Faded Glory

I suppose we don't need any reminder that Summer has now reluctantly begun to make way for Autumn.  All around, the leaves are beginning to change colour, many flowers parade their final encore and the sounds are those of finality (for this year at least); the swan song is in the air.

I came across this butterfly whilst recovering a rugby ball from a flower bed.  Like the autumn leaves, its wings are fading; once glorious colours are now only shades of brown.  Yet it is still beautiful.

Having helped with a couple of funerals recently, the words of the old funeral service (which is seldom used now) came to mind:

Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live ... He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.  

A little bleak perhaps, but a stark reminder of not only the fragility of life but its transience also.  Not only we but all of Creation are in an inevitable Autumn, waiting patiently for that eternal Spring to come...

Early-purple Orchid

It's amazing what you can find when you're not looking for anything!  My better half came across this tiny little flower whilst she was cutting the grass (the blades of grass around the flower give a sense of the small scale).  We think that it is the beginnings of an Early-purple Orchid, but are not entirely sure, maybe some of you green-fingered readers will be able to help us out here?  I know some people like to treat their lawns with all sorts of chemicals so that they can enjoy a velvety grass-only lawn with not a weed or any moss in sight - I'll gladly put up with a few dandelions here and there if it means we can get to see such lovely flowers as this:

Lord, just as a flower can radiate its precious beauty

and cast its fragrance everywhere.

So I ask you to cast the sweet fragrance of your presence over me. 

Surround me with your love.

Fill me with your healing balm.

Enfold me with your peace.

Comfort me with your presence.

May your fragrance linger in the stillness of my soul.

May your healing love renew my very being.

(From Fr. James McSweeny: A Year in Reflection)

Garden Colour

Primula

Nikon D70s, f4.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 220, 127mm equivalent

Crocuses

Nikon D70s, f4.5, 1/60 sec, ISO 200, 127mm equivalent

Camellia

Nikon D70s, f8, 1/250 sec, ISO 200, 112mm equivalent

It's wonderful to have a stroll around the garden and see everything coming to life, especially after such a long, cold winter.  There are of course the great parallels with Easter - New Life, New Beginnings etc.  It is as if the whole of Creation points us towards God:

Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being.  (Romans 1:20 The Message)

St. Augustine said:

Ask the earth and the sea, the plains and the mountains, the sky and the clouds, the stars and the sun, the fish and animals, and all of them will say, "We are beautiful because God made us." This beauty is their testimony to God.

In the bleak midwinter

In the bleak midwinter

Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood
Hard as iron,
Water like a stone:
Snow had fallen,
Snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter,
Long ago.

Our God,
Heaven cannot hold him,
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and Earth
Shall flee away
When he comes to reign:
In the bleak midwinter
A stable place sufficed
The lord God almighty,
Jesus Christ.

Angels and archangels
May have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim
Thronged the air;
But his mother only
In her maiden bliss
Worshiped the beloved
With a kiss.

What can I give him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man,
I would do my part;
Yet
What I can I give him,
Give my heart.

Christina Rossetti (1830-93)