Sunday Schoolism 5: Love Has Character

Love has character and integrity, and it calls for a high standard of conduct. Love that is indifferent to the rights or wishes of the other person is a contradiction in terms.

"This is the message that you heard from the beginning: Love each other." (1 John 3:11)

                                                                                                           Brian Russel
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A Tale of Two Gardens

A tale of two gardens.....

One built to impress......one built to inspire.

 One built for a king...........one built by a painter.

Versailles and Giverny

The Palace of Versailles began life as a "humble little hunting lodge" for King Louis XIII.  His son, Louis XIV, who called himself the Sun King began transforming the hunting lodge into the palace as we know it today.  Every little detail is covered in gold leaf, including the fences and gates that display one of many sun motifs that bolster the whole Sun King theme.

The interior of the palace is decorated in the French baroque style with everything drenched in gold leaf or 24 k gold. The French government and court was moved to the palace in 1682.  The road leading to the palace was raised so that the important people visiting the palace wouldn't be able to look out their carriage windows and see commoners walking beside the road. And as a commoner living in the town of Versailles, you had the opportunity to buy the king's table scraps.  No wonder King Louis XIV and Queen Marie-Antoinette were evicted from the palace by revolutionist (many of whom were women) in an event that eventually lead to their beheading. French peasants were starving while the royals lived like this...

This golden border on the velvet wallpaper was woven with genuine gold thread.  The velvet wallpaper was only used in the winter.  It was replaced with silk wallpaper in the summer months.

And did I mention that it was considered an honor to be invited to observe the King wake up in the morning, including watching his first trip to the royal commode.

But we are discussing the gardens.  The gardens of Versailles were designed by Andre' Le Lotre from 1661-1700. The entire park covers 800 hectares (1 hectare = 2.47 acres) with the actual gardens taking up 90 hectares.

blog.parisattitude.com

The Grand Canal, located at the top of the above picture, was used for naval demonstrations.  Kind gives you an idea of the scale of the whole thing.  The Republic of Venice gifted Versailles with gondolas manned by gondoliers. And what's a garden without a fountain?

They didn't have the fountain turned on the day we were there, and in the background workers were erecting some sort of sculpture for an upcoming modern art exhibition, but you get the picture.

Gold lizards and turtles surrounding the fountain.

The view King Louis had outside his window.

When the gardens were being made, King Louis didn't want to wait for the trees to mature so he sent his soldiers out into the countryside to dig up 100 year old trees and bring them to Versailles.  Well that did it for me; as beautiful as it might be, I was disgusted.

But part of my disgust came from having visited the most humble, genuine, heartfelt garden earlier in the week- the gardens of Claude Monet.

                                                      More on his beautiful garden next time....

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

All goes back to the earth,

and so I do not desire

pride of excess or power,

but the contentments made

by men who have had little:

the fisherman’s silence

receiving the river’s grace,

the gardener’s musing on rows....

~Wendell Berry, "The Want of Peace"

There is something wrong in a government where they who do the most have the least. There is something wrong when honesty wears a rag, and rascality a robe; 

when the loving, the tender, eat a crust, while the infamous sit at banquets. 

~Robert Ingersoll, A Lay Sermon

They Remember, Too

A week ago I was standing in the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach in Normandy and it is that experience that makes today's Memorial Day celebrations so much more meaningful to me than ever before.

In 1944, France granted perpetual concessions to 174 acres bordering the beach known during the war as Omaha Beach, one of the sites of the Allied invasion of Normandy. This land holds the graves of 9,386 Americans killed during the invasion.

We entered the cemetery at the semicircular garden located at the top of the picture above.  This garden is known as the Garden of the Missing.

The garden is surrounded by walls that contain the names of 1,557 men who died in the Normandy campaign but whose bodies could not be located.

A large inscription is chiseled into the wall at the center of the garden....

To these we owe the highest resolve 
that the cause for which they died shall live.

We left the Garden of the Missing and climbed the stairs into a beautiful colonnade.

Each end of the colonnade contained an area with maps and narrative explaining the military operations of the D-day invasion.

Rising up in the center of the colonnade is a statue entitled The Spirit of American Youth Rising From the Waters. There were about 120 Americans in our group and we gathered at the foot of this statue for a short ceremony of remembrance.  The National Anthem was played and we sang the words that became forever more dear in that moment.  As we sang I realized that many of the French people visiting the cemetery that day had stopped and were watching us as we sang.  Some of them recorded us on iPads and phones and stood in silent respect until our ceremony was complete. It was then that I began to notice the other visitors in the cemetery... French students of every age in school groups learning and experiencing the history of the United States coming to the aid of France.  I began to listen to their teachers and, although I couldn't translate what they were saying, I knew that the history, significance, and sacrifice of the D-day invasion was being kept alive.  They remember, too.

After Taps was played, each member of our group was given a rose to lay at the grave of a brave American.  Theodore Roosevelt Jr., a recipient of the Medal of Honor, is buried there and his brother, Quentin Roosevelt who was killed in World War I, was moved there to lie beside his brother. Preston and Robert Niland, upon whose lives the movie Saving Private Ryan was based, are buried there also. 

 But I laid my rose at the grave of a Louisiana boy in memory of all the boys that left happy lives in our state to fight with astounding courage on a foreign beach for a great cause that ultimately saved the world.

As I was leaving the cemetery, I saw an French  couple carrying bouquets of flowers.  I asked if I could take their picture and they agreed.  As I snapped the shot, they said over and over, "Merci, America, Merci!!" They remember, too.

When I shared this with my niece, she told me that she was touched by the number of houses in the area that flew both the French and American flags. They remember, too.

In 1944, when the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach was established, the families of the men who had died there were given the choice to bring their sons home or have them buried in the new cemetery.  Sixty percent of the families brought their sons home, a choice I probably would have made too.  But forty percent chose to bury their sons on this distant beach beside their comrades in arms- their friends, their brothers, united to this day in their mission.  And it is thanks to their families that French students on field trips, and French couples with flowers, and American tourists can come together on hallowed ground to remember, too.

"They endured everything and gave their all so that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace." 

Happy, Reverent Memorial Day,

Shelli

Sunday Schoolism 4: Murder?

The late gossip columnist Earl Wilson used to say, "Gossip is hearing something you like about someone you don't."  If we find such pleasure in hearing something damaging or diminishing about another person, are we more like Cain than we want to be?

Obviously it is murder to take another person's life, but what is it to take another person's reputation or self-esteem?

Jesus made it clear that murder is a matter of the heart. (Matthew 5: 21-22)

                                                                                                           Brian Russel
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Turkey Creek Garden

The weather here in North Louisiana has been fabulous and Turkey Creek Garden is happy!

The roses have been putting on a show.  This one is Fourth of July and really does make me think of  a big fireworks display.

The new additions to the garden this year are the chicken coop...

and patio area.

These vintage chairs are so rusty no one would want to sit in them, but they will be getting a face lift later this summer.  The wall space between the windows needs something, the bench needs a bit of help, and I am thinking of staining the gray cement pavers, but there will be lots of cool, summer mornings to get all of that done.

The squash are covered in net to prevent the squash borer moth from getting to them to lay their eggs. Protecting squash is a top priority here at TCG because what is summer without fried squash and a cold beverage?

**OK, so I wrote this post before going to the MG event in Hammond. While there I asked the pest expert how long I should keep my net on my squash to protect against the squash borer moth. He got this "you poor idiot" look on his face and said, "The net will do a great job keeping out the moths, but it will also keep out all of the pollinators so you better rip it off as soon as you got home!!"
  Yeah, you think you know something and get a little big for your britches about it and WHAM life doles out a good dose of "come uppance".

New potatoes in the front of this bed, eggplant in the middle and cucumbers running up the trellis in the back.  We are having a "new potato contest" this year - potatoes grown in the ground vs. potatoes grown in a tower.

Potato towers are made of a cylinder of wire (mine has a diameter of about 24") that is layered with soil and hay.  The potatoes are planted between the layers and grow out the sides of the tower.  To harvest, you just open the wire and the middle is filled with new potatoes.  It will be fun to see which method yields more potatoes.

I moved the herbs to their own area of the garden this year.  They had previously been interspersed with the vegetables, but had gotten a little rambunctious and started taking over.

Our cool weather and plentiful rain have prolonged the cool-weather flowers such as snapdragons and pinks.

A new discovery in the garden this year is a mulberry tree!!  It has been in the back corner of the garden, but it was in over gown area that we really didn't use that much.  When we cleaned that area out for the chicken coop, I noticed it for the first time. I had no idea what it was, so I turned to my Master Gardener friends for help and they quickly identified it for me.

James favorite iris is blooming.  It is called Caveman and is nearly white with a purplish gray beard.

The grapes are doing well and the first tomatoes are on the vine. 

Life is good!

Love ya'll,

Shelli

Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else?

 ~Betsy Cañas 

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. 

~Margaret Atwood

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. 

~W.E. Johns, The Passing Show

Weather means more when you have a garden. There's nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans. 

~Marcelene Cox

School's Out

School's out, but it was a fun year with the Ruston Junior High School Garden Club. 

A special "Thank You" goes out to Susan Kelly who is the teacher that sponsors the Garden Club.  She teaches informative, fun lessons to the students and has instilled a love for gardening in them that will follow them into adulthood.  This year, one student's Mom called Susan and told her that she didn't even realize that her daughter had an interest in gardening, but since taking Susan's class, it was all she could talk about.  Bravo, Mrs. Kelly!!

Susan was kind enough to let me work with the students twice a month while I was accumulating my for 40 hours of community service required to become a Master Gardener. 

On my last visit of the year, we made a miniature garden out of cookies and candy.  It was our rendition of an end-of-the-year garden party!

Sugar wafers formed the raised beds.  Chocolate pudding sprinkled with crushed chocolate graham crackers were the soil that filled the bed. Orange candy topped with green Twizzlers formed carrots to grow in the beds. 

 And then our raised beds were placed on a green garden tablecloth with miniature tools spread around.  It made a great garden and great Instagram photo op.

But the best part, of course, was eating it up!!!

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.

 ~John Dewey

Au Revoir !

As you read this, my sisters and I are in France with our parents.  

Several years ago, we started taking a spring trip with our parents. We've gone to Fredericksburg to see the blue bonnets and Branson to see some shows, but this year we decided to take Dad to the beaches of Normandy and the museums that commemorate the D-day invasion. 

We are taking a Viking River Cruise on the Seine. Our first two days will be in Paris, then we will visit Monet's garden and the town of Vernon.  Next will be Rouen, the Normandy landing beaches, and Les Andelys. Then Conflans and the Palace of Versailles.

I am looking forward sharing our adventure, but until then....

Vive La France!!!

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage.  

~Regina Nadelson

Sunday Schoolism 3: Beliefs

Beliefs matter because they ultimately shape our decisions and our lives.


                                                                                     Brian Russel

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Baby birds

We may not have baby chicks yet here at Turkey Creek Garden,

 but we do have babies......

Baby chickadees!

Baby bluebirds who are so new that they're nothing but beaks and bulgy eyes!

And soon to be more new chickadees!

Isn't springtime wonderful?!

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

These flowers, so fragrant, grew
And the birds and bees sipped sweet nectar
From the sparkling, morning dew.
God has blessed all beauties of Nature;
He's set His approval and seal
On all of His small, winged messengers
That fly through the air with such zeal.

~Gertrude Tooley Buckingham, "Honeysuckle" (1940s)