Monday Music Appreciation #29: A song for Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! (Even though every day needs to be Earth Day...)

We're having a lot of dry and very windy days here, with no rain forecasted. I'll admit to feeling anxious, especially since there's already an evacuation going on in Northern Alberta due to a wildfire. Everything is dry, dry, dry. 

In honour of our beautiful Mother Earth who sustains us all, and as a prayer for her and for rain, too, I offer this lovely piece by Coco Love Alcorn, a Canadian artist who composes a lot of earth-friendly music, and who is incredibly talented. See for yourself!

Sunday Reflection: See what love!

Today's reflection is brought to you by

1 John 3: 1-2.

Sometimes,

I open my eyes

and see what love

you, 

Creator,

have given to me.

Truly, 

I am swimming in it --

the air I breathe,

the light from sun and moon,

the fact that I exist at all.

As your beloved child,

I sense that you are with me

in every tiny flower

and budding leaf, 

in every splash of rain

and whisper of a breeze,

in every smile and nod

from strangers and friends.

And sometimes,

the world's hurts and struggles,

disappointments and unkindnesses

can weigh me down

so that I lose sight of you.

In labouring to become 

what you want for your creation --

in business and busy-ness

it's easy to miss 

small signs and wonders 

that are 

your presence.

Until... I clear away 

last year's autumn leaves,

and there you are --

in the purple and yellow face

of a single blooming viola.

Until... a young woman

(who is your presence too) 

asks for clean clothes this morning,

and there you are --

in a single pair of jeans

that is her size.

Until... the sage smoke

of today's smudge

embraces my garden-achy bones

and there you are --

your blessing surrounding me.

Until... the woman 

at a rummage sale

smiles and gives me 

one old flowerpot for free,

and there you are --

I smile back 

at you.

We are all your children

and you give your all to us.

Remind us often

that we see you 

as you are

everywhere we look

because nothing exists

without you holding it 

and us

together.

May we see your love!

+Amen.

Planning, planting, and growing time

April 17th snow

This is what I woke up to yesterday morning. It made me laugh. Of course, the snow didn't last. 

Spring is here, I keep telling myself, but like any Canadian spring, it's variable until suddenly it feels like we're in full summer mode. With things as dry as they are, we're keeping our fingers crossed for more moisture, and white stuff like this is welcome!

Those big pine structures are Lee's latest project. The original raised bed garden boxes are falling apart after nine years. We cobbled them together with stakes for the last few years to buy ourselves a bit more time, and now Lee is working on replacing them. He built fourteen of them in a day, plastered them with two coats of linseed oil last weekend, and dug two in while I was at work on Monday, though he was still digging through a bit of frost. He's a hard worker, and takes extra pleasure in his efforts when we eat food we've grown ourselves.

Our old raised bed boxes have meant that our soil generally thaws quicker in the spring, holds moisture better, and they keep the soil from compacting because we only walk the paths around them. Weeding smaller raised sections works well for me, too, and I plant the boxes quite densely so we end up with more produce than I ever did planting straight rows in more compacted soil. 

Unfortunately, the wooden 2x2s we used to hold the corners of our boxes together back in 2015 were the first part to rot out, so this time, Lee is using metal brackets to hold the corners together, and hopefully these boxes will last another ten years (with reusable brackets). Or maybe we'll just go back to planting in mounds again, if we're still gardening. 

It's hard to imagine what the future holds because of climate change and drought. I find myself wondering about planting a garden at all when our wildfire season started in February this year because we've had so little moisture over the winter. But I'm trying to be optimistic, and evidence of optimism can be seen in our greenhouse:

A few of my 64 tomato plants
(some to be given to friends and family)

Peppers and marigolds

Geraniums and nicotiana

For the last few years, I've enjoyed the challenge of growing my own bedding plants -- going through the garden catalog, picking a colour scheme, ordering seeds, and starting them early. When it comes to my tomatoes and peppers, whose seeds I save from year to year, I may have planted a bit too soon, but I was in the groove and couldn't help myself. Every year the tomato plants are a bit spindly by the May full moon planting time (my birthday this year) and I feel a bit embarrassed about giving them away to friends, but they've learned to dig them deep so that they build better root systems, and they usually do really well for all of us.

I guess we'll see what kind of growing conditions the Master Gardener Creator gives us this year. For now, I'm just enjoying this planning, planting, and growing time.

Monday Music Appreciation #28 -- That organ!

The Davis Concert Organ at the Winspear Centre for Music where I work is an amazing masterpiece in itself. But when you get someone who can play the thing, it's absolutely incredible.

I didn't get to post about our most recent organ concert for Monday Music Appreciation last week due to another trip to visit my father-in-law, but hold onto your hats. The piece in the video below was performed at the Winspear last week by Jean-Willy Kunz, with Kerem Hassan conducting the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. I sat in my usher's chair shaking my head with amazement through the whole thing, but I've only given you the last three minutes or so to listen to here. The final notes had me on my feet.

If you want more, Youtube has Guilmant's entire 20+ minute long Symphonie No. 1 in D minor for Organ and Orchestra, posted by conductor Jason Tramm, organ by Gordon Turk with the midAtlantic Orchestra (a 2018video made in Ocean Grove NJ) if you click here.

Imagine the floor vibrating under your feet and enjoy!

Monday Music Appreciation #27: My Sweet Lord

This one is for Francis, who came to the Community of Emmanuel yesterday for Easter Sunday Service, and who, after the service, insisted that we go out on the street and lead a chorus of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord." Of course, we didn't actually know the words well enough to do that, and most of the people in the lunch line up didn't either, so it was a hopeless cause. 

But here it is, all the same, a pretty cool piece of music with a lot of the Alleluias he wanted to sing. Just for Francis.