Day Twenty Four - Going to the Country

Of late I've been singing to myself.  But the surprise is finding myself singing songs from my childhood.  Now these are songs I haven't sung since them, as they are Catholic songs.  But that is not to say that there's anything wrong with these songs.  It is odd how things stick with you.  So here's one that has just recently come to mind.  If you click on the title you can see it sung on you tube, by a very nice young man singing and playing it on a guitar.

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name

Text: Sts. 1-4, Ignaz Franz, Trans. by Clarence Walworth; Sts. 5-7, F. Bland Tucker 

Music: Katholisches Gesanbuch, Vienna, c. 1774 

Tune: GROSSER GOTT, Meter: 78.78.77

1. Holy God, we praise thy name; 

Lord of all, we bow before thee; 

all on earth thy scepter claim; 

all in heaven above adore thee.  

Infinite thy vast domain; 

everlasting is thy reign.

2. Hark the glad celestial hymn 

angel choirs above are raising; 

cherubim and seraphim, 

in unceasing chorus praising, 

fill the heavens with sweet accord:  

Holy, holy, holy Lord.

3. Lo! the apostolic train

joins thy sacred name to hallow; 

prophets swell the glad refrain, 

and the white-robed martyrs follow.  

And from morn to set of sun, 

through the church the song goes on.

4. Holy Father, Holy Son, 

Holy Spirit: three we name thee, 

though in essence only one; 

undivided God we claim thee, 

and adoring bend the knee 

while we own the mystery.

But now Riley wants me off this computer, as we are heading out for a day in the country.  Annie's coming with us.  We're going to see chickens and cheese and roses and maybe cows.  It should be a very nice day.  Annie is bringing this music that we used to listen to when we drove around the English countryside, especially around Bath.  That should really add to our pleasant day.

Picture of the Bath countryside taken by me while in a moving vehicle

Well unfortunately Annie couldn't find her CD, and our s--d audio system in our car will only play from my ipod. I have no idea why. So on our outing we listened to my ipod on shuffle. That provided us with a real variety of music. Riley was in a bit of a panic because he had been trying to tell me that the farm was having a cheese class at noon and we needed to get out there sooner than that. Well it didn't matter in the end. The cheese class was at 12:30. It was a VERY long ways out their, and it sure seemed like we took the long way round. But then, I'm a city child. We bought the makings for making mozzarella and it's cousins, and for making cheddar and it's cousins. So we have a good cheese thermometer, and not to big mold for making Cheddar or Swiss cheese, black wax and a brush for applying the wax without burning yourself, and different renets for the different cheeses.

This is a lamb. I thought it was a goat.

Then we walked around the farm and saw all kinds of chickens and two baby calves, and a strange lamb, and some geese.  One chicken was so funny, she was running every which way ever so frantically.  I called her Chicken Little. 

Chicken Little - I can see where the story came from.

 They can only keen 3 milking cows actually on their property in order to be able to sell raw milk.  But they had cows on other people's land.  So we saw cows in the distance.  

Some of their cows in another farms pasture.

One of the owners of the farm is from Iran.  As we walked through a field to get closer to the cows I noticed that they had the beginnings of a baby orchard.  So I went to see what they had.  The orchard was pomegranates, olives, and figs.  It was like he wanted to have food like he'd had in Iran.  His family was not Muslim, so they were shunned and then they felt forced to leave.  And by the way, the name of the farm is Kookoolan Farms.

Chrissie and Koorosh


Walking about the farm with a young man to show us around.


After leaving the farm I saw a sign that said Hilltop Quilt Shop, so we followed it.  It was rather a long way down the road, and we wondered who on earth would find their way to such a place.  But lo and behold the place was crowded.  I couldn't believe it.  It was a rather large store and you had to work your way around the customers in order to see the merchandise.  I guess if you're the only thing around, people will come.

View from the porch of the quilt shop.

Our next stop was Newberg for lunch.  But as we entered town we spotted a produce market with hanging baskets for $19, so we stopped.  We selected a nice big one, with pink and white and purple and yellow flowers, and Annie bought a mellon and some potatoes and bananas.  The it was on into town to find something acceptable to eat.  Not easy.  Eventually we spotted a Burgerville.  I asked the two waitresses if they had any organic food on the menu, and you would a thought I was talking in Greek.  They had absolutely NO IDEA what I was talking about.  At first I tried to explain, but I soon realized it was useless.  I ordered a halibut sandwich with a wheat berry bun.  With lunch finished we headed towards the Heirloom Roses Garden.  

The day was cloudy, and the roses had taken a beating from the storm on Thursday, but it was still beautiful.  I took pictures of many that I liked.  But there's no way I have enough room on my property for all the roses I would like to have.

Paul's Himalayan Musk - a rose that can take over a tree.

Reine Victoria

Lavender Pinocchio

Kataryna

Belle Amour

I could go on, but I won't. In the end we each bought a tiny rose bush. I bought Jayne Austin, Annie bought Scepter d'Isle, and Riley bought Cassie. They also gave is two mystery plants - completely unknown roses. But it's hard to imagine getting a bad rose, really, except for hybrid-teas, as I'm not fond of them.



I don't know when we headed home, but a lovely day had been had by all. Annie was so delighted to have done something entirely new. We took Annie home, and I don't really know what happened next except that we eventually went to Ken's Artisan Pizza for dinner, because Riley doesn't know when the next time will be that I'm willing to go there. We had a lovely dinner, and I know that we left at about 10:00. I'm pretty sure I was in bed before 11. And I was sure glad to be there. I'll admit I took and Atavan to make sure I stayed asleep.

Psalm 34:7-9

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him,


And rescues them. 


O taste and see that the LORD is good;


How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! 


O fear the LORD, you His saints;


For to those who fear Him there is no want.