Drying out

Drains dripping, dippety-dip,
Soft cones rise, growing green.
Cockatoos wheel and screech above
Dying drum beat – drip … drip.

That's if for our little sojourn among the pines but we'll be back because those soft cones appear ever other year and bust pollen in the Autumn I'm sure to want to show you it when it happens.

Reflection:
Job 38:28-30 (New International Version)
Does the rain have a father?
Who fathers the drops of dew?
From whose womb comes the ice?
Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens
when the waters become hard as stone,
when the surface of the deep is frozen?

And after the sun

Ping on the roof. A small cone falling?
Ping, ping, ping becomes a rattle.
Slam the windows, move the car.
Ice melts to frog's egg pools.

Yes the veges got another beating. And I'd just swept up all the pine needles brought down by the previous hail storm.

Reflection:
Job 38:22-37 (New International Version)
"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,
which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed,
or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?
Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain,
and a path for the thunderstorm,
to water a land where no man lives,
a desert with no one in it,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland
and make it sprout with grass?

Brightness after rain

A slanting water-wash ripples the boughs
‘Til sun breaks through – a diamond shower.
Hard cones gleam with watery varnish.
Crisp clean fragrance in rising warmth.

OK these are more like poems than a list ... the pines seem to want it said that way. And this was taken a week ago, it raining hard again today.

Reflection:
2 Samuel 23:4 (New International Version)
"he is like the light of morning at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
like the brightness after rain
that brings the grass from the earth."

Rain

Its been raining hard for days,
a persistent drum roll.
Slippery water seeking places to leak
through the taut tin skin.
Spilling over the edges where
pine needles have gathered.

Reflection:
Deuteronomy 32:2 (New International Version)
Let my teaching fall like rain
and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.

Guard

Pines along front fence

Tall pines stand guard over the house,
stoically protecting us from the hot western sun,
tossing brave arms at the fierce winter winds,
alert and imperious on foggy autumn days,
glistening dew medallions in the spring,
and in all seasons filling the gutters with pine needles.

Reflection:
Philippians 4:6-7 (New International Version)
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.

Songs in the night

From the side verandah at night.

We've been getting an awful lot of wet weather lately, most often it's this misty type of rain making eery shadows night and day. This post also reminds me that I haven't shown much of the pines so I will run a little series over the next few days.

It's a warm calm night.
Possums scratching about,
frogs bopping quietly,
gentle rustle of wind in the pines,
and the lazy tinkle of wind chimes.
A soft lullaby.

Reflection:
Job 35:9-11 (New International Version)
"Men cry out under a load of oppression;
they plead for relief from the arm of the powerful.
But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker,
who gives songs in the night,
who teaches more to us than to the beasts of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?'

Feasting

King Parrot eating Japanese Maple seeds

We see lots of King Parrots in our maples at this time of year. Up close to the house so a chance for me to get a good shot.

Down the road they're feasting too.
Adult children talking across each other
Bursts of laughter
Clatter of plates
Clink of glasses
Mum laughing too loud again.

Reflection:
Psalm 23:5 (New International Version)
"You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows."