12 October 2025

There is a lovely corner in our garden which feeds on the morning light. The bird feeders  with their sunflower seeds and fat balls hang from the cherry tree under which Colin and Ellie sat on their wedding day. Behind the tree is the back garden with sunflowers, dahlias and cosmos still in bloom.

The cosmos has grown very tall. It was in jeopardy during the recent storm. I tied it up in preparation but it wasn’t sufficient to save some branches from splitting off. When I picked them up a week ago, I saw the wheel-barrow nearby had a lot of rain water in it.

I placed the broken cosmos branches in the wheel-barrow and for the past week, we have been enjoying the colourful flowers and the decorative value of the cosmos  lying in the wheel-barrow. The bees still come to feed off the cosmos blossoms and so the world has righted itself once again after the damaging storm.

Walking there in the sunlight this morning, one of the hymns which we sang in church as children came into my mind. I tried to remember the words of the first verse. It had six lines. I got five.  I searched my Revised Church Hymnary for the other line. It is vitally important. Here it is.

The morning bright,

With rosy light,

Has waked me up from sleep;

Father, I own,

Thy love alone

Thy little one doth keep.

Mary-Catherine didn’t know the hymn. ‘We didn’t have children’s hymns nor children’s addresses in the American Episcopal Church.’ she said. It made me think how fortunate I was to be in a kirk which not only encouraged children to attend worship but made provision for us in a section of thirty-one hymns for ‘Home and School’ and an address specifically prepared for us! These were sunny days!