Thursday Thankfulness and More

 Happy first day of Summer!  Not sure how I really feel about that...summer is not one of my favorite seasons since we live here in the "Sunshine State", and summer is HOT, HOT, and MORE HOT! And HUMID too!  But if I can list at least one thing I am very thankful for, it would be our central air conditioning...and also the fact that since we replaced our old AC unit last June, we have noticed that our electricity consumption so far in these past few warmer months has been considerably less, and our electric bill has literally been cut in half from what it was during the same period of time last year!! Now that is a blessing I can really be thankful for! It also goes to show you how much electricity the older less efficient appliances really use, and when at all possible, it is worth the expense of replacing them with newer models.  

It sure beats having to fan ourselves with hand fans and other kinds of fans...Like I wrote about HERE a few years ago when our AC broke down.  However, we were thankful then and would be thankful now to have those fans if we needed them again.  

That hand made fan above belonged to my husband's grandmother, and I expect it is quite old, but it still works!  And those coasters that say "Life is BETTER on the porch!" would be true, if it wasn't 90 degrees outside! LOL. Our porch sitting season is actually in the fall, some of winter, and spring. But definitely not summer!

Because it has been so hot, we haven't been outside much. We did take an early walk this morning before it got too hot, and yesterday we went to Walmart and walked around the store doing our shopping for a while, so that was our exercise for that day! 

This week has been rather quiet compared to most weeks lately. Tomorrow we do have to travel all the way to St. Augustine for hubby's eye appointment with the Ophthalmologist. They are still trying to determine if he needs to have his cataracts removed yet, or if they need to treat another eye condition first that could be more serious than the cataracts. Hopefully we will get some answers tomorrow. Praying for clarity. (Hey! That's a good word to use in this situation! LOL).

Speaking of hubby, this past Sunday was Father's Day.  I've already posted these photos on Facebook, but not here.  

Here he is with his gifts from the kids...new lights for the yard. He LOVES these lights.  He has them all around the yard, and he loves to go outside at night and look at them. So they couldn't have given him a better gift!

2 Corinthians 4:6 NKJV

6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Our family gathered for lunch after church...Scott, Benton, Rose, John and yours truly. We had a Chinese Stir Fry dinner...partly cooked by me, and partly picked up at the local Chinese take out place. They provided the egg rolls, rice, and crab rangoons and fortune cookies. I cooked a chicken and vegetable stir fry, which was very good. We had that peach cobbler that I baked the night before for dessert.

Here's "Daddy" and his boys...well two of them. We always miss our dear son Matthew on these special days (and every day).

Here is a favorite very old picture of Daddy and his three sons, taken during the Bible Story reading time at bedtime each night.  This is a priceless and precious picture  to me. As you can see, Scotty was just a baby, and Benton and Matthew were in Kindergarten and Pre-school. Those were such sweet times. 

(Sorry for the reflections on the glass...I didn't want to take it out of the frame)

Proverbs 22:6 KJV

 "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, 

he will not depart from it."

I am very thankful that our sons have a Daddy who loves them and who took the time to teach them about Jesus from a very young age. They were given a strong foundation on which to grow and develop and build their lives. Were they always perfect? No, they were normal little boys and teens and young men who tested the waters and sometimes made wrong choices in life, but when all is said and done, they have a faith that still sustains them in their adult years, and also that carried our son Matthew into heaven when he was 41 years old.  I am so thankful that he knew and believed what Jesus said:

"6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."  John 14:6 KJV

I have no doubt that we will see Matthew again one day in heaven.

I guess I will sign off for tonight with those thoughts.  I don't have any new photos yet for "Friday Foto Friends", so we shall see what develops tomorrow. We have to take that ride over to St. Augustine for the eye appointment, but there won't be any time for doing anything extra as hubby will probably have his eyes dilated and we will want to come straight home after the appointment. The sun will be too bright for him to do any sightseeing! (And I will probably be driving home, so no chance for me to take pictures along the way!)

So, good night for now! I'll catch up with you later!

Happy First Day of Summer!

This was the end of the school year class picnic in 6th grade. I'm the crazy one on the left with the bubblegum cigar in my mouth and the feather in my hat. The other sweet girl is one of my best school buddies, Mary. We were both redheads, and when we got together, anything could happen.  "Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end..."   Mary and I do still stay in touch via Facebook, but she lives in another state and it's been way too many years since we actually got to be together. Maybe one of these days we can make it happen. I hope so. We aren't getting any younger.

Tuesday 4 ~Wildlife

 

Wild Life

Tuesday 4 is here once again.

(Per our hostess Annie:) I was thinking about wild life that is all around us. Summer brings us out of the house and we spend more time outdoors, weather permitting, and have an opportunity to see animals and birds that live around us.

1. Do you see many animals where you live? Is your answer a good or bad thing?

Well, people who follow my blog know that I have a lot of "wild-life" around where we live. Mostly birds and squirrels. But the variety of birds especially keeps us entertained all the time. It's not quite like it was when we lived in the Ocala National Forest (at our last house, which is just 30 miles from here), where we saw bears and deer on a regular basis, with a few coyote, raccoons and possums thrown in for extra fun, but we are thankful for what we do have here.  Here is a link to a post from our old house in the woods, with LOTS of wildlife!  I do kind of miss all of the excitement, but I guess we are better off without so much wild activity around us.  If you go back into my post archives, most anything between 2012 and 2019 will have some wildlife somewhere in there!

2. What kind of animals and birds are around your area?

Sand Hill Cranes, Hawks, Great Blue Heron, Bluebirds, Cardinals, woodpeckers, Wrens, to name a few of the birds.  Animals: we do have squirrels, possums and armadillos

Armadillo in our yard.

occasionally in our yard, along with neighborhood cats and sometimes a stray dog. Oh, and turtles. Gopher Tortoises are in the area, but thankfully not in our yard as they make a lot of tunnels. (and they are endangered and protected).

And there are deer in the woods, we just don't get to see them very often except occasionally where we take our walks one might venture out and cross our path if we are fortunate enough to see it. 

We did actually see a coyote run through the woods one evening when we were walking. That has made us much more cautious about when we go walking. 

Red Shouldered Hawk (juvenile)

One of our Sand Hill Crane Colts

Bluebirds having a chat at the birdbath

Canada Geese

Mama Sand Hill Crane and one of the colts earlier this spring

Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Male)

Great Blue Heron on Still Waters Pond

Turtles on the pond

3. What kind of animals and birds could you do without and what kind would you love to see more often?

Stray dogs...this area is ripe with stray dogs and cats. Fortunately they aren't right here in our neighborhood (the dogs), but you have to be very careful where you walk as they sometimes form packs out in the more wooded areas and have become not just a nuisance, but dangerous.  Our animal control system is not able to keep up with it. It is very sad that many of these dogs and cats come from thoughtless and careless people who dump off their unwanted litters of dogs and cats in the woods, and then they continue to breed and the problem is multiplied.  Sadly we had to bury a stray cat recently, who apparently just got sick and died on the edge of our lawn and pond. There was no sign of injury. It was like she just laid down and died. It was very sad.  We gave her a nice little burial and I even said a little prayer.  It made me very sad, but she was a stray and our neighbor, who feeds some of the strays in the area said she had never seen this one before.  So it could be someone dumped her off in the woods and left her to die. That makes me so angry.

4. Do you feed wild birds or animals ?

Yes, we feed the small wild birds that come to our bird feeder. We don't feed any animals or the bigger birds like the Cranes or Canada Geese. If you start to feed them, they will expect it every time they see you, and it really isn't good for them to be fed by humans, and it is actually against the law to feed them.  Our neighbor, as I mentioned above, does feed some stray cats in the neighborhood, but I noticed one came into our yard today and I am afraid she might be pregnant. I don't know much about cats, but she looks kind of fat in the belly, so time will tell.  I hope not, because that will mean more stray cats to run wild. At least she isn't really feral, and maybe the kittens can be taken to the humane shelter. Time will tell. I hope I'm wrong...

HERE is a link to a post I wrote about that same neighborhood cat last fall.  At least I think it's the same cat...and maybe it's really just a chubby "he", and not a "she". As I said, time will tell. 

Well, that's it for my "wild life" here these days.  Now let's go see what other people are enjoying in their neck of the woods!  Here's the link!

Saturday Wanderings...Some of Us need Rain, and Some Don't!

 Happy Saturday Morning everyone! (it was morning when I started writing this post, but it's been a long day! LOL)  No, we are not "wandering" all over the state of Florida, but I wanted to share this map to give some perspective on where we live as opposed to where all the flooding is going on in our state.  Many people have expressed their concern for us and those living in Florida this week, and we do appreciate it greatly.  However, where I live, we have not had any rain except for one nice rain shower early one morning this week, but that was it. Other than that it has been dry as a bone and there are even brush fires in the area because it has been so dry!

You may wonder how that can be when you've seen all the horrible flooding going on in our state this week.  Well, that's because all of the rain has been mostly in the southern third of the state, mostly south of the Tampa area.  We live in the north central portion of the state, east of Gainesville.  (see my circled area below on the map).

The state of Florida is very long, 447 miles from top to bottom. HERE is a link to the Wikipedia page on Florida for all the details.

We do pray for any of our friends who live in the flooded areas or who have loved ones there. And although we certainly do need the rain in our part of the state, we are thankful not to have it in such an overabundance.  However, the risk of fire is real, and so we pray for at least enough rain to stem the tide of drought that is creeping up on us.

I started writing this post this morning, and then got busy with other things and am just now getting back to it at 6:00 p.m.  Our blogging friend Linda at Just Linda, lives about an hour south of us. She wrote on her Facebook page a few minutes ago that they were finally getting some rain. I asked her to please send some up to us.  And within a 1/2 hour it started to rain here!  Not very heavy, but at least it is trying!  Thank you, Linda! LOL.  And thank You, God, for hearing our prayers!

Still Waters Pond, you can see how dry it is getting.

Rain clouds rolling in!  Praise the Lord for even a little bit!

A few minutes later it was coming down in earnest! Yay! Praise the Lord!

We truly are thankful for the rain!

So what did we do today? Well this morning before it got too hot we took a little ride back down to the boat ramp at Kenwood.  Here's a few pictures from this morning:

The Pickerel Weed seems to be in full bloom in the water now.

Isn't it pretty?

That bumblebee was checking out every flower. Sorry it's blurry, but he was in a hurry!

The Yellow Water Lilies were also popping up everywhere.

All shades of green reflecting in the water...so cool and pretty on this warm humid day...

And these are hatched turtle eggs!  These freshwater turtle eggs were buried in the dirt probably about two months ago, and now they are hatching and the baby turtles head for the water...

There were a lot of these all over the shore along the water canal. I wish I could've seen the baby turtles!

Oh, here comes a boat back into the boat ramp. He was coming quite fast...I'm glad he was able to slow down and stop in time!

I love this big old Live Oak tree. I posted this on my Facebook page today with this verse...

Psalm 46:10 NKJV

10 Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth!

So after that we headed back home for the rest of the day.  I had bought some fresh peaches at the grocery store yesterday and decided to make a peach cobbler to have for tomorrow after Sunday dinner. The kids are all coming over after church so we can be together for Father's Day.

However, hubby said he wanted sample it tonight, and so we did. It is very good! And there's still plenty left for tomorrow. LOL.

HERE's a link to a previous post about Father's Day.  Maybe I should wait and repost that tomorrow, but in case I get too busy and forget, here it is tonight.

Praying that tomorrow is a blessed day for you and yours and all the wonderful fathers out there.

,

Wednesday Treasures from Still Waters Pond and Beyond

Happy Wednesday! I know, the day is almost over, but it's been a busy day and I am just now sitting down at my computer to read and write and try to get caught up with "stuff".   This may be a montage of various pictures from the past few days because I don't have a lot of "content" to talk about.  

It's been too hot to take very many walks lately, and the promised rain storms we were supposed to get here this week have not yet materialized in our neck of the woods.   Tonight it was a couple of degrees cooler (actually, quite a bit...84 now as opposed to the 99 we had earlier in the week), so we took a walk and went past the "Century/Agave Plant" that I've told you about over the past month. 

 I last told you about the Century Plant HERE.  Well, that picture above is how it looks now! It finally "gave up the ghost" and laid down to die.  It had a good life and brought some smiles to many people as I've posted pictures of it over the past few weeks here and on Facebook.  But like Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 

"To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

2 A time o be born,

And a time to die;"

And so I guess this plant finally reached the end of its season.  I hope that when it is my time to lay down and die it can be said that I brought some smiles to many people along the way. That, along with sharing the love of Jesus with others is a worthy goal and purpose in life.   Oh, before I forget, I wanted to share this song with you that our choir sang this past Sunday morning:

You may recognize the song as familiar verses from the Bible, John 3:16-17

John 3:16-17 KJV

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

If I don't share anything else with you ever again, this is the most important message that could ever be shared.

I guess I could just close this post with that, but I did have some other pictures I wanted to share with you, so here we go:

I watched this interesting scene the other evening out in our yard beside Still Waters Pond.  If you look carefully at the tree, you will see at first one bluebird sitting on a branch, and up in the branches above you will also see a Red Shouldered Hawk, and they are both watching each other very carefully.

Here's a close up of Mr. Hawk:

Pretty soon Mrs. Bluebird joins Mr. Bluebird on that branch, and Mr. Hawk continues to watch them, but they don't seem overly concerned.

This little standoff continued for quite a while until finally Mr. Hawk decided he'd better go look for his supper elsewhere and away he flew.

A little later I captured this picture of Mrs. Bluebird in her house, sitting on her nest. She is looking out the window and her mouth is open as if she is either gasping for air because it is so hot in there, or she's calling for Mr. Bluebird to bring her some supper.  Either way, it's quite a picture!

This is where she is sitting. That is Still Waters Pond in the background, but it might as well be called "No Waters Pond" right now, as it is getting so dry you could just about walk across it, but I wouldn't recommend it. The bottom of that pond is pure muck, and you would sink up to your knees very quickly...yeah...it's yucky! I know, I've tried it before!  That's why we need that rain so much! It will fill back up once the summer rains start, but until then it is pretty dry!

In between all the other excitement of the hawk and the bluebirds, Mr. Ruby Throated Hummingbird has been coming and going to the bird feeder, minding his own business and enjoying a cool drink of sugar water...

Hi there folks!  Nice to see you again!!

Speaking of the Red Shouldered Hawk again, I told you recently HERE about how unhappy the Hawk has been about having so many trees removed from the lot next door to us.  Well, I took a walk over to that lot the other evening and I was surprised suddenly by a rush of activity and some very loud screeches coming out from among some trees.  I was shocked to see not just one, but THREE hawks fly up into the tree above me, and they were all quite upset with me for being in their territory!  I managed to take a few pictures...I believe the two that you see in this tree are actually juvenile hawks, so apparently there WAS a nest in the area and no wonder Mrs. Hawk had been so distressed!

These two stood there squawking at me for some time, while Mama Hawk apparently went back to hunt for some supper for these noisy kids.

I was getting nervous about the way they kept looking at me, like I might become their dinner if I didn't watch out! LOL.

Very soon Mama flew to this branch and they joined her there, so I am thinking she actually brought them some supper:

Mama left them again, and they continued to keep a "hawk eye" on me, so I decided to start heading back to home:

Besides, it was starting to get dark, and this was the last view I had of one of the hawks watching me go:

However, when I got back to our back yard I was able to see Mr. Bluebird one more time, standing guard over their house as the sun was finally setting behind me.

And with that, I think I will let the sun set on this post and put it to bed for the night.

Psalm 113:3 NKJV

"From the rising of the sun to its going down

The Lord’s name is to be praised."

Amen.