botanical metaphor

while reading a smithsonian magazine, i came across a bit of nature trivia that really struck me. this piece reported an odd function of the easter lily, of all things, revealing that:

"cornell university researchers have found that the bulb develops one set of roots for taking nourishment from the soil and another set for...digging. if the bulb is planted too shallowly, those roots contract, pulling the bulb farther into the ground until it hits optimum depth. the researchers say two things about this 'contractile root' business: one, it is stimulated by light, and two, they'll be darned if they can say exactly how it works."

i couldn't help but draw on the similarities and familiarity of the activity of the plant and the body of christ. as we've engaged in missional ways over the last ten years, we've found that there is a continual exchange of both drawing nourishment from the work of God's spirit and the comfort of one another, and, with an almost irresistable apostolic urge of movement, digging, reaching, and planting ourselves in the world around us. the easter lily bulb gives us a signpost within creation of both harmony and design of this unfied, diversified economy at work.

more potatoes

here's a cross section of a potato plant in our garden.  notice the plant, spud, roots, bricks and tile.  this image was repeated under each plant...lot's of glass and, what isaac calls, 'artifacts.'

potatoes ...and the rest

we just harvested a couple of rows of potatoes.  among the spuds were these two antique bottles...not to mention dozens of old, broken bricks.  the taters taste great and the bottles now live on our mantle.

glorious trees

at the moment we are trying to hatch a plan to install "urban orchards" in our neighborhood (one at the corner across from our house and the other at the london ferrell community garden).  there is a group in boston that's been doing this stuff for almost 20 years - www.earthworksboston.org.  their work is inspiring the template for our designs here.

i have a special neighbor and friend that is working with me to make this fruit tree dream a reality.  the other day she sent this link to a ny times article - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/science/12prof.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin - wonderful report about the goodness of trees and what we've yet to learn about them.

community garden

last weekend our neighborhood community garden (the one sherry has worked so hard to start - the London Ferrell Community Garden) was part of a city-wide garden tour.  here is one of the majestic, 10-foot sunflowers at the garden.

above is the gathered crowd and below is a picture of sherry (in the middle, facing the camera, with sunglasses) describing the garden's history to the visitors.