Happy New Year 2010
I’m not really much of a gardener and weeds do rather get away on me. But the Roses are prolific, the Geraniums sure know how to climb, and the Bourganvilia might have managed better had they not been so smothered until just the other week. Luckily the Marigolds, Snapdragons, and other little pretties (can’t remember their names) seem to like it where they found themselves, and the Daisies and Daphne are faithful every year anyway. Just as well. As much as I love them all, I’m not a very good mother to them. I just don’t have green thumbs.
Would it help if I was to make a New Year’s Resolution? Take better care of my flowers! I doubt it. My experience of New Year Resolutions is that they usually work in reverse. They seem to trigger the Oppositional Switch in my personality, and that guarrantees certain failure.
What I do find works for me, once I learnt to become organized some time ago, is a list of goals… or tasks. Things to do. Verbs. Things to achieve. Nouns. Going to the extent of adding “due dates” made it too much like school assignments, so I stopped before getting that far. Too easy to give myself extensions for insufficient reasons. But keeping lists and checking off items gave a sense of accomplishment, and made even more sense when I broke down those goals, and the tasks that led to them, into sub-tasks or little steps on the way. They could get checked off as well, and my life would become a glowing record of tiny accomplishments. Just like school these days where nobody fails anymore… just simply “not achieved” er, yet. How postmodern and up with the Age!
So… it is early New Year’s Day, and I have some goals to write down. I have been thinking of them all December (while lying awake with the birdsong) and my keyboard is about to learn of them. No, I’m not making all of them public. Most of them are just for my eyes only… and He who knows every thought before I have even come up with it. But there is an all-encompassing and really massively huge one (well, several) that I can let you know. See if you can match this - be challenged! - for a Really Big Goal…
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
~ Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.
~ Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
~ And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
~ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.
~ And be thankful.
~ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
~ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.(Colossians 3:12-17, NIV)







Mt Egmont, reaching a height of 8,260 ft with its base at sea level, is often claimed to be one of the most symmetrical volcanoes in the world. It is usually covered with snow, but it is summer at present in the Southern Hemisphere and I took this photo just yesterday. The mountain is frequently cloaked in cloud but the winds above obligingly unwrapped its form though left in place a hazy veil of UV light. It erupted last about 350 years ago and is considered dormant rather than extinct.










A perfect Freesia from my garden…
One of my hobbies is working with images in Adobe Photoshop, especially repairing and restoring old photographs, but also creating something special from those which I take with my Olympus C-5060 wide zoom digital camera. Here I have combined several interests together ~ growing flowers in my garden, digital photography, image manipulation, Biblical Christianity, and Judah’s Journal. The result is presented here: one of my favourite verses combined with a beautiful rose from my garden.

It isn’t all that big just yet. At least, not nearly as big as it will get in time. But already towering above the roof of the house, our very own “NZ Christmas Tree” is quite a pretty sight just now. Although we are currently having “the summer that didn’t happen” and the coldest one on record, these Pohutukawa trees have been flowering prolifically and for quite some time almost everywhere. Some have already dropped their red stamens, creating a dense scarlet carpet all around them. Before that the ground was a bright golden yellow from the fallen Kowhai blossoms. Now when it rains, little streams of red run along the gutters and into the drains. I wonder what colour carpet we will have next. My roses are a mass of blossom so maybe pink and white will be Mother Nature’s next redecorating decision.

Yes, that is I. No, I am definitely not up there with the greats! I was a high school student when that photo was taken - coloured sepia by me to age it suitably! The violin was given to me by my father, he having been given it by an Australian passenger on board ship en route from Southampton (England) to Melbourne. The Australian owner had taken it to Europe to have it valued, the maker’s name being Giovanni Paolo Maggini (1580 - 1630), but was told it was not an original - instead, just an excellant copy. He was so disillusioned that he wanted to give it away to someone who could play one. My father happened to be in the right place at the right time, and being with him on board, so was I.





The Story of Two Wolves 

The first day of March is the first day of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. We have had no cause to complain about our summer this year - it has been warm, sunny and for the most part, fine. When I have been missing from my computer, I have mostly been out in the garden, encouraging things to grow. So now I have lots of flowers with which to decorate my Journal.

Hello visitors from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, NZ, UK and USA.






