Light Is Sown Like Seed ...

" Light is sown like seed for the righteous , And gladness for the upright in heart. Be glad in the Lord , you righteous ones ; and give thanks to His holy name." Psalm 97: 11,12

 

Picture of trilliums blooming near our pond.

Trillium Tea Cup ~ Tea Time Tuesday

Another cold and rainy day with few sun-breaks here in the Pacific Northwest, not the best weather for the honey bees my husband tends. I decided to cheer up my dining table with oranges from our nephew and his family's trees in sunny California, and a honey bee teapot , sugar & creamer. Just a spot of cheery yellow for a cold, wet day to remind me this really is spring. This is my White Trillium teacup, bone china, by Royal Albert. This teacup is perfect this time of year because we have blooming trilliums all over our property. Some of the trilliums are in very big, lush clumps. My teacup is held up to a trillium from our woods.A trillium seed may take 2 years to germinate and another 2 years to bloom. Trilliums bloom from April to June. "Picking a trillium seriously injures the plant by preventing the leaf-like bracts from producing food for the next year. A plant takes many years to recover." wikipedia ~This is why my husband is very protective of the trilliums in our wood-land and makes sure our grandchildren all know picking trilliums is forbidden. "Trillium is one of the many plants whose seeds are spread by ants. At maturity, the base and core of the trillium ovary turns soft and spongy. Trillium seeds have a fleshy organ called an elaiosome that attracts ants. The ants extract the seeds from the decaying ovary and take them to their nest, where they eat the elaiosomes and put the seeds in their garbage, where they ( trilliums) germinate in a rich growing medium." Wikipedia Our trilliums start out white, and as the blooms age , the petals become pink, starting out a light pink and ending up a very dark, almost purple-pink.

Trilliums have 3 leaves, 3 petals, 3 sepals. Tri means three,hence the name 'Trillium'. I am sipping mint tea from my Trillium Teacup. Why don't you brew a pot of delicious tea as you read the blogs of the ladies below who love to explore teacups, teapots, and all things tea!

• Martha at Martha's Favorites *
• Terri at Artful Affirmations *
• Lady Katherine at Lady Katherine's Tea Parlor *
• Wanda Lee and The Silken Purse *
• Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *
• Pam at Breath Of Fresh Air *

* Pictures of trilliums in this post were taken by me in our wood-land.

Spring on Cedar Pond

~Trilliums are blooming abundantly all around our property, especially in the wooded parts. These trilliums have grown up through clumps of ferns and moss, under a cedar tree. The pure white blossoms turn to purple or pink as the flower ages...the trilliums around here are in various stages of white to dark purple. ~Oregon Grape, Holly Grape, Mahonia- this too is abundant around here and thrives everywhere, especially favoring our flower beds where I pull a LOT of it out to allow other flora space to grow. I love this plant because it is abundant, stays green all year and this year the clusters of yellow flowers seem bigger than in previous years. The bees are all over the flowers. This is the plant I cut large quantities of to bring indoors during Christmas holidays. It looks like holly doesn't it. Later on the flowers will turn to large clumps of blue berries...hence the name, Oregon GRAPE. You can eat the berries, they are kind of bitter. They make good jam! ~I just like the look of this algae, moss, and lichen covered stump on our island. I believe there is a pair of nesting ducks on the other side of this stump, but don't want to go on our island to check it out. I see one or the other of the pair of ducks close by, every day now....maybe I will see ducklings soon! ~Indian Plum. Found in damp forested areas ( that's us, for sure!), we have this everywhere. My literature says the Native Americans used the straight , thin stems for making arrows. In the fall the flowers turn to a fruit that does look like miniature plums. The birds love them! ~The seasonal stream that runs from our marshy area into the pond, usually fall to late spring, early summer. The granddaughters like to make fairy boats of bits of bark, moss, twigs and blossoms..float them down the creek and watch the little 'boats' launch into the pond. Sometimes the little boats have pine cones or feathers as passengers. ~Red flowering Currant. This adds touches of bright color to the wooded areas when there is little other color. The bees and hummingbirds love this forest shrub too. Although the books say salmon berry should be blooming now, I have seen only a few, but ours look about to burst into blossom. Because of the unusually cold spring, all our flowers are a few weeks behind their normal blooming times.

~Don't you just love the special things around your home and town, in your state or country that mark the seasons? ~ " And the earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seeds in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:12

If He Had Stayed....by Audrey Yeager

~Trilliums growing in the woods at Cedar Pond~ ~If He Had Stayed ~ If He had stayed Where tender, caring hands had put Him, wrapped around with linen and aromatic preparations Stayed enclosed in the cool, dark rock, to sleep on, decayed and forgotten, while eternity rolled away into foreverness, If He had stayed imprisoned Behind the Roman seal, soon to be but another set of bones added to the numberless skeletons bred of earth... If He had stayed down where tradition layed His head, done with sight, and touch and voice... Oh,beloved! If He had stayed... excruciating contemplation! Hopelessness behind doom ahead no gathering here today Yet, here we are, and it can't be said with enough power, not by human voices anyway; No, imagine it ringingly proclaimed by Heaven's angelic hosts...( He didn't stay) He is risen! poem by Audrey Yeager