May flowers at the Botanical Garden

We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden early today to beat the predicted rain.

My favorite photo of the day was this columbine.

I'm still finding the peonies photogenic.

But, of course, the roses aren't bad either.

And, I had a good time trying to get a shot of a bee.

More photos on my flickr page.

Just Do It

This piece meets two challenges. The one at my digital scrapbooking home, Scrap Orchard, was to make an art journal page with the theme Just Do It. We were given the background to use if we wanted -- and I did! The other is a blog challenge, Art Creations Friday -- they provided the photo of the lovely lady with roses. Other elements are from the digital scrapbooking kit Comfy Cozy.

My take on this journal page was to address my unfortunate tendency to not make much effort in observing my birthday (which is Tuesday).

May flowers at the Garden

The roses are just beginning to bloom at the Missouri Botanical Garden.



So are the peonies.

I thought this container in the Boxwood Garden was pretty.

More pix at my Flickr page.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We had bean enchiladas for lunch. After some experimenting, we've settled on the refried beans recipe found in the cookbook Mexican Light by Martha Rose Shulman.

Supper was Acelgas Guisades or Swiss Chard with Tomatoes and Potatoes, a recipe from Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless.

Both meals were muy delicioso!

Baby greens and a new pond

Before supper, I thinned half of this bed and had enough greens to make a good-sized salad for each of us. It's thrilling to eat something from my own garden this early in the year.



In other yard news, R dug a hole in the side of the hill below the deck to make a level spot for a small round pond. This will be the summer home for the tropical water lily that's been blooming since Christmas in our bay window and the hardy water lily that is outgrowing its spot in the stock tank water feature.



Here is the pond, filled and reflecting the sunroom.

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

From Sermon CLXII "The Lord's Supper" by Ralph Waldo Emerson as printed in Transcendentalism: A Reader, edited by Joel Myerson. Emerson resigned from his ministry with this sermon.

Having recently paid particular attention to this subject, I was led to the conclusion that Jesus did not intend to establish an institution for perpetual observance when he ate the passover with his disciples; and further to the opinion that it is not expedient to celebrate it as we do.

The rest of the sermon is a well-defined logical argument against requiring Holy Communion in the church or with performing it with a sense of authority -- all new to me since I had never thought of the subject before. Some of it relates to High Church and Low Church, although he doesn't use the terms. I learned about those in a couple of classes at Wash U, particularly one that made the case for High Church. Emerson makes the case for Low Church, while granting that those who find meaning in the forms of High Church should continue to participate in them.

Self portrait

Today, I learned how to use: a tripod, the self-timer on my camera, and a reflector to reduce shadows in a face. Oh, and I also learned how to reduce the glare on glasses using Photoshop Elements.