Tag Archives: creation

An admiration of melons

The melon of Saint Caetano is a startling thing. (Caetano is oddly spelled Cajetan in English, presumably with the j pronounced like a y, but I like the Portuguese spelling better!) It is a lovely dark green, and the deeply wrinkled skin accentuates its glossy sheen.

It is experientially in the category of the jiló, a little green eggplant that is remarkably bitter, but remarkably popular as a food despite the taste.

This little melon, mysteriously named for a saint who founded a bank for the poor, is startlingly bitter, but in a fun way. The first bite is shocking, but if you keep eating it the sensation is no longer shocking, until you eat something else, which will taste unaccountably sweet in contrast!

Yesterday we ate one sliced in little rounds and fried in butter, to much acclaim. Today we ate the other in a salad with brother cucumber and some tomatoes keeping the bitter melon company. (It is called Bitter Melon in English, but that is rather literal.)

In any case, natural medicine sources and the medical traditions of some Asian countries consider it good for what ails you. Western medical sites vigorously deny any use whatsoever. So it’s probably good for you.

It made me think about the wonders of the whole melon-cucumber family, though. Has there ever been such an array of delicious, refreshing fruits, so perfectly suited to being eaten on hot days?

Below, some lovely examples, and these are just showing the rinds. Some other time I’ll round up pictures of the insides:

Weather

“…we are filled with wonderment at the changes we see in the seasons and the weather…” St. Montfort, quoted in my previous post

I’m not sure wonderment is quite what we are filled with most of the time. Complaint might be a better description. Is there any weather condition that doesn’t inspire complaint? If I don’t complain about today’s weather someone else will do it for me.

Master of the Geneva Boccaccio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Ah, some awe at the glory of Creation

Some lovely quotes from The Love of Eternal Wisdom, by St. Louis de Montfort.

(from section 33): Apart from considering the different species of angels whose number is well-nigh infinite, and the varied brightness of the stars and the different temperaments of men, we are filled with wonderment at the changes we see in the seasons and the weather, at the variety of instincts in animals, at the different species of plants, at the diversified beauty of the flowers and the different tastes of the fruits.

(from section 34): Eternal Wisdom has revealed these things to the saints, as we learn from their biographies. At times they were so astonished at the beauty, the harmony and the order that God has put into the smallest things, such as a bee, an ant, an ear of corn, a flower, a worm, that they were carried away in rapture and ecstasy.

(from section 35 & 37): If the power and gentleness of eternal Wisdom were so luminously evident in the creation, the beauty and order of the universe, they shone forth far more brilliantly in the creation of man. For man is his supreme masterpiece… We might say that eternal Wisdom made copies, that is shining likenesses of his own intelligence, memory, and will, and infused them into the soul of man so that he might become the living image of the Godhead. In man’s heart he enkindled the fire of the pure love of God…

But alas…

Interesting that he comments elsewhere (reference now forgotten) that one of the effects of original sin is that we are too easily convinced that goodness is not particularly glorious, and that evil is not particularly awful.

Beautiful pigeons

Common pigeons have their own charm and beauty, but there are some really shockingly beautiful pigeons (eta: and doves) out there. So diverse are they that here I just feature some that are charmingly pink:

Ltshears Trisha M Shears, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ltshears, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Kao-Tai, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Beautiful blue and gold birds

Some Euphonias for you:

Dario Sanches from SÃO PAULO, BRASIL, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Francesco Veronesi from Italy, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dario Sanches, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hector Bottai, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dario Sanches from São Paulo, Brazil, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

That yellow! A pair of violaceous euphonia once started building a nest in one of my orchid pots. The color is just mind-bogglingly sunflower yellow, especially in contrast to the deep purplish-blue of the back. An incredible bird.