Greenblade - creation - faith - justice

Garden Update

After being away for three weeks, it was a joy to return to my garden.  I wasn't quite prepared for the 20 pounds of green beans that needed to be harvested and dealt with, but it is clear that heat and rain have been had in plenty.  The past few days I have been spending lots of time "cultivating" and the compost piles are growing ever higher.  There has been an unbelievable amount of purslane this year, which I have been eating in salads and even juiced yesterday morning (slimy, but satisfying).  

And has anyone gone to pick blueberries yet?  Sunday afternoon I went to Grisamore with visiting relatives and we had a great time.    MORE

Some thoughts on Battle Hymns

I'm writing from Cincinnati, Ohio, on the first leg of our "Summer Vacation" which will continue on to Montana and Idaho (and numerous stops in between!).  This morning, while getting ready for church, I was musing about the hymns in every hymnal I've ever perused, you know the ones I'm talking about, the ones in the section entitled "National Songs" or "Patriotic Tunes".  The hymns that I would (almost) never choose for a regular Sunday service because the language is always seems to cross the church-state line for me.  When I go to church, I want to sing about the Kingdom of God, a place so much more vast than a "mother country".  Even so, I started humming the Battle Hymn of the Republic in my head while dressing the girls and getting breakfast ready.

So imagine my surprise when the sermon at Mount Washington Presbyterian, my husband's family church, was about these hymns (it is the ... MORE

Seasonal eating

 

Last week I was doing some grocery shopping and I was skeptically eying some California broccoli.  I knew I wanted a green addition to that night's dinner, but was I ready to eat all those miles?  Luckily, there was still local asparagus which somehow I had missed on my first pass and I grabbed a few big handfuls.  Why do I make it such an emotional decision to select fresh vegetables?  I don't get quite as worked up over things like, say, olive oil or rice.  Although I do try to be intentional with those products as well.  I was very interested in checking this site for food rating, which goes beyond just food and considers "health", "environment" and "society".  (It's still in Beta and I had more than a few internal errors while checking it out, but I think the concept is great.)




I am ... MORE