Fall Foliage of a Different Sort

When I first bought my compact croton, the leaves were small, upright red spears. Now in their home in my garden they get full sun half of the day and the new leaves are larger and spreading. They’re also more green than anything else, which can be a sign of a lack of light. However, since they get lots of sun, it may be a sign of immaturity. ☺ Apparently, at least in the croton clan, "the older and wiser" you are, the more colorful!

I’ve long been fond of the multi-colored, spotted gems. This is a painting I made in art college. What a challenge to paint all the colors and spots; I often lost my place! But I persevered in “capturing” the beauty.

I saw the little lizard again the other day--with a beautiful long, intact tail.

Souvenir—To Remember

For the first morning in awhile I raised the blinds on a window without raindrops and a parking area without puddles. The weather is sunny and in the low 70’s—perfect.
The geraniums are blooming again. Though my family has long avoided geraniums because of allergies, I’ve enjoyed having a few in a hanging basket each year.


Since they grew nearly everywhere I looked in Europe, well, I just had to get some—for the memories. (I had however, grown pink ivy-leafed ones in prior years.) Mine though, are a hybrid that makes magenta and orange flowers—on the same flower, one of my favorite color combinations.

Desperate for Sunshine

I looked out the window this morning and saw what looked like a large ball of tan fur in the high bushes. What was I seeing up in the air like that? Was it a paper bag? No, it moved in a living way. I watched, then grabbed the camera and ran out to the garden for a better view, as I saw that it was a cat! First it preened, then settled in to bask in that lately rare feature of the earth—sunshine! I didn’t hear a peep out of the birds… Now, the crickets, frog and train make an interesting symphony punctuated with a few car horn blasts.

Rain once again poured over us last night—off and on all night. The forecasters said the earlier storm would be it. Wrong. We seem to be stuck in a pattern of “all or nothing”. I’d prefer to spread it out more.

But the “rain” of the Holy Spirit I’ll gladly stand in, dance in—in buckets, in torrents, indefinitely. I don’t ever want to go back to the way I felt before this revival came upon me! Today, on this tenth day of revival, the Holy Spirit has made very real to me—inside and out, that Jesus “carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4)so that we don’t have to!!! When painful memories come up as those little darts tend to do, I can say, “Jesus carried that sorrow, he took the pain for me. It is finished!” The deep understanding of this lightens my load so much that I’ve been laughing for joy all morning! It’s like having rain and sunshine at the same time—in the best possible way!

Progress

The hyacinth bean vines have made some neat-looking purple seed pods, hyacinth beans—the very thing they were created to do! I like the way they’ve arranged themselves as a cascading “mobile”.

Still more heavy rain fell this morning but now we have sunshine! We’ve not seen much of that stranger since last Wednesday or Thursday. I was beginning to think we were in the Pacific Northwest!

Now that autumn is officially here, maple and oak leaves around town are beginning to turn reddish.

No more white stuff has turned up on the soil. The avocado plant that I pruned has the smallest beginnings of new branches! This morning a moth delicately sipped from the pink pentas; I’ve never before thought of moths being delicate. The butterflies didn’t accept the invitation so I guess the guests will come from “the highways and byways”.

Too Early for Snow!

White fuzzy stuff has spread over the soil of three of my pots. At first I thought it caused by the excessive moisture from four days of torrential downpours—maybe. I have seen some tiny white flies buzzing around. Could they have “woven” these “blankets”?

Until I have time to search the books or internet for the answer, I’m dealing with it in a direct manner; I’m skimming off the top layer of soil with a plastic spoon, then throwing away both the soil and the spoon to avoid contaminating other plants.

Yesterday, after another series of downpours, my husband and I saw both ends of a rainbow! The big round clouds were golden, while long white ones had blue and golden stripes—perhaps some silver lining as well. It’s good to be reminded by a rainbow that God will never destroy the earth again by water!

More Rain!

Today was forecast to be sunny but it’s raining yet again—a lot. My friend in Phoenix and my friends in Texas say, “Send it here!” So I agreed with them in Jesus’ name to pray that it would rain a gentle, soaking rain in those places.”

“Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.” James 5:17,18

Tropical Rain Forest?

The rain keeps coming but the red hibiscus doesn’t mind. My garden is getting a good soaking but the overhang keeps it from getting beaten down.

But I’m thinking that after three inches of rain in an hour (!) and since some areas are flooding, it might be time for the rain to stop and move on to an area that needs it more.

The Garden Watered by God

It must have rained again last night, then again this morning so the garden didn’t need much watering.

Since it didn’t need much tending otherwise, I cut some flowers and brought them in. I’ve not used pentas as cut flowers before; I’ll see how they do. Maybe they’ll even root (though clear glass containers are better for rooting). I’m enjoying their star shapes. I added some Victoria Blue Salvia, some Parrot Leaf, and peppermint to smell good.

I had time to do another kind of planting today. In day 4 of revival, the angels are rejoicing because another person is added to the family of God. And so am I!

Well Enough?

A couple months ago, a neighbor gave me some of her plant multiplications. When I brought them home my goal was to get them in soil or water as quickly as possible. This once-broken lavender bowl seemed to suit the prayer plant well; the plant has even sprouted a baby of its own. It’s been very happy here in its sunny window but today was the day for re-potting. Why mess with a good thing? The leaves overcome the shallow bowl, brushing against the shelf. Plants—and people, do better when given space for deeper roots.



I had recently gotten a good deal on a red-violet pot at the large blue and yellow box store that turned out to be just right for the prayer plant. When I removed the plant from its shallow bowl to repot it, I discovered that the root ball was also shallow. Now, in its new pot, not only can the roots go deep, it can hold its leaves up high and they’re less likely to get damaged.

When pots, such as this one, don’t have holes always put some broken pottery, gravel, etc. at the bottom of the pot (before you put the plant and soil in) for drainage.

After two weeks we finally got some rain last night with more to come today; it had been forecast for every single day this week. And I’m still in revival.

Same Song, Second Verse

Occasionally a hibiscus flower stays open into the next day—a bonus. This is the same one that bloomed yesterday (see yesterday’s picture). Something bloomed in me yesterday afternoon that has continued into today, and I hope it never closes. Though I’ve known all my life about Jesus’ death and resurrection paying the penalty for our sins and study the Bible closely and teach it—until yesterday I didn’t get as much of the impact of it. As I dug through the Greek word meanings, I found that the words themselves say that Jesus’ sacrifice is complete! When we turn away from our sins (repent) God forgives (sends away) our sins and cancels our guilt and punishment! The sin is gone! The debt is paid! No more guilty conscience (Hebrews 10:22) no “paying the consequences”!

The Lord washed his joy over me with an even fuller understanding of that freedom. I’m so excited that I can barely sit still! This is in no way to advocate “cheap grace” because scripture makes it clear that we are to turn away from sin and the devil and turn toward God, obeying everything that Jesus taught. (John 14) This is such good news that I just had to tell you about it!

I’ll likely be writing in more detail on this on my other sites. Meanwhile if you want to know more about the freedom, you can write me at leafyjournal@yahoo.com

The joy I’m feeling gave me the energy to at last get the fertilizing done. The lawn crew was back today to plant grass seed so we’ll soon have all kinds of new growth. The sky is still a white blanket but rain is expected.