Thanksgiving 5

Photograph courtesy of the Red Lion Inn 3rd floor library computer.

Let all things now living, a song of thanksgiving 

to God our Creator triumphantly raise. 

The Thanksgiving holiday is over, the shopping world is poised for Cyber Monday, the church is celebrating the first Sunday of Advent, and I face 10-12 hours in the car negotiating my way home from New England.  The area of the Berkshires is absolutely beautiful country - even with barren trees and frosty temperatures.

I had to laugh at myself yesterday.  The Berkshires Botanical Gardens are located in Stockbridge - open from May 1 to Columbus Day.  For some reason, I believed that Columbus Day was in February and that the gardens would be open during my trip here.  Of course, that particular holiday occurs on the second Monday of October (a little Internet research), and the gardens had long been closed.  Blissfully unaware, I boarded the local bus for the 1.9 mile drive to the gardens.  The bus driver didn't even blink when I asked if I could get off there, and, of course, did not mention that the gardens were "not open."  Perhaps that was due to the fact that Berkshire Botanical is a very open place, and the only thing keeping people out are the locks on the doors of the buildings and greenhouses.  One can wander the acreage at any time of year - even in the relative bleakness of a frosty fall day.

It is amazing what one can find to photograph even in a garden filled with "death": the golden hydrangea flowers now dried to perfection - some of the bushes as large as small trees; the bright green moss on fallen logs nestled in piles of brown leaves; stately evergreens and gloriously tall Christmas trees; small clumps of red berries that have not frozen yet; and tall, feathery carcasses of seed pods long empty.  Within God's creation, there is beauty in any season.  One only has to look through Heaven's eyes.