Thursday Thankfulness: Fall is Here!

Is it really Thursday already?  Wow! Where did this week go already?  And now here it is a beautiful fall morning in our neck of the woods! It's 49 degrees this morning, with a high expected of only 70 degrees! And sunny all day, but a tad windy.  That's okay, I'll take it! This is the weather we've been waiting for!

Apparently this is the weather the Sand Hill Cranes have been waiting for as well! This was them here at Still Waters Pond yesterday...the first we've seen of them since the last hurricane.  

They were showing off and flapping their wings and feeling rather frisky!

And then they sedately walked up onto the yard and found some bird seed to eat...

We were happy to see them back safe and sound.  I don't know where they went during the hurricane, but they must have a "safe" hiding place where they hang out until the storms are over. So thankful to know they are still here with us, safe and sound!

Did you see the moon last night?  This was just as it was rising above the trees in the east...it was still a bit light out...

And over on the west side, on Still Waters Pond, we were having a glorious sunset at the same time!

I kept running back and forth to watch both amazing events in the skies:

"All creatures of our God and King,

lift up your voice and with us sing,

"Alleluia! Alleluia!"

Thou burning sun with golden beam,

thou silver moon with softer gleam,

O praise Him, O praise Him!

alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!"

And finally the sky was dark enough to see the full magnitude of the moon:

And the sun was setting down behind the trees on the west side

And all was at peace...time to get back inside and enjoy a beautiful evening...

So we "lit a fire" in the "fireplace", and rejoiced to finally feel like this was a real fall day...

This morning we had another fall surprise! The Canada Geese finally flew in and landed on the pond!

Good Morning!  "Honk! Honk!"

They were actually feeling rather frisky this morning too...

I wish these pictures were a little better, but it was still early and low light, so this is the best I can do...

Here they are again a little later in the morning...they were swimming around "Goose Island" and in the little cove that surrounds the island...

I love to watch them peacefully gliding about, enjoying the quietness of this little hidden cove...

I have to say, this is really my favorite time of the year...bright, cool, sunny days, with little to no humidity, and we can enjoy being outside without zillions of mosquitoes and other insects attacking us.  We were actually outside for a while this morning, as we went over to our church to help rake up all the fallen branches and Spanish moss and other debris left over from Hurricane Milton. I had planned to take a picture of it all, but was too busy handling the rake to get any pictures. There were  a LOT of branches to rake, but quite a few folks from the church showed up to help, and you know the old saying, "Many hands make light work."  It's great when people can come together to get these jobs done!

Anyway, I was happy to see that the geese were still here when we got back home so I could take a few pictures of them and watch them for a little while before time to fix lunch.

There are just four geese right now, but I have a feeling there will be more.  They tend to come in groups, and then the fun begins with rival males charging back and forth at each other.  It's quite entertaining!  So stay tuned for further adventures with the geese!

It's so nice and cool that we may soon be able to enjoy an evening around our kids' firepit, roasting marshmallows and making s'mores...well, actually very soon we will be doing that, however, not at their house, but up in the north Georgia mountains, where we are going to spend a few days together with our kids and also my hubby's brother and wife...hopefully seeing some beautiful autumn leaves and finding some fresh apples at the local orchards...and perhaps sipping some hot spiced apple cider and eating a few apple cider donuts...that's what's on my bucket list, anyway...and just enjoying some fun family times together.  Then we will end up the week going over to North Carolina, where we will attend the wedding of my great nephew...and get to see my brother Clifford and his family, as well as my sister and her family will be there, and some of the rest of our extended family.  So it will be a busy week, filled with happy times with family and the celebration of a new beginning for our great-nephew and his beloved.

I am very thankful to God for seeing us through these past few weeks with their storms and all that went along with that.  I am also thankful for my hubby's excellent report at the doctor this week, and thankful we were both physically able to help out this morning at our church with the raking. We look forward to a wonderful adventure next week with our family, and pray for safe travels to and from. I will most likely be writing again before we leave, but then once we are on the road I probably won't be able to do any blogging until we get home. It's better that way anyway, so I can focus on why we are there...to be with family and to relax and enjoy a little vacation.  

This was the verse that popped up in our devotions today:

1 Corinthians 15:57-58 NKJV

57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

And here is another verse that I read today:

Psalm 103:17-18 The Living Bible

17-18 But the loving-kindness of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to those who reverence him; his salvation is to children’s children of those who are faithful to his covenant and remember to obey him!

Both are excellent thoughts for us to consider today.  I pray that you and yours are having a good week, and that you are also experiencing the "loving-kindness of the Lord".  Amen.

Tuesday 4~ Lunch at Woolworth's

 

Lunch at Woolworth's



Click to see full size.  

(Note from Annie, our hostess:)
"It's time again for Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.
Prices are soaring and there is no end in sight! Wouldn't it be nice to go back in time to do our buying? Even restaurants were affordable back in the day.
You can click on the menu to see it full sized.
I worked two full time jobs to help put my kids through school. One of those jobs was Woolworth's."


1. Did you ever eat at Woolworth's?

Oh yes, I remember going to Woolworth's with my mother after doing some other shopping. We would sit down at the counter and have a Hot Fudge Sundae or a Chocolate Soda! I loved them both, especially because I was there with my mother enjoying it with her! Those are precious memories for me.  I don't remember if we ate any of the other food or not...I just remember the ice cream part of it!  Mom would say, "Let's go get a Hot Fudge Sundae!" , and of course I said "Yes!!"

2. What would you order from this menu?

I would probably order the #2 Cheeseburger Platter with cole slaw and french fries, although I really am not a big french fry fan, but they just go with the hamburger. And for 60 cents! Wow! What a deal! Sure beats the more than $12.00 we have to pay today for a similar platter at a local diner today!

3. Woolworth's had banana splits and Sundaes. Do you like Sundaes? What kind?

See my answer to #1.  I do love Hot fudge Sundaes with whipped cream and walnuts. You can keep the cherry on top. LOL.  But Woolworth's also had a Chocolate Soda, and that was a real treat that is hard to find anymore.  I have never had a banana split. Somehow a banana with ice cream and all of those toppings has never ap-"peal"ed to me. (peal-pun intended...banana "peal" LOL)

(Internet Photo)

And HERE is a link to a blog all about the old fashioned Chocolate Soda, the way I remember it.

https://retrohousewifegoesgreen.com/chocolate-soda-recipe/

(This picture is from the blog that I linked above, "Retro Housewife Goes Green".

4. What restaurants are your favorites and what do you usually order?

That's a tough question.  I do love Cracker Barrel, and I love their chicken and dumplings. I may order the sliced cooked apples and the cooked carrots to go with it. I prefer the corn bread to the biscuits.  But I also enjoy going to a good BBQ place too, and if they have it, I love to get a baked sweet potato with whatever else I get. 

I also love to go to a place called Corky Bells, which is about 15 miles from us, on the St. John's River. I always get broiled shrimp and/or scallops, baked potato, salad, and hush puppies.

But no matter where we go, it's even better when we can be with people we love:

(these photos were taken a few weeks ago when we went there with our kids for my birthday)

So that's the Tuesday 4 for today...now I'm finding myself craving a Hot Fudge Sundae or a Chocolate Soda! LOL. It's been a LONG time since I had either one.

I'm writing this actually Monday night. Today hubby had a follow up appointment with his doctor in Gainesville, to get results from some tests he had a couple of weeks ago. Praise God! The tests came out REALLY good! We are very thankful for God's healing!  And even though we had to wait in the Doctor's office for OVER and hour from our appointment time, the results made it worth the wait! I felt like going out to eat to celebrate, but since it was rush hour by then and hubby just wanted to get home, and it was an hour's drive back home, we opted to eat our peanut butter crackers that I always take along for such a trip and then we had chicken sandwiches when we got home, using leftover chicken from the fried chicken I bought yesterday at the grocery store after church. It was fresh out of the fryer then because we ordered it ahead.  Anyway, tonight's chicken sandwiches with sliced tomato and lettuce were really good!  And since I only had a sandwich for supper and a salad at lunch, just maybe I can justify a hot fudge sundae tonight (if we have any ice cream and hot fudge...I think all we have is Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, which isn't exactly hot fudge, but I can heat it up and pretend! LOL.) Well, maybe it's too late for that now anyway...we'll see how I feel when I finish writing this.  (I ended up having a bowl of raspberry yogurt and granola instead)

This morning we had a couple of "visitors":

Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird stopped by to check up on their house(s). They actually looked over both houses to make sure they had not sustained any damages in the hurricane I guess.  They checked everything out thoroughly and then flew on their way. They'll be back in the spring to set up housekeeping again, but for now they just wanted to make sure the houses were still in good shape.

Looks good from way up here!

Yep, the roof is still intact!

Don't see any leaks or issues inside this one:

Everything looks pretty ship-shape here...

Better check this other house out too, just in case someone else gets the other one before we get back:

Well, would you please hurry up? I need to get back to the tree branches for a tea party with our friends...

It's always fun to see them pop in!

Just some closing thoughts from God's Word for today and for the days ahead:

Romans 8: 35-39

"35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 

39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Amen.

Post Hurricane Thoughts

 In the Beginning there were five trees: This is how it looked along the shore of Still Waters Pond not long after we moved here over 5 years ago...there were five skinny pine trees down on the waterfront...

and even though we loved the view, these two trees on the right were growing rapidly and were actually making us a bit nervous about how big they would get and possibly some day fall and hit our house or porch...

And so we had those two cut down, and you can read more about it in this link: First two trees were cut HERE.  So that left us with three trees, which is what we've enjoyed for the past few years, and the birds love to sit in their branches and come back and forth for their food at the feeders.  

This was the view one bright sunny morning just a few  days before Hurricane Milton blew through.

And then THIS was the view the morning after Hurricane Milton blew through...I already told you about this HERE, and yes, we were very thankful that this one tree was really the only damage we sustained in the storm, apart from lots of little branches blown all over the yard from other trees, but nothing else significant.

And then there were two:

That is the view now on the shore of Still Waters Pond after we had some wonderful help from our son this morning:

And finally it was down:

Then came the job of hauling all the tree debris over to our debris pile on the other side of the lot. Hubby and son worked very hard to get it all over there. Also, a LOT of that debris under the pine branches were the many branches hubby and I raked up and moved there yesterday morning.  The pile is growing, and I'm not sure what the next step is, but eventually we will figure out how to dispose of them all. But that's for another day. 

There was so much sticky sap running from this stump that it was difficult to count the rings to tell how old it was. I may have to wait a while for it to dry up and then look again.

Meanwhile, Rose and I were in the kitchen cooking up a storm of our own! The original plan was that we were going to go to the church for the monthly Agape Potluck lunch at noon today, so we were making a Penne Pasta with meat sauce dish and also a pan of brownies to take with us.

However, the tree cutting and moving, etc., took a little longer than expected, and the guys were very tired by the time they got done. I took one look at my hubby's face and knew he was exhausted and overheated (even though it was a lovely low 70's degree morning, but they worked up a sweat hauling those logs), and Benton was sweaty and tired too, and neither one of them were really in the mood or able to get cleaned up soon enough and go to the church for lunch.  So we changed plans and decided that they would go home and have a light lunch and rest, and we would do the same here, and then they will come back over later for supper and we will eat the Penne Pasta w/ meat sauce and brownies ourselves! I felt bad about missing the luncheon, but sometimes you just gotta do what is best for the homefolks.  

Speaking of a cooler morning...we have had delightfully cool mornings and very pleasant days ever since Hurricane Milton blew through here. Thankfully that is a good thing for those who are working tirelessly to connect electricity for everyone, and all of the heavy clean up that is being done where there was so much horrific damages to homes and businesses and lives.  We cannot complain about our one tree that got hit, when people have lost everything they had...

I actually had to put on my flannel shirt this morning while we had our morning tea/coffee and breakfast before the "fire". That fire is not for real...it wasn't THAT cold, but it just set the mood for this fall morning.

This was yesterday morning's sunrise...so bright and beautiful...hard to believe just 48 hours before such a horrific storm was howling through our state.

I loved how the sunlight was shining through our bedroom window...

Psalm 43:3-4

"3 Oh, send out Your light and Your truth!

Let them lead me;

Let them bring me to Your holy hill

And to Your tabernacle.

4 Then I will go to the altar of God,

To God my exceeding joy;

And on the harp I will praise You,

O God, my God."

The day after the storm we took a walk in the woods, and I was so thrilled to see these lovely wildflowers blooming...note the bumblebee...I stayed out of his way!

Saw this cute Common Buckeye Butterfly flitting about, and he stopped to pose for me:

The "Blazing Star" flowers are blooming too...

Do you see the little bee on this one? I almost didn't!!

And these lovely yellow wild flowers were everywhere...A kind of wild coreopsis, I think...

So I brought home a bouquet and put it on the kitchen counter.

Within a few minutes I remembered why I don't bring these particular wildflowers inside the house. They have a very strong strange odor that is not very pleasant and they also affect my sinuses and eyes, so outside they went:

And they look lovely on our back porch table.  (As long as I am not sitting out there they can stay! LOL)

I guess some wildflowers are meant to "bloom where they are planted" and just stay there! LOL.

They aren't meant to become bouquets in fancy places! But aren't they absolutely gorgeous out along the roadways and in the woods? That is where they are meant to be...God created them just for that purpose, and to be a source of food and pollen for the bees and butterflies! So I should just let them stay where they belong and enjoy them there.  Lesson learned.

Yesterday, after raking up the front yard of all the branches from those big old oak trees, I went around back and started putting all the bird feeders and lawn ornaments/bird baths back in place.  I bleached the bird baths and washed off all the other things before putting them back...

And as I was washing off this little tea pot out popped this little head from the spout!

He wiggled around and squirmed in the spout and I felt like he was trying to tell me something!

Of course I was quite startled by his appearance, and put the teapot down on the ground and waited for him to work his way out of the spout. It actually took him a minute or two, as I believe he was actually stuck in there!  Once he finally came out onto the ground, he just sat there rather stunned for a while, and eventually started wiggling his feet and toes and tail and managed to crawl away! I really do believe he had gotten himself stuck in there and he was trying to thank me for helping him out by running water in the pot and providing moisture for him to slip on out.   At least that's what I think he was trying to say! Soon he ran away to another place and I'm sure he had a story to tell his friends about how he rode out the hurricane inside the spout of a teapot!!   

Isn't there a story or saying about a "tempest in a teapot", or something like that?

"Tempest in a teapot (American English), or also phrased as storm in a teacup (British English), or tempest in a teacup, is an idiom meaning a small event that has been exaggerated out of proportion." Click here for more information about that saying  

Perhaps the lizard might have exaggerated his story a bit to get the attention of his peers...who knows? Sounds like a great story to me!

After I finished my chores down by the shore (rhymes!), I went and sat down in the swing in the Memorial/Secret Garden and just rested and relaxed and listened to the sounds of the birds, and gave thanks to the Lord that everything was okay once again for us here. 

Tonight as promised, Rose and Benton came over and we ate the Penne Pasta and brownies as planned, and afterwards Rose and I enjoyed once again watching the sunset over Still Waters Pond:

These verses from Psalm 136 came to mind to me as I was looking at these pictures again just now:

1 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.
2 O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.

3 O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.
4 To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.

5 To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.

6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.

7 To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:

8 The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever:

9 The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.

23 Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever:

24 And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.

25 Who giveth food to all flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.

26 O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever."

Amen.

With that I will close for tonight. My heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise, but also with prayer for those who are still suffering. I still can't get over how much so many others are still hurting and struggling to get back to some kind of normal. My heart goes out to them and I pray that God will comfort them in their sufferings and help them find some sense of His peace for their lives once again.  

And thank you to so many of you who have mentioned the people of our state and also the Carolinas and Georgia in your thoughts and prayers. Your prayers are very much appreciated for sure! Thank you.