More Garden Photos-Flowers!

Yesterday was the trad feast of Saint Rose of Lima, patroness of gardeners. Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us!

This year, we have a simple container garden of a few things. For a number of reasons, our capabilities right now are limited. However, I do recommend that everyone have their own raised bed food garden and that every parish think about creating one. This may become increasingly necessary as society continues to be taken down by those in power, with an agenda that is not in our favor.

These are some pics of the flowers we’ve been growing. Flowers are important for every garden, largely because they attract and support the bee population, so necessary for pollination. Of course, they are also beautiful and uplift the soul. Flowers show us something about the Designer behind them and His love for us. We could meditate on that the rest of our lives. I would call flowers an essential aspect of the Authentic Life. The Church also uses them at holy Mass and in many other celebrations and ceremonies. Our Lady is often associated with and honored with flowers. It is said on the third day after her passing, the tomb was found empty and covered with flowers. Many flowers are edible and have medicinal uses. All of these pictured here are easy to grow.

Sunflowers! Exquisite, fun, bee attracting and you can eat the seeds. What more do you want? There are many varieties of differing sizes. I think of sunflowers as the lion of the plant kingdom. Our Heavenly Father clothes them in majesty. Nature always reflects spiritual realities, since the lower order must follow the higher. We must look for these hidden meanings.

Went crazy enhancing this Snapdragon photo. I don’t know if I love or hate it. You can see the red ones there.

Snapdragons! A beautiful flower and it comes in various colors. It displays the intricate handiwork of the Father. I adore this multi-colored one:

Morning Glories! Little trumpets shouting the everlasting glory of their Creator. Again, comes in a number of amazing colors and is wonderful for anything you want some vining on-mailboxes, fences, trestles. trellises. Here is a spectacular magenta variety. You can see how they curl within themselves to create a striped look.

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Garden Pics / Today's Marian Feasts

I said I would post pics of my small container garden. Here are some cute baby cucumbers, more pics to come (don’t expect anything too exciting):

Today is a double Marian feast! One week after the Assumption, we celebrate the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the new and the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the old calendar. August is also the month of the Immaculate Heart, so let us honor Our Lady’s loving Heart today in some special way.

Wonderful Prayer....

In this month of the Immaculate Heart, here is a prayer an internet friend shared with me:

Prayer To The Immaculate Heart of Mary

O Heart of Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, Heart most worthy of love, in which the Adorable Trinity is ever well-pleased, worthy of the veneration and love of all the Angels and men. Heart most like to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of which thou art the perfect image, Heart full of goodness, ever compassionate toward our miseries, deign to melt our icy hearts and grant that they may be wholly changed into the likeness of the Heart of Jesus, our Divine Savior. Pour into them the love of thy virtues, kindle in them that divine fire with which thou thyself did ever burn. In thee, let Holy Church find a safe shelter. Protect her and be her dearest refuge, her tower of strength, impregnable against every assault of her enemies. Be thou the way which leads to Jesus and the channel through which we receive all the graces needful for our salvation. Be our refuge in time of trouble, our solace in the midst of trial, our strength against temptation, our haven in persecution, our present help in every danger, and especially in the hour of death, when all Hell shall let loose against us its legions to snatch away our souls at that dread moment, that hour so full of fear whereon our eternity depends. Ah then, most tender Virgin, make us to feel the sweetness of thy Motherly Heart and the might of thine intercession with Jesus, and open to us a safe refuge in that very fountain of mercy, whence we may come to praise Him with thee in Paradise, world without end. Amen.

From The Raccolta

I wanted to get some pics of my small garden up, but too much work right now….here are some of our wild raspberries….don’t they look yummy? That is the Authentic Life-get up, pick your breakfast, eat! And nothing is like fresh-picked:)

Fatima Family Holy Hour, SATURDAY Feast of the Immaculate Heart

Unfortunately, my husband was gone all day on Saturday, so we did not get to do the Fatima Family Holy Hour. I have chosen this coming Saturday to perform it, since it is the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is also the Summer solstice, which is a very occult day, particularly this year, according to my research. Let us make reparation for all the occult practices done on this day. So what a great day to do the Fatima Family Holy Hour for the Church! Please contact us (above) if you decide to join us and let us know how it went for you, or you can choose another day in June.

Let’s be filled with positive energy and rise above all the negative in the world!

Have a grate day~as in grateful!

Image is from a former garden of mine-I love the giant sunflowers! They attract bees and are easy to grow. It is amazing how they follow the sun throughout the day and they even look like the sun. God is wonderful! So much fun for kids too.

I Grew A Potato!

You have no idea how happy I am!  Whenever I try to grow potatoes, something goes horribly wrong.  This year, without even trying, I got a potato! :):):)  Okay, it was only ONE TINY potato, but it WAS a potato!  My husband and I shared it the other night and it was delicious, a bit nutty in flavor.

Here is our compost bin, that my husband built, in which the little red potato grew ("The Little Red Potato," sounds like a children's book!  You're welcome to write it, I'm not going to.).  Since we have tons of leaves, we needed to build this large bin to put them in and of course we also add our raw produce scraps and yard clippings, in addition to wood scrap from my husband's wood shop.  That's pretty much all that goes into our compost.  I am a compost purist, so I do not use any paper products (due to chemicals), no household dirt & dust (yes I've heard of people doing that-bad idea), no cooked food, no meat, no excrement, no animal products except for rinsed egg shells.  And I make awesome compost.  With lots of worms in it.  Stuff can't help growing in it!  So when I saw this potato plant coming up, I decided to leave it alone and see what would happen.  It only grew that one little one, but it was a fun experiment.  I always like to do things outside the box and see what happens.  To me, gardening is very much about experimentation.  In fact, due to all the variables involved in gardening, it really is always something of an experiment.  I hope one day to get more than one tuber from a potato plant-I will not give up!  (Yes, that's my son's old swing in the background, from when he was little-we still haven't cut it down-they grow up so fast!)

Recent Pics.....

I gave Our Lady these gorgeous red coneflowers today, on 9/11.  Just as she watches over my neighborhood from this hill, she watches over all her children, especially at "the hour of our death."

I recently visited this 9/11 Memorial at Eisenhower Park, in East Meadow, Long Island.  Under a somber, smoky sky, this amazing piece of art shows the Twin Towers intertwined...twins....born together, destroyed together....their fates, inextricably linked, like the two people who were seen jumping together, holding hands.  It is estimated about 200 people jumped or fell from the Towers that day.  None of them survived, though some desperately clung to tablecloths from the restaurant at the top, trying to use them as parachutes, hoping against Hope.  An extraordinary final testimony to this Theological Virtue and the preciousness of life.

The Towers were glorious, especially at night.  I stood on the top of one once.  The view was truly spectacular.  I'll never forget it.  On 9/11, I could not bear to watch the news and spent the whole day alone in prayer, having no idea what was happening.  When my husband came home from work he told me......"The Towers are gone."  I'll never forget those words, though it came as no surprise.  Part of me already knew.

This is part of the same Memorial at Eisenhower Park.  An actual piece of a Tower, somewhat rusted over the past 15 years.....in one sense, sickening.....in another, comforting....it rained blood that day, but it also rained crosses.  Much like the Crucifixion itself....unthinkable, horrifying....yet, the Act of Love which wrought our salvation.

I mentioned Saint Fiacre in my post on the month of August, his feast being August 30th.  He is the patron saint of gardeners, along with Saint Rose of Lima, who shares the same feastday!  (Incidentally, on this past August 30th, I was officially accepted into the "Master Gardener" course at Cornell University Cooperative Extension of Nassau County, NY-I took this as a little sign that I'm on the right track!)  I was amazed to see this statue of Saint Fiacre yesterday at Rosedale Nurseries in Hawthorne, NY, where I bought the red coneflowers pictured above.  Unfortunately, it was too expensive for me to buy, so I did the next best thing-I took a picture of it!  Saint Fiacre and Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us!

Took this picture of a beautiful butterfly interested in a rotten apple at a 4-H camp in Riverhead, Long Island last week.  I worked hard to get that shot!  (Zoom in to see it better.)

Last but not least.....I know you won't believe this, but yes, I took this picture and no, its not photo-shopped.  The water really is THAT blue, but its....DYED!  This was taken at a facility in Manhasset, Long Island, where the gardening classes are held.  In a way, its pretty, but do they really think they can do a better job than God???  He is the Lord of all, the Alpha and the Omega Who is greater than all our sufferings.  We cannot forget tragedies like 9/11, but we also cannot be defeated by them.  He's got it all under control, so let us end this post on a note of peace, faith, hope and love!  CM:)