Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Berry berry nice

Our third raspberry harvest:



Quite an increase from just a day or two ago.
Here's what they look like in one of those gallon ziplock bags so you get a better idea of how many we actually picked.
And this is just the beginning. I'm sure I'll come up with some creative recipes to use all those berries in.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Berry picking season again

Our first crop of wild raspberries is in:


Doesn't seem like much right now, but there are hundreds of berries out there, waiting to ripen and be picked! We'll be out there picking every day for the next couple of weeks I imagine. I noticed quite a few are growing so close to the ground that the grass is hiding them. We had a lot of rain this Spring, so the crop is plentiful. I might just try my hand at making raspberry jam or preservatives this year. There was a coupon in the paper recently for the canning supplies, so why not?
I noticed there are a lot of bugs around them too, they look like baby praying mantis. They don't appear to be eating or damaging the fruit, and they haven't bitten me when I've touched them unawares, so I leave them alone. Praying mantis are good for the garden. Maybe next time I'm out there I'll try to snap a picture of one and post it on here. Wonder if I could knit a raspberry. Hmmm....

Father's Day

Had a good Father's Day; how about you? My wife asked my daughter where she wanted to take me for Father's Day, and she said, (a local seafood restaurant). I thought to myself, how did she even know about that place? We only took her there once before, and she wasn't even talking back then I don't think! But we went, and had a nice time.

Here's what she made me as a Father's Day gift:

A nice bead bracelet that I wore proudly all day the next day at work. They all already know I'm a creative dude, so they said nothing. Made me want to make some more bracelets for myself (and her too).

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Art Skillfully Integrated into the Church Service

This past Sunday, an awesome ministry came to our church to minister in song, testimony, and clay. The Potter's Field Ministries (www.pottersfield.org) led by Pastor Michael Rozell and his wife Pam, gave a wonderful example of how art can be woven into the fabric of a church service. Pastor Mike gave his testimony, followed by Pam who sang as created a pot at the wheel which illustrated the song, the Bible verses (Jeremiah 18:1-6) and the testimony. It was fascinating to see how Pastor Mike worked at creating the pot and how many different shapes and sizes it took. I could truly appreciate the amount of effort that he put into making it, since I have tried and failed at throwing pots on a wheel. It was evident that both he and she had an anointing over their lives, which came through brokenness and a willingness to be used by Him, in so many other ways besides just art. It was wonderful!!

These are pictures I took after the service:

In the center is the pot he created during the service. It took several different shapes before arriving at this one.
On the left: the WOW piece that he unveiled at the end of the service (he did not create that during the service). The painting in the background was also revealed near the end of the service.