Rainy Day Thoughts

Outside it's stormy--

Raindrops are falling from the heavens above.

Leaves, branches and newly opened blossoms are swaying in the wind.

Yesterday's sunshine has been replaced by gray, overcast skies.

And yet, even today, there are a few moments of light...

as the gray clouds part momentarily and sunbeams light up the landscape. 

Such has this week been.

More frequently now we hear news from all over the world which

cause our hearts to grieve...

storms hitting our land and those far away.

Lives cut short,

life journeys changed forever,

 dreams brought to an abrupt end.

And these news 'clouds' of sadness and pain

increasingly bring darkness to the moments of our days.

It is not how things were meant to be from the beginning;

it is not how most of us want them to be as we live out our lives on this earth.

So many blessings we've all been given.

So fragile some of them are.

 

Blessings from our household to yours this Friday,

Aimee

 

 

Lord,

I ask You today to

 bring comfort and healing to those who have lost so very much this week;

not just those in Boston and Texas,

but to all those in our nation and worldwide

 who have suffered pain of unspeakable depth in recent times.

Grant them true peace Father God,

and may they again know joy and love in the years to come.

In Jesus' Name,

Amen

 

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galations 6:2 KJV

~

Photos:

Cherry blossoms

 (thinking of you today M.)

Lilac

Apple tree blossom "Liberty"

Azalea "Ria Hardijzer"

Flowering crabapple tree "Prairifire"

Canadian Geese flying to their summer homes

Flowering dogwood "Cherokee Chief"

 

The WORD on Wednesday: Springtime, Gardens + More

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of birds is come,

and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land....

Song of Songs 2:11-12 KJV

~

As I write this today a blue sky is overhead

and  sunlight will soon stream through the family room windows.


 

Outside our entire yard looks like it is in bloom--

indeed the whole countryside is beautiful!
 

 

Our resident toads have appeared again, jumping into the pond at the most inopportune times,

always surprising whomever happens to be walking by:)
 

~

~

~

 

The mixed lettuce seedlings I planted just over a month ago are pretty well

ready to eat now and

one of our strawberry plants even has a blossom bud just about ready to appear!

 Rhodos, azaleas, camellia, columbine, bleeding hearts and more delight my eyes daily...

putting a smile on my lips.

 

 I am SO incredibly grateful for this beautiful season of spring;

 I wish it would last forever!

 

My favorite season is early fall but a close second is spring--

especially a spring that brings us many days of sunny (or partly sunny) skies.

What is your favorite season and why?

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Photos:

Taken at Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm--

unsure of name of this plant but it is beautiful and did you notice...it's pink:)

Bleeding heart 'spring magic'

Brunnera Macrophylla 'Jack Frost'

(our forget-me-not plants are blooming too)

Camellia Japonica 'kumasaka' -- I think:)

Bleeding Heart 'alba'--

I absolutely LOVE both of my bleeding hearts!

Blueberry 'Earliblue'

Lettuce--looseleaf mixed varieties

(some of these photos were taken about 2 weeks ago, this being one.

The lettuce is much bigger now)

 

Container (wine barrel) Planting:

Even though we have a regular space for growing veggies and such,

we haven't used it for years--mostly because I HATE snakes and because it is more difficult to maintain. Instead I grow many things in wine barrel halves on and near our decks.

Among the things I have grown are:

culinary lavender, strawberries, herbs, raspberries, small veggies...

 

If you are interested in how I do it see this link:

http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2009/05/container-barrel-gardening.html

 

Since I planted ours back in 2009,

I've come to the conclusion that the wine barrel halves work very well for our needs

and I am actually thinking of buying more in the future just because I like them so much

and they are readily available here.

I should say that I have made one change since we first planted these about 4 years ago...

and that was to place supports under the three wine barrels that were on our back deck.

This was to allow the wood of the deck to be able to fully dry out underneath the barrels.

We used some leftover pressure treated wood blocks under the barrel to elevate ours;

but there are other options available.  

 Of course it goes without saying that the barrels must be completely stable however you choose to elevate them and that wherever you locate them, other than the ground, must be able to support their filled weight. Be safe:)

 

Missing You...

Our magical time with you was all too short.

Each moment together everything seemed brighter and more fun...

from eating sushi, mochi ice cream and pizza, 

to our time at the beach

and at the Enchanted Forest.

Soon

I found myself becoming more like you...
sliding down a big yellow SHOE slide
and walking through a crooked house!
You made me feel like a child again--
I miss feeling that way because it is a whole lot of fun!

I am very grateful that you both are part of our lives
and hope that we can spend more time together soon:)

 

Thank God for the sweet blessing of grandchildren--

in the autumn of your life these blessings
 are far better than anything money can buy!

 

Blessings always,

Aimee

 

Notes:
a BIG thank you to the incredible staff at Enchanted Forest.
From the first phone call to the last goodbye, you were awesome!
Thank you too for permission to post photos on my blog...
we made some magical memories there:)

As per usual, I am not associated with EF but have loved every visit there.
Here is their website should you be interested in learning more:
http://enchantedforest.com/

 

A New Sign For My (Online) Sign Collection...

Back in the autumn of 2009 I started an (online) collection of warning signs.

Finally, I have a new one to add to my collection:)

I LIKE it!

I think--now that my family lives all over the USA,

I need to enlist their help in 'growing' my collection.

My friend tells me she has seen a turtle one....

and I know in the Scandinavian countries there are reindeer ones.

Have you seen any unusual ones?

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

Other sign posts

http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2009/11/signs.html

http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-sign.html

More Tulips

Today's plans have changed a bit...

but I am EXCITED because Farmer Boy repaired our lawn tractor and I am looking forward

 to again zipping across our yard on it this spring, summer and early fall.

Today's weather isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be from the forecast I heard on Friday

 so maybe later we'll go to one of my favorite places...

hopefully:)

Until then Blogger has graciously agreed (and cooperated) with the upload of more tulip photos...

 

The famous pink John Deere tractor from another angle...

Aren't those dark tulips amazing?

I believe they're called Queen of the Night.

But still I DO love my pinks...

Glorious, wonderful, beautiful pink...

I am SO thankful that God created pink...

(and secretly hoping for lots of it in heaven along with horses).

I am SO thankful that blogger is semi-cooperating with me today.

I am SO thankful that Farmer Boy got the tractor up and running.

I am SO thankful for the weather not being too bad today.

I am SO thankful to have heard incredible news from my daughter today.

Anything you're thankful for today?

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm

(first post has more information)

 

A Stroll Through the Tulips: Pt 2

I am beginning to think blogger is pulling an April Fool's Day joke on me...

but the joke is on it because I am one very persistent lady:)

More tulips for you (and me).

My love affair with pink continues...

with NO sign of it ever ending.

I want a bench like this for our place...

and a garden of tulips

(or at least a planter box full of them due to our ongoing battles

with the evil gophers who want to redesign our gardens.

They can't dig in our planter boxes..LOL).

Where are my grandkiddos when I need them?

But the cutout shape does say a lot about how I feel about tulips

and this beautiful farm:)

 

Do you have a favorite bulb?

 

More later

(the way this is going you might be seeing tulips daily for awhile...)

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm

(see prior post for their contact and festival info)

And now...time to check the laundry load drying outside...

feels much colder today-brrr!

 

A Stroll Through the Tulips

Springtime in the Pacific NW means many things...

hanging laundry outside to dry (love),

usually better weather (love),

more hours of daylight (definitely love),

bbq season soon (can you tell what's on my mind?)

and blossoms,

lots and lots of blossoms!

And, if I get tired of seeing the blossoms in our yard,

I can just go strolling through other peoples' gardens.

One of the places I love to go is Wooden Shoe Farm located in the Woodburn area...

It's been a few years since I was last here...

and I found some changes--

like this PINK John Deere tractor

(and you KNOW I LOVE pink)!

 And then there are always the tulips,

beautiful,

incredible,

wonderful

tulips!

And I will have more tulip pictures for you later...

depending on Blogger's mood that is:)

 

What are you doing this lovely Friday?

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

Right now the tulips are in full bloom

AND

it isn't raining either

(woohoo!) 

It's Tulip Festival time:)

Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm, Woodburn, Oregon

http://www.woodenshoe.com/

 

As always (unless otherwise noted),

I am not associated with the farm in anyway...

but I am a repeat visitor and customer

*and I LOVE it there amidst the many colored tulips*

 

A RIDE to Remember

 (note: there's a pretty short ad first--sorry)

 

Once upon a time there was a crazy grandma.

And once upon a time she took her three wonderful, thrill loving grandsons and daughter

for a day of fun at an amusement park.

 

Now this grandma's idea of an adventure at an amusement park includes rides on

carousels, trains,

 and a long, long time ago, ferris wheels.

But never, ever roller coasters.

 

 That is till that fateful day...

the day she decided she just had to ride a roller coaster once before she died.

 

So she gathered information relevant to the goal she had in mind:

she talked to the kids there---

who all lied to her and told her it wasn't bad at all

and

was, in fact,  a LOT of fun.

 

(She should have known better...)

 

And she counted the exact time it took to complete each ride cycle--

from the beginning to the end she knew exactly how long it would take in seconds,

Really!

 

And after several minutes of information gathering

she convinced herself it couldn't be THAT bad,

could it?

 

And so,

she boarded a car

and quickly

 learned the shocking truth...

even grandmas CAN be wrong:)

 

For from the very beginning to the very end,

this grandma was truly terrified and convinced she was going to fly out of the coaster car

at any moment.

In fact, so convinced was she of this,

that her arms were covered with bruises for days after

and her whole body oh so sore

from holding on for dear life.

 

But she had done it...

 

So,

I ask you,

is your idea of a good time at amusement parks the carousel?

The ferris wheel?

Or is it...like ALL the rest of my thrill loving family,

the roller coaster?

 

And what items on your 'bucket list' if you have one...

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

This was the famous Ripper roller coaster

(yep that name alone should have been enough to convince me not to ride it)at the now closed

 Thrill-Ville USA south of Salem. 

 

If At First You Don't Succeed....Sharing Today (Part 2)

Spring break in Oregon brought sunshine and blue skies to the coast.

April brought...well it brought normal spring weather to the PNW:)

But we don't let little things like wind, cold and a few showers stop us...

so it was off to Tillamook and Garibaldi for a day trip.

At Bar View County Park we are always met by busy seagulls doing their seagull thing.

And there is often nice wave action on the jetty...

my husband has spent many hours fishing off these rocks when he was younger.

He is part mountain goat...

he can jump from rock to rock.

I, being of sound mind and horrible balance, leave such things to him.

Aren't they great?

I absolutely LOVE these guys!

And now to break the 'gray' theme I have going here...

a little pretty pink by the bay!

I truly, truly LOVE spring blossoms...

at home so many of our fruit trees are filled with blossoms of white and pink.

Inland, at the Tillamook Forest Center, the Wilson River was running high...

and it looked completely different from this summer when we visited here and walked along it.

The turbulent water was everwhere it seemed and along highway 6 I spotted around a dozen waterfalls and cataracts...so amazingly beautiful!

 I SO wanted to stop and take photos of everyone of them...

but once you are in well moving traffic on that road,

you just don't want to stop because you are sure to get stuck behind

someone moving well below the speed limit as we did on the way back

 

Maybe next time...

 LOVE these mountains!

 

Blessings this Monday evening,

Aimee

 

Notes:

NO! The driver of the Tillamook Transit Bus

was not one of the slow moving vehicles...

they were driving quite appropriately for the road and weather. 

Sharing Today

I would love to share with you my today.

Unfortunately blogger doesn't seem to want to play.

"Upload failed"

"Server returned invalid response."

it continues to say... 

I'm so tired and frustrated of it acting this way:(

 

Perhaps later it will let me post photos of forest, mountains, seagulls and bay.

Maybe it will let me do that before the first of May?

Oh well I FINALLY got these 2 photos uploaded this rainy Saturday.

All I can say is okay...blogger YOU won this round today:)

 

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Photos:

Tillamook Forestry Center

http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2012/09/in-heart-of-tillamook-burn-pt-1.html

http://aimeeonthemountainside.blogspot.com/2012/09/in-heart-of-tillamook-burn-pt-2.html

 

 Are you celebrating Oregon's Arbor Week?

Holy Week Blessings II

Sometimes blessings show up when we need them the most...

when our hearts ache with the loss of long held dreams.

Sometimes blessings come unexpectedly

 in the form of sunny days in early spring...

Sometimes they come in golden moments at the seashore.

Sometimes blessings take the form of simple play

 and bring back memories of times spent with our children at the same beach.

And all these blessings--

they combine to fill our hearts until they overflow with the sweetness and wonder of it all!

Yes, blessings sometimes show up unexpectedly.

 And we feel reborn when they do.

Have you been the recipient of an unexpected blessing recently?

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

with our unexpected Holy Week blessings on the central Oregon coast.

Holy Week Blessings I

Holy Week brought many blessings...

one of those was a journey along a river that I have grown to love

and just can't get enough of!

Our journey again brought me here to this 'secret' place...

where I beheld for the second time the wonders of God's creation.

Such beauty...it literally takes my breath away everytime!

It also humbles me and causes me to look to my Creator and my God.

Such love He has for His children to create such wonders as these!

Our journey also brought us here,

to this area...

in a tranquil setting of tall evergreens, a creek and more.

Gorgeous, awesome, beautiful, powerful, gentle, lovely, scenic, wild, tranquil...

are there enough adjectives to truly describe the beauty of this area?

I don't think so;

you really have to be there...

to smell the fragrance of nature,

to hear for yourself the sounds of running water,

to feel the emotions I feel everytime I am there...

It is indeed a place where the glory of God is unmistakable...

~

All Thy works shall praise Thee, O LORD;

and Thy saints shall bless Thee.

Psalm 145:10 KJV

 

But Holy Week brought other blessings and other memories.

Did it bring you any?

 

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Notes:

In beautiful Linn county (of course).

LOVE those Class IV-V rapids:)

Maundy Thursday + Good Friday Reflections

Now before the feast of the passover,

when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world,

He loved them unto the end.

John 13:1 KJV

Jesus didn't just talk about love,

He put love 

into action.

 

Imagine this...

in the next few hours Jesus will see three of His disciples fall asleep instead of keeping vigil

with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane.

~.

Jesus will then be betrayed by the kiss of one who had

walked with Him for 3 1/2 years,

heard Him teach,

 shared His food,

seen Him heal the sick and even raise the dead.

~

Christ will before that night is over see

all His closest friends

desert Him,

and later

He'll hear one of them--

the one who confessed that He knew Jesus was the long awaited Messiah--

deny Him not once but several times.

~

Finally,

Jesus Christ 

 will be put through an illegal trial,

 scourged,

beaten,

publicly humiliated

and then executed between two criminals.

~  

And so what did Jesus do in those last few hours before He walked the Via Dolorosa...

the Way of Suffering?

Well the only begotten Son of God,

was about His Father's business.

 

We find Him eating with those who will soon desert Him;

we see Him humbly washing their feet--

(even the one He knew would betray Him). 

 

We hear Him praying for them

(and for those coming after who would also believe)

and we see Him continuing teaching;

 comforting and preparing them for the hard times ahead--

 

 Now that, is love...

true, agape, pure, perfect, sacrificial,

I Corinthians 13 love,

and that is the type of love we are to have one for another if we are His followers...

that is the type of love I am supposed to have.

 

A new commandment I give unto you,

That ye love one another; as I have loved you...

John 13:34 KJV

 

Blessings from me to you on this Maundy Thursday evening,

Aimee

 

Links/Notes:

The story of Christ's last passover on earth--

the Last Supper is told in the following chapters:

Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13-17 and also in I Corinthians 11:23-25.

 

Maundy Thursday:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maundy_Thursday