The Nature of Things
It is now already five years since the Christmas of 2016 when we last gathered fully as family in Niagara, some three months after Stiny de Jong's funeral. We were drawn together to hang on to that sense of belonging that only a matriarch can supply. We gathered for a
God Includes
God loves you and me. That’s the firm foundation for our faith, as it can be for every one of God’s children. God’s esteem for us is also the foundation of our self-esteem. We know from the history of redemption that God does not hold back this love from those
Talkabout – Living in Faith
The desire to talk about things is a natural and important part of our being. That is a reflection Of God's own nature -- God's Word is a testament to His eagerness to talk with us about everything under the sun. We ourselves do talk back, and we talk much
1 – By their names
For keeping track of plant names, after sketching and scribbling on sheets of paper, I knew there had to be a better way, and that it should involve my phone in the field, still tied in somehow to my computer in the office. I'd been exploring possibilities for Windows and
2 – Getting the lay of the land
The Plant Recorder app is actually elegantly simple and the built-in help screens are more than enough to navigate it. But of course, the app is quite useless until you can get it to relate to your gardens, and getting this setup seemed a bit daunting at first.
3 – Putting Plants to Ground
Once the plan was in hand, it was time to get the plants to ground. I was pleased to be looking at a Plant Recorder plan that matched my reality and that had 84 plants neatly arranged in my driveway.
4 – The Ins and Outs of Plant Data
With a Plant Recorder's fully functioning and up-to-date XML file it is easily possible to migrate this out again. Excel will open an XML file and present it as columns with headers. From there I can delete columns and/or rows and export to other interfaces, like my Table Press list
5 – Weeding and Watering
There are plenty of pots to fill in the Plant Recorder app. Some I wont bother with. Since the focus of my gardens is plants that are native to Ontario, there’s little point in filling out Country and Region. Habitat is being used for the code ‘N’ to specify Native.
Publishing Trail
The links below are to published works by Henry de Jong, listed here for reference and for exchange with publishers and editors. They may not be used without conversation or permission. They may be freely shared as links with other potentially interested publishers, editors and advisors.
Summer Sessions
It was 50 years ago this month that the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) held its first Family Conference in Niagara, Ontario, on the August long weekend. Beginning in 1970, the ICS, originally the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship (AACS), gathered Reformed folks together to worship, learn and
Exhibit ‘A’
When mom died I had the idea of taking the familiar objects that decorated our home and lifting them to another level, just like mom. That would strike a chord!
Amiens Cathedral
Amiens Cathedral - a guided tour with video suggestions and photos from our 2023 summer visit.
ONPG Facebook Group Links
A collection of links shared by members of the Ontario Native Plant Gardening Facebook group
Native Plant Gardening
A Journey of Discovery - The last decade has seen the transformation of my home's typical, urban yard from it's foundation shrubbery, imported plants and groundcovers to a place of refuge for native plants.
Pake Roorda
These sketches were done on the backs of wallpaper rolls for the Sunday School classes that Jacob Roorda taught.
The van der Laan Venture (epub)
Memoirs of Harm and Dina van der Laan. A printed book made available here in an ePub viewer.
Hinne de Jong
From the memoirs of Hendrik (Hinne) de Jong (1896-1982, translated/arranged by his son, Sense de Jong and maintained by grandson Henry.
The Time-lapse Page
Taking the Long View. There's no way to do time-lapse photography casually or on the spur of the moment. It takes planning, equipment, time, patience and specialized software. But it's worth doing . . .
Psalm 138 – music video
Visiting an ancient psalm text, the Genevan tune setting from the sixteenth century and visions of nature that are timeless. This was made in anticipation of a tour by The Psalm Project, and incorporates photos from my own collection to accompany their rendition of Psalm 138.
Herman de Jong – Organ
Herman de Jong plays on the Covenant CRC organ
God Includes
God loves you and me. That's the firm foundation for our faith, as it can be for every one of God's children. God's esteem for us is also the foundation of our self-esteem. We know from the history of redemption that God does not hold back this love from those
Media Notes
This page offers some Media Notes, and the links below are to newly written works by Henry de Jong that have not been published or posted, along with some Breakout ideas. These are made available here for exchange with publishers and editors. They may not be used without conversation or