cogitatio

First Baby plantlet

2011-10-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

So after only 24 days here it is the first plantlet in my violet collection.

Princess Jade

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6257522768/in/photostream

TAVS sponsored Judges course

2011-10-15T15:25:00.001-07:00

So, my local violet group hosted a judges course today, which I decided to audit, It is based on the AVSA Handbook for Growers, Exhibitors and Judges, and is a course you need to take to become an AVSA judge. I definitely recommend taking the course if you ever get the chance. It gave me a lot of insight into the way plants are judged in a show, I also learned a couple tricks that I will keep firmly up my sleeves.

I will say this Judges are not afraid to speak their minds, especially not in a room full of judges... I think I would have cried if they talked about my plants that way, ok not really but Judges definitely have to be firm on their decisions. I think it sounded so harsh because the plants were not actually groomed for a show, our own clubs show not being until the spring, but also because they didn't want perfect plants so that those writing the exam could actually practice taking off points and so that we could see as many faults as possible.

One of the plants there was Senk's Long Legs, and while explaining the plant Sayeh, it's grower accidentally snapped off one of the leaves. Happy Accident for me as it now is sitting in a rooting pot on my stand, along with a couple leaves of Lakeshore Silver given to me by Doris Brownlie a wonderful Lady, her husband John is the hybridizer for the Aca's and Lakeshore series.

Our clubs meeting is this coming tuesday and we are picking up project plants, and I get a new member package with what, more leaves ahh yippee. Definetly a violet overload week coming up so I am pretty excited.

Well to make a long story short, I definitely recommend writing your AVSA judges exam if you get the chance, it is a great way to meet more violetors, (be careful typing that made up word out spellcheck changes it into something quite different) as when you are a judge you get invited to other clubs events to be a judge.

All you need to write your exam is an AVSA number (your number obviously) and proof that you have one three avsa blue ribbons, two of which have to be in the regular violet classes, aka not designs or special containers. You also have to grow 25 plants, I think only 10 have to be registered, but come on who isn't growing 25 different violets.

The more the merrier I always say so keep your ear to the ground and become an AVSA judge the next time the opportunity comes by.

Steve

file://localhost/Users/Kerr/Downloads/P1040922small.jpg

ebay auctions

2011-10-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Belinda is doing an auction of some very nice looking plants right now, including a couple of her own hybrids.

I would participate but live north of the border.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/cajunladyb/m.html?hash=item4cfadb39b0&item=330626185648&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&_trksid=p4340.l2562

Leaf propagation

2011-10-13T10:46:00.000-07:00

I tried rooting a violet leaf in water, after it had been down in a leaf pot for a week it looked like it was under extreme stress in comparison with the other leaves that I had put down, so I took a risk and dug it up to find some rot creeping up the petiole quite merrily, eek. So I removed all of the rot, and placed the leaf in water, a method I had never used before and it rooted, and it only took 5 days, wow, after asking some other people what they do with these water rooted leaves, I decided to throw the leaf in question in soil, so that it could form actual soil and not water roots, hopefully it is good to go now, here is a pic of the rootlets forming just before I set it in soil, they were three times longer than 12 hours earlier, this leaf means business now...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6241310340/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Also someone mentioned that you should remove the tips of the leaves so that they quit growing, and also because the injury releases hormones in the leaf for healing that aid in the callus formation. I took one of these leaf tips from frozen in time and wanted to see how much of a leaf you really need to root a plantlet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sakerr/6241309130/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Since I already know that the mother leaf is rooted I decided to excavate this leaf tip to see if it was doing anything, because it certainly hasn't rotted or dried up and it has been in the soil since about the 25th of September, lo and behold it had roots, but it had also rotted up from the main vein in a semi-circle about half the size of my pinky finger nail, somehow the plant had combatted this rot and callused and rooted anyhow.

I wonder if many people out there have experienced this before with leaves starting to rot and yet rooting and providing plant lets anyways.

The Have List

2011-10-04T08:48:00.000-07:00

Barring any unforeseen complications this is my list of varieties, some plantlets and some leaves,and some in the mail ha ha talk about counting chickens before they hatch. If you know of any peachy violets or violets with strong yellow, or orangy markings let me know.

1Denver Doll

2Lyon's Bunny Hop

3Little Bo Peep

4Mini Minx

5Little Lizzy

6Tiny Wood Trail

7Baby Brian

8Jolly Orchard

9Lil Bit o'Irish

10Little Ruby

11Lollipop

12Lucky lass

13Mac's Willow the Wisp

14Morgan's Barossa

15Morgan's Enchantment

16Morgan's fool's Thin air

17Skagit Tiny Limelight

18Smitten Kitten

19Morgan's Pu-yi

20Morgan's Juniper

21Pacific Pearl

22Ramblin Lassie

23Chantaspring

24Blushing Trail

25smoldering pink

26Rob's Shadow Magic

27Ozio

28Decelle's Julie Belle

29Princess Jade

30Trinket Terrific

31Tongwensis, upsala clone

32Frosty Spring

33Rob's Antique Rose

34Monet

35Midnight Treasure

36Green Dragon

37Genetic Blush

38Anthoflores Little Axel

39Norton's Elaine

40Sumira

41Tipsy

42Neptune

43happy Harold

44Aca's Red Ember

45Rob's Zoot Suit

46Jersey girl Trail

47Little Chippery Trail

48Rob's Delicious

49Rob's June Bug

50Rob's Knickers

51Rob's Seduction

52Rob's Whiz bang

53Warm Sunshine

54Candlelight romance

55Ness' Cranberry swirl

56Smokey moon

57lakeshore Silver

58 S. Ionantha clone

59 Comfort Zone

60...

New Start

2011-09-30T17:30:00.000-07:00

So I went to start a new blog and found this one.... oh yah, hopefully I do better this time.

Isn't She Beatiful -- "Neat-o"

2007-01-24T13:11:00.000-08:00

A church leaders conference unlike any other.

I just spent the past two days in Grandville Michigan, the conference hosted by Mars Hill Bible Church was definetly something else. When you think of church conferences where does your head go? Lots of worship for sure, sessions on governance structure to bore your socks off, and hype that is quite litrally through the roof. Not so for Isn't She Beautiful, worship was the punctuation of this event rather than the focus, and the major sessions were focused on bible study, being the eucharist and the importance of the sabbath, the creative process with regard to hermeneutics, Salvation and all the different things the bible says about it. That made up the three main sessions taught by Rob Bell, he spoke for at least 8 hours over the two days and all I have to say is wow communicator, I love his simple style.

There were also two break out sessions with a few options: Approaching the Aids epidemic, a lot of info and new thoughts like have you ever thought about getting an HIV test so that you can connect and relate more to those who may have HIV, you could relate its confidentiality, you could actually say I have had it done, a step towards trust. The session with their student ministries gave more details on where they have been and come from with it, they have gotten beyond the children are the church of tomorrow to actually believing and having a ministry which has this ministry as an active and integral part of the church today. During the second session I attended the Elders workshop and really got an inside look at how they operate, the pain they have gone through over the past few years to have a healthy loving supporting elders team, and the processes they are looking at in ensuring that their community some 10 000 strong is all heading in the right direction. It really showed that their community isn't shiny and perfect and that they are not scared to be real about it.

The main thrust of the entire thing I think was to bring hope and to be a eucharist, a soul feeder to the pastors and leaders in attendance, something which really culminated in the final session where Rob talked about prayer shawls and the symbolism they carry. Which was followed by a worship and reflection time where you could take communion, be annointed, pray beneath prayer shawls... all being served by their community... their elders serving us, providing us with opportunities to serve each other.

I think that it was a great encouraging weekend which although it may not have had any profound lightining flash aha moments said old things in a new light, perhaps the correct light.

The greatest part was definetly the opportunity to spend time with some great guys, our conversations alone on the conference on church on whatever were great, Our group of nine consisted of my friend and pastor Dom, Of Joe Manafo, Nathan Colquhoun and Darryl Sylvestri of theStory a new church in Sarnia On., Phil Prendergast (Dom's Brother in law) and Marty Lewis (a.k.a. Mega-Mart) of New Hope in London On., Jared Siebert National Growth Director "Guru" (he seems pretty darn smart to me) for the Free Methodist Church Canada, and James, also of London On, he is currently in the process of starting a new church community in the downtown core of London, it sounds exciting!! Anyways I cant remember his last name (I did just meet him) so I hope that one of these guys will comment and give us more info on him.

Anyhow, a great time, lots and lots of stuff to inspire and reflect on.

Later Kerr

Google vs. intelegence

2007-01-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

The End as we know it has arrived. Perhaps my cynical view is to disparaging for your tastes, but I dont think that anyone knows how to think for themselves anymore. One of my friends is a prof. and recently while grading some papers he found that one of them had been "downloaded" almost entirely from an internet source, someone elses work was plagiarized. Can people really claim ignorance, that they don't know this is wrong. Maybe our new moral standards should go something like this "if it's easy it's wrong" I am all for sharing knowledge, but for goodness sake do your own work.

When my friend first told me that he had a cheater I thought it was a random act of stupidity, yet as I sit here today two guys opposite me in this very computer lab have done exactly the same thing a quick google search has led them to an easy assignment, which if chance has her way will most likely recieve an admirable grade.

What part do we share in this easy society, how often do we limp work together in order to meet deadlines, how often do we shirk difficult projects in order to do the things we want. What role have we played in todays quick fix internet reality, and how do we fix it?

Isn't She Beautiful

2007-01-16T09:16:00.000-08:00

Over the past several months I have been working through some issues that I have with the local church. Things like how it fits into Christ's vision, so many comunitites feel that they have an edge on just what God's mission is maybe they are the only ones doing it right.... grrr. How do we all come together to serve kingdom know missions, how can we serve together.
Another major stumbler for me has been issues of leadership, how to govern our comunities, individually and together as a group. So many of the communitities we are a part of struggle and falter because we put too much emphasis on what we get from it not what we give, and we bog down our pastors those who have a calling from God with administrative jumble, no wonder we cant sometimes don't feel God in our church, we arn't taking the time to look for him and those who are suposed to be inspiring us to move forward are feeling drawn out and tired, how can we serve them.

This week I am preparing to head to a conference hosted by Rob Bell's community which I hope might point out that I am looking in the worng direction, answer questions and give me new hope, new reason to continue to listen, and new resolve to serve.

More on this next week after the conference

Being Joyful

2006-12-06T20:56:00.000-08:00

It's not easy...

Went to the mall, it snowy slushy, misereable out. I just spent the last hour hopping from late bus to late bus only to arrive here. This place and to make matters worse I was just drenched by a passing car. Yup this season can be difficult.

how should we prepare for this season? We can't really anicipate anything, we know what were celebrating and where it heads after that so how do we get into a place a mindset where we can anticipate the celebration of Jesus birth?

I recently spent some time preparing some devo's for our next message and I marvel at how easy it comes out on paper, Mary's first reaction is one of joyful praise of God. God's Angel says hey Mary your going to have a baby, people will frown on you, may even shun you, get over it he is conceived of the holy spirit, the one everyone has been waiting for. She rejoices in God right then. Man when I get good news like that, wait guess I wont ever get that news but you know what I mean. My first reaction is woohoo I'm so great, if I even am joyful at all. Our society has morphed us into beings that move from one joy to another never satisfied, never joyful, sometimes I wonder if we forgot how.

Anyways I'm just rambling, but seriously how can we live in the joy that is our lives how can we reclaim the joy that God gives us, what does it mean to rejoice in the Lord? What does it mean if we have forgotten Joy.

How do we be joyful?

Re-Ignition

2006-11-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

The burnout is the hardest part, but I'm back baby. Sometimes it feels like the long dark will never end, but if you keep on trudging your faithfulness will get you there. finally, sometimes it just seems too long.

more to come

Hello how are you...

2006-10-23T21:49:00.000-07:00

oooh don't scare me with your deep questions. I mean who doesn't know theanswer to this question, the answer we want to hear is the only one we will give. I mean the question dictates the answer, you can ask anyone and get the same answer the question is unthoughtful, the answer needs to respect that you dont really have time for any other answer. Right?

Something to think about

shattering OUR realities

2006-10-14T20:39:00.000-07:00

Why does it hurt to be you, I mean really you. Our society has created a false reality for itself, a corporate image where the kids arn't alright but it doesn't matter as long as they look good. We lie to ourselves about who we are... and then we assume that everyone else is telling the truth about their life.
We see shiny new paint, we don't smell the rotting interior.

It hurts so much to be you, broken and in need of help, imperfect and in need of love and forgiveness, but if we don't allow others to see us, really see us, then how can we accept love? I mean we know that they love us, but they only love the us that they know right, I mean how could they really even stand to look at our rotten interior.

This is the delusion which we have created amongst ourselves, the never ending cycle of doubt and self loathing caused by our inability to share.

My desire, mey hope is that we can get beyond it to our realities and that we can get beyond the false expectations we have over ourselves, Let's be honest with each other.

I am afraid... I have wandered around in this place often I feel that I don't know where I am right now let alone where I am going, I fear burn out, of getting to tired to keep moving for what I believe in, I am afraid of bitterness, I mean why am I so tired, shouldn't it get easy sometime?

My prayer is for the renewal of our hopes, the refreshing of our bodies and minds, and a passion to continue.

I know where I am right now, I just hope that I don't forget where I am heading. If you forget where your heading you will continue to fall into these traps of our society to the detriment of many.

slo-mo

2006-06-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

In praise of process. For anyone who doesn't know me that well I am working in the bush again, I have for the past four years and this year is no diferent than the last few, except for me. One thing that I have constantly been mulling over is living my Christian life and wondering how that affects me in my everyday comings and goings. Eureka I believe that I am witness to my own question as I look back at my tree-planting career. Of course I am older and wiser now, but I have also noticed changes in my attitude towards setbacks and my interactions with other people which I can only attribute to the "slo-mo" process of becoming more Christ like.

I am torn between whether we need to keep asking what it means to be a Christian, I mean we know what it means shouldn't we just do it and how just doing it applies to our modern culture. I think that sometimes we just have to shut up and do it. A harsh view but a reality that I think we need to face. I know I am not perfect, but I am encouraged by the positive changes in my life, especially If I must say the changes in my atitude which have been a long time in coming. It takes many years to unlearn bad habits and only now can I see the truth in that phrase.

Sorry for the tardiness of my postes I havn't had internet access for some time (a month) and now I am limited to 15 minutes, yikes.

I miss everyone at home, and my friends at the embassy, especially my office comrades, I am thinking of you all and wishing you well.

With prayer.

Steve

you'll catch your death

2006-04-19T23:52:00.000-07:00

I wonder... just how many people who attend church are christians.

I ask out of fear... Why? Because I think we may be teetering on the edge of a cliff, no longer sure if were standing or falling. In so many ways we are trying to move beyond the legalistic tendencies of our recent ancestry, but in the process maybe we've taken it too far? I mean if we have very few rules it becomes easy for us to sin less doesn't it? I recently had a conversation on this and it moved in a direction where we could get rid of rules, okay, but then what's holy, what's sacred? The reason that the law was written (the first law) was because people were dumb, I mean you dont have to make a rule for something people don't do right? I mean let's look at it this way if we dont need rules, why not get rid of the laws in our own country, I mean the money we would be saving on enforcement and detention would be astronomical, but what would be the cost?

I wonder maybe us trying to get rid of the legalistic rules is because we need to feel better about ourselves. I remember one time when I was probably about 7 or so we had a list of chores and rules to do and follow, and when I stole some candies that I knew I shouldn't have taken I knew that I was in trouble, but I took down the rules and hid them (I dont think that my parents ever found them, although I know right where to look) Why did I hide them? Without the rules to lear down at me I thought that I might get away with it, and let me tell you that by backside didn't get away with anything, in fact I actually think that because the rules were hidden I recieved a larger punishment then usual.

God didn't make the laws to hurt us - just to remind us that without them we'd catch our death. Even though Christ died to save us from sin, doesn't the law help us to see it, to acknowledge it, to try to change to become more holy.

I guess I answered a different question than the one I asked.. basically I wonder how many people don't know that Christianity is a closed community - you have to believe this to get in, I say this because without the rules to help us live Godlier lives we might just appear to be good people instead of Christ followers, and without the law to follow we may not be that different after all, and if were not different then why would they or should they change their own lives? I mean do we even change our own?

All this to make a point, extremes are treacherous and can be deadly we really need to think about what we are doing and where that will take us. In the same breathe the verge often contains the most abundant and prolific life.

Post-Modernism is Dead...

2006-04-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

This post was inspired by an article on relevant you can check it out at the link below.

In this short article Jim asks us to consider that the post modern movement is pretty much over. He makes the essentialist argument that everything in the post-modern movement boils down to one major idea, there is no such thing as absolute truth. He then presents an argument that people are beyond this and are searching for truth, reality television (a fake reality but still raw) and crash (my favourite movie right now-I think). Where people are so individualized that they crave discourse and dialogue, with other individuized individuals, get the point. He asks us

What would happen if people met with the purpose of entering into genuine Spirit-inspired worship and studied the word without any of the trappings of traditional church? No pews, no ushers, no dress code, no formality, no church building, no budgets, no politics and nothing added to the word of God. No attempt to make it say something it doesn’t, only a sincere attempt to strip away all the church stuff and leave only authentic worship and the life-transforming message of the word of God. If we truly engage the culture the way Jesus did, in their language and their way, what would happen?

Indeed what would happen, we would have the church's (small c) response to the post-modern movement. Where we are presenting the absolute truth, the reason people are flocking to christian communities like Jim's is because absolute truth has been stripped from everything, everything except for the truth. They are hungering for reality and we should be prepared to answer it. That is why it is so important for us to be ready to answer questions when they arise, to be available to openly discuss them with our peers, because they are searching for the truth, and we the you and I who are the church have been commissioned to answer it.

The post-modern movement in our society has caused us to look at our methodologies, and is in many places causing the church to strip back to the basics as Jim mentions. Getting back to reading the bible, to authentic Christian community instead of a religious community. The death that Jim is talking about isn't death it's what the goal has been all along, and it is following the pattern of the paradigmatic shifts of the past - first deconstruct current valuation structure - second take a look at whats left - third transformation take what is left after deconstruction and begin to build again, This is where we are building {not rebuilding} (everyone travels at different speeds so maybe your not building yet, or maybe your done). We are looking at the basics of our faith, which is authentic Christian community following the teachings of Christ, knowing him as part of God, incarnate {made flesh}, and impacting this world seeing the Kingdom of God here in this place/time. It is looking at "the living traditions of the dead" who are part of our dialogue through their moral teachings (bible, early fathers of the church etc)

Post-Modernism isn't dead it's just transforming into what it is supposed to be (hopefully it will get a better name soon, not that there's anything wrong with post-modern or emergent). Some might think we should have remembered to build a new boat before we took the old one apart, but I think it's done us some good swimming around getting wet and tired. Maybe this exercise will help us to remember to dialogue with "the dead" St. Augustine so lovingly refers to, instead of monologing with ourselves, so go read your bible.

The Death of Post-Modernism - Jim Randas From Relevantmagazine.com

His Community - The Attic

one part knowledge-one part will

2006-04-04T20:34:00.000-07:00

Five years, thats how long I have been working on my undergrad degree, sure I took a year off and some of that has been part time, I dont feel like I have been wasting my time here at school, just that I dont really like school, well actually I hate it. You see the problem for me is seeing it through, I am really great at starting but dont really like to finish; you know? So for the past couple of months i have really been thinking of moving on to something new to some new challenge. The problem with that is that I havn't conquered any challenge here, I have one year left and I am looking for a way out. It really would be easier; easier for now anyhow.
Faith has two components, knowledge and will. I know that finishing my degree would be good but at the same time if I finish it then I have to move on into this great unkown region of life. That's what will is for right carrying us beyond our knowledge.
In the past I havn't really had faith I've been dealing in absolutes, in my knowledge in what I know, not just in life but with my "faith" too, in effect cheapening it to me I guess, I mean not necesarily on purpose but just as a result of how I've done things, that's why i have decided to put my foot down and finish my degree finally hooray I know, maybe who cares some say, I think though that willing ourselves through rough patches of fear and doubt in life really might be the point after all, maybe by being faithful to my five years here in Waterloo through finishing my degree will really help my "faith" become whole instead of the shell that it is propped and patched with my limited knowledge. It'll be a whole lot easier to not having to know everything thats for sure.

no coincidence

2006-03-31T12:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a rough year for our family, first my grandma (Dad's mom) passed away in the summer, then last fall her house, the family farm burned to the ground. It's taken me a long time but I finally accept it. Everything you see happens for a reason, the division of an estate can rip a family apart and that is exactly what was happening to ours. Grandma was the queen bee of the hive and without her guiding hand the family was bickering over the memories in the home, the heirlooms that should have brought memories of her love for us were instead dividing us. I went home the day after the fire and was broken, walking through the rubble and ash that was left I was hurt by what I saw, by how much was lost. If you havn't experienced a fire just know that it is the worst kind of destruction possible, it utterly destroys, it's a mess and it stinks. Shuffling through the shell that remained of her house I was saddened by what I saw, until I got to what had been the kitchen, the fire had started here and everything was utterly destroyed, everything but my grandmother's coffee mug, one that I had gotten her a few years before inscribed around it's lip is psalm 118:24, This is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Though I still miss her and the countless heirlooms lost to the fire I have this mug as a reminder from her that I shouldn't get caught up in what happened yesterday, but that I should rejoice in these moments and look forward to the future.

It's taken awhile to hear them but her words are still coming through. Thanks Grandma.

Are we there yet?

2006-03-29T14:20:00.000-08:00

I think the idea of a destination for our lives is a bit silly. I mean so much of everything we do in our life has some end goal in mind; I get the degree to get the job, to get the stuff, to live the life. The problem with all this end game mentality that we are always looking at the end of the tunnel and missing the mosaics on the wall. Christianity I think has been interpretted through this lens of the end, the problem for me is that it was never supposed to be about the end. Once christianity becomes about the end we forget about the poor in our community and around the world, we forget about destroying our home through poor environmental practices etc, Wasn't Jesus' message about God's kingdom right here right now, It's a difficult mindset to keep what with our end focused culture but hey maybe it's time for a shift in focus because, "Only the journey is written, not the destination"

Good at Everything

2006-03-23T16:14:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking lately of how great it is to be great at everything, I mean I am a great student, a great manager, a great graphic designer, a great thinker, a great big loser if I think I'm so perfect.

When did our society start telling us that we have to be great at everything? I have noticed alot lately among my friends and classmates that there is an unhealthy desire to be perfect in everything we do. I think that it is a manifestation of our own personal insecurities, I mean if I am great at everything then there is no reason why everyone wont like me right? Or is it when I think that I'm so great that people wont like me?
I think we have an unhealthy desire to please everyone around us, we're looking up to them begging them to recognize just how much of an asset we are, we can multitask and juggle like no ones business (I mean really juggle with flaming sticks) and we can do pretty much everything. One thing that I am really trying to focus on right now in my life is really nailing down just what I am good at, I mean I have strengths that make me a great person without trying to be perfect, plus I think that I'll feel a whole lot better about myself not having to stress about all that other stuff, besides isn't someone else good at that?

Failure??

2006-03-23T07:57:00.000-08:00

Something which has been a concern throughout my life is the fear of failure. Our society has created a view of success which requires me to work myself to death 70 hours a week, just so that I can pay off the debts I have incurred trying to appear successful living above my means. Maybe they're wrong...
I see a pattern taken from this world mentality in how we view success and failure in the church we see success in seats filled, in bills paid, in multiplying leadership. Maybe this a wrong, I dont want to imply that success can't be found in these types of measures just that maybe it's too easy that way. If we look at how many empty seats we have in the crowd we miss the people sitting in them. If we look at the bank account and the bills we forget that they represent the faith and vision and hope of those who gave it. If we look at burgeoning leaders we forget about those that either serve quietly that are just looking to follow, or those who only come now and again, the people that really need to hear whats going on. Instead of measuring success we should try to look at what we start missing if we do.