The delightful Arch Stanton have just announced their first live show in over a year! Their sound could perhaps be described as Crosby, Stills & Nash-inspired alt-country, but it wouldn’t do them justice.  I last saw them back in February 2009 at the Betsey Trotwood, sharing the bill with The Woe Betides (who, incidentally, are playing the 405 night at The Good Ship next week).  Anyway, they’re one of the best acoustic acts I’ve seen on London’s live circuit: let their soothing sounds wash away your post-Valentine blues.

Arch Stanton at the Slaughtered Lamb, November 2008

Monday 15th of February at the Slaughtered Lamb.  Buy tickets in advance, if you wish.  Oh, and do have a listen:

Waking Giants

The Garden

This should be in a new category: ‘Turn It Up after watching all 6 seasons of Six Feet Under back to back’

Her voice: broken and desperate. This is a song I can’t help but come back to every once in a while. It’s so affecting. I watched the entire box set of Six Feet Under for the first time over Christmas and fell apart in the last 10 minutes of the show finale – this song plays over the entire montage.

I was lucky enough to see her Live when she played with Zero7 for The Garden -Must have been 2006, one of my first gigs, she pogo danced across the stage and blew the roof with her vocal. Incidentally The Garden is an incredibly underrated album – it’s cleverly crafted chill-out. Here she is in one of the single releases:

Buy the box set. Buy Sia’s albums. See Sia LIVE.

the garden, a one minute short film shot in plymouth (uk) on super-8.

the garden from Patrick Sheehan on Vimeo.

Having decided that growing tomatoes is too water intensive for the low yield of fruit we achieved last year, I thought I might try my hand at rhubarb this year.

In September we went to Bunnings and purchased a rhubarb crown for a couple of dollars and within a week of planting we had our first new shoot. Success!

I was pretty chuffed at the growth, but the plant seemed to be in the path of Peaches & her favourite sleeping spot so any new growth kept on getting snapped off

I decided to invest in a plant guard but I fear it’s too late as there hasn’t been any sign of life for over a month.

Exhibit A: The rhubarb killing feline

I’ve done a bit of reading & hope that perhaps the crown is laying dormant in the hotter weather & will spring back to life in the cooler months.

Does anybody have any experience in growing rhubarb? Am I wasting my time with this mound of dirt or should I continue to give it some love in the hope it will reward me next season?

In the quarter hour of quiet time between a batch of after-lunch chores and another icy school run, my younger son and I snuggle down in the den, feeling a little sleepy and sluggish.

I am listening to Thea Gilmore and looking out at the snowy hills, trying to be patient about the long winter while longing for spring. Yesterday we picked the first few snowdrops from under the bare lime trees, and put them in a tiny vase in the centre of the kitchen table to enjoy. The first flowers of the year: so modest in their momentousness.

Lovely though they are, I decided we needed a bit of instant colour to keep us going. So I have cheated and bought some daffodil bulbs in shoot, which should flower before long,

and a bunch of my favourite flowers, pink tulips,

which I have put in a much-loved jug from the little pottery in Grassington in the Yorkshire Dales.

Being blessed with a big garden and, indeed, a gardener, I always feel a little guilty at spending housekeeping money on flowers. But at this time of year, when the ground is frozen solid, there is nothing doing in the garden: the gardener and groundsman keep themselves busy tidying up trees in the policies, pruning straggly branches and having great bonfires of the trimmings. It’s a fine job they’re doing but, if we want bright colour, we must look elsewhere. And seeing the delight with which my little boy greets these tulips when I bring them through to the den, smelling each one with a Cheshire cat smile, I realise that I don’t need to justify buying them. As surely as food nourishes the body, flowers nourish the soul.

I would like to introduce all of you to Lindsay Griffith.  Lindsay is a student here at JBU and is going to try to “bring order to chaos” by helping us coordinate some of our volunteer involvement with the Garden @ Siloam Springs.  If you need to contact Lindsay, her email address is GriffithL@jbu.edu.

I think I have mentioned in the past, we can accept workers to help with (1) gatherings on Saturday mornings, (2) cooking from 2:00-4:30 (-ish) on Sunday afternoons, and (3) clean up on Sunday evenings from 4:00-5:30 (-ish).  That is our working model at the moment, and that is when we can use helpers.

How many volunteers do we need?  Bear with me as I explain how this works.

GATHERING:  The gathering process on Saturday mornings is coordinated by a gentleman named Brad Melton.  Remember, we are one of three kitchens involved in this initiative, and there is also a ministry of distribution that happens for food not used in the kitchens (this is a ministry of the Cobblestone Project – see www.cobblestone.org).  The bulk of the food comes from two produce houses, one in Springdale and one in Lowell, and we never know what we are going to have until we show up.  From Siloam Springs, we go to a produce house in Springdale first (arriving about 8:00 a.m. on Saturday morning).  Other gathers from Bentonville/Rogers go to the produce house in Lowell.  After we load up what they have, we call the other gatherers to compare.  If necessary, we meet and trade.  We try to make sure that all three kitchens have what they need, after which we head back to Siloam Springs and the others deliver to the other two kitchens and to a number of agencies along the corridor that deal with hunger and homelessness.  When we get back, we pack everything into the refrigerators at First Christian Church.  OUR GOAL is to get produce to drive our kitchen, and our primary product is soup…but we take whatever we can get.  We have had everything from bagged lettuce to bread sticks to artichokes!  We have limited storage space at the church.  HOW MANY VOLUNTEERS DO WE NEED? Generally, all we need are a couple of people and 1 vehicle capable of hauling some stuff.  I have a Hyundai Santa Fe, and it does a pretty good job.  We really cannot make use of multiple vehicles or trailers at this time, because for now we do not have a place to store such a quantity of food.  So along with one “trained” gatherer, we really only need one other person, and between the two of them, we need a vehicle.  If a church member (with a key) is not part of the team, then we will make arrangements for someone to meet you at the church and let you in.

COOKING:  When the gatherers return, we generally send out an email to everyone announcing what the “haul” is for the week.  This gives our “Iron Chefs” the chance to begin to construct a strategy for Sunday afternoon, and if we need to pick up anything, we can.  We try to rely mostly on recovered food and keep our overall cost at a minimum.  HOW MANY VOLUNTEERS DO WE NEED? Honestly, we can probably use 8-10 volunteers a week…max.  If we have more than that, then people will be standing around without much to do.  It really depends on the week and what we have.  Some weeks are more bountiful than others.  You don’t need to know how to cook, but it can help!

CLEANING:  After spending a 2-3 hours cooking, our cooks are wearing down and need some help with the cleaning.  We deliver our cooked food to Hunger and Thursday Ministry downtown.  Other produce is divided between the Manna Center and Hunger and Thirst Ministry, and from those locations it goes a variety of places!  When we deliver, we return to the church with a bunch of empty pots to add to the mountain of pans, bowls, and utensils.  WE NEED JOYFUL POT SCRUBBERS! We have to wash everything, clean the stove tops and counters, and give the floor a quick mop.  We want to leave the church at least as good as we found it.  HOW MANY VOLUNTEERS DO WE NEED? Usually, a team of 3 or 4 cleaners can finish up the process pretty well.

That is about it for now.  Just wanted to make sure that you understand the process a little bit and that you communicate with Lindsay if you want to come and be part of all of the madness here.

Blessings, all!

Joe Walenciak

The snow arrived early last evening and continued into the early morning hours, then turned into icy pellets. It’s colder than usual here and I know it’s an inconvenience for many. I also know, it isn’t really a unique event and for those in colder climes, it just brings misery. While I know and understand that, there’s another perspective that has strong appeal – if only briefly. It’s one the weatherman spoke of this morning, the stillness. It has brought the area to a standstill and it is quiet.

Depending on the severity, it does force us to stop, even for a moment, and maybe even to look. The looking and contemplation of that fleeting beauty is what the Japanese term Yukimi （雪見）or snow viewing (as opposed to flower viewing). It’s an old activity, probably dating back to the Edo period. It was more than likely an indoor activity – a small party for the nobility – some time spent admiring the courtyard garden and having tea and sweet cakes. Some might also consider an outdoor stroll in a larger garden nearby or surrounding the castle grounds.

Today, one well-known place for Yukimi is the Kenroku-en in Kanazawa. There a person can not only observe the snow-covered garden but the architecture created to protect the trees and plants from the heavy snows. One can stroll through the grounds, but the more comfortable way might be indoors, from the teahouse, looking through the yukimi shōji – the lattice framed sliding doors with a small glass portion incorporated for that purpose.

At this point, I’m just as happy to do my yukimi from the kitchen. I may settle for a cup of hot chocolate and cookie, then gaze out the window to the backyard.

The snow has long since gone from our garden and the landscape around us. But trawling through the photographs we took  just before we left for Berlin, I found this one and decided to post it here as a farewell to the magnificence that swaddled us so beautifully for weeks on end. I’ve posted it at a high definition so that you can click to see Philip the pheasant standing just behind our loose-boxes. Henrietta and Agnes must have been around there somewhere, fluffed up against the cold and ensconced in a little hollow scratched underneath the bushes, their usual cosy arrangement. A snowscape painting is cooking up in the Battery. Not possible to be surrounded by such magnificence without it filtering into my work.

{january flower}

Over the past four days we’ve had to pinch ourselves here at Afton Field Farm.  We needed a good pinching to bring us back to reality- we are still in the thick of the winter season; not spring!

Since Saturday we’ve clipped, pruned, torn out, organized, dreamed, and spruced our main yard areas (we technically have roughly an acre and a half, but we only worked on half that these past days).

{little buddies}

We uncovered all this beauty of bulbs starting to reach out of the ground, flowers starting to spread their petals, and ferns aching to be pruned (which we have about 100 thousand ferns in the small area around the cottage- which I never realized until I had to cut each one back).

It was so energizing!  Seeing all this elegance and warmth in January!  I had to keep reminding myself that we weren’t to spring yet as I clipped, pruned, and raked until my arms nearly fell off- I’m serious!  After four days of gripping those clippers and that rake, my wee little army-poos were exhausted.  I had to have assistance opening the jam jar this morning so I could eat breakfast.

But the yard is looking mighty fine, if I do say so myself, and so are my sculpted arms

Tyler and his parents worked on cleaning up around the barn and unearthing the depths of the tool shed.  That was quite the task and it literally took all day.  Now we all know where the tools, nails, paint, and other miscellaneous items are to be found- which has taken away the headaches while trying to work on various projects.

{metal print negatives}

They found some very “interesting” and “unique” items in that old shed, but the items that were actually the coolest were some old metal print negatives; including one for a wedding invitation (the copper one in the top right corner that you can’t actually read in the photo). It was for one of the youngsters from the Allworth family, who lived here at the farm during its hay-day (1932-1971).

We finished the day by roasting hot dogs by the bonfire.  And just before bed I took a long bath to soak my muscles and read myself to sleep.

We had a productive few days and feel so great checking those items off our (extremely long and seemingly never ending) To-Do list; and today we are back at it again.  Well, at least Tyler is outside finishing things up while I give my arms and hands a rest and answer emails and phone calls- also a never ending task

Matthew 26:45-57

Mark 14:42-53

Luke 22:47-53

John 18:1-12

^{Matthew 26:45-48} Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.⁴⁶Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.⁴⁷And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people.⁴⁸Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast.

Mark 14:42-44 Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.⁴³And immediately, while he yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.⁴⁴And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely.

Luke 22:47 And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.

John 18:1-4 When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples.²And Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.³Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.⁴Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye?

We know that Luke and Mark were not present at this meeting.  But take a look at what Matthew says and Mark parrots him and Luke adds his own flavor yet John does not say that Judas kissed Jesus at all.  The first three sound really dramatic and poetic….kind of like a Shakespeare play and John’s account of the meeting sounds very realistic and truthful. Did they really need a token, as in the account of Mark, to recognize Jesus, or for that matter, a sign from Judas ie”the kiss”.  They knew who He was, they just did not know where He was. The arrestors were the chief priests and Pharisees after all.

===================================

^{Matthew 22:51} And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest’s, and smote off his ear.

Gosh, Matthew says “one of them” drew a sword.  Interesting.  Like he doesn’t know who the disciples are by name or by sight, or he wasn’t there at the arrest scene. Also, he doesn’t know the name of the servant of the high priest, yet John did.

Mark 14:47 And one of them that stood by drew a sword, and smote a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.

Mark parrots Matthew and doesn’t know who it was that had the sword because he wasn’t there. Mark also does not know the name of the servant of the high priest.

^{Luke 22:50 And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.}

Luke parrots Matthew also and he doesn’t know who used the sword because he was not there. Luke does not know the name of the servant of the high priest either, but John does name him.

John 18:10 Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s name was Malchus.

Seems that John remembers who drew the sword and even knows the name of the servant that had the ear loped off by Peter because John was there and he is an apostle of Jesus Christ!

I have a feeling that Malchus is somewhat important because John does name him and the other three gospels either don’t know him or purposefully did not name him. Could they be protecting someone?  Also what is interesting about Malchus is the only one that says his ear was healed by Jesus is Luke and yet Luke was not there.  Luke is Paul’s(Saul of Tarsus) companion. Didn’t Paul have some kind of physical deformity or scar, or was he just missing an ear? Sounds bizarre but stranger things have happened.  Just conjecture, but you never know and that would explain why Luke would say that the servants ear was healed when it wasn’t really healed????? To protect Paul’s identity? If you don’t think I realize that it sounds silly….I do, but why Luke would say that Jesus healed the ear and no one else said it seems strange since he was not there and nothing to back up his statement in the bible.

Another funny thing is the linen cloth and the naked boy that ran into Jesus.

^{Mark 14:51} And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; and the young men laid hold on him:⁵²And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

No other gospel has this verse or anything like it, just Mark.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm

What is that all about? Sounds Greek to me….. which reminds me….. the Roman Catholic Clergy Scandals that have captured the attention worldwide in the past few decades. Could that have been inserted into the gospels in the dark ages (a time when no one had a bible except the priveleged priests) and at the same time someone paints the Shroud of Turin?  Weird!

Speaking of Linen: The Shroud of Turin is pretty weird. People actually believe it is a picture of Jesus Christ that occurred when he was dead and resurrected. You would think Jesus would have said, “By the way I am being photo’d and watch for my photo on linen as a sign from me.” Pope Benedict has some tours of the shroud coming and probably plans to pray about it and promote tourism for it and prayer probably to it. I wonder what kind of business that will bring, not to mention tourism business, and the books! Maybe Pope Benedict will even grant an indulgence of some kind. What a scam!

There is a set up in Jerusalem at the Notre Dame of the Shroud of Turin.

ToBeContinued!

===================================

The shower curtain really didn’t work … so for a while we thought we’d simply put them in the ark and let them fight it out … but I suspect feathers may fly when they do eventually get together – Verity and Charity in particular are determined to put the newbies in their place … even through the wire of the run!

In the end, we decided to put the wooden box arrangement actually in the run … it does mean they have less space, but it’s protected by the corrugated plastic roofing and at night we’re putting a tarpaulin across, too, to cut out the light from the neighbour’s garden and a security light from the house at the back – it seemed to be confusing the Cooks to have bright lights around them at night.

They are desperate to be out … but are not so unhappy they’re not laying – we had three eggs from the Cook Chooks today! Fairly tasteless just now, but they’ll get better. Only two eggs from the others, Charity and an ex-batt … perhaps their noses are out of joint?

We did a lot more to the raised beds today, and DH raked the rest of the straw out of the run. It’s looking much tidier, but I’m hoping the grass improves in the Spring!

There are two reasons the current thaw brings a smile to my face.  Number one, it cleared the driveway.  Number two, it reminds me of the coming spring.

Could I be forgiven for being a little too ready to dig in the middle of January?

Possibly.  Misty and I are going back and forth with our garden plans.  She is (understandably) concerned that I will get in over my head; that we will begin uprooting sod and creating patches of possibilities that will become overwhelming.  But I have asked her to give me just a couple months of musing.  I think I overuse that word, but it’s the closest I can get to the conditions which exist in my head.

The fact is, I have little ground to work with when it comes to what I want to do.

We have a large barn on our property that was built in the 80’s or early 90’s. The ground surrounding the barn is not tillable.  So my usable soil is practically cut in half.  Last Fall, as my gourds were just becoming ripe, something was sprayed on the field next to the garden which killed the entire swath of yard and garden next to it.  I can’t tell you if it was the wind, or the boom from the sprayer reached over the yard.  All I know is my six gourds were a shriveled mess, and the grass is completely dead.  If it was roundup, I certainly hope it doesn’t last this spring.

I need some room.  The thaw has allowed me to look at different patches around the yard.  Take yesterday, for instance.  Lincoln was doing his business in the side yard between the driveway and the house.  I was standing there, watching him when the yard reached up in my sights.  It’s a nice stretch of yard.  It’s probably never been touched by anything but grass.  I pictured a rectangular patch of dark earth beneath, and then a flower garden sprouting from within.

It will take some convincing.  Part of the philosophy of leaving ground as grass has to do with the months of non-growth.  It will be a brown patch.  So I have to come up with a way to disguise that.

It’s supposed to be fifty degrees tomorrow.  The snow won’t be completely gone, but it will certainly feel like March.  I should probably plan my day away from the house.  I just might start digging.

Lavender and bees

This information will primarily be of interest to locals.

When I was in the library yesterday I noticed a poster for the Explore Oregon program series which is sponsored by the Friends of the Library.  I normally see these posters, give it a quick skim and continue on with my business, but this poster caught my eye because there are a few programs which are of particular interest to me, and probably other urban homesteader types.

• Jan. 24 -  Bookmaking; a hands-on class designed by Marilyn Worrix and presented by Jo Hockenhull
• Jan. 31 – Backyard beekeeping; a presentation on the basics of beekeeping with honey tasting by Jim Marshall of C & J Apiary in Dayton, Oregon
• Feb. 7 – Making soft cheeses and mead at home; a presentation by our very own milk farmer Chrissie of Kookoolan Farms.  This demonstration will show how to make Coeur a la Crème (heart-shaped soft cheese) with a cheese and mead tasting.
• Feb. 14 – Wine and candy pairings; A Valentine’s Day class on wine and chocolate; first three Yamhill county wines will be paired with four to six different chocolates, then two or three different dishes using chocolate will be paired with an appropriate wine.
• Feb. 21 – Growing herbs in your garden; Kate Parker of Katula Herbs will cover how to grow herbs from seed, cutting or division, how to preserve them, their culinary and medicinal uses, which ones make great tasting teas and how to utilize them in companion planting as well as herbs should be found in everyone’s garden.

These classes/demonstrations are on Sundays at 2:00 pm at no cost.  The full schedule and description can be found here.

While all the classes look interesting, the three that I would like to attend are:  backyard beekeeping, soft cheese and mead at home and growing herbs in your garden.  I don’t have any personal experience with the beekeeping presenters, but I do have experience with Chrissie of Kookoolan Farms and Kate Parker of Katula Herbs.  Chrissie has been our milk farmer for more than three years and has become, along with her husband Koorosh, good personal friends of ours.  Kate Parker has had a booth at our local farmers market for several years and I’ve purchased herb plants from her in the past.  She sells beautiful, healthy, common and hard-to-find herbs at very reasonable prices.  The comfrey plant I purchased from her several years ago is strong, healthy and very large.

In the past the Friends of the Library has sponsored other practical and interesting classes, that I didn’t get around to attended, like Winter Gardening by our CSA farmers, Katie and Casey of Oakhill Organics and food preservation.

I’m so glad that the Friends of the Library have chosen to sponsor such useful and relevant classes and I hope that they are well-attended to encourage more classes of similar content.

and a few pics of the others …

and just to show that it’s not always ‘birds of a feather’ …

and finally,

We had two eggs from the Cook Chooks on their first day – good girls! Clarissa (blue leg ring) is clearly top hen, and faced up to some hassle from Verity through the wire … we’ll need to watch the quite carefully when they meet. Delia (no leg ring) is clearly bottom hen, usually on her own while the other two dig or feed or preen together. Nigella has Yoda’s yellow leg ring … I can’t really see Nigella wearing yellow, but it was a case of first come, first served! I’m not sure who it is who makes the most horrible racket from time to time … it’s a bit like having a goose in the garden. I hope whoever it is will settle down eventually – Verity was quite loud to start with, but I hardly hear her now.

So if all else fails, we can identify each of the hens from their leg rings  … ex batts Bridget in blue, Roberta in Red and Yoda without, Light Sussex Charity in yellow and Verity in red, and Rhode Rock Nigella in yellow, Clarissa in blue (from Patience) and Delia without. We may be able to tell which type of hen laid which egg – the Light Sussex eggs are quite pale and the Rhode Rocks are brown – but I doubt we’ll be able to tell exactly which hen laid which egg.

And we did some more work on the raised beds while we had a break in the weather … I’ve been aiming to level if not fill a bed a day, and today DH put in some time to finish filling two beds and level another, so that’s now six beds in place, although only two of them are filled and ready to plant. But that’s fine … I have in mind to plant broad beans in one and peas in the other (once we have some netting I can protect them with) and everything else can wait until spring/Easter (fitting in around when we may be away). I love it when a plan comes together!

]]> http://dancingbeastie.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/closed-season-in-the-garden/ Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:10:54 +0000 dancingbeastie http://dancingbeastie.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/closed-season-in-the-garden/

Every few years we open the castle’s garden to the public. This is at the behest of the good ladies who run Scotland’s Garden Scheme, through which gardens of all sizes are opened for charity. We are due to open it this year and it is already exercising my mind. Open day is not for several months yet, though, thank goodness. Walking around the garden a couple of days ago, I found it hard to imagine how it could ever look alluring enough for public display, buried under snow and half frozen as it is. The borders are just collections of dead sticks and seed heads:

The statuary is shivering under frost:

And water spraying from a leaking garden tap has encrusted an urn in ice:

One of the few hopeful signs is a small parterre of box seedlings, planted last season, which seem to be growing happily, oblivious to the weeks of snow.

No doubt other good things are waiting, under the soil, to bring us the annual miracle of spring. Meanwhile, even the dogs are happy to leave the garden and come back home to the fireside.

Matthew 26:38-44

Mark 14:34-41

Luke 22:40-46

John 18:1-12

^{Matthew 26:38}Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me,

^Mark:14:34And saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch.

^{Luke 22:40}And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

Matthew and Mark seem to say almost the same thing in these verses, but Luke is quite different.  Remember Luke (Paul’s companion) wasn’t there.

============================

^{Matthew 26:39}And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

^{Mark 14:35}And he went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.³⁶And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.

^{Luke 22:41-44}And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,⁴²Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.⁴³And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.⁴⁴And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

All verses are pretty similar but in Matthew Jesus fell on his face, and in Mark Jesus fell on the ground and in Luke Jesus kneels down to pray. Luke, who adds an angel, agony, and great drops of  sweat. Of course, in the next set of gospels they are all asleep so how would he know of the angel and drops of bloodlike sweat and the agony. If Jesus was doing this would not that wake up the disciples but they were asleep. I imagine if there were an angel visibly there they would be wide awake but they were asleep. Does not make sense!  All three of the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus is praying for the cup to be taken from him but in the gospel of John this does not happen at all, in fact, Jesus had already prayed (chapter 17 Gospel of John) at the site of the Last Supper. We know Luke was not there and Mark was not there and Matthew probably was not there since he missed the dialogue at the Last Supper. And Jesus was not asking for the cup to be taken from him in the prayer at the Last Supper. John mentions no prayer at the garden but, of course, John and Peter and whoever was in the garden were supposed to be sleeping.

============================

^{Matthew 26:40-41}And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?⁴¹Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

^{Mark 14:37-38}And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?³⁸Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

^{Luke 22:45-46}And when he rose up from prayer, and was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow,⁴⁶And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.

See they are asleep.  No one else mentions an angel and if there were one I am sure whoever saw it woud wake the others up just to see an angelic being etc. But the problem is …..Luke was not there and he is the only one that says there was an angel.

============================

Matthew 26:42-46 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.⁴³And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.⁴⁴And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.⁴⁵Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.⁴⁶Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me.

Mark 14:40 And when he returned, he found them asleep again, (for their eyes were heavy,) neither wist they what to answer him.⁴¹And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.⁴²Rise up, let us go; lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.

Luke has no more to say about when Jesus prayed in the garden. Matthew  says Jesus prayed a second time and a third time for the cup to pass from him but Mark only says he prayed a second time and a third time all the while the disciples were asleep. Luke doesn’t mention a second and a third prayer time. John has no prayer time at all in the garden, as I stated earlier. These gospels do not harmonize.  I like Shakespeare, but this is ridiculous.

title: the garden
materials: oil, 22k gold, 12k white gold, swarovsky crystal, encaustic and enamel on linen stretcher
dimensions:

preview:

Crazy but I’ve named my blog after my veggie garden which happens to be… wait for it… a spiral.  I am often asked why I  took the time and effort to dig my garden in a spiral shape and to tell you the truth I don’t have a great answer.  My sister in law Paige was here last spring when we were tromping around in the roughly 40 by 40 patch of land that my neighbour had so generously plowed (or what is tilled? not sure) the previous fall.  It was thrilling to think of all the veggies I was going to grow and excited to get started with the prep and planting.  Paige had just come back from living on a commune in Hawaii which (of course) had a huge, prolific spiral garden. Drew and I thought it was a great idea, something different, something other than the typical straight lined and  ordered garden.  The trouble was I had already spent countless hours over the winter designing and planning for a nice square garden that included perfectly grouped companion plantings and beautifully choreography crop rotations. How on earth would I incorporate these key concepts into a spiral garden?  After I stopped complaining about having to go back to the drawing board I redesigned the garden with rotation and companion planting concepts in place. In the end it really wasn’t that difficult.

I spent that next few weeks frantically tilling (well my lovely and very strong husband rototilled the plowed land for me, thanks honey), digging raised beds and   creating a path that spirals into the centre of the garden. We added load after load of sheep manure from a neighbour and cow manure from the  wonderful and most helpful Emmersons across the road.

Our soil is clay but thankfully has very few rocks in it and eventually, after a final till with a small rototiller the soil was actually starting to look like something I could plant a seed into and not just whole lot of chunks of hard packed clay rocks the would be more suited for wall building.   By this time it was almost the end of May and I was getting anxious to get something into the ground. It was a cold spring so I  wasn’t missing much in the way of good germination temperatures but none the less I had to get going if I wanted any chance at harvesting any food.

I set to work planting. I wanted to plant most things from seed (I have been collecting seeds for years)  I  ended up planting  carrots, radish, beets,  pie pumpkin, butternut squash, acorn squash, potatoes (which went in the latest at almost the end of June!),  greens mix, lettuce, swiss chard, kale, cucumber, beans, peas (too many snow peas!).  I bought tomato plants, pepper plants, cabbage plants and broccoli plants as it was just too late to get these heat loving plants established.  I mulched what I could with straw and stood back to admire.   This was really my first official, real, veggie garden and I was thrilled.

Now I’m not sure if it was beginners luck or the spiral shape was somehow in tune with the universal growing forces but I had a amazing garden this past summer.   Everything did amazing except maybe the cucumbers which got some mildew thing and up and died one day.  I had so many tomatoes I wasn’t sure what to do with them all. I ended up spending most of my evenings freezing and canning them. We will get through until the next tomato harvest before we need to buy tomatoes again.  I have about 50 pumpkins in our basement which I serve up to my family on a regular basis.

Like everyone else, I am looking forward to getting out there in my garden again.  This spring will be the second year of the spiral garden and I already have all kinds of ideas of how to make it better.  On these cold, dark days of winter daydreaming  about my spiral garden is just the tonic I need.

CHECK OUT  THESE PHOTOS OF MY SPIRAL GARDEN IN VARIOUS STAGES OF PREP, PLANTING and GROWING.

Today is the first day the hens have been confined to one area of the garden … no escapees so far, but it’s only been about 3 hours!

It’s not very secure so we’ll continue to keep them in the run for a good part of the morning, to make sure they lay in the nest box as well as that they eat a good proportion of layers pellets before foraging for themselves. We may eventually create a more permanent and slightly higher fence of some kind, but this will do as a short term experimental measure. I think they have enough space to continue to find good things to eat – but we’ll put in a few stones/logs to turn over from time to time as a refuge/feeding station for bugs!

Every Saturday, I look forward to going to my local farmers’ market. In a city where people spend most of their time at home, work, or in a car, to be in an open air market does something for the soul. To stroll through the crowds and visit my favorite vendors and look at their gorgeous produce that is often picked that morning, is simply awesome. I get such a charge every time I go.  You can check out www.farmersmarket.com for a complete listing of all farmers’ markets in the US.

… we finally fenced in an area of the garden for the hens exclusive use during the growing season …

I’m not convinced that the fencing we have is at all adequate, but it’s a start … even if we decide later on that we need to replace it with something taller. The fenced off area is 8×5m, which with the 4×4m run gives them over 50 square metres of space, should just about do for 5 hens!! We won’t be able to see them very well from the house however … and no hens flocking to the back door as it opens a crack to see if the way is clear to get to the compost bin without drawing attention to yourself! The ‘chicken yard’ is fairly flat, with some grass, some soil and woodchip and a pile of old logs. So there’s plenty of digging for them to do.  I hope the wall is high enough too … it’s 5ft along one side, overgrown by a 30ft tall conifer in the neighbour’s garden. We’ve cut back the fig tree, although I take it that will start to grow again soon, and again, I hope they can’t use the stump to leap over the wall into the back lane. DH put an old dining room chair out there for them to perch on, but they haven’t discovered it yet … they were too taken up with all the bugs that were hiding under a pile of cuttings he’d just moved elsewhere.

Photos to follow – the monsoon started just as we’d finished …