The Stranger At My Door

I have seen the fire watcher’s daughter
Watching fires burn from smoke to black
There’s nothing she won’t burn
From Styrofoam to urns, to someone else’s ashes in a sack

You can scorch the metal, you can even melt the glass
You can pass the time here, fire lives into the past
An all-consuming flame, that refines and new begins
It’ll take your family heirlooms, but it can take your darkest sins

We exercise the demons of the things we used to know
The gnashing of the teeth become the remnants of our homes
We think we’re moving on from materials we long
To forget we ever sold our souls to own

There’s a chilling absolution that we’re given from our birth
A powerful delusion and a plague upon the earth
But nothing scares me more
Than the stranger at my door
Who I fail to give shelter, time, and worth

Yeah, the good ol’ bedtime story’s give you nightmares ’til you die
And the ones that love to tell it, hide the mischief in their eyes
Condemn their sons to Hades
And Gehenna is full of guys alive and well (well)
But there ain’t no hell for a fire watcher’s daughter
-Brandi Carlile

Thursdays are for flowers! This Thursday, I’m going to share a collection of tulip pictures I took in Orange City when Jesse, Nader, and I travelled up there for their Tulip Festival. I took well over 500 pictures of tulips this year and that happened despite the fact that I don’t have any tulips in my years. Maybe next year though.

There would probably would have taken more tulip pictures than that, but Orange City doesn’t have anywhere near as many tulips as Pella. Which isn’t to say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy their Tulip Festival. But I did think there would be more tulips. They do crush Pella on the windmill front, but Thursdays aren’t for windmills! They are for flowers!


Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

Still Laughing - 2023

I think next Thursday I will share more tulip pictures from Pella. There is still so many to share!