Dear Reader:

This title photo is a picture of the Great Hall located in Queen Margrethe II’ s Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Today this hall is famous for eleven individually-woven tapestries  that tell the history of Denmark…from the Vikings to the present day…over a 1000 years of history. These extraordinary tapestries were given to Queen Margrethe II on her 50th birthday in 1990 by a collective consortium of Danish businesses as a memorable gift for Denmark’s beloved Queen.

I was so lucky with my Danish Exchange teacher… Benedikte Christensen lived and taught in Copenhagen. We were able to go to ballets, operas, art exhibits, historical museums, boat rides, and wonderful restaurants…besides teaching school.

We even rode over to the palace one day because the queen was leaving on a trip and would wave to the crowd as she went by. So cool!

I remember seeing several spell-binding historical tapestries in Copenhagen. I, also, discovered the Queen, herself, loved weaving tapestries and was quite an artisan at it. (Reason  for the special gift idea for Queen Margrethe’s 50th birthday!)

When I came across this following anecdote about tapestries yesterday, all the memories of my visit to Denmark flooded back. Once again it made me realize that what I was seeing, along with thousands of other tourists, was a lesson in perseverance and perception at the hanging tapestries (sometimes taking decades to complete.)

Most of us never take time to think about what the back of these gigantic tapestries must look like…we have no awareness/interest in the difference between the back and the front of the tapestry. Yet it is in this difference that God teaches us a wonderful lesson about Him.

…“I’ve heard God’s work in our lives compared to the weaving of a tapestry. On one side you see a beautiful, intricate work of art. But if you lift the corner and look on the backside, you find an erratic and chaotic mess of strands. If all you could see were the backside of a tapestry as it was being woven, you would conclude that nothing beautiful was taking shape.

When you flip it and look at it from the front, however, you see that every strand finds its perfect place according to the plan of the artist. One day, God will “flip over” history, and we will see that every strand of our lives was part of a picture God wove together for His glory.”  (Source: Devotionals Daily; J.D. Greear)

So until tomorrow…Everyday God is weaving us into His Tapestry. Some days it looks better than others because it is a work in progress…but God knows exactly how the finished product will look…and, rest assured, it will be beautiful.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

My two baskets of Portulaca (outside my “office” window) bloom at different times of the day because they are situated across the driveway from each other. One gets the morning sun and blooms early while the other stays bloom-less…until the afternoon sun shines down and the second portulaca blooms in its glory too. There is a time for each of us to bloom and there is time for each of us to wait and rest.

In spite of the heat and biting insects I worked hard in the garden yesterday…rearranging patio furniture and plants. I watered twice yesterday, morning and night. (Or I should say between early bites and late bites.)

Everything is “almost” getting ready to bloom….and isn’t the anticipation stage the best? Imagining how it is going to look? I think so! So here are some of the “wanna be” bloomers…just waiting to show off. But first let me show you the deck.

I cleaned out the dead plants from the two large pots on the deck and replaced them with sweet grass. I can hardly wait until fall when they turn that gorgeous shade of pink.

Here come the “Almost” bloomers! First the Cleodendeum Vickie gave me three years ago and this is the first year it is going to bloom! Can hardly wait!

(Almost) Hostas blooms and Confederate roses!

Vickie braved the heat and took a walk yesterday afternoon…she sent me this picture when she got home. What a beautiful magnolia sighting!