Menu

On to the Living Flame

, ,

spotted sandpiper
spotted sandpiper

Somehow I finished reading the Spiritual Canticle. And decided to stick with St. John of the Cross, although he has left me far behind with his visions. Ah well, it is nice to look at mountains even if you unwilling and unable to climb them. 

The Living Flame of Love is the next writing in the anthology. Began it last night. A poem about merging the soul with God, with a detailed analysis of the poem’s meaning(s). I cannot remember a thing I read last night. 

However I most certainly remember my little Carmelite meditation of yesterday. About charity. In my words, charity is the greatest gift that the Holy Spirit can give us. I think that my words may be the exact words of the meditation so here is the reference: Divine Intimacy, by Father Gabriel of Mary Magdalene. 

I have decided to follow along with the calendar in Divine Intimacy, reading only the first meditation of the day, and skipping everything else. I try to meditate on the quote I choose for twenty minutes. And I try to keep the quote, and/or the meaning of the quote for me, in mind throughout the next day. Until I read the next meditation.

In my little life, I have not found any authors so inspiring as St. John of the Cross and Father Gabriel. I thank God that I have these books to read, for without them life would be grim for me. 

purrfectw

mission accomplished

,

In spite of receiving messages that the blog transfer had failed, it seems to have succeeded. I have to eat an extremely late breakfast now and move on to the rest of my life. The blog I just transferred was started after the death of my older cat Muffin. Now a little over two years ago, I need to stop paying $120 a year to WordPress.com. So the blog has transferred over here and merged into this site.

We are having cloudy weather with threat of thundershowers. I have to be ready to dash out to cover the hammock. Everything else is covered. I ought to do another berry pick. The raspberries are starting to finish up. The cooler temperature will either prolong them or hasten their end.

Parts of the lawn are getting a little long. But if the grass is wet I cannot mow. I could thin the apples on little tree. I could start getting the cherries off the ground and off the tree. They are wormy and I won’t eat them.

There is a wasp nest in my window and I am noticing the wasps are in the garden now. Someone is coming to remove the nest in a few days. I wish I had the nerve to let it stay until cooler winter but I am afraid of them. Especially if they are buzzing around the garden.

The website is not high on the list of things to do.

wasspsew

Wasps and Bees

,

Our super heat wave is diminishing ever so slightly. Today I called a pest removal firm to remove a large wasp’s nest growing against my front window.  

The wasps are living their lives, building a home, flying off to forage, feeding their young. Similar to what we humans do. With differences of course. The wasps are communal creatures, with a queen who is the mother of all. There are some drones, who mate with the queen. And the rest of the busy wasps are workers, who work all day and sleep all night. 

My first response to seeing the nest was terror. I consulted a few neighbours, and rushed off to buy a can of wasp spray. Then I went home and studied online. My daughter warned me of pheromones, a scent that a threatened wasp emits. The pheromone alerts other wasps who join the sting attack on the threat. 

Because I have a strong reaction to wasp stings, I wanted the wasps gone without risk to myself. At the same time I did not wish to harm them. They are my neighbours, not my enemies.  Plus I do not want wasp poison on the trailer, deck, or grass, or wafting through the air.  

I waited till the long weekend was over and phoned this morning. Booked an appointment for nest week. The wasp person will come and remove the nest, spraying all over.

Yesterday I got 2 bee stings in the garden. A bee got caught in my wrap around skirt. No reaction, except itch  from  2 huge red blotches on my thigh.I thought bees only stung once. The poor little thing fell out and hobbled away as I was heading inside. 

All God’s creatures. Wasps, bees, mosquitos, fleas… I wish I had the courage to let the wasps carry on till till colder weather, but I am afraid. 

beeze
wildcat

Experimenting

Domain junky. That’s what I am. Whenever my provider had a domain sale I jumped in. Now I have a clutter of domains which no one looks at, and I play around at in rotation. I don’t just dump them all outright. I force myself to make use of them, because I spent the money on them, and intend to make myself remember, until they expire, the folly of over spending and over collecting.

Confession done. One thing I did recall from my early days of tech courses, in the creation of sub domains. I was a bit rusty at the procedure, but finally here I have created a healthy (I hope) sub domain. that is not costing me any more to renew, though I believe I had to get a SSL certificate for it. Not enough time to check it out this morning.

Addendum to confession. As well a the cluster of domains, I have acquired, over the years of plenty (which have been replaced now by years of not quite enough), no less than 3 life subscriptions to theme creators.

And yet here I am using a free wordpress theme (Promos by TemplateSales). And I am daring to look at the options of “upgrading”. Fortunately Template is not very clear on ezactly what “upgrading” supplies so I can easily resist the invite that keeps popping up on my Purr wordpress dashboard.

To sum my lengthy post, I have been using each of my domains to try out different subscription plans. Purr, though, is still using Promos because it is simple and easy to use, and doesn’t look all that bad.

Bird Songs

, ,

bbrd2w

All day long I hear bird songs.  Bright, happy singing. A background of joy. They don’t like to be photographed, these little tweeters that sit very still on wires and on branches till the camera appears. Then suddenly they disappear. They still sing, but from under cover. 

I am reading more from Divine Intimacy. Not every day. But when I have time. It is a little more down to earth than St. John of the Cross. I still read a little of St. John before going to bed but the ideas don’t stay with me. They are too far beyond me. I have about 30 pages left in the Spiritual Canticle. I’ll finish it out of respect for St. John. 

Photo is an old one from my archives. A red wing blackbird. I rarely see them now for they only stop by on migration. 

windowcaredw

Hot Times

, ,

Long ago when my children were very young, the older began repeating a line of a song: “we’ll have a hot time, in the old town, tonight”. She probably heard it from me, for I am often repeating lines of songs I remember. Usually I can only remember one line of songs I heard as a child. For some reason some little bits just stay in my mind and never go away. At least I hope they never go away.

Now then, where was I? Oh yes, hot times. It’s certainly a hot time around here. Although not as bad as other parts of the world. And yesterday we had a very brief, thunderous downpour which saved me from watering the garden. Today the sun is back in all its glory.

The tall grass has become a mosquito and flea paradise. Just thinking of them (fleas) makes me feel itchy. I felt so bad for Rozsa scratching away that I broke down and got Advantage II from the Vet. I followed her around the trailer as she avoided me. As soon I touched her she would walk away.

I persevered and my kitty finally stayed still long enough for me to apply it as directed. About a second. It was a tiny tube. I am in the process washing bedding, and vacuuming. She is no longer scratching. But I am.

Yesterday I walked to a shady beach, and as soon I sat down, the mosquitos came. Only when I went back up to the sunny train tracks did they leave me alone.

Yes for sure

,

Today I found a link with clear (for me) instructions for migrating a wordpress.com site to a wordpress.org site:

https://www.isitwp.com/how-to-move-your-site-from-wordpress-com-to-wordpress-org/#undefined

Thank you, isitwordpress.com! Maybe I won’t start today, but at least I know it can be done without too much agony. I shall have a look at the Export tool in WordPress.com dashboard first. I have a little time today to tinker. On second. thought maybe I will start.

Well, that was easy. I now have all the photos on my computer. Another day I’ll deal with the rest! Here’s a golden oldie from 6 years ago.

Muffin my darling passed on 2 years ago, on July 11. Here she is, in a comfortable moment. She filled my live with love. And I believe she lives on somewhere in a better place, doing good things.

Muffin loved to knead this blanket. I kept it on the couch for her. She lived with me for about 6 years, an adoptee from a family who moved back east. She enjoyed being outside very much and I have many memories of her company as I worked in the yard. She would join me, too, for my reading breaks under the maple tree. On returning from trips to town, Muffin was always waiting at the front gate for me.

July

,

Thought summer would never arrive. It did, for a while. Sometimes in the afternoon the sun came out. Sometimes a day or two of heat. I notice the garden needs both sun and rain to flourish. Despite the late start to summer, the garden is doing better this year than ever before. 

The marigolds are a little flustered by all the rain, but the the lady’s mantle are very happy. It is easier to pull the tall invasive couch grass out when the soil is damp. I never manage to get it all out though. Good thing I am not a perfectionist.  

St. John of the Cross gets ever more mystical and beyond reach, but still satisfying. I have returned to my Carmelite meditation book for more down to earth inspiration. 

Especially appreciated were readings on the Sacred Heart in Divine Intimacy by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene. He often includes prayers written by saints in his mediations.  

 

ladysmantle

Load More