spring and test ourselves to see if we are still able to hike the trails where we have found our favorite flowers, especially Lady’s Slippers.
Lady’s Slippers are wild orchids and are quite rare. We learned not to tell others where we find the flowers. They need a specialized environment to grow. Some folks try to pick them. They do not thrive. Some folks try to dig them up and take them home. You cannot duplicate their environment. They even require a certain kind of fungus to grow.
In order to survive and reproduce, pink lady’s slipper interacts with a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. Generally, orchid seeds do not have food supplies inside them like most other kinds of seeds. Pink lady’s slipper seeds require threads of the fungus to break open the seed and attach them to it. The fungus will pass on food and nutrients to the pink lady’s slipper seed. When the lady’s slipper plant is older and producing most of its own nutrients, the fungus will extract nutrients from the orchid roots. This mutually beneficial relationship between the orchid and the fungus is known as “symbiosis” and is typical of almost all orchid species.
We hiked our first test, The Townsend trail called Middle Prong of Little River. We did not find the Jack-in-the-pulpit. One of my favorites. With global warming it is difficult to know when we should travel there. The “Jacks” along this trail had already bloomed and wilted. The waterfalls, however, were running gloriously. The rushing water always reminds me of the ‘streams of living water’ promised in the New Testament.
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39
Along the trail we did see Showy Orchis. It too is part of the orchid family. The ones below are fairly bleached out indicating they are older blooms.
If you notice the fly on the leaf you can estimate the size of the flowers!
Here we are, not pros at selfies, but delighted to have made it up our first trail!
Waterfall between us!
We checked into our motel and rested towards our BIG hike. It was amazing how things looked so different. A couple of years of absence, a few wind storms and bunches of fallen trees – we at times had difficulty recognizing the next trail.
Unheard of for me to hike 5.11 miles. My shoulder definitely felt it that evening.
My phone told me about my activity level. It was very high activity level for me. There was some difficulty from pain on the way back to the car. Phone did not record flights climbed, but the altitude did change throughout the morning.
One phenomenon I never tire of is the swallowtails and other butterflies sipping minerals from horse apples.
photo by Molly Lin
photo by r m dutina – notice all the wing movement he caught!
photo by r m dutina THIS is why we hiked so hard!
and these hidden on the hillside, but not from us! photo by r m dutina
Yep, old folks hiking and spotting and then, not exactly scampering, but getting up the hillside for a better shot! The horses are not allowed on this part of the trail, but old people are!
photo by r m dutinaphoto by r m dutina – While up there he saw her, too!
We hope and pray this was not our last time on this trail, but if we cannot make it the next time we visit, at least for this one day we were totally satisfied! the hike back to the car is all down hill and takes a toll on your knees, not to mention your back. We made it! Only had to rest a few times and rest is okay. One friend gave me a sticker that says “It doesn’t matter how slow you go, as long as you don’t stop!“I just imagine if these are the lady’s slippers we know about, how many more are hidden on this part of the earth! The Lord certainly delights us with beauty.
But ask the animals, and they will instruct you; ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you; let the fish of the sea inform you. 9 Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? 10 The life of every living thing is in his hand, as well as the breath of all humanity. Job 12:7-10 CSB
Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.
KATHERINE MAY
During my formative years my parents always kept a dog. Four years ago Bob and I adopted a small beagle from a rescue shelter. She was very, very timid. The shelter had brought her from the wilds of Kentucky. They believed she had run away from a breeder. When they spayed her somehow the vet knew she had delivered two sets of puppies. They also had to pull many of her teeth. It is believed she had chewed her way out of a metal cage that the locals there called a coop. She broke off many of her teeth doing that.
We brought her home and did our best to get her settled. We gave her toys and she had no clue what to do with them. We would roll a ball and she would watch it as if to say, “So?” Eventually she relaxed in our company.
She thoroughly enjoyed her first pup cup of Starbucks whipped cream!
She learned how to help Bob drive.
About 4 months after we adopted her she was attacked by a pit bull in the neighborhood. We rushed her to the vet for an emergency Sunday visit. It was my birthday. She had head trauma, puncture wounds and soft tissue injuries. It was terribly frightening. She recovered and so did we. Bob followed through on getting that dog out of the neighborhood.
after her vet treatment
When we moved from Siesta drive to Platform street, she really came into her own. She began to think that yes, everyone could be a friend. She was convinced that certainly those visiting our house came to see just her.
Time rolled by. We loved her dearly and she in turn began to show a little affection for us. She has only barked a few times over the years, usually going many many months in between episodes. Even as a beagle she never bays or howls.
Best place to be if a thunderstorm occurs!
She is like my silent companion until we put her on a leash. Then she becomes the nose on legs. She has grown front shoulders like a football player and can hold her place while she reads her “pee-mail.”
About a year ago she began to show some pain in one back leg. Then it subsided and we thought no more about it. We did get her canine glucosamine chondroitin tablets. We bought a new couch and put a fabric cover on it. Her favorite place has always been lying on the couch and we allow that. She asks for so little.
I’ve taken to calling her “Beagley-beag.” She is also known as Luck-Luck and a variety of other terms of endearment. I talk to her throughout the day. If we have been gone from the house a few hours she greets us with little whines as if to ask, “Where have you been?” If we had reason to kennel her while we were away she comes out of her crate giving us a piece of her mind. It sounds like, “How dare you? Don’t you know I will be good?” She knows how to bawl us out without a single bark.
When I had shoulder surgery in January she would sometimes want to get up on the couch and had difficulty doing it. She would even cry for me to pick her up but I was unable to lift her while wearing the sling for 6 weeks. I made her a pillow bed on the floor. Occasionally she would screw up her courage and jump up on the couch. That became more and more rare.
She needed a bordetella injection and I was concerned about her refusal to jump up, so I took her to a new vet in March as the other vet had stopped offering boarding and gone corporate. The new vet put her on two medications for her leg pain and asked that she come in for more blood work before they would refill the one Rx. They wanted x-rays of her legs. We refused the x-rays as we do not plan to submit her to surgery.
When we went to the Smoky Mountains in April we boarded her with our granddaughter who likely takes more indulgent care of her than we do! We were shocked when we returned after 4 days. She had declined drastically. She could barely walk. When she did walk she held her tail with a strange bend in it as if trying to improve her balance. Whereas in the past this dog always had to be on a leash or she would take off, now we could drop the leash in the yard and she would not move. A couple times I took her out to “do her business” and she would just lie down. Bob used to walk her about a mile every morning. Now she can barely make it three doors down the street and back.
I began to grieve sensing that her time on earth without suffering had passed. I know, I have messed up this blog with past tense and present tenses all intermingled. Suffice it to say it is just simply difficult to write this out.
We decided to return to the vet that we had left. They have treated her the entire time she has been in our care. They agreed that she is definitely suffering. They offered a monthly injection for osteoarthritis (which the other vet had offered, too). We decided to try it for one or two months to see it is improves her particular condition. The vet says the problem seems to be in her back “knees.” We are weaning her off one medication. Once that is out of her system they might try a steroid medication if she still has not improved from the injection.
The quote at the top of this blog set me off on this telling. Here are a few of the bare bones of my grieving. I never mean to get attached to our pets, yet I do and I love them freely. I have a better understanding now of why farmers say they do not want animals in the house. Once you name them, and house them, and live day-to-day with them it is that much harder to let them go when the time comes.
One neighbor said she wished her 12 year old Corgi could just out live her. Too hard to let go. Another said it is not fair that they die while in our care. I do not want to embrace the alternative of not having a pet. Bob has stressed repeatedly how difficult it is at our ages (read 70’s) to walk and care for a pet. This particular beagle refused to just go outside and “do her business.” She insists on being walked. So there is the conundrum of what to do when she passes. Bob said I can have another dog I really want one. I know if we get another it would need to be half of Lucky’s weight. At 27 pounds she is just too heavy for me to carry.
April 2024 sunbathing on the back deck and favoring that one leg though both now pain her
Recently the Lord reminded me that Lucky is on loan to us. I will try my best to trust the Holy One with her future. I am praying for grace and strength to release her peacefully when it is time. Watching her suffer is so very difficult.
A righteous man has kind regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.
I did not post much last week because we were a way from home. First I went to the Associates Spring Retreat at the Convent of the Transfiguration where I have been an Associate since 1991. After that I came home on Sunday afternoon, emptied parts of my suitcase into another larger suitcase. On Monday morning we departed for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to hunt for our favorite wildflowers. It seems like whirlwind now, but it was all loads of fun.
The retreat was led by a man named Kelly Latimore. He has a degree in art and religious studies. Since 2011 he has been painting or as the iconographers say ‘reading’ icons. If you have participated in Lectio Divina, (divine reading of Scripture) you will be able to relate to what he asked us to do. He called it “Visio Divina,” (divine seeing of the icons). It was a fascinating experience. There were about 15 of us in person at the retreat and another group joined us via Zoom.
Kelly would show us a slide of an icon on a large screen. We would begin to share what we saw in the icon. He educated us in the history of making icons and shared the vision for his art.
“However, I do not wish to approach Iconography as an art form that simply follows an inherited tradition, knowledge and practice. I want it to be a creative process, meditation, and practice that brings about new self knowledge for the viewer and myself. Who are the saints that are among us here and now? I feel the need for new images. In some icons I wish to embrace the traditional forms and image but for many icons the image needs re-shaping, re-imagining, and re-wondering.” https://kelly-latimore.pixels.com/
Christ the Light
Mary Magdalene and Christ the Gardener
If you go to his website you can follow the progression of his paintings and icons. There you will see how his talent has grown.
If you have never before used an icon for prayer, here are some pointers from online.
Praying with icons is a contemplative practice wherein we slow down to pray and pay attention to God. This may be done in silence, by talking to God casually, or by using hymns and other ancient prayers. Or even in combination of all three. If you are just getting started in praying with icons, I suggest starting by working on your attentiveness to the image.
Look at your icon. What is the first thing you notice about the image? Where are your eyes drawn? What colours are attracting your attention?
After you have taken in the image, you can start to think about the details. Are the eyes of Christ or the Saint looking at you, or elsewhere? If Christ is looking at you, spend some time gazing back into his eyes. I find this is an especially good practice when I’m working on listening to God.
What other symbols are in the image? Do you know what they mean? What does looking at the icon make you feel right now. What is the icon saying to you?
The retreat was so interesting! Sharing what we each saw or sensed was particularly enriching. Hearing Kelly’s reasoning for how he did the various paintings was educational and nothing I would have understood on my own.
He has paintings in the National Cathedral and many churches throughout the United States. There will be an exhibit at St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Cary, North Carolina on May 4 from 1-7 PM as follows:
“Join us as we welcome acclaimed artist Kelly Latimore to Cary for a show featuring his vibrant and thought-provoking icons. Kelly’s work has appeared nationally in places like the Washington National Cathedral and was selected as the cover of a Pope Francis book of sermons. We will have 25 of his pieces on display throughout the interior of the church on Saturday, with doors open to the public from 1-7 pm. Children are welcome, and Kelly will be here during the exhibition. There will be a panel discussion starting at 4:30 pm, which will feature the artist and guests from the Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice and the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry. The day ends with an artist’s reception at 5:30 pm, and we’re asking folks to RSVP so we can plan accordingly. This is a day to celebrate Kelly’s art and vision, to see others in a new way, and to offer something to the community. There is no charge for the exhibit, but we do encourage donations.”
If you click the link above you can see his icon of the Transfiguration and Pentecost. He said when they were designing the Transfiguration the congregation did not want Christ in all white clothing. They decided to add silver leaf to the painting. When it was hung in the sanctuary he was amazed at how the light in the sanctuary made the icon flash and dazzled his eyes, like the actual transfiguration. I want to go to Salisbury to see that painting/icon! ROAD TRIP!!!
The mower teams are here and their machines are quite loud. Most every Monday or Tuesday morning they arrive while I am writing entries for the blog. Today is very warm so one of my office windows is wide open.
As the mowers moved into the distance I drew a deep breath of relief that the noise had lessened. Suddenly I was startled by a loud sound. Evidently a Robin had landed in the garden mulch below the window and began to sing. I about jumped out of my skin!
When close to your ear this one can be startling!
The tulip bulbs have been decimated by the rabbits – again. I put up spinners and wooden stakes, fence pieces and even aluminum pie pans that mom swore by. I finally told my grandson when he was due to come help in the garden with his dad that he should dig up all the tulip bulbs. Before the family could get here those pesky rabbits ate all the stems and leaves. Guess I will dig them up next year when they first emerge!
Ah the joys of nature! They do not conform to our wishes. And yes, we are still blowing maple seeds off the back deck and front walkway 😉
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Deuteronomy 10:14 NIV
Yep! The birds, the tulips, the rabbits, the maple seeds, the mower men and everything under the sun! Even you and me.
We are preparing for a blizzard here in Ohio. The pink blooms were lovely while they lasted.
Now the spring winds are bringing us a blizzard. A blizzard of pink and yellow maple seeds. Nature wants to be certain there are forever maple trees growing and spreading in Ohio. Thus the blizzard. A few have fallen already. The wind makes it sound like there are dry leaves out our door. Have you listened for that sound?
They are not leaves. Just hundred of thousands of seeds. Perhaps even millions fill the sky with whirligigs. Bob used the blower on the back deck to clear off the seeds. The next day he looked out the window and said, “I just blew those off!” I smiled and answered, “Not those particular helicopters.”
The flowerbeds will soon be sprouting these seeds. If the landscapers put down mulch before these are removed there will be an ideal sprouting medium for those seeds. I am still pulling out seedlings from last year’s blizzard!
Ah, but I would not give up living with my beloved maple trees. I was worried about the survival of two trees in the neighbor’s yard as they seemed to bloom really late. I had begun to wonder if those two trees were dying. They are in bloom now.
The shade they offer is so welcome. When the leaves turn colors in autumn I am delighted. Each year I try to video when the trees “drop their gowns.”
So this is not a blizzard we can shovel or combat with rock salt. In a couple weeks I will be removing handfuls of maple seeds from the flower beds. If I plant annuals I will be removing more sprouts and seeds.
Bring it on God! I have no control over this phenomenon, so I might as well find joy in it!
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 