Wednesday Treasures?

 I honestly don't have anything in particular to share today. I missed the Tuesday 4 meme yesterday about going to the seashore.  I had a busy day and really didn't have time to focus on it and couldn't think of anything clever to say anyway. Ever have days like that?  I don't even think I have any new pictures to share with you since my Monday post. So why am I here?  I don't know...just thought I should check in before you think I've checked out...LOL.  

Right now I am waiting for some Blueberry Bran Muffins (Click HERE for recipe) to come out of the oven. I can smell them baking and they smell SO good. I have my extra timer sitting here beside me so I can hear it when they are done. If I rely on the timer on my stove, I most likely will not hear it from where I am now and the muffins will get "overdone".  So I must pay attention...

Well, they're done already!!   Just gotta let them cool for a spell while I write to you...

I went outside to check on my own blueberries...I found one to eat right off the bush:

And these are on a different bush, but not quite ripe yet.

We planted several blueberry bushes last spring, in hopes that this year we would have plenty of our own blueberries to eat. However, I apparently didn't fertilize them enough or give them enough water or something, because they haven't produced much.  

Thankfully, we have a very large blueberry farm here in our town and the berries are ripe right now, so I was able to go get some from them the other day to have enough for eating and baking, etc. I may go back and get some more today. There is nothing quite as good as fresh blueberries right from the bush!  And they are huge! And so sweet and juicy!

Here's all I have left of the 2 lbs. I bought last week:

I've been eating them with cantaloupe, on my yogurt and granola, and just at random. They are SO good. Yes, I must add that to the list of "things to do" today...

 (a little later)  And so we did make the trip about two miles south of town to the blueberry farm...

And we were met with a sign on the door that says they are now closed for the 2022 season, and they will see us next year!  What???? How did I miss that?  I thought they'd be going on longer than that!!  Well, "snooze, you lose", as they say.  I guess I missed the first part of the season and didn't realize it had already been going on for a while. Well, doggone it! Now we won't have anymore really FRESH blueberries to eat!!!! I'm rather bummed, can you tell?

Oh well, back to where I was when I started this post over three hours ago...

Speaking of "overdone".  Yesterday was a busy day, as I said. We started the morning out with me having to go the Dr. office to do labs.  That was uneventful enough, thankfully, and then we went out to breakfast at our local "greasy spoon", "Nana's".  It's one of those small local cafe's where you can get a good breakfast or lunch pretty inexpensively, and it's always good. It's not fancy by any means, but the service is good and the people are very accommodating.  I had a wonderful breakfast of one huge blueberry pancake (they actually used the fresh blueberries from that blueberry farm!), bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns!  (I didn't take any pictures! But it was sure good!) However, that filled me up so much that we didn't need any lunch and also I totally forgot about laying something out to cook for supper.  Well, hubby to rescue...he said he'd go pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. Sounded good to me. However, when we opened up that chicken, it was the most pathetic looking thing I'd ever seen! I'd say it was about the size of a small pigeon instead of a chicken. The legs were so puny and the wings were so skinny I doubt that chicken could have even run or flown to get away! But worse than that, it was so OVERCOOKED it was totally inedible.  We couldn't find enough edible meat on that carcass to even fill one sandwich if you wanted to, nor would you want to, it was so dry and overdone! I felt really bad because our son Scott came home from work pretty tired, hot, and hungry after working out in the heat all day, and he certainly deserved a good supper!  Thankfully, he's a very talented cook as well, and found some leftover ham in the fridge that was still good (but we were getting tired of eating ham), and made himself a wonderful quesadilla with that. I had baked some potatoes and made a salad, and hubby and I weren't really that hungry, so we just ate the baked potatoes and salad and we were happy. But you can bet I called the manager of that store and told him all about that pathetic overcooked scrawny chicken in as nice of terms as I could manage. He said to come in and get our money back or a new chicken anytime.  I said we'd take the money, thank you.  And so we did that today after our disappointing trip to the closed Blueberry Farm. No problem. Got our money back and hopefully someone had a chat with the deli people about how to properly cook a rotisserie chicken! IF I ever buy another one there, you can bet it will be inspected before it leaves the store!

Okay, let's end this rambling post up on a more pleasant note!

I've been trying to get some decent pictures of this pretty red male Cardinal for a while. He's so quick to get a seed and fly away that I rarely can grab my camera in time.

But today he cooperated a little longer than usual, but I still had to be quick!

He's much more vibrantly red in person...but I noticed something odd about him. He seems to be missing his longer tail feathers!  

There...he turned around and gave me a closer look! Sure enough, he's missing quite a few feathers, but he seems to fly just fine. I don't want to think about what might have happened to cause that problem...but he seems to have survived whatever it was and is managing life just fine without them!

Must be a lesson there for us somewhere...

Meanwhile, I've been enjoying the beautiful magnolia tree across the street from us. It is in full bloom right now, and the blossoms are so large and gorgeous!

I actually picked this one this morning and put it in a glass bowl of water, and within an hour or so this is how it looked:

I was enjoying it sitting on my kitchen counter, but soon realized that the exquisite fragrance of this blossom was a bit overpowering and was contributing to my headache (which is much better, BTW, praise God, but I don't want to put it to the test too much...) and so, the magnolia blossom was relegated to the back porch table, where I can see it without having to smell it...

Is anyone else fragrance sensitive like this? I can't be in the room with gardenias, Easter Lilies, or other strong flowers or else I will get a powerful headache...

However, that was not the source of my headache that I've been having. We moved the pot of Easter Lilies to the back porch as soon as it started having more than one blossom at a time on it.

I am very thankful to be feeling much better and give thanks to God for His guidance and healing touch.

The issue is not totally gone, but it's manageable, and I am indeed most grateful.

Well friends, I guess I should wind this up. It's now lunch time.

What treasures did I share today for my Wednesday Treasures?

Well, treasures aren't always "things" we have in our china cupboards or other material items.

They are the delights we find in God's creation...the birds, the flowers, the berries...the little lessons we learn from nature about adapting to difficult situations and still flying high...

Even when things don't go as planned or hoped, we learn to "make lemonade" out of lemons and carry on. 

John 10:10

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Yes, there are always those out there who want to steal our joy or cause disappointments or even try to "clip our wings" so we can't fly high, but Jesus reminds us that He came to give us life, and to have it more abundantly.  Regardless of our frustrations, disappointments, and even our "injuries" in life, through Christ we have hope, peace, and yes, even joy in the abundant life that He gives us when we put our trust in Him. That's the treasure I have that I want to share with you today.

Amen.