When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

                          The Moon and the stars, which you have ordained,

                          What is man that you are mindful of him,

                          And the son of man, that you visit him?

I have been reading an interesting book by Timothy Keller, The Reason For God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Keller pastors a very large church in NYC and talks to all kinds of people daily. He has written several books. Another one that I found interesting is called The Prodigal God. I just finished reading a chapter about the charge that the church is responsible for so much injustice. This is one of the criticisms people make about the church and about Christianity. In it, Keller tells the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. If you don't know who he is, he was a German who, at the time of Hitler's rise to power, pastored two German speaking churches in London. He could have remained safely in London but for the strong conviction he had to return to his native land to counterbalance the injustice he saw rising there. He wrote about the spiritual deadness and self-satisfied complacency that allowed injustice and He aligned himself with the churches that refused to sign an oath of alligience to the Nazi's. He refused to turn a blind eye to those who were being maginalized and destroyed by Hitler and the Nazi's. For his trouble, he was eventually arrested and hanged.

Here is a quote from Bonhoeffer's book, Letters and Papers From Prison:

It is not a religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life. That is metanoia (repentance): not in the first place thinking about ones own needs, problems, sins and fears, but allowing oneself to be caught up into the way of Jesus Christ... Pain is a holy angel ... through him men have become greater than through all the joys in the world ... The pain of longing, which often can be felt physically, must be there and we shall not and need not talk it away. But it needs to be overcome every time, and thus there is an even holier angel than the one of pain, that is the one of joy in God.

That is the approximate number of pairs of shoes that American women have in their closets.

300 million children, 1.5 billion adults worldwide are without any shoes

An organization called Soles4Soles distributes gently worn shoes to those in need. If you are interested in donating shoes to them go to their website to see if there is a collection box near you. www.soles4souls.org

Information from October 2010 Issue of Real Simple Magazine

I am an east coast girl, a city girl really. When I moved out to the mid-west I was told to watch out for tornados. They sound like trains people told me. It did not help that our first home was a little trailer next to a railroad track. Whenever I heard that noise, I never knew if it was a tornado coming for me or the 7:23 headed to Chicago! When we moved to Iowa, it got worse. You could never wear a hat in Iowa. One day the wind bent the steel door to our apartment building. I had nightmares about tornados. We have lived a few places since then but now we are back in my home territory albeit in the suburbs. We have had some scary wind storms. I don't remember wind storms like this being here before. In March we had a doosey of a windstorm that blew down several trees including one that crushed my house so you can see why I am not too partial to them. Last night the wind was so loud I could have sworn the freight line took a wrong turn and was passing through my property. The wind is still kicking up outside. I can see those tall trees swaying from where I sit. Yikes!!!!!  

We are back in business after a nasty virus took over our computer.

These are the photos from inside Aldie Mansion. You can see some of the details of the house as I snapped photos of some of the crafts that were for sale. A portion of the proceeds from this show benefits local charities. I only captured a small number of the tables of crafts. there were some really nice choices.

Some pottery ... 

Sparkly glassware...

Christmas decorations ...

Note the lovely fireplace behind this display...

Stained glass against leaded glass windows....

My friend, Janne makes these table decorations out of felt...

More Christmas decorations...

Lovely wood paneled walls and a tapestry...

I imagine there will be more shows and sales as the gift giving season approaches... 

 Last week I went to a craft show with a friend. I only had my camera phone so I was not able to get good photos. Yesterday, another friend was going so I tagged along for the express purposes of photography. The venue is unusual. Aldie Mansion was built in 1927 to resemble traditional Tudor mansions in England. The architects traveled to England to study several homes there and the design is based on Compton Wyngates in Warwickshire near where we lived for many years. The family is linked to the Mercers who were an artistic bunch. The light was really nice in the late Autumn afternoon.

The entrance ...

Beautiful brickwork...

Notice the tall chimneys...

It even has gargoyles...

Part of the family business was tile making and these tiles were all around in the walls of the house inside and out...

You know I had to get one door photo.....

The gardens had some nice autumn color...

A pretty posh birdhouse.....

This garden area names people who donated to the restoration of the mansion...

The rear courtyard ...

Beautifully shaped trees...

Lovely corner of the garden...perfect for weddings which are often held there in summer ...

Looking back at the house from that corner...

One last look before leaving ...

    Everyone likes Autumn for the colorful display it puts on. One of my favorite things is the way the blue sky looks behind the grey branches and orange leaves of the trees.

I love how the scene out our back window changes gradually from this...

To this... 

To this ... as if the trees had been invited to a fancy dress ball ...

My dear grandmother gave me one of her books. The book is called Ideals and it is an Autumn issue. This poem is from there.

Autumn

by Mary FInk

Autumn is a spendthrift season...

For with lavish heart and hand, 

She scatters gold throughout the land;

Gold of pumpkin, gold of corn,

Golden skies to meet the morn,

Gold in every leaf and flower,

Golden glow of sunset hour.

Autumn is a joyful season...

For with merry heart and hand,

She scatters music throughout the land;

Song of birds and hum of bees,

Soft winds rustling through the trees,

Children laughing at the sound

Of apples falling on the ground.

Autumn is a glorious season...

For, with gracious heart and hand,

She scatters beauty throughout the land;

Play of moonlight on the stream, 

Woods that are an artist's dream.

Now is nature at her best,

In glorious costumes gayly dresses -

Every leaf and flower and tree

Joins in the happy revelry.

Sometimes I feel like a "bird brain" and other times I wish I was a bird so I could fly several thousand feet up to the top of a mountain like this guy.

We had two interactions with our feathered friends today. One was with our repeat visitor, the funny color woodpecker. He keeps tapping away at the side of our house outside our bedroom window. Yikes! Does anyone know if woodpeckers can damage your house? Anyway, I stuck my head out the window and caught a closer look but he flew away before I could snap a photo. Aha! A photo challenge.

The second interaction occurred when we tried to back the car out of the garage this morning. Right in the middle of the path of our car was a little bird (a Wren?) lying on its back with its feel twitching! Awwww! Perhaps it flew into the garage windows and was stunned? We could see it was breathing. What to do? We got a shovel and gently tried to move it our of the tracks of the tires. Suddenly it stood up. I spoke softly to it and it gradually hopped over to the grass so I stood there and watched it until we got the car out and closed the garage door.

Today I feel a little like that bird...I was flying along and suddenly crashed into something I could not see and I was stunned so now I am lying here with my feet twitching waiting for someone to come speak softly to me.

Today I ate a chocolate doughnut in honor of saintvi.

These are the words of Jesus from Matthew chapter 6:

 "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." 

Another translation puts it this way:

 "For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

What do you think He meant by these words?

Not much going on here ... kind of a lazy weekend ... sunny but cool ... too cool for an adventure on  the pink bike ... stayed inside mostly and worked on my art projects and on painting doors in the house ... bought a sink and a curtain rod but have not yet installed either ... worked sudokus ... looked out the window at my little world and kept seeing this unusual woodpecker ... he keeps pecking at the side of our house just above our bedroom window ... he is not the usual black and white with red hat... he is mostly green like a parrot ... tried to get a photo but don't have a good telephoto lens so this is the best I could do ... 

I guess he does not look like much in these photos but he is handsome.

Yesterday we received a notice from the post office that Brian was changing his address. It did not give his new address. How would you like to find out that way? It was not a happy weekend for us.