father - dad - son | abutilon hybridum

My dad asked me to take these abutilon x hybridum flowers into my studio so that they might survive the harshness of winter outside. Of course, I agreed - I would say yes to most of the things that my old man asks of me for as he doesn’t ask for much. Funny really, because here I am at fifty and I still need my pa to help me with questions of gardening, plants and much more. I consider myself fortunate to have his expertise at my side. You know for years he stood before me, then beside me and now my dear old dad stands behind me.
I’m blessed to know this of my father because my dad’s father, my namesake, died when my dad was just a mere boy of 13.

He gifted me this beautiful Flowering Maple (abutilon hybridum) and it sits in my studio just now looking somewhat shocked by the change. Dad’s can do that to you too. My old man never had a role model as a father during his teen years and it showed during my teen years. I’m not going to list pop’s sins here, as they’re probably not unlike your father’s sins. He’s hurt me as I’ve hurt my son.
The one thing that binds us together is not just blood but unequivocally unconditional love. I love my dad with all his faults, as I know he loves me with mine. So should a son love his father and a father a son.

flowering maple - abutilon x hybridum

How much more does our heavenly Father love us and He is faultless.

I’ve been pissed at God to, or at least I thought it was God that I was angry with. In hindsight, maybe it was not God but my notion of fairness of which I blamed Him.

Life is unfair and the unfairness is distributed unfairly!!
Life is fair and the fairness is distributed unfairly!!
Why pain and why me.
Shit happens but why does it always happen to me.

Like my dad, God always came to me when I cried for help. In fact I can say today that where it not for God, my life would have been terribly different. He has always been my Island, the rescue from my own stupidity and from circumstance.
God has never allowed me to take the role of victim because there has always been means for me to leave that place.

God’s love for me has never waned, grown tired and long after I’ve thrown in the towel He is there, even in the darkness. Though the light has shone in the darkness, the darkness has not understood it.

I know now that I really have no cause to complain, because my Father has always loved me unconditionally and it has always been me who has attempted to set the terms.Bless me Father… Give me your strength!

abutilon hybridum - flowering maple

Thank you for grace and for always being there for my dad, my son, and me.

GP

first snow storm

We had are first significant snowfall yesterday. The first snow is one that ends all the feelings of dread of waiting for that first major snow fall because it is a done deal a “fait des complete”, it snowed. We had a brutal north wind push in snow squalls off the Great Lakes resulting in a fierce storm.
The school where my wife works, in a town about 50 km. north of us, was closed today in what we call a “snow day” as the school buses are cancelled with such inclement weather.

In the north of Canada, the Inuit peoples have something like a hundred words to describe snow, as the Dutch have many words for the water that travels through their land. Some of my favourite snow words are spindrift, snow squall, and my all time favourite melting as in its melting away.

My gargoyles don’t seem to mind the brutal cold that accompanies a brisk squall as they just sit there and are covered in snow with no complaint.

I think that some of the plants celebrate the embrace of the cold such as these Rose Hips that turn a succulent red at this time of the year and make for a delicious cup of tea.

So that’s it, lots of snow and wind makes for a good storm and today being warmer accompanied with sun, it’s all just dazzling before my eyes.

GP

a calm for the weary

Today was rest day for my weary soul. I went to church which felt good, I really should go more often as our church is what we’ve made of it and just now it’s real fine. Alive with God followers, it is named Forest City Community Church if you should ever care to visit us here in London.
I spent the afternoon cleaning flowerbeds for their winter rest and planting bulbs for my spring renewal. This also felt good as it was a pleasant enough of a day to spend the afternoon outside.

While working in our gardens I came upon another of the many varied ornamental grasses that we grow in the gardens. I was silenced by the subtle beauty of it’s now seeded plumes. This grasses doesn’t come into this feathery state until after the frost tells it to, as that same frost tells me that I to must prepare for the long cold winter ahead.

I felt a feeling of well being, at peace with the Creator and creation while stewarding over this beauty. I’m a blessed person and my table is full, my friends are true, my cup runneth over with the blessings of a most gracious and bountiful God, as well as my own hard work. It was a satisfying day and like these exquisite plumes, it was calming to my sometimes-troubled soul.

another of the grasses from our gardens

such subtle beauty

then caressed by the sun

I’ll have to tell you the proper name of this grass in my next post as it’s late and I can’t remember its name from memory.

GP

first snow

I’m not going to show you an image of snow even though I saw my first little fluffs of snow this evening. I know we had some flakes dropping last week also in the wee hours of the morning but I didn’t see them. I worked at the Monastery today decked in all the regal of winter fashion with my thermals on underneath. We were still cleaning up leaves and yanking frozen dead annuals from the flowerbeds, it was as cold as the balls on a brass monkey because of the brutal north wind howling down on my son and me.

Tonight when I saw those first flakes of snow swirling in the night air I couldn’t help but think that I many places in our world they would call this “snowing”, where as most of us here in CanDada just shudder and think of what’s to come not just a few flakes in the air.

In all this cold and with our trees stripped bare by the same north wind that buffeted and oppressed us working outside today I still found these marvelous warm colours on the leaves of a Smokey Bush (I’m sorry I don’t know the proper name for this shrub just what we call it here in the province.) I was really stunned by the colours of these leaves and thought I’d share some warmth with you in this otherwise cold account of my day.

leaves on a Smokey bush

Remember what they say in cold countries like Canada, Finland, or Norway: there is no such thing as cold weather just poor clothing choices. So as most Canadians hear from their mom’s, when growing up here “Make sure you wear your coat.”

May all your days be warm and toasty and your hearth burn bright.
I consider statements like the above to be like an antidepressant in terms of what I’m really thinking about the damn cold. I say them so that maybe in cordiality I might find some warmth from what I otherwise am not looking forward to even with all the beauty winter provides.

GP

austere wind

I don’t believe I truly conveyed the starkness of the north winds stripping our trees of foliage in the lower image of my post below “north wind”. I was too preoccupied with the sky in the aforementioned image as it had its own intrinsic beauty. Truth is I don’t see many sunrises, they always occur at such a ghastly early hour that usually find me sleeping; unless I’ve been out lone wolfing the evening hours in the studio.
I put together this composite panoramic image to establish just what I mean when I say stark. I think this image of the southeast to the south-south-west corners of our land confirms just how austere our skyline has become with the parting of leaves.

GP

north wind

Last week was a splendid fall week, as this image of my backyard affirms. The warmth of Indian summer. The leaves all changing colours accompanied by a thick carpet of the same leaves. Beautiful sultry fall days.

Yesterday was a cooler day with powerful north wind that stripped most all of the leaves from our trees. This morning when I awoke, I went out at the sunrise and took this image of what the north wind had left behind.

Today I took all our outdoor furniture into the shelter of the shed. Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve emptied all the flowerpots and begun the work of prepping the gardens for their winter sleep. Today the starkness of late fall made an impact on me, as I know the north wind takes the leaves but in the next weeks will also bring us snow.

It was a beautiful sunrise.

GP

trees enlighten

I love the way light plays within the fall canopy of the trees.

This first image is looking up into a large Sugar Maple, which grows in the back of our yard. It’s a cool day and the sky is cold light grey slate. The inner canopy is shaded but it rendered me this beautiful photo. Thank you tree!

This second image was taken along the banks of the River Thames, in the Blackfriars neighbourhood of London (the other London: Ontario). Very near to where I photographed the Blackfriars Bridge below.
It was photographed on a splendidly warm fall day with the sun’s setting casting light onto the east bank of the river. It grows next to a friend’s home who plays in the Nihilist Spasm Band.
The light in this tree was incredible and though this image works I was not truly able to capture what I saw through the inability of the camera and its user being me. While I’m satisfied with the result I know what I saw was even more stunning. That said, the light in the foliage was exhilarating and I thank the “maker” for getting it just right.

GP

the maple leafs

Some Maple leaves for you today. It is beautiful to look into a tree and see such vivid colour screaming back at you. I will let these images speak for me.

GP

URBAN maple trees -

our home

This image of a group of urban Maple trees is located some three blocks from our home here in London Ont. (the other London). URBAN Maple Treez, jeez that sounds like some kind of Canadian TEaRyOuRwrIST movement; eh (I love the fact that tear and tear are spelled the same - we really have to fix that. I suggest we spell tear as tair). Urban Maple Treez would have something to do about the colour of our flag and the fact that our colours do run and fade. Unlike our cousins to the south whose flag colours do not run from anything - it is insured by a shitload of Smith and Weston’s.
For me it’s just like watching the leaves float downstream to become sediment and nurture life – eh CanaDADA (cf. photo below). Truth be known, I’d rather have a tree for our symbol than an avian scavenger; that’s the extent of my stigma. Although the most beautiful Bald Eagles I have ever seen where all in trees (or flying) on the island of Haida Gwaii in the North Pacific Ocean. Bald eagles in trees? Just because your paranoid doesn’t mean they are not out to get you.

and native land

GP

Thames River — Blackfriars Bridge

Well fall is in its climax here. As I am somewhat behind in writing so then am I behind in my photos. No not behind in taking photos, just in showing them to you - here are some images that I took over a week ago. They are from along the Thames riverside, the Thames runs right through the middle of London (yes also that London but I mean this London) and provides its own tranquil beauty to our city. What you have to understand is that photos below were all taken within the core of our downtown or very near it. 350,000 people walk around in these woods in the middle of our city. I must admit it is one thing that keeps me sane in living here. I much prefer to live next to the ocean like Amsterdam or New York and being Dutch the little parts that make me desire to live next to the sea. So here in the middle of the Great Lakes, I am grateful to have a river and bridges to cross. None of these Bridges is compaprable to the Brooklyn Bridge or the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York. More on this later.

I took these images on a very warm Sunday along the Thames river just as the leaves were about to change, some already changing colour. My family and I, in the many years we’ve lived here, have walked, cycled, and seen these sites time and time again. They never cease to please me – whatever BS is going on in my life I can always go to the river and find my thoughts and my expression of thanks to God for creating such beauty.

Gibbons Park from the west bank of the Tames River.

fall leaves under the Gibbon’s Park footbridge

That then takes me to bridges. London has no bridges of any world quality as the aforementioned bridges in New York. That said it does have two charming old steel arched bridges. The bridge below is named The Blackfriars Bridge. It crosses the Thames River from the downtown to a charming neighbourhood called Blackfriars. My parents have lived in this since I was about 14 or since 1970. Even though I lived near this bridge for a large part of my life as a youth; even now, I visit it frequently. In fact I love this bridge so much I did a painting / photographic piece on it in the 80’s. I’ll talk more about that work some other time but I will show you the watercolour portion of it below. I regret that the painting looks a helluva lot better in life than here but you’ll have to go to Museum London to see it as they have it in their collection.

Here’s my favourite bridge in London and were you to visit me here, we’d walk along the banks of the Thames from Gibbons Park to the BlackFriars Bridge, along to Harris Park and up to the Museum that houses my painting below in the downtown. We might even stop at my parents for a coffee along the way as they like me to visit. By the way, the painting below was painted in 1984-85.

The Blackfriars Bridge from the west bank of the Thames River

my painting of the bridge from near the same view some 22 years ago

GP