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sea gull clip art from google dot com

on retreat singing -
songs of praise on forest leaves
sea gulls' wings applaud
--gillena cox



I am blog hopping today

Inspired by the prompt retreat at

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flowering Immortelle, in the mountains

REMINISCE: RETREAT

those were Sundays yeah!
early in the mornings
we boarded the bus

going on retreat
our singing voices hushed
in then dawn breezes

windows opened door closed
settled to our seatings
someone gestures wait

bags shifted around
to make all comfortable
morning clouds clumping

egrets returning
white in the light of morning
burst of Hail Mary's

singing voices urged
of rejoice an addendum
breakfast appetite

His green of forests
and His blue of oceans filled
the retreat knapsacks
--gillena cox


Its the Sunday of the week before Holy Week; one of the readings at church this morning, told about Lazarus being raised from the dead, after Jesus had raised his eyes up to his father in heaven, and then commanded Lazarus to physical life once more. Wow! how awesome is He!!!

Oh, and there is a large banner up at church displaying our choir's concert to be held on 25,26,&27 April at Fatima College Hall; Sunday Smiles


Today is #100 in the series Sunday Savvy: revisit Sunday Savvy #99 What's your Sunday thought, Sunday wish, Sunday action today To share with me you can EMAIL me; you can COMMENT; and, since Sunday Savvy is now a meme, you can also enter a LINK from your blog, at the Linky below





I am also blog hopping today at


image courtesy Magpie Tales Mag 214



the imaginary garden with real toads

Recuerda Mi Corazon Post Cards From Paradise


Carpe Diem #440, Ghost-Writer Jules


Poetry Pantry #196

Hope

photos taken at St. Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church in Penal, yesterday Sunday March 20, 2011


Penal plays a major role in the energy supply of Trinidad and Tobago, originally a rice and cocoa producing area; Penal (originally Peñeraal of a Spanish origin), it lies south of San Fernando and Debe, and north of Siparia, in south Trinidad.
---*---


Japan one week after the tsunami Japanese smiles are gradually returning

Sangre Grande

day break--
white egrets fly toward
the sun rising

Twenty two days or so without rain. Dawn shadows playfully cajole the fleeting coolness of another soon to be hot Sunday, scenario, and dew glistens to unseeing eyes; our breaths, having breathed in the morning's coolness, we seat ourselves in the mini bus and head out; Feb 28th 2010 around 5:30 AM; to another of our churches; this year to Sangre Grande; " in the late 1770s, Spanish surveyors who were charting the island for the purposes of creating a map, found that the waters of two of the tributaries of the nearby Oropuche River were red as blood, hence the name Sangre Grande; Our agenda:-- church, workshop, then to Manzanilla beach and back, till next year and another retreat

the bush fire smoke
from the hills of Laventille smogs
the highway traffic

more about Sangre Grande here
2010 Retreat photos here


Retreat posts 2006 to 2009 click the label 'retreat'

Tortuga

Nestled in the hills of Monserrat, in Central Trinidad, amidst a constant twittering of birds, is the beautiful little church of Our Lady of Monserrat; a rustic wooden structure; overseeing, from the highest point of the Central Range, miles of cultivated land sloping down toward the coast of the Gulf of Paria.

Hundreds of Catholics visit Tortuga on September 8 each year to be part of the street procession in the patronal feast. This village church is famous for its statue of the Black Virgin, which is kept in a small niche inside the Church.
One reported view of how the statue came to Tortuga, is that it was brought there by the Capuchin monks from Spain.

The Spaniards were the ones who called the hills Montserrat Hills because they resemble Montserrat (mons serratus),a jagged set of hills in Barcelona, northeast Spain, where a famous monastery was built in 880 AD.

smell of rain-
circling circling
chicken hawks

My Tortuga Pics
link to Tortuga

Lopinot

The welcoming sign at the Historical site of Lopinot is paled by the Immortelle trees blooming in the mountains.
It’s a cool Sunday afternoon, no bird whistles, no swishing breezes just that quite tone which nature uses to whisper to our hearts.
At The La Reconnaissance estate, the voice of our tour guide fills the afternoon with the tales of Charles Joseph Count de Loppinot (1738-1819) "Loppinot was a young knight who rose to the rank Lieutenant-General in the French army. He left France to serve time in the North-American French colony of Acadie (which is today combined with the Canadian territory of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island). His service and travels led him to Louisiana, the Caribbean- Jamaica, Santo Domingo (known as Dominican Republic and Haiti today), and Trinidad…”
He was soldier, voyager, slave owner, planter, landowner.
Memorabalia at the site includes the grave sites of the count and his wife. There are no photos of him but a photo of his ghost takes a place of prominence in the small museum, as well; well preserved furniture from the 19th Century, alongside parang musical instruments of present day made by residents. "Lopinot is the home of Parang" boast our tour guide"and parang is part and parcel of every day life; sung at wakes, funerals, birthdays, weddings; not only during Christmas Season ".
He leds us in a sampling of his parang expertise and we join in, singing lustly, filling the afternoon with the musical hearbeat of the people.

near the cashew tree
on a picnic bench
busy ants

Lopinot is located about five and three quarters miles north of Arouca.

March Drizzle

How

Retreat
http://tinyurl.com/c8gy4