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.