EarthAbbey Forums

Orchard Praise

2011-08-23T21:10:10+00:00

An Orchard Harvest Hymn

It was written as a challenge to get Frampton Magnum Plum into a hymn.

Framptom Magnum Plum - is alternatively known as the Winterbourne Magnum Plum.
It is a local South Gloucestershire variety.
The old orchards have long since disappeared but the remnants remain.
In lots of gardens and hedgerows the trees still produce large, purple skinned plums with amber flesh and the stone is not a free stone.
The fruit is juicy and semi- sweet and a good all rounder. Great to eat staight off the tree - but you could never eat the whole crop!
Great in jams. chutneys. jellies, cheese, sweet or savoury sauces and delicious ice cream. My favourite is pickled plums - sounds weird but tastes fantastic especially with cold meats or cheese.

Anyway, enough praise of the Frampton Magnum Plum - here’s the hymn.

Orchard Praise (to be sung to the tune of We Plought the Fields and Scatter.

We thank you for the orchards – what riches can be found!
The peace and the tranquillity, the beauty all around.
The fruit in rainbow colours, the flavours on our tongues,
Of apples, pears, and gages and Frampton Magnum plums.

Chorus:
All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above,
So thank the Lord, oh Thank the Lord, for all his love.

We prune the trees and gather the branches on the ground
And pile it into habitats where creatures can abound;
With lots of nooks and crannies where bees can hibernate
The blossoms in the springtime they then can pollinate.

We thank you for the wildlife, its great diversity,
A clever ecosystem that’s supported by a tree
With grubs and bugs and beetles, and butterflies and bees,
And hedgehogs, birds and squirrels in natures harmony.

If you like it - please feel free to use it. You could subsitute the words Frampton Magnum Plums with ‘and cherry, quince and plums.’ (But there’s no real subsitute for the Magnum!!!!)

Allotment theology

2011-05-18T21:11:29+00:00

Allotment 23.

The Lord is my allotment keeper, I’ll not be in want.
He makes desert places fertile, he irrigates the dry land,
The touch of creation restores my soul.
He teaches me the rhythm of the seasons to be in touch with the earth for His Kingdom’s sake.
Even though the weeds may grow, or the rains dry up, or the crops get eaten or disease hits, or pests invade, I will not fear,
For you work with me, your faithfulness and constancy reassure me.
You prepare a feast for me, from the fruit of the land and the hedgerows and fields, in the presence of consumerism.
The blessings of your creation fill my thinking, my being, my basket.
Surely I am truly blessed, you provide abundantly for all who will share and live in the Kingdom way. Amen.

Spirit books

2009-03-19T11:23:06+00:00

This looks like something that might connect with Earth Abbey.
http://www.susankapuscinskigaylord.com/spiritbooks.html
John

Aldo Leopold

2009-01-07T15:25:24+00:00

Over Christmas I read ‘A Sand County Almanac’ by Aldo Leopold. It was written in 1948 and is one of the most beautiful pieces of creative writing on an environmental theme that I have come across.

The book is an anecdotal diary kept through the early part of the twentieth century by a man who enjoyed the wilderness and grew to appreciate it at an extraordinarily deep level. In the process he anticipates most of the concerns that are now commonplace among environmentalists.

For example, he argues that effective tourism should be measured by the extent to which the tourist changes their perception of nature as a result.

He says:

that land should be viewed not as a ‘commodity’ but as a ‘community’

that land is to be loved and respected.

that the nature of the wilderness in a place shapes the culture of the humans who settle it.

This book is felt to be so important it rates as number one on the reading list of a Master’s course in ecological economics.

If you can get hold of a copy I would be glad to hear how you found it.

devon dawn

2008-05-28T12:19:10+00:00

watching the sun rise over the Devon countryside. February 2007.