Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Goose and Gander Back Again



GOOSE AND GANDER

While we shelter on the property, the goose and gander find shelter in our pond for their most important role in life.    

They're back again for the fourth Spring in a row and they are nesting in exactly the same spot!  They even seem to remember who we are and do not get distressed when we approach the nest!  They will bring forth their young in about a week.


May we also profit in some way from our need to 
"stay-at-home".

"Here's lookin' at ya."


Monday, March 23, 2020

Covid 19, Time for Hope




A blossoming "fruit" tree on our grounds.   One of the first days of summer provided perfect sun and sky as background.



Even while we mourn the deaths of thousands whose lives are taken by COVID 19, at the same time these very deaths are moving medical professionals to search for a long-term fix that will end this pandemic.    So many of us are living today because of so-called miracle drugs and vaccines that owe their existence to skillful and committed scientists.   I benefited myself from penicillin, a drug that first became available only in the years that I needed it to cure my rheumatic fever.    Had I been born and contracted the disease just twenty years earlier, I may not have lived past my eighth birthday.   

With this experience I am naturally optimistic.    Our optimism, however, is often challenged.  The predictions of treatments that will save the lives of cancer patients have often been too optimistic.    And the nature of this new virus may be such that it will always be ahead of our ability to control it.   That being said, we have proven our ability to control other such viruses.

But my optimism also has its source in hope.   As a Christian I understand the scriptural record of Jesus’ healings as a revelation of God’s hopes for humanity.    I think of the revelation in this way:  God understood that we ourselves, created in God’s image, had the ability to better care for one another.   If Jesus knew nothing about medical science, he shared with his heavenly Father in this hope-filled understanding.    He shared the Father’s confidence that in imitating his own love for us we would develop new talents for compassion and care. 

The committed and curious health care workers and scientists among us are the saints who have practiced this compassion with all of their energy.   They are doing Christ’s work.    God alone knows how it will all play out.   But our efforts at compassion and care can only enhance the plan that God has for us.

Monday, March 16, 2020

90 minutes before sunrise March 16


A Clear Morning!




And the planets are still making their presence known six days later, no sheltering in place for them.   in fact Mars has moved down and past Jupiter while Saturn keeps its distance.


Sunday, March 01, 2020

The End of Winter


Winter Finally Coming to an End

Two Dull Rainy Months!   January and February of 2020!

But a Hint of Spring on Leap Day






These buds almost hidden in the dead leaves near the East Cloister

But the Morning Skies through February  Featured Jupiter and Mars


And here with the Moon Between Them  (Mars in the upper right hand corner!)




And below on Mar 14, at 6:20 AM they appear much close to one another.    Saturn is also nearby but I will be lucky if I can get it to show in my phone camera.