Happy October!

Happy October! It's the month when the leaves on the trees will be changing colors (at least in the northeastern part of the United States where I live), the month featuring Oktoberfests, and the month that ends with Halloween, a holiday for which I have a designed unusual greeting cards. My cards for this occasion are very unique as they are a petite wraparound variety, which means that they fold out into a picture which is suitable for framing. 

These cards can be viewed on my web-site, Patricia Youngquist Photo Art. They are located within the card-shoppe pages that are a part of the storefront , and a link to take you there  directly, may be found by clicking here.

Another "holiday" which occurs in October is the feast day of  St. Thérèse de Lisieux, the saint who is often referred to as "The Little Flower", and "her day" is today, so I thought of her this morning, as I was in my urban terrace garden, where I was reflecting on the fact that I had moved into my apartment eighteen years ago today, and what a blessing it is for me to have a garden! (Although, as I have mentioned in a number of posts, including one which you may refer to by clicking here) I did not actually do much of anything with my outdoor space until the spring of 1999).

Standing outside in my garden, in the wee hours of this Saturday morning, when most of New York City is sleeping (even though it claims to be a city where no one sleeps), I noticed one of my Helichrysum bracteatum (Strawflowers), striking an odd pose —  just as it was beginning to awaken for the day — and it was an almost prayerful "pose" at that, as evidenced in the photograph which I took of it and posted below.

This prompted me to think of one of St. Thérèse de Lisieux's quotes which is “I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord's living garden.” 


I am sorry to say that I barely have even a fraction of the faith that St. Thérèse de Lisieux was known to possess; however, I am like her in that I appreciate and live by the sentiment expressed in her aforementioned quote. Her picture (seen at the right) hangs above my desk as a reminder to me of her quote. I have it positioned above a framed cartoon from the New Yorker (which I referred to in a blog entry this past January that you may refer to by clicking here) that has the caption, "I try to write a little everyday"  — yet another thing that I constantly need to be reminded to continue to do.


Of the two, St. Thérèse de Lisieux's quote is far more important, and when I find myself straying from it, I have the things that I grow in my terrace garden to remind me, including
my Cardinal Climber (which I have written about in a number of posts, including ones which you may refer to by clicking here as well as here and here and here) and who "weighed" in this morning as seen in the image posted below.

The Echinacea that I have in my garden can be seen in images which are featured in a set in my Flickr gallery by clicking here, also weighed in this morning as seen in the image below.

My Echinacea, has been featured in a number of my blog entries, as you may recall, including ones that you may refer to by clicking here as well as here and here; its shape is exquisite to me and after its petals are gone, its "pods" add a unique touch to floral arrangements — a fact I have mentioned on a number of occasions. The things which I grow in my garden bring to mind another quote from St. Thérèse de Lisieux, which is this: "May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith."   —  A nice way to start October! 


And, as always, dear reader, I appreciate when you weigh in with your comments, thoughts, ideas and reactions. If you are new to posting this type of thing, you may click here for directions.