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A beautiful singing of “Amazing Grace” I found recently on YouTube.
From the group’s Web site: LEVISTANCE is a contemporary worship music band from The Cross Church and Korea House of Prayer(KHOP) in Seoul, South Korea.
28 Sunday May 2023
Posted Amazing Grace
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A beautiful singing of “Amazing Grace” I found recently on YouTube.
From the group’s Web site: LEVISTANCE is a contemporary worship music band from The Cross Church and Korea House of Prayer(KHOP) in Seoul, South Korea.
27 Saturday May 2023
Posted Photography
inGreat news! Nguyen Trong Hien (or neihtn), author of Village Teacher and The Siege of An Loc, has translated Village Teacher into Vietnamese. It has recently been published on an internet site out of Los Angeles. The first installment can be found here: Village Teacher Translation and in the links section below.
Here is a reposting of my 5-star review of the English version of Village Teacher.
Village Teacher by Neihtn, who also writes as Nguyên Trong Hiên, is a well-written novel set in Vietnam in the late 19th or early 20th century while Vietnam was under French colonization. Teacher Tâm has traveled to the Imperial City of Hue to take the national examinations, challenging tests that help the country choose its leaders. He meets Giang, the daughter of a powerful Frenchman and a wealthy Vietnamese woman. The teacher becomes the student as Giang begins teaching him to write Vietnamese…
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27 Saturday May 2023
Posted Photography
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This year’s spring has been rather cool, with today’s temperatures starting in the mid forties °F (or 7 °C). However, our garden flowers don’t seem to mind and have put on glorious displays.
Peonies thrived the most even though they have lived in our front and backyard for 35 years with little care. They are said to go back as far as 1000 BC in China. In Asia, they were mainly grown for their medicinal properties, with their roots and seeds used to treat headaches, asthma, and even childbirth pains.
According to WebMD, “Peony (Paeonia lactiflora) is an herb. The roots are commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for many purposes.
Peony might block chemicals that can cause pain and swelling. It might also prevent blood clotting, kill cancer cells, and act as an antioxidant. Peony is sometimes called red peony and white peony. This refers to the color of the processed root, not the color of the flowers.
People use peony for menstrual cramps, aging skin, cough, epilepsy, psoriasis, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these uses.”
The Double Knock Out roses are at their best this year, perhaps because cool temperatures have kept away the Japanese Beetles, so far.
26 Friday May 2023
Posted Photography
inTwo days ago I was photographing various spring flowers in our backyard when I saw a big red and black bird in the distance. Unfortunately, I only had a macro lens on my camera! Afraid the bird would fly away if I were to go back inside to get my telephoto lens, I slowly approached the bird, a few steps at a time taking shots until it flew away. The bird was a Pileated Woodpecker, a large bird the size of a crow. It was feasting on insects among the stumps of two pine trees that were blown over in a summer storm several years ago.
This was the first time I saw a Pileated Woodpecker. On the Internet, I found the following question and answer:
What does it mean when you see a Pileated Woodpecker? The woodpecker symbolizes new opportunities, creativity, optimism, courage, motivation, revival, self-actualization, balance, communication, protection, and discernment. This bird is most closely associated with opportunity and new possibilities. It inspires you to seize your desires and never give up on your dreams.
The above answer comes from https://a-z-animals.com.
20 Saturday May 2023
Posted EBF Refuge, Photography
inBarn Swallows live throughout the world and number some 190 million birds. In the 19th century they were often killed to supply decorative feathers for the millinery trade, but that has come to an end. Now Barn Swallows live happily among humans who benefit from their voracious appetite for flies and other flying insects.
Yesterday I went to the refuge and saw beautiful Barn Swallows perched at two different locations.
13 Saturday May 2023
Posted Photography
inStill more photos of spring flowers at Sayen Gardens. The rain in late April and early May has done its magic and I could almost aim my camera in all directions and find another variety of flowers, especially deciduous azaleas, to shoot.
07 Sunday May 2023
Posted Photography
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