Hodgepodging Hope - September 23.

Highbush Cranberry

September 2015

Yes, the highbush cranberry outside our office window is in full berry mode. Most of those berries will probably still be there in the spring when the Cedar Waxwings come through and wolf them down in a single afternoon.

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1. What have you 'fallen for' recently?

Our screened-in porch area! I love it. In early August, just in time for my birthday, Mr. C. and son finished the screened in area of our porch. So now we have the front (open, road side) porch and the wraparound, screened-in north part of the porch. Here are some pics:

 Yes, some landscaping is needed

Coming later...

And, uh, the porch actually is level. Sorry!

 Looking north toward the screen room

 Looking south toward the [temporary] baby prison

Mr. C. put many light fixtures in the porch ceiling.

At night, when it's lit up, it looks like an airport runway!

 Lunch in the screen room

also where our daughter and family slept during the family reunion:

 Remember this one?

 Baby proofed end

 West end of screen room

 Only access to screen room:

A new door between it and the library.

That means there's no access to the screened area from the outdoors,

so NO BUGS. It's wonderful!

 The window in the photo above was replaced by

the glass door.  Jazzie's bed was moved.

Occasionally, she lets me use it.

2. What's something you're 'squirreling away' for later?

Tomatoes and green beans, but you've heard all about that, so I won't bore you with the details - again.

3. How do you like your apples? Sweet? Tart? Crisp? Cooked? Apples are one of the superfoods for fall...how often do you eat an apple either plain or as part of a favorite recipe? What's your favorite variety?

I like my apples sweet/tart/crisp - usually raw, but also good in an apple pie, as long as the apples aren't crunchy. I might start eating an apple with popcorn in the evenings. It depends upon whether or not I want to stay awake for the ending of the DVD movie or not. All that sugar would for sure knock me out cold in a short time.


My all-time favorite apple? McIntosh, for sure! We never had to spray our tree with pesticides, and never had wormy apples. I also always went out each morning to pick up the windfalls, as I'd heard that it prevents wormy apples. Worked for me, for many years.

Our McIntosh apple tree

before the big winter kill a couple years ago
I miss that tree's amazing apple crops.

4. According to Fodor's the ten best fall foliage trips in the US of A are-Aspen Colorado, The Catskills New York, The Berkshires Massachusetts, Columbia River Gorge Oregon, Green Mountain Byway Vermont, Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway New Mexico, Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee, Upper Peninsula Michigan, Lake of the Ozarks Missouri, and Glacier National Park Montana. Which would you most like to visit this fall and why?


If I could visit any of the above, it would be The Berkshires. They're beautiful, although the life-threatening hairpin turns are pretty scary.  Another place I'd love to be this fall is Harper's Ferry, WV, a favorite of mine. There's so much to love about that place: rivers, hills, history, natural beauty. Can't get enough.

Who doesn't love these gorgeous fall colors!

5. The topic of legalizing marijuana was raised in the most recent televised political debate so let's wade in too. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia currently have laws legalizing marijuana in some form. Four states have legalize marijuana for recreational use. Your thoughts?

Legalize it and tax it. Too much time and too many resources are used to catch these 'criminals,' although no one is considering making alcohol illegal, yet it accounts for far more deaths in this country. Why is that? I'm not suggesting we go back to Prohibition, but just that we recognize the inconsistencies. Not to mention the fact that we criminalize the possession of marijuana but legalize the murder of pre-born or even partially-born infants???!!!  What kind of weird logic is that. How can we call ourselves civilized.

6. Are you okay to watch a movie already in progress or do you need to always see it from the beginning? How about jumping into a TV series somewhere in the middle? Is that okay?

I need to watch a movie from the beginning and now even have closed caption on when it comes to some British TV. I mean, there are some natives that are nearly impossible for the untrained American ear to understand. :-)  The endings of movies, on the other hand, I often miss. Zzzzzzzzzz.

 Campion and the difficult-to-understand but lovable Lugg
'Why do I always want to call him Lag?
Word association, I suppose.'
(I think that was from 'The Case of the Late Pig) 

7. Thursday (September 24) is National Punctuation Day. What rule of punctuation trips you up most often? What rule of punctuation, when broken by someone else, bugs you the most?


I don't get why there is an apostrophe-s when showing possession for Jones and Jesus, for example. Doesn't it look odd to have Jones's and Jesus's???? Joneses sounds weird enough, but Jesuses sounds even weirder. Like St. James's Park. Why??  I like just a final s followed by an apostrophe (and no extra syllable), but no one (except you) asks me. LOL

I'm so glad you asked about our pet peeve of punctuation, for I might have had to eventually write a blog post about it. Why, oh why, do people feel the need to insert an apostrophe into every word that ends in 's.'   How many times have you seen signs on the grocery store window, for example, that read, 'Banana's,  Grape's, etc.'   No one would write, 'We have two dog's,' would they?  Really, would they??

Okay, I'm now going to struggle to get my emotions under control again.

We have had two dogs! (2011)

Bridger and Misty

Note: There is no apostrophe before the 's'

You saw Jazzie on Monday's post,

so she's already had her air time.

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I've been reading two authors who dispel the weird and unbiblical ideas about Heaven that most of us have grown up with. I highly recommend both books. 

From 'HEAVEN' -  Randy Alcorn

'...some readers may think, 'But our eyes should be on the giver, not the gift; we must focus on  God, not on Heaven. This approach sounds spiritual, but it erroneously divorces our experience of God from life, relationships, and the world - all of which God graciously gives us. It sees the material realm and other people as God's competitors rather than as instruments that communicate his love and character. It fails to recognize that because God is the ultimate source of joy, and all secondary joys emanate from him, to love secondary joys on Earth can be - and in Heaven always will be - to love God, their source.'

Many think of Heaven as a boring, harp-playing, cloud-sitting, never-ending-drab existence after the excitement of meeting Saint Peter at the pearly gates and getting a few good jokes from him. 

Think about this: think of the things you love most about this world we live in: beautiful music, fragrant flowers, woodland walks, awesome mountains, rushing rivers, playing sports, coffee with a friend, relationships with our sweet pets, wonderful works of art, curiosity, discovery, enjoyment, interesting conversation, pleasure.  

Now imagine those things as represented by a barely-operating old black and white TV with poor speakers.

Heaven, or rather, the redeemed, fully-restored earth, by contrast, would be like all those things we now enjoy, but in HD with surround sound (but still falling far short of the magnificence of its reality). All the things we love about this earth will be here - but MORE SO.  We will forever be with our Lord, enjoying his company and delighting in him, his amazing works, his unimaginable love that took him to the cross to rescue us from our sin and give us a world no longer marred by poverty, disease, sin, and death, but fully restored. Remember, it was God who created beauty, music, joy, humor, etc. etc.  It's not like we came up with this ourselves! Think of that the next time you think of something funny - and thank God for a sense of humor.

And one of the most exciting surprises in all this? The mission of the Church here and now.

From 'SURPRISED BY HOPE' - N.T. Wright

'The idea of the human Jesus now being in heaven, in his thoroughly embodied risen state, comes as a shock to many people, including many Christians. Sometimes this is because many people think that Jesus, having been divine, stopped being divine and became human, and then, having been human for a while, stopped being human and went back to being divine (at least, that's what many people think Christians are supposed to believe). More often it's because our culture is so used to the Platonic idea that heaven is, by definition, a place of 'spiritual,' non material reality so that the idea of a solid body being not only present but also thoroughly at home there seems like a category mistake. The ascension invites us to rethink all this; and after all, why did we suppose we knew what heaven was? Only because our culture has suggested things to us. Part of Christian belief is to find out what's true about Jesus and let that challenge our culture.'

If I could only have one of these books, I'd probably choose Wright, but that's because I've particularly enjoyed several of his other books. They both come in Kindle too, which is handy at 3 AM.

HEAVEN

Surprised by HOPE

on Amazon.com

One more Random: There's a new, annoying toolbar at the bottom of my page that suddenly appeared and keeps interfering with everything I write! I need to figure out how to get rid of it. Also, my right-shift key is no longer working - suddenly. Maybe a trip to the amazing Chuck at Hayes' Computers in Cameron is in order.

 ***

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