Wednesday Treasures

 Yesterday (Tuesday), was a great day! Why? Well because one of our fellow blogging friends, Barbara from My Journal Memories, and her hubby Gary, came to our little town to meet us for lunch at our local diner, Nanna's Country Cafe'.  Of course, this is always a joy and a blessing when two bloggers get to spend time together in person.  This is not our first in-person meeting.  We go back several years and have met in our respective homes in times past as well. It's nice when we only live about an hour apart, and we are all retired, so that makes for good opportunities for happy meetings.

However, this time we just met for lunch as they had other things of special importance on their agenda for the day,  but I will let Barbara tell you about that in her blog post!

Our hubbies also enjoyed visiting with one another, and had an interesting, pretty much non-stop conversation throughout our time of dining.  That was fine with Barbara and me, as we had our own conversation going, talking about things that two bloggers of similar interests would be able to talk about! Barbara and I both agreed that just about anything we do or see makes for good "blog fodder", (Barb's words) so we rarely run out of things to write about.

I thought this was a fun photo below...I am taking a picture of the guys over Barbara's head as she is taking their picture at the same time! LOL.

Barbara and Gary are a very handsome and happy couple, as you can tell by this photo below...

This photo is a little more sedate, but both pictures were so good, I just had to include each one...

And last, but not least, here is yours truly and my hubby...we were enjoying a beautiful breezy day with our friends.  

I am very thankful to know Barb both here in Blogland and in person. She is a very genuine, kind, and loving person, who has come through some difficult circumstances over the past several years, but God has brought her to a wonderfully blessed new place in life.  These verses come to mind when I think of Barbara...

Psalm 30:5 "...Weeping may endure for a night,

But joy comes in the morning."

Isaiah 61:3

"3...To give them beauty for ashes,

The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

That they may be called trees of righteousness,

The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Oh, and btw, Barb is so very thoughtful...she even brought us a little "hostess gift", even though we weren't even meeting at our house...and this little gift was kind of one of those "God-things" that happen when you least expect them.  

Those packets are mixtures to use to make dips. Well, just the other day at our church ladies' Bible Study we were talking about a special "May Fellowship" dinner that we have coming up, where our church ladies put on a luncheon and program and invite ladies from other churches to come as our guests. The lady in charge of the menu was saying that we needed some "dips" for chips and vegies, etc., because we do things like meat and cheese platters and fruit, veggies, desserts, etc.   I was thinking that I really wasn't all that good about making dips, so I would just do a dessert. And then I get this gift of three different kinds of dip mixes, and I told Barbara, "well now I guess I could do dips for our luncheon after all!"  They are unique mixtures and would be something different,  I just thought that was really amazing how God put that together! Thank you, Barb and Gary, for being so thoughtful.

Speaking of "blog fodder", today hubby and I went to our local Blueberry Farm so I could stock up on some fresh blueberries, both to eat now and to freeze for later...

No, I did not pick my own blueberries. They also have some already picked available, at a higher price per pound of course, but today was almost 90 degrees and I was not about to go pick my own, so here's what I got:

Don't they look delicious?  (they are! I ate quite a few before I put them away...just couldn't help myself! LOL)

They also have strawberries, but they are all "pick your own", none picked ahead for us, so I passed on that. I could have bought some strawberry plants, (see picture below of plants that are for sale),  but with my record of growing things (or killing plants), I figured I'd better pass on that idea too.

This climbing rose bush was gorgeous...wish I could've brought that home with me, but it wasn't for sale! LOL.  

And speaking of unexpected gifts.  One of the ladies in our church got quite ambitious and canned a lot of vegetables that she bought at the farmer's market.  She brought some jars of carrots with her to choir practice last night and told us to take some home, and so here is a beautiful jar of freshly canned carrots! Aren't they gorgeous?  She had her grandchildren help her peel and chop them so they could learn how to do this. I think that is wonderful! And I LOVE carrots!

One more Wednesday Treasure (which is what all of the above things are, btw).  Here is another of my Amaryllis flowers blooming! You can see a little hole in the flower where one of those nasty Lubber Grasshoppers was having his lunch the other day...but the flower persevered and continued to develop and blossom and is still beautiful just the same. 

Aren't we all a little bit like that flower?  We have all been through things in life that have punched holes in our dreams and maybe even our external beauty,  But sometimes it is those very trials and difficulties in life that help to create a woman of strength and true inner beauty. That is the real beauty that lasts forever.

Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing,

But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Proverbs 31:30

And with those thoughts I will close for tonight.  I hope you enjoyed these special "treasures" today.  Good Night my friends.