Precious Autumn Sunshine

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.

- Nathaniel Hawthorne

I am always amazed at the stuff I don't know, like for instance who was Nathaniel Hawthorne? Wow, who knew. Interesting that he changed his name to distance himself from his judge relative John Hathorne (note spelling) connected to the Salem Witch trials.

Here's the year, 1692 1693 and of course I am intrigued. here's a great article. You know who else was accused in the witch trials? Captain John Alden of original Mayflower fame. Wow, again I am amazed at the stuff I don't know.

I always keep away from the demonic if I can possibly help it. I do believe in the world unseen. And there are powers and principalities. Thankfully I know that the Bible is my final word to any moral question I might have.

I Thessalonians 5:21, 22 ²¹Test everything. Hold on to the good. ²²Avoid every kind of evil.  Some translations say FLEE from evil. I think that's easy when I consider the occultic practice of casting a spell, I would flee the scene, but what about the occultic practice of reading my daily horoscope? Is it just curiosity or a major belief system? Any thing that takes me away from my relationship from God is 'sin'. That is my main job, to draw closer to God on a daily basis.

"Sin?" you say. Yup, here's an amazing article. I say amazing, it is concise and Bible based, a quick read.

What a rabbit trail today! The quote by Nathaniel Hawthorne is such a wonderful reminder for us to practice being mindful of all the wonderful moments that we have each and every day, it really struck a chord in my soul. I LOVE autumn sunshine, it is full of shadows. It is a transition time between life and death here in my yard. It starts with a sprinkle of a few brown leaves... a quick glance up to the still green trees and clear blue cloud dotted sky. If I'm not careful...time will cheat me and before I know it I will be shuffling through the leaf carpet!

May we take purposeful moments today and let autumn cover us and envelope us.

Perfect treasures for this season:

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http://www.etsy.com/listing/58397935/felt-brooch-with-vintage-button

And a shameless plug for my soap shop...

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Stop by won't you? Super deal on really lovely items!

Autumn Colors

I love the fact that I live in a part or Oregon where we have different season changes. I relish the fall and all it's glorious colors.

The grapes are just starting to fully ripen. We have 2 old vines in the back, one is a green table grape that makes these mini little ampules of intensely flavored sweet seedless grape. We don't get a bountiful harvest from these, but it's a treat to taste a natural unimproved USA grape, instead of an import as they all are in the supermarket.

Plus a glorious red that has seeds in it. Jelly-o-rama on a good year, but this year it got dug up and put in a pot because it was planted where the greenhouse is.  It will produce for us next year.

October is the month of endings and beginnings here, the nights start to get colder and one by one the veges wilt their way down to become worm food.

 There are two major historical events to investigate surrounding the date of October 31st. The Church's holiday, the start of the Reformation Movement,  the nailing of the theses

And the pagan's holiday, Samhain, which is the basis for Halloween as we know it.

I always have a great curiosity about these two topics at this time of year, it amazes me at how many of the ritual aspects of Samhain we have adopted in mainstream life as we decorate and flip through magazines and 'craftify' this ancient religious practice of the druids. And conversely, I am amazed at the culture and religious practices of the 16th century, the superstitions and rituals that the nailing of the 95 thesis on the church door exposed.

I love to start the decorating at this time of year.

The gold brown red orange black of October and November.

I love the strength in those colors, to chase away the gloomy onset of gray and cloudy days to come.

Find me, always, wishing you a blessing from above!

Isaiah 26:4Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

!

Delighful Summer's End

Wow am I excited... I got a rave review on my soap at: http://mommyminded.blogspot.com/2010/10/paradise-essentials-review.html

She says:  I was so lucky to be able to try some of the handmade soaps and I have to say that I was SO SURPRISED at how much they lather up. This is a big deal to me. I want to "see" the soap on me while I wash up. If I don't look like I bathed in cool whip, I don't like it.

 The Paradise Essentials not only lathers great, but smells great too. The scents are very strong in the shower and make the house smell great :) I like that it doesn't leave an over powering smell on me after I dry off but I can still smell hints of it through out the day!

Again, wow. it is a very nice review and she featured lots of my products. YAY. Take a quick jog over there http://mommyminded.blogspot.com/2010/10/paradise-essentials-review.html she has some great cleaning tips and hints on there as well.

Well what's new in your world? I have been busy and sick. Great, hey!

Summer has ended in Oregon with a long slow exhale.

Still finding gifts in the garden...

And saying goodbye to others...

As a slight degree or two has chosen the first to begin the long winters sleep.

My greenhouse project is progressing nicely...

The sun's rotation out of summer into fall is casting different shadows now

And you might notice a visable peeking of the green!!!

And if you guessed these are my little seedlings, sproutlings, you would be right! Not the ones below...

Plus I got some nursery 6 packs and seperated them into pots, they are coming along nicely

and are big enough to start making a salad with.

Mean while, the most of the garden has plenty of life in it for me the bugs and the chickens,

Except for a few vines who have felt the first of the temperature dips.

And a few old chums are just hanging in there for the grandbabies artistic creations.

the hens keep guard over their domain, and give out hearty cackles when ever a human enters their radar. They have come to expect fresh buggy greens and overripe squash.

The wicked old witch

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and

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 her

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 minions....

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can be heard cackling with glee as well.

I do have one thought as we part for now...

buahhaha...