Friday Foto Friends - Progress in the Garden!

Hello Friday Foto Friends!  I truly love this weekly gathering of friends from near and far...who share their favorite photos of the week...which could be  anything from babies to birds to seashores to sunsets to snow...we never know what we will see each week...but it is always fun and interesting.  So, I hope you will join us! Grab your camera and take some pictures this next week, and share them with us next Friday!  Just link up with Deb at Breathing in Grace on Friday for the Friday Foto Friends.   (I wrote this last night to post today...but as you can read below, we had to take a little detour today...)

I am sorry that I am a bit late to the "party" today.  We got a call late last night that my sweet 93 yr old mother in law had fallen and was taken to the hospital. So we made a 2 hour trip one way to be with her today and have just gotten back home. Please keep her in your prayers. She does have a fractured hip, but not severe enough for surgery or a cast, thank the Lord. She also was dehydrated and has some other issues, along with her dementia, etc.  So they have admitted her and she will most likely be going from the hospital into long term care.  Thank you for your prayers for our family as we make these decisions and attend to her care. We know that God is in control...and we can trust Him to care for His dear child.  But...well, so many of you already understand how this feels.

So now, here we go for my photo offerings for the day:

As most of you are probably aware by now, I am attempting to create a "Secret Garden" as a place of prayer, meditation in God's Word, and just resting in the Lord while I observe His creation at work around me.  Click HERE for  how it all started with a Christmas gift from my son... .  Now for an update on the progress:

This was the view looking at the back yard fence toward the neighbor's house behind us.  I wanted to create something  to give the Secret Garden a little more sense of peace and solitude. So we decided to put up something to give the visual illusion of privacy without it being a total blockade fence...

It took our best "engineers", "architects" and "construction supervisors" to figure out the most reasonable way to put up this privacy screen with minimal expense and also without having to bring in heavy equipment to dig down through the myriad of roots of the huge magnolia tree that shades this spot.  So with some creative use of rebar, PVC pipe and vinyl lattice panels we came up with a plan...

We framed the lattice panels to give them more stability...

And then we carefully attached the panels to the PVC  pipes already pounded into the ground over the rebar...

And the finished product does exactly what I hoped it would do...it gives a visual screen of privacy without totally blocking the light ...and creates a lovely, peaceful spot to relax and enjoy the Secret Garden.  Next comes the "landscaping"...clearing out some of the ferns to create a spot for the lovely new bench and some other secret surprises for the garden...hopefully when my "landscape architect" gets some time to do some creative  weed-whacking and planting...  (please note, these "specialists" are all family volunteers pretending to be whatever I happen to want them to be for the moment...)

Already God is blessing this little place with beauty and friendship...one of my friends in the community who happens to sell plants at the local flea market brought me a lovely gift of a camellia bush for the garden and another delightful plant that will have bright yellow flowers in the summer that attract the butterflies... (I can never remember the name of that plant...help!)  This was such a wonderful surprise that I never expected...and I thank the Lord for this dear friend and neighbor who has such a giving heart....

And then I saw THIS plant on her plant trailer and just had to purchase it....it is called a 

New Zealand Tea Tree...and it has such dainty little pink flowers...and also will attract

bees, butterflies and birds!  :

So we are off to a wonderful start in our Secret Garden! God is already blessing this place with His Presence and drawing people here in a spirit of love and fellowship.  That is my dream and goal...

Oh, I guess I haven't shown you the bird houses we added to the garden...yep, right there on top of the clothesline...

And the other morning I noticed a chickadee flitting around in front of the bird house on the left...and then scolding me for watching her...therefore I don't know if she decided to build a nest in there yet or not, so I'll be watching from a distance! But isn't that exciting?  It's kind of like the saying from the movie "Field of Dreams",  "If you build it, they will come!"....so stay tuned for more adventures in the Secret Garden...

Until next week...

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord,

"He is my refuge and my fortress;

My God, in Him I will trust."

Psalm 91:1-2
Amen.