Category: Nature

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Faith, Nature, Thanks, Worship

Paw Paw Tree

When we lived on Siesta Drive we had a pawpaw tree in the back yard. I never once saw fruit on it, but the unfolding leaves were dramatic!! Sadly I did not get a photo.

And yes, there are two acceptable spellings.

We were walking recently at the Cincinnati Nature Center. We took a trail we do not usually take. As we were wandering along I remembered there had recently been a guided walk showing participants native fruits. As we walked amidst the pawpaw trees, sadly I thought,”Huh, I have never ever seen a Pawpaw fruit in the wild.”

As Bob took various photos and the dog moseyed along sniffing the myriad scents along the trail, I noticed a rounded rock. “Hmm,” I thought,”the gravel here is rough not rounded.” I nudged it a bit with my toe, then I bent to pick it up. NOT a rock!! A pawpaw! And they really do smell like fresh bananas!

Bob captured this photo for me and for your enjoyment!

It really smelled delicious! I have had a queasy stomach so I could not bring myself to taste it, though I really wanted to! As the dog and I strolled along I carried it with us. Trying to take a photo of something else, I accidentally closed my hand over it. It had burst the skin. Yep! it was sticky. I put it on a log hoping someone else would delight to discover it. Of course, all of this lead me to look up its details when I got home!

The pawpaw plant can grow up to 12 metres (40 feet) tall and has pointed, broadly oblong, drooping leaves up to 30 cm (12 inches) long. The malodorous, purple, 5-cm (2-inch) flowers appear in spring before the leaves. The edible fruits are 8 to 18 cm (3 to 7 inches) long and resemble stubby bananas; the skin turns black as the fruit ripens. Depending on the variety, pawpaw fruits vary in size, time of ripening, and flavour.

Brittanica

The pawpaw is a patch-forming (clonal) understory tree found in well-drained, deep, fertile bottomland and hilly upland habitat, with large, simple leaves. Pawpaw fruits are the largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States. Pawpaw fruits have a sweet, custard-like flavor somewhat similar to banana, mango, and pineapple, and are commonly eaten raw, but are also used to make ice cream and baked desserts. The bark, leaves, and fruit contain the insecticidal neurotoxin, annonacin. Native Americans used the fiber of the pawpaw tree to weave ropes and nets.

Because of the lack of human propagation and the abandonment of much farmland in the Southeast during and after the Great Depression, pawpaws became extremely rare by the late 20th century, but are making a comeback. In fact, the State of Kentucky has established an experimental farm and agricultural labs in order to develop commercial varieties for international marketing. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the Catawba Nation of South Carolina and North Carolina have initiated major pawpaw cultivation and experimentation programs in order to encourage Native Americans to grow the delicious fruit.

https://apalacheresearch.com/2021/06/24/the-indigenous-agriculture-of-the-americas-pawpaw-fruit/

Could it be that in my lifetime Pawpaw fruit might hit my local market? Well, after getting a whiff of the fragrance I would encourage you to purchase and taste some if you come to it in the market!

Largest edible fruit indigenous to the United States! Wow!

photo from Apalacheresearch website

Keep your eyes open for those treasures in plain sight!! Never now what you might find!!

 Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. 9 The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:8-9 NIV
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Humor, Listen, Memories, Nature

Speaking of Cicadas

If you missed my earlier post where I mentioned this cicada you can read about it by clicking the link below.

https://wordpress.com/post/treasures-in-plain-sight.org/14569

I captured this cicada that spent the morning on our driveway in the rain. I thought maybe it was dead, but not totally as the legs moved a little. I went to get a clear cup and a piece of paper. Went back outside and scooped it up.

Did not realize until I took these photos that the government rearranged George Washington on the newer quarters and gave him a new hairdo! This is about fifty cents worth of 2023 cicada. Not the periodic cicada that I posted about a year or so ago.

I have often wondered with the abundance of insects that cycle through the seasons where do all those wings go? I rarely see just a wing outdoors!

Can you imagine being a small bird and coming up those white dots that look like eyes?

Or these actual bug-out eyes?

Well this cicada for one is battered and shell might be dented? It was fun to day dream with you about this noisiest of bugs!

Later, I took the cicada outdoors again. I was going to slide it off the paper onto the top of the power box so Lucky would not try to eat it since it seemed to be dying. Much to my surprise, with a noisy flurry of cicada wings (even though battered) it took off into the sky! Guess it came to visit for notoriety on this blog!! Hope I did not traumatize it too much.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Nature, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

Got Nourishment?

by r m dutina

Where do you draw nourishment for your soul? I asked Bob to take the photo above because it stirred something in me. You can see not only how the leaves are attached to the branch, but how the leaves have a nourishment system.

Walking to our garbage can storage area we have been watching the elephant ears develop and then open.

M L Dutina

Again the nourishment avenues within each leaf.

M L Dutina

Can you trace the nourishment in your soul from the river of living water flowing inside of you?

I love the photo above. If you look at the top center of the leaf you can see the rough corner of decorative stone on the house. I can only suppose that a wind storm caused the creases on the left side of the photo. Such contrast between rock and leaf.

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5 VIV

How is your connection to the LORD? Are you remaining in Him and giving way for Him to remain in you? Then the admonition, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Nothing that lasts, nothing of eternal significance and meaning can be done separate from Him.

As you pass growing leaves or perhaps fallen colored leaves, take a moment to pause and look at the vein system. Is your path of nourishment as clearly defined? How might you deepen and improve that nourishment path?

Steve Green recorded this years ago, 2017. When I heard it for the first time it stopped me in my tracks! Two minutes of challenge. Hoping you will listen!

I am praying that you listen to what the Lord is saying to you personally. I pray you make whatever changes He wishes for you to have better nourishment for your soul and spirit. Will you?

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Nature, Poetry, Thanks

You had Me At The Title “God’s Worship”

I have always loved cello music. Try this one!

Worship in God’s service. I love it!

I have been reading You are Here by David Steindl-Rast. In Chapter 6 called The It he quotes Martin Buber, St. Augustine and Robert Frost to name a few.

What I ultimately encounter in any You, I can also encounter in any tree: Mystery. This happens, as Buber says, “through decision and grace.” Both are necessary. I must decide to open my heart wide for this experience and receive it as a gift. “All is grace,” said St. Augustine, all is Life’s gift. And Life is the story of our adventurous encounters with that “Secret,” of which, so far, we only know from Robert Frost that is “sits in the middle and knows, while “we dance in a ring and suppose.” Draw out the line of relationship into infinity and it will lead to that “Secret” – the Mystery, which we encounter in and through all that exists.

-Brother David Steindl-Rast

He ends the chapter with this comment. “What we need to relearn is to ‘kneel and admire’ in reverence and amazement.”

My body SO protests kneeling in the sense of next to my bed for prayer or at the altar for communion, but the Prayer of Manasseh in the Apocrypha helps me with the line in verse eleven: “And now I bend the knee of my heart, imploring you for your kindness.” The Prayer of Manasseh is a part of the Apocrypha, accepted by some as biblical though not necessarily accepted by all persons as biblical. I personally love this prayer.

So I bend the knee of my heart in admiration, reverence and amazement towards the creation of the Father. This is one of the chapters I was reading while sitting on the porch recently when observations and poems seemed to pour forth out of me.

Imagine if we would approach each person as mystery. We are so prone to make judgements and stereotype people this could bring a radical change in our every encounter! Instead of being exhausted by people the introvert might see meeting as an adventure? Instead of thriving off others, the extrovert might see meeting another as an unknown treasure. Just thinking on the page here.

I hope this blog helps move you towards the decision and grace to move towards life with your eyes wide open and your heart seeking Mystery. May you be blessed with abundant life.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Art, Challenge, Humor, Listen, Nature, Poetry

Poetry

Waiting for Autumn ©Molly Lin Dutina 

Neighbors yard is filled from
First tree to drop her gown
likely Yellow Poplar
We have a few buttons
And ribbons in our lot from other
Ladies preparing to drop their gowns

Cicadas still sing afternoon melody
Sun shines brightly
Some maple branches turning
getting ready to disrobe
Mostly green on our horizon
Autumn waits at the corner

So humor from proof reading blog. Must have thought I had deaf cicadas in our yard because I wrote “Cicadas still sign afternoon melody.” Oh Molly, bad humor.

One cicada was so loud last evening, for a moment Bob thought it might have gotten into the house. Saw a huge one on the sidewalk when I walked Lucky this morning. Not dead, but certainly slowing down. Was this who we heard last evening?

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Nature, Poetry, Prayer

Bachelor Buttons©Molly Lin Dutina

Going inward with the deep blue of the bachelor buttons I sink down. 
I take the encompassing blue with me. Down. 

I drop my shoulders 
Down I breathe the blue petals. 

Knowing the blue from the petals will fade. Down.
For now they wrap me in stillness. Down.

Wash me in the blue brightness I pray. Down.
Not Mrs. Stewart’s bluing agent. Down.

But the true blue of fresh flower. Down.
Peculiar petals, Down.

Not like tea rose. Down.

To where I am nestled inside the flower.
Down.

Beyond the pollen gathering bees. Down.

Sitting still in the Blues
And restored.

As you can tell I have been riding a wave of poetry. The book Every Day is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin has helped to challenge and inspire me. Uncertain how long this wave will last. Hope you are enjoying it!

I was frustrated as I have 4 photos of the flowers that I wanted to intersperse with the verses. Word Press was having none of that. I suppose if I spent enough time changing blocks and formatting I might get it. Hopefully, you grasped the idea, even without all the photos!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Nature, Poetry, Traveling

iPhone into the Sky

I am not by any means a climatologist but I was amazed by the heavens this recent afternoon.

Afternoon Grandeur ©Molly Lin Dutina 

I shot the iPhone
Into the sky
Not truly able to focus
Hoping to capture
Afternoon grandeur
And there it is!
Great white fluffy clouds
In brilliant blue sky.
Glory!

Wonder of wonders
It seems the clouds 
form jigsaw puzzle pieces
One edge of cumulus takes the shape
Of other cumulus edge
They drift closer and closer
Then join as if
They were always one
Amazed I cannot hear them 
click into place!

Bright blue sky
Great big puffy clouds
Were you torn in two
Or are your edges trying to
Match the other one?

Ah! Yes, I see you are matching 
each other’s edges
How did I never sit still before 
To watch this? 
Then as a larger cloud you move 
towards another and shape 
your edges to link - 
that is absolutely amazing!

How did I never observe this before?
Sitting still in late summer
Multitudes of blessings appear
Molly keep looking
For treasures in plain sight!
2:52
2:57
3:02

“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.

Revelation 1:7 NIV

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

Matthew 17:5 NIV

The word is used as a symbol of the Divine presence, as indicating the splendour of that glory which it conceals.

https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/cloud/
Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Faith, Nature, Poetry, Thanks

Such Fun

Hummers and Jewels ©Molly Lin Dutina  23-9-1
Finally after the long wait watching these shrubs 
Grow from sprout to 3 feet tall
The delicate jewelweed
Shows a couple orange flowers and then 15 followed by
A sudden explosion and they are countless
Long line of plants forms a border to neighbors lot
Deep breath of autumn air, a taste of what is to come
Circles back today towards summer swelter
Having had a taste, we are eager for cooler

Then I see it!
First one flower trembles, then that one
Looking closely I can barely see the 3 inch wing span
I read amazingly she remembers
every flower she visits!
Approximately the weight of a regular marshmallow
The flying dynamo speeds around the exterior of the house
Up to 24 miles per hour, fastest in North America
Yet flits from jewelweed flower to flower 
Barely making the plant tremble

Likely this property boundary is too much
for the hummer to patrol, control
Yes, they continue to guard the feeder we put out
But ignore the large area of nectar filled jewelweed
I think the overabundance
Is God’s way of saying,
‘Share, little birds!”

Then I see it again
Sip, dart, sip
The wonder of nature
Glory of God in 
Wild flowers and wild birds

How blessed we are to live on this lot
In this house
At this time of life
With these birds and flowers
In abundance for our delight.
Bee shows how its done
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Listen, Memories, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Traveling

In The Sky

Sky Speaks ©Molly Lin Dutina 23-8-24

"There is a white scribble
in that Blue Sky," I note,
"scribble with a long underline
like an exclamation point."
It reverberates with “Look!”
This morning sky was dark and gloomy
Booming with thunder
Flashing with lightening
Now sky is glary with sunshine
Ridiculous with heat
hours ago you would never
have suspected this total change
was even possible
now be in awe of the 
power of transformation
hours can create.

Will you allow God to cause a similar transformation in you? Are you willing to yield to that power? The sky was always blue, yet our eyes could not perceive it.

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.

Isaiah 43:19 NIV

“I am making a new creation,” says the Lord. For you and me He is making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland! There is a plan. Whether or not our eyes can see it, our brains perceive it, the plan is there waiting for us to fulfill it. Through the power, strength and guidance of the Holy One a way in the wilderness is found.

We once visited Craters of the Moon park in Idaho. It was a very strange wilderness indeed. While we were there one woman went hiking with her friend for her birthday. She had hiked the park many times. They got lost and died. Here is a short video giving you a sampling of what that wilderness is like.

Visitors are urged not only to not hike alone, but to tell someone where they plan to hike. It is easy to get lost there.

It is easy to get lost here, also! Have you asked the LORD to guide your life and journey through this strange land of living?

 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV

In Christ. New creation. With purpose and a plan to fulfill. Follow on, fellow travelers!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Art, Humor, Memories, Nature

Gossamer Glistening

I have been noticing spider strings in the morning sun. These are not “webs” as such, more like hunting lines? I suppose the spider drops out of the trees because these begin high in the air) and drops down into the grass. The sun catches the gossamer line and glistens in my eyes.

Makes me wonder how all the birds frequenting our feeder miss those lines as they come flying in? We have decals and a blotter marker that leaves a residue that the birds can see so they do not crash into our sliding glass door. Does the spider have something like that in its silk?

I forgot to write about all this until this morning when I put the sprinkler on our clump river birch and then the new Mallow shrub. High heat this week and no rain in the forecast, ugh. Trying to unwind the hose and blech! a spider string was caught in my hair. Now I am wrestling the hose, (and I eventually turned the hose storage roller over on its side), trying to get the string out of my hair and remembering that I did not write about all of this.

In high school I did a science project with Becky about spiders. She was an artist and her family lived in a large house with an old stone basement. We sprayed a piece of cardboard with hairspray, captured a spider web . And repeated the process. Not all the captures were successful. We used the good ones as our displays to discuss the various kinds of silk a spider uses in construction.

Likely the most maddening encounter I ever had with a spider occurred at our last address on Siesta Drive. We had bird feeders (as usual) on our front porch. One day we came home from shopping and wondered how the hummingbird was holding this strange position on the porch.

Upon closer inspection, Grr! A spider had captured it and killed it. I was furious that our little friend had fallen prey to the natural order. Then I began to wonder what size spider could do that? I went inside to get the broom. Believe it or not I found that spider hiding along the edge of the porch. I drove it out into the open and beat it to death with the broom. Not exactly proud of that moment, but I felt justified at the time.

Silk so strong. Arachnid so mysterious. I am not afraid of spiders but like many people I do not like when I get their silks in the face. Walking a trail at the Nature Center I am always sort of relieved when Bob goes first and knocks the hunting lines away.

So with all my unscientific lingo but strong interest I guess I could have the title Citizen naturalist?

A man without God is trusting in a spider’s web. Everything he counts on will collapse.

Living Bible, Job 8: