meanderings.....

I've needed to write here for some time now..........you know.....life goes on, and it gets to feeling ordinary and commonplace. But life is LIFE!!! And it's wonderful!! Over these months of being silent......and wondering if this blog is worth the time it takes and what I want it to be (I still don't have answers to those questions) life has continued much the same as for everyone else--busy. I have a new calling in our church. I'm president of the women's organization in our local congregation. It's something I never wanted to do! And hoped it would never come to me--but it has and the blessings have been numerous and wonderful.

We are officially empty-nesters, and have been for more than a year....so I have been able to spend more time with Roger. We have just been in the Bakersfield, CA, area getting the bees out of the almond groves. It has been an amazing experience for me! What a beautiful area of the world!!! the amount of food that comes out of that valley is beyond comprehension! Roger has been telling me for years about the vastness of it all........and I had no idea! There is no way a picture and/or words can convey all that. It's something you have to experience for yourself............but I do have some nice pictures I will share with you. There are lots............but I couldn't decide which ones to leave out!

The grove stretched almost to forever. The trees just beginning to leaf out as they dropped their petals--almost looks like snow.....but just a whiff of blossom scent in the air.

 I drove the truck through the grove while Roger and Michael rode on the back--stopping at every "drop" so they could treat the bees....

I'm glad there were some blossoms left.....can you find the honeybee?

 Some of the nuts were beginning to form. I should have take a picture a week later. It was amazing how quickly they grew--these are about the size of the end of my finger.

 The blossoms were just so pretty--each seemed uniquely gorgeous and the light didn't hit each one just the same! I couldn't stop with just one picture!

Again........it looked like snow........so lovely...........

Toward the east side of the valley--you can barely make out the mountains if you look hard--there are mile after mile of orange groves. Some of them had been picked, some not.......but all beginning to flower............

 Again........I couldn't resist.....the wonder and novelty have never worn off..........

 This grape vineyard had no end........really! I climbed the ladder on the truck and stood above the truck.......I have about six pictures just like this one from my extreme left to extreme right--they all look remarkably the same.........I warned you........even a picture doesn't capture the vastness of it all.

 

 We gathered up the bees from the drops in the grove at night and "stock piled" them in this large empty "field". Just look at all the stacks of bees--three and four pallets high--four hives to a pallet. There is no way a semi could get through a grove--besides, it would take far too long to load it that way. Roger can load a semi in 25:29.76 minutes--yeah...I timed him! Just look through these pictures and notice all the hives of bees.........

 The evening of the last night there.......in this field, surrounded by thousands of colonies of bees, three semis, two 3-ton trucks, men on fork lifts, and all that surrounded by almond trees on every side with the gorgeous sunset in the western sky. I was filled with awe at the wonder of it all......the goodness and generosity of Father in Heaven and the evidence of good, hard, honest work accomplished by men and a testimony of the bounty of the earth............all combined to fill me with reverent gratitude.