not here

I'm not here...am at wordpress.

snow

I hear snow is coming.

rain, rain, go away...

gardening

I love to garden but the black flies and very short growing season are stressful.

minnesota

it's lovely here this time of year, minnesota, i mean.

What seekest thou?

windy

windy again...tiresome.

Wind, wind go away ...

hot today...ready to go home.

the morning breaks, the shadows flee
lo zion's standard is unfurled
the dawning of a brighter day

keeping it open

I shall keep this blog open so that I xcan comment on other blogger's blogs.

switching back

Blogger is no easier than wordpress and I like wordpress better so have switched back to my previous site at http://ladyofmaine.wordpress.com/

"Eyewitnesses and Ancient Parallels"

I recently watched a most interesting talk given last August at BYU Education Week by Daniel Peterson who is a professor of Islamic studies and Arabic as well as editor-in-chief of BYU's Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (which is producing fascinating work, see more about this at http://farms.byu.edu/about/meti.php)

Bro. Peterson's talk was entitled, "Eyewitnesses and Ancient Parallels. The Revelations of Joseph Smith". He spoke about current scholarship regarding some of the latest finds in ancient Eastern texts which correspond remarkably to the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price. It's a fairly long speech but held my interest throughout and can be seen at http://byubnew.byu.edu/talks/Talk.aspx?id=2937.

I was surprised and pleased to hear in the course of his talk a happy reference to Fr. Jordan Vajda, OP, a Catholic Priest of the Dominican Order whose master's thesis (completed at the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California, Berkely), Partakers of The Divine Nature, A Comparative Analysis of Patristic And Mormon Doctrines of Divinization is a thought-provoking comparison of LDS teachings of exaltation and those found in the Catholic faith and (most revealing) those found in the primitive church. Anyway, it seems that Father Vajda is now brother Vajda who has been to the temple and teaches Gospel Doctrine class in his ward sunday school!

decos

My chili llights! This pic doesn't really do them justice; they are much redder looking than this. I had purchased a string in Minnesota a few years ago (about a third of the lights you see here) and liked them so much I tried to find a few more strings in Las Cruces when we arrived but no luck. Calandria had found two strings in Minnesota last winter and bought them for me. Now the chili lights hang the full length of our porch during the holidays.

I really like these ormanents that Ave made and sent to us. Bogey and his winter coat is now immortalized and I thought she did an exceptional job on the sheep.

Calandria gave me this handpainted tin Nativity from Mexico. I had never seen one like it and the colors are so shiny and festive.

something new

For various reasons I have switched to blogger and hope to find it easier to post photos. Google's robots have chosen to delete my "ladyofmaine" url so I have a new one.

Thought some might be interested in a picture taken of R's accident last fall with the excavator. He was in the cab which is just visible in the manure between the two tracks on the right side
of the photo. A small portion of the bottom track is showing and the corner of the cab (yellow) is sticking up through the muck with the other track above it.

Winds are roaring here at 30 to 45 miles an hour. There are few trees to ameliorate the blast and minute grains of sand are filtering into the house. I won't bother to dust until after it dies down (by tomorrow) and then there will be a grey/brown film over everything. Of course I washed the car yesterday!