iron acres images

Fallen Stars

2011-04-22T10:02:00.001-04:00

God's Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;            5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;            10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89)

Peace

2010-10-15T08:00:00.002-04:00

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-8 (NIV)

Rain

2010-05-19T01:29:00.002-04:00

"Into each life some rain must fall, Some days must be dark and dreary."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Ballad of Trees and the Master

2010-03-23T14:17:00.001-04:00

A Ballad of Trees and the Master
by Sidney Lanier

INTO the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to Him;

The little gray leaves were kind to Him
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.

Out of the woods my Master went,
And He was well content. Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
When Death and Shame would woo Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him last:
’T was on a tree they slew Him—last, When out of the woods He came.

by Sidney Lanier

Light Traveler

2009-12-19T14:46:00.001-05:00

"Whenever a snowflake leaves the sky,
It turns and turns to say “Good-by!
Good-by, dear clouds, so cool and gray!”
Then lightly travels on its way." Mary Mapes Dodge

Morning Has Broken

2009-11-01T03:50:00.002-05:00

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the One Light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise for the morning
God's recreation of the new day--Eleanor Farjeon

2009-09-21T18:00:00.001-04:00

"Prayer is the soul s sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed,— The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast." James Montgomery

Green

2009-09-15T23:02:00.001-04:00

Hay, now!

2009-08-29T00:03:00.002-04:00

...this is the steeple

2009-08-25T22:08:00.002-04:00

Orange and White

2009-08-21T02:56:00.000-04:00

like a pleasant thought

2009-08-19T23:44:00.000-04:00

"We meet thee, like a pleasant thought, When such are wanted."

William Wordsworth, To a Daisy

The moon ascending

2009-08-15T00:01:00.001-04:00

"Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the East, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon." Walt Whitman

To a butterfly

2009-08-12T00:01:00.002-04:00

To a Butterfly by William Wordsworth

          I've watched you now a full half-hour;
          Self-poised upon that yellow flower
          And, little Butterfly! indeed
          I know not if you sleep or feed.
          How motionless!--not frozen seas
          More motionless! and then
          What joy awaits you, when the breeze
          Hath found you out among the trees,
          And calls you forth again!

          This plot of orchard-ground is ours;

          My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;
          Here rest your wings when they are weary;
          Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
          Come often to us, fear no wrong;
          Sit near us on the bough!
          We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
          And summer days, when we were young;
          Sweet childish days, that were as long
          As twenty days are now.

To all always open

2009-08-10T00:01:00.006-04:00

"To thee only God granted
A heart ever new:
To all always open;
To all always true." Matthew Arnold

The Way of the Wind

2009-08-08T01:46:00.000-04:00

"The way of the Wind is a strange, wild way." Ingram Crockett

A Rose to the Living

2009-07-28T13:35:00.001-04:00

"A rose to the living is more
Than sumptuous wreaths to the dead;
In filling love’s infinite store,
A rose to the living is more,
If graciously given before
The hungering spirit is fled,—

A rose to the living is more
Than sumptuous wreaths to the dead." Nixon Waterman

Dancing Days

2009-07-26T11:01:00.000-04:00

"For you and I are past our dancing days." Romeo and Juliet, Act i Scene 5, William Shakespeare

He that has patience...

2009-07-25T05:17:00.001-04:00

(Agave Americana, known commonly as the Century Plant.)

"He that has patience may compass anything." François Rabelais

What is there hid in the heart of a rose?

2009-07-21T13:45:00.001-04:00

Song by Alfred Noyes

From ‘The Forest of Wild Thyme’

WHAT is there hid in the heart of a rose,

Mother-mine?

Ah, who knows, who knows, who knows?

A man that died on a lonely hill

May tell you, perhaps, but none other will,

Little child.

What does it take to make a rose,

Mother-mine?

The God that died to make it knows

It takes the world’s eternal wars,

It takes the moon and all the stars,

It takes the might of heaven and hell

And the everlasting Love as well,

Little child.

Wild Beauty

2009-06-18T01:37:00.000-04:00

Temples

2009-06-16T09:21:00.001-04:00

"The groves were God’s first temples." William Cullen Bryant

The Plow

2009-06-15T10:40:00.000-04:00

Ye rigid Plowmen! Bear in mind
Your labor is for future hours.
Advance! spare not! nor look behind!
Plow deep and straight with all your powers!

Richard Henry Horne, The Plow

God's Promises

2009-06-14T00:01:00.007-04:00

“Let God's promises shine on your problems.” Corrie Ten Boom

Wings

2009-06-13T14:15:00.000-04:00

Difficult times

2009-06-12T18:27:00.000-04:00

“Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever...” Isak Dinesen

Remember

2009-06-10T13:29:00.000-04:00

“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Where Hearts Are Sure of Each Other

2009-06-08T16:22:00.001-04:00

Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule. ~Frederick W. Robertson

The Bridge of Sighs

2009-06-06T15:48:00.000-04:00

“That is the road we all have to take - over the Bridge of Sighs into eternity.” Soren Kierkegaard

First sign of commitment

2009-06-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

“Gardens, scholars say, are the first sign of commitment to a community. When people plant corn they are saying, let's stay here. And by their connection to the land, they are connected to one another.” Anne Raver

Only if there is light from within

2009-06-02T10:16:00.000-04:00

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Empty barn

2009-06-01T20:02:00.000-04:00

"If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors." Sir Walter Scott

Debtor

2009-05-31T00:01:00.007-04:00

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. Claude Monet

A Howlin' Good Time

2009-05-30T19:38:00.000-04:00

With silver crest and golden eye

2009-05-29T00:16:00.000-04:00

"There is a flower, a little flower
  With silver crest and golden eye,
    That welcomes every changing hour,
      And weathers every sky.'
      - James Montgomery, A Field Flower

The Simple Beauty

2009-05-28T12:53:00.000-04:00

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature." Anne Frank

Yellow Iris

2009-05-27T00:35:00.000-04:00

Like life

2009-05-26T00:01:00.000-04:00

“Do not watch the petals fall from the rose with sadness, know that, like life, things sometimes must fade, before they can bloom again.”

In Flanders Fields

2009-05-25T00:01:00.000-04:00

    In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the dead. Short days ago
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
    In Flanders fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
    In Flanders fields.
    Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

A Charm for Pain and Woe

2009-05-24T00:01:00.001-04:00

I sing the Poppy! The frail snowy weed! The flower of Mercy! that within its heart Doth keep "a drop serene" for human need, A drowsy balm for every bitter smart. For happy hours the Rose will idly blow-- The Poppy hath a charm for pain and woe. Mary A. Barr

When in doubt

2009-05-23T01:16:00.000-04:00

"When in doubt, wear red." Bill Blass

I Like the Ones that Have the Sun

2009-05-22T00:01:00.002-04:00

"I love clouds.

Blue, white, pink, bright, I love them all.

I do suppose, if truth be told,

I like the ones

that have the sun

peeking through them best." JAS

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

2009-05-21T01:52:00.000-04:00

"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky."

Frederick M. Lehman, "The Love of God"

And in the dawn they floated on

2009-05-20T00:01:00.011-04:00

"I saw two clouds at morning
Tinged by the rising sun,
And in the dawn they floated on
And mingled into one." John Bartlett

Pavilions of Tender Green

2009-05-19T14:29:00.002-04:00

"And the Naiad-like lily of the vale,
Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale,
That the light of its tremulous bells is seen,
Through their pavilions of tender green." Percy Bysshe Shelley

Birds of a feather flock together

2009-05-18T12:00:00.003-04:00

If music be

2009-05-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

"If music be the food of love, sing on." Henry Heveningham

In the Lilac scented stillness

2009-05-14T00:01:00.001-04:00

"While the yellow constellations shine with pale and tender glory,

In the lilac-scented stillness let us listen to earth’s story."

George William Russell

Miracles Like Dogwood

2009-05-12T08:26:00.001-04:00

"After all, I don't see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year there are miracles like dogwood." Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Black, White, and Green

2009-05-11T23:52:00.001-04:00

Mom and Me

2009-05-10T00:01:00.007-04:00

(Mom and Me, taken by my Dad, on Lookout Mountain, GA, circa 1950s.)

"My mom is a never ending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being. I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune. " Graycie Harmon

The little bee

2009-05-09T03:03:00.001-04:00

"The little bee returns with evening's gloom, To join her comrades in the braided hive, Where, housed beside their might honey-comb, They dream their polity shall long survive." Charles Tennyson Turner

"Honor peereth in the meanest habit"

2009-05-08T10:50:00.001-04:00

“Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor: For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honor peereth in the meanest habit” William Shakespeare

Deep Violet

2009-05-07T00:01:00.002-04:00

"Deep violets, you liken to The kindest eyes that look on you, Without a thought disloyal." Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A whole heaven within it

2009-05-05T00:01:00.008-04:00

"Every dew-drop and rain-drop had a whole heaven within it." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

redneck, self portrait

2009-05-04T00:01:00.002-04:00

In flowers and clouds and stars

2009-05-03T02:20:00.000-04:00

"God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in flowers and clouds and stars." Martin Luther

Hyacinth and biscuits

2009-05-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

"Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinth and biscuits." Carl Sandburg

A little chocolate

2009-04-30T00:01:00.004-04:00

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt! Lucy Van Pelt (in Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz)

'Tis a gift to be simple

2009-04-29T16:00:00.003-04:00

Adversity is like a strong wind

2009-04-28T00:01:00.000-04:00

“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” Arthur Golden

True Friendship

2009-04-27T00:01:00.003-04:00

"True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation." George Washington

Keep Your Face to the Sunshine

2009-04-26T00:01:00.002-04:00

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do. - Helen Keller

Among My Souvenirs

2009-04-25T11:40:00.000-04:00

“Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.”

When morning gilds the skies

2009-04-24T14:58:00.002-04:00

Vogueing

2009-04-23T08:13:00.001-04:00

"The very pink of perfection." Oliver Goldsmith

Simplicity is the greatest adornment of art

2009-04-22T00:01:00.005-04:00

"As I grew older, I realized that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art." Albrecht Durer

Each Moment Has its Own Beauty

2009-04-21T11:45:00.002-04:00

"Each moment of the year has its own beauty . . . a picture
which was never before and shall never be seen again." Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Gentle Reminder

2009-04-20T03:28:00.000-04:00

Just a gentle reminder to my children that although I love to experiment in the kitchen, no one has been seriously harmed in the process. Emotionally traumatized perhaps, but not seriously harmed.

--Loveyalots, Mommo

Symmetry

2009-04-20T00:01:00.002-04:00

Burning Bush

2009-04-19T00:01:00.001-04:00

They are more beautiful if they are a few. . .

2009-04-18T02:12:00.000-04:00

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few". Anne Morrow Lindbergh

School Days

2009-04-17T03:01:00.001-04:00

Grazing in the Grass

2009-04-17T03:01:00.000-04:00

Fly Away Home

2009-04-16T09:41:00.001-04:00

God Made the Country

2009-04-16T00:56:00.000-04:00

God made the country, and man made the town. ~William Cowper, The Task

What makes the desert beautiful

2009-04-14T03:01:00.001-04:00

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Key

2009-04-13T03:01:00.000-04:00

Rose of Sharon

2009-04-12T03:01:00.000-04:00

Hibiscus syriacus

Holy Saturday

2009-04-11T10:56:00.000-04:00

Promise in the Clouds

2009-04-10T03:01:00.000-04:00

My Hope

2009-04-09T03:01:00.001-04:00

Life and Death in Texas

2009-04-08T03:01:00.001-04:00

The Sky Said, "I've Got You Covered"

2009-04-07T04:09:00.001-04:00

(Light snowfall today.) The shivering trees await the green robes of spring.

Your Redemption Draweth Nigh

2009-04-02T05:08:00.001-04:00

Wall Flower

2009-03-30T05:27:00.001-04:00

Bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis, are the state flower of Texas where they are the harbingers of Spring.

I've Looked At Clouds That Way

2009-03-27T05:20:00.001-04:00

Spring's First Sign

2009-03-20T04:55:00.002-04:00

I love the snowdrops our neighbor has planted by her mailbox. Although Miss Alice is no longer with us, these beautiful and delicate blooms of white stand as a fitting memorial of hope.

Waiting for Spring

2009-02-18T04:58:00.001-05:00

The Fog of Winter

2009-02-10T04:51:00.001-05:00

The gnarled wooden fingers lie in wait for the screeching metal monsters emerging from the fog.

Hangin' Up My Spurs

2008-10-28T05:09:00.001-04:00

Texas Road, Take Me Home

2008-07-07T05:19:00.002-04:00

Harvest Time

2008-06-18T05:34:00.001-04:00

I Will Lift Up My Eyes to the Hills

2008-05-30T05:41:00.001-04:00

I'd Rather Have Roses

2007-12-05T05:04:00.001-05:00

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck. --Emma Goldman

Memories of My Mother, Strong and Sweet

2007-11-28T05:01:00.001-05:00

I remember my father ordering a gardenia corsage for my mother on special occasions. It's an appropriate flower for her. Fragile, beautiful, fragrant and strong. Just like Mom. This one was grown in my sister's garden.

“A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark” Dante Alighieri

2007-11-27T05:37:00.001-05:00

Set A Spell

2006-10-13T05:32:00.001-04:00