Android has worked so hard on our allotment this year and can even be found dreaming about slug-eaten leaves and where best to position the next plants! I have to admit to having been a little more of a fair-weathered allotment tender as I usually end up doing the thankless task of weeding when I get involved. Most Sundays, to be fair, we have both been out toiling the land and there is something so real and grounded about planting your own produce (if the slugs don’t devour it of course!)

Generous Allotment

Digging out unruly weeds

Creates the space for growth

Unearthing what we do not need

Cathartic for us both

We cast aside the spindly ties

That stop the good from blooming

The stubborn roots require more tries

With toil our soil is booming

We have more than we really need

Simplicity; my oath

Digging out unruly weeds

I was consumed,
but not destroyed
I was unsettled
but not paranoid.

I was frighten,
but not horrified
I was alarmed
but not terrified.

I was drained,
but not depleted
I was derailed
but not defeated

I was shattered,
but not broken
I was stunned
but not shaken.

I was afflicted,
but not subdued
for my inner man . . .
was daily renewed!

~~~~~~~~~

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

For which cause we faint not;
but though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is
renewed day by day.

For our light affliction,
which is but for a moment,
worketh for us a far more
exceeding and eternal
weight of glory;

While we look not at
the things which are seen,
but at the things which are
not seen: for the things
which are seen are temporal;
but the things which are not
seen are eternal.

King James Version
Public…

Late August 1981 and the hot breath of summer was still beating down the back of my neck as I loaded up the 1964 T-bird and headed off to college. I had grasped the grizzly hand of Destiny and decided to join my friends who were two years ahead of me in the Phi Sig fraternity at WTU. It didn’t take long upon arrival to ascertain my predicament. My former classmates, Curtis and Walt, had already flunked out and that just left Ben D. and me. This would have been okay except not only was Ben disinterested but also moderately crazy. He had a girlfriend, a temper, and an alcohol problem. One night, after a particularly insane party, the frat house awoke to loud pandemonium. Ben had taken the sword from atop the fireplace mantle and had wrought some destruction on our living room.

“Hey!!” said Clint Locke approaching Ben.

244 Years Strong

THE U.S. ARMY

AMERICA’S FIRST NATIONAL INSTITUTION

Since its official establishment, June 14, 1775 — more than a year before the Declaration of Independence — the U.S. Army has played a vital role in the growth and development of the American nation. Drawing on both long-standing militia traditions and recently introduced professional standards, it won the new republic’s independence in an arduous eight-year struggle against Great Britain. At times, the Army provided the lone symbol of nationhood around which patriots rallied.

PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO VIEW THESE TWO (2) VERY SHORT VIDEOS.  THANK YOU

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Tomorrow is also Flag Day, an annual observance of the Second Continental Congress’ official adoption of the stars and stripes in 1777. At the time, they “resolved that the flag of the 13 United States” be represented by 13 alternating red and white stripes and the union…

Burke, Virginia, a suburb of Washington D.C., is a town named for Silas Burke, a man who donated his land to make way for the railroad.  The town once had its own depot on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad line, and it was the site of a raid during the American Civil War.  Sadly, the depot did not survive demolition, and neither did the town although some of the town structures did survive to include the home of Silas Burke, the post office and a windmill that are now part of a senior complex.  Although the railroad still passes through it is only a commuter train stop.

When you pass through Burke today, you will not see much of its railroad heritage on display.  If you make a visit to Burke Lake Park, you will see the railroad with a new life.

Welcome to the Burke Lake Railroad, a miniature…

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~Morgan~

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Beautiful original photograph:  Beth Moon, “Delphinius,” a Utah juniper in Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah

I wrote today’s poem during a laid back stay in Sardinia a few months back. Once again, being by the sea was like a tonic for my soul. I wrote at will as the waves lapped into shore, sometimes travelling down memory lane to former stays in Sardinia as can be detected in the following lines.

Seascape

Gentle swell breaks into tame trickle, lilting over the dimpled sand.

Soothing hands wash over scratched surface and soul scar, smoothing stubborn

knot.

Ripples rinsing and releasing realms of resistance in rhythmic rows.

I am drawn into my centre, content to surrender to self.

The sentient sun sends sparks of past summer across wistful wave.

How we’d search your shimmering mirror for answers to youth’s mysteries.

I see my yesteryears appearing in frothy flickers before me.

If we knew then what we know now, life’s wild waves would still wash in at will.