The Riot of the Shrinking Violets

The Riot of the Shrinking Violets

Surely we never planted a single violet anywhere on our extensive lawns here at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville.  But this season they are everywhere popping up amid the grasses and sometimes in riotous clusters.   There are surely more than a million of them and they all bloom at once.    It happened during this last week.   No shrinking violets around this spring season!  They celebrate the abundant gifts of Easter.

THE PHRASE FINDER offers this as the origin of "shrinking violet."

"In a poetry magazine called The Indicator, the poet and essayist Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) drew attention to the modest wood violet:

'There was the buttercup, struggling from a white to a dirty yellow; and a faint-coloured poppy; and here and there by the thorny underwood a shrinking violet.'"

Notre Dame Paris

Notre Dame, Paris

Reading about the catastrophic fire at Notre Dame and seeing the heart-rending photos of the place in flame, I recall the blessing I had on June 27, 2011.   I entered the Cathedral and immediately heard choral strains.  Even an American melody: "My Lord, What a Morning."!   A choir of college-age Californians were practicing in the rear of the Cathedral preparing for their concert that evening.

What a wonderful place to perform.   Of course I took just a few photos to seal my memory:

Early reports indicate that these windows are intact.  Praise God!

Moon watches over the sunset

The crescent moon watches over the sunset, April 9, 2019

3rd Sun of Lent but 1st of Spring

SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 2019

 (3rd of Lent, 1st of Spring)

Grey skies and a stiff breeze mark a cheerless Sunday afternoon here at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville.    First Sunday of Spring?    Look across the landscape and see no signs of life (except a turkey buzzard overhead!)    The colors of spring are hard to find and it takes a little exploring.

But the geese are back at the Lake preparing as in the last two years for another gaggle of goslings.

Snow Pics Jesuit Center for Spiritual Growth

Wernersville:  Some viewers might be getting tired of these snow pictures....but these are probably the last.   Only about six weeks to go and the lilacs will be in bloom and maybe we'll have more goslings at Lake Goupil!

What a difference four months makes!

March 2, 2019

November 3, 2018

March 18, 2019

AM after the ice storm Feb 13, 2019

The morning sun greets our icy dressed-down but sturdy trees.