Early autumn pleasures

I accidentally went two days without posting. It's because I've been so involved in reading this book about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I'm up to the part where he's just been transferred to the second-to-last prison he was in before his death in the final days of WWII. What a tragedy that such a brilliant theologian, who also was such a devout Christian with so much integrity to his faith, died so young at the hands of the Nazis. But his suffering and death are a witness, as he had hoped. The word martyr actually means witness in Greek. A willingness to die for a faith or principle bears witness to it.

Yesterday, I managed to combine reading this book with another favorite activity (if you can call it activity): sitting out on my deck. We had a sunny, pleasant fall day.

I sat out reading my book on my Kindle. Here's a picture of the Kindle when you send it to sleep--a random picture comes up:

And here it is with the book displayed. I have set it to a slightly larger type face than the default.

Here is the view to my right hand, where I have my coffee, glass of water, and Kindle all sitting on the hose caddy next to my chair.

Notice the dog in the background. He's standing by the door, which is his way of saying, "Why are we out here on hard surfaces, when we could be indoors on cushy ones?" Here he is yawning with ennui.

I enjoy what time I can on the deck now, as I know the days of that pleasure are numbered for this season. It is raining more frequently (this very morning, in fact), and it is usually sometime in October that I concede it has become too cold to sit outside, and I put the lawn chairs away, cut back the plants, and place all the pots and containers near the wall of the house, in hopes that they will stay a little more warm and sheltered there and possibly make it through the winter. Last year was a mild winter, and many plants did survive. When we have had more severe winters, then fewer do and I have to replace more of them in the spring. And, of course, some are annuals.

So yesterday afternoon it was a gift to be able to sit outside in the pleasant sunshine.