A Beautiful Saturday Afternoon in November

It was such a beautiful November afternoon, with a high of 75 and no real humidity or clouds, and so I wanted to go outside and sit in my "secret garden" on the swing.  However when I stepped outside I saw that I had visitors in the yard:

Earlier I had cleaned out that bird feeder and put fresh bird seed in, and quite a bit was spilled on the ground in the process...and guess who discovered it?  Yep, the Sand Hill Crane family must have a eagle eye or sixth sense when it comes to free birdseed on the ground!

And so, since they were so busily chomping on the seeds, they hardly even noticed me up on the porch above them.

However, when I came down on the ground and started to head that direction. the Daddy Crane stood guard and I wasn't quite brave enough to try and go around him to get to my swing...

I mean, they probably would have moved away, but I didn't want to disturb their feast either...

So I changed my plans and went the opposite direction, over to my little path in the woods down to Still Waters Pond.

This is my little "secret hiding place" when I want to see what birds are in the water on that end of the pond. That is where I would watch the Canada Geese nesting on the island last winter.  I wonder if they will come back again? We haven't seen much of them lately.

It's also where I can see the back side of the new house next door

It's still available and waiting for new owners...so I still ask, "won't you be my neighbor?"

This would be part of your view if you lived there...

That's the goose island where they built their nest...

It's a very lovely, peaceful little cove...

I found some more holly trees blooming...

There are lots of holly berries in these woods and even over on the island...great natural food for the birds when they migrate through...

Back on the porch I noticed that my Christmas Cactus is starting to get buds!  Yay! I can't wait to see it bloom again!

On another note, the other day I was putting away this 2022 John Sloane Country Seasons Calendar. I had it out because I was using another picture from it for Lily Grace's "school days" pictures that I took a couple of months ago. (You can read that post HERE if you missed it!)

I turned to the November calendar for that year, and this was the picture:

I was affected by this picture in 2022 just like I was today. You can read more about that HERE

You see, it reminded me of when I was a little girl on the farm, and my mother and I used to take a walk on our "lane" down to the mailbox every day to get the mail. Our dog Laddie would walk with us. Here is a picture of our family on the farm, and Laddie is there in the middle. The "lane" we walked is behind us.  I am the "baby" in the family.  I was never that big (as in the picture above) when we lived on the farm, as we left when I was 5 going on 6. But my memories are very special about that daily walk with my mother and our dog.

And I wished I could go back there and walk with her again like we did when I was a child, but my mother has been in heaven for 18 years, my daddy for 13 years, my oldest brother Russell since 2019. Only my sister Doris and my brother Clifford and I are still living.

So I did the next best thing I could do here today...I "re-created" our walk with my little friend Lily Grace and her dog Bailey, and another doll that could stand in for my mother. Actually, I just realized that this doll's name is "Dorothy", and my mother's name is Dorothea. This particular doll is a part of my "Martin Sisters" family, which includes my husband's mother Vivian, and her three sisters, Nellie, Dorothy, and Daisy.

How'd we do? I didn't have hats, and I forgot about an apron, but you get the picture!

They are enjoying their walk on this beautiful Autumn/November day!

Oh hello!

That was fun. I hope you enjoyed it too.

Last night our real "kids" came over and brought us a real treat!  Homemade Pizza!  Rose made the pizza dough in my bread maker machine that I let her "borrow" for a while...I may just give it to her since she keeps making such good stuff in it and then shares it with us! LOL.

She brought all of the toppings and we each made our own pizzas with what we like on it.

They like an alfredo/garlic sauce on their pizza...

And we like a marinara sauce on ours...

They both turned out delicious!! And it was so much fun to do this together!

And then we celebrated their 7th anniversary, which was on November 11th.  We are so thankful to have this precious couple living near us.  They are such a joy and blessing to us!

After supper we went out to see the beautiful full moon!  And then we played a game of dominoes (instead of having "Dominos" Pizza! LOL) and later had some delicious peach dump cake that I made. (You can click on that link for the recipe from when I made it once before). I noticed that I didn't mention the cinnamon on top in that recipe.  I did sprinkle cinnamon on the top before baking,  and it added a nice flavor.

The view of the moon from our front porch.

Today we received a huge "care package" from our Medicare Advantage Plan OTC allowance.  I didn't realize that we each had a rather large amount of money that we could have been spending on OTC products throughout the year, and it needed to be used up before December. So I got busy and ordered for both of us all kinds of goodies, like bandaids, rubber gloves, all kinds of OTC medicines, a new bathroom scale for hubby, and a lumbar pillow for me to use at my desk (comfy, using it now). And I also ordered these arthritis compression gloves for me. I have been suffering with a trigger finger,  and I heard these might help. So I am trying them, but I can't type very well with them, so I took them back off. I will sleep in them tonight, because that is when the trigger finger gets "stuck in place". We shall see if it helps. 

While I was sitting here typing this, I looked out the window and noticed that the skies were turning purple. So I hurried out to see if I could get any good pictures of the sunset before it dropped down below the trees too far.

This is what I got, and it's pretty beautiful! I've heard of "Red skies at night, sailor's delight, and red skies at morning, sailors take warning", but what about purple skies?  What does that mean?

Purple skies at night, sailors take flight? LOL.   I don't know, but I think they were beautiful, and I'm so glad I saw them in time to share with you.

To close out our day with some positive thoughts from God's Word, I came upon these familiar and beloved verses:

Isaiah 54:10

Though the mountains be shaken

and the hills be removed,

yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

nor my covenant of peace be removed,”

says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Psalm 84:5-7 NIV

"5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

6 As they pass through the Valley of Baka,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

7 They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion."

Our choir sang a song last Sunday entitled "God's Covenant of Peace", based on those verses.

You can listen to it in the video above. This was recorded at our rehearsal, which may sound a little bit "shaky", but I know the Lord was with us as we sang it on Sunday morning, and it was truly a blessing. I hope you will enjoy it as well.

Have a blessed and peaceful evening and Happy SONday tomorrow!