This morning, rain. Chickadees are hop, skip, jumping under the blue spruce in the front yard. I am delighted to watch them through the silhouette of remaining zinnias, which grew outside my office window to a lovely height, and are butter yellow.

Speaking of flowers: over the last couple of days, my sister Coral has been sending photographs of her family's trip this past summer. They spent a week at Sylvan Lake Baha'i School, and then toured their way through the Okanagan, went to the Calgary Zoo, and then home to northern B.C. Coral is a stunning photographer so I thought I would share a picture with you. I was going to make a collage of them, but technology didn't permit this...and actually, I kind of prefer just showing you one of them. I like the way the image of my niece, Sarah, is blurred against the foreground of the roses. It calls to mind a prayer from 'Abdu'l-Baha,

O God! Educate these children! These children are the flowers of Thy meadow, the roses of Thy garden. Let Thy rain fall upon them, let the sun of reality shine upon them with Thy love. Let Thy breeze refresh them in order that they may be trained, grow and develop and appear, in the utmost beauty. Thou art the Giver, Thou art the Compassionate.