Nature Calling: Birds, Butterflies and Blooms

 Happy Labor Day everyone!  How are you spending your day?  We decided to get outside and enjoy some nature on this last official holiday of summer.  We took a ride down to the Kenwood Boat Ramp  and Recreation Park,  and I was not disappointed in the variety of natural beauties awaiting to be photographed.  

September is known for being a busy butterfly month! It seems that all the summer cocoons have burst open and there are butterflies everywhere, tasting the last blooms of summer!  This Gulf Fritillary (actually there were several of them) were enjoying these pretty little yellow flowers along the shore of the boat ramp...

Along the other side of the boat ramp canal was this beautiful Little Blue Heron, searching for some breakfast:

Soon this American White Ibis flew in to join him.

I love seeing their mirror images in the water:

Hello!

Soon they both flew away to bigger places to do their fishing away from prying eyes and cameras.

So I wandered around for a minute through the trees and saw this huge white mushroom/toadstool...

It had to stand about 8" tall and the top was as least 5 inches across.

That was pretty amazing!

Nearby was this other very dark mushroom:

I looked it up online, and found out it is called Old Man of the Woods,  and that link will tell you more about it. They say it is edible, but I am not one to experiment with wild mushrooms found in the woods. I'll leave that to the experts!

Since it is September I am starting my watching for signs of Autumn/Fall...and here is the first sign...this leaf of the American Sweet Gum tree.  

Here in Florida we don't get a lot of pretty colored fall leaves, so we grab at any opportunity to see something that resembles and Autumn leaf! LOL.  

Back at home in my own yard my Bottlebrush Bush has been blooming profusely since we've been having some good rain.  And the butterflies LOVE IT!  

There's another Gulf Fritillary enjoying the blossoms:

Can you see him?

This bush has been quite attractive to the Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly, and there have been several on it at the same time, flitting from blossom to blossom...

I tried to get a video of them on the bush, but this one flew away as soon as I got too close, however, if you look closely you will see a bee or two on there as well.

Then I was happy to see that my new batch of zinnias are finally blooming, but there are really small blossoms. Probably because I didn't fertilize them.  

Sorry these may be a little blurry. I couldn't get them to stay still because it was kind of breezy out there...

Oh, there's a bonus picture of Big Foot  here: 

LOL.

And this pretty little Marigold wanted to smile for the picture as well:

So that's how I've spent today so far. How about you?  Tomorrow's Tuesday 4 will have more questions about that, so be sure to tune in.

Jesus reminds us to come to Him when we are tired and heavy laden with work and concerns, and He will give us rest.  It's good to take a day to just enjoy God's Creation all around us and rest in knowing that God is with us and He is always there to help us carry our burdens....

Matthew 11:28-30  NKJV

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, 

and I will give you rest. 

29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

I hope you've enjoyed this little respite from your labors!

Sunday Afternoon Blessings

 

Happy Sunday!  Today has been such a lovely day, and I just wanted to share some of the joy with you!

I always feel blessed when we've been to church and were able to sing God's praises! I'm excited also that we will be starting back to choir practice this week and so the choir will be singing in the worship services again!  Although we've had some wonderful special music this summer in place of the choir, there's just something really special about singing praises to the Lord together in harmony, and I have really missed it!

In addition to that, I am really really excited because I have sighted the first actual water on Still Waters Pond once again, finally, after a very long drought! We haven't seen water on the pond since last winter...it's been a whole year, so even though this isn't a lot of water here yet, it's progress and I am so happy and excited to finally see it happening!!! Praise God!!

Isaiah 43:18-20 NIV

18 “Forget the former things;

do not dwell on the past.

19 See, I am doing a new thing!

Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland.

20 The wild animals honor me,

the jackals and the owls,

because I provide water in the wilderness

and streams in the wasteland,

to give drink to my people, my chosen,

Isaiah 41:18 NIV

18 I will make rivers flow on barren heights,

and springs within the valleys.

I will turn the desert into pools of water,

and the parched ground into springs.

I was so excited I literally walked across the spongy part of the pond that is still very dry to get close enough to where I could see the water so I could take those pictures above.  Looking back toward the shore you can see how far away I was from our house...

Yes, there is still a lot of dry ground, but where you see the green bushes growing, there is some water underneath...not very deep yet, but it's progress!!

The skies were really beautiful this afternoon...

I took these photos while standing near the island that is on the pond. The island is still mostly surrounded by dry land, but little by little the water is creeping up around it and this gives me such hope that perhaps by winter time there will be enough water for our Sand Hill Cranes to nest here again. They had to forego their nesting this past winter because there was no water and they were too vulnerable to predators, but hopefully with enough rain between now and then they will be able to find a suitable spot to build their nest.

Those posts that you see are usually half way under water.  

This is what the ground looks like that I walked across. This is very dry and spongy. Once the water starts filling it back up, the water lily roots that are buried in this dry muck will sprout back up and be beautiful once again.

Speaking of beautiful skies, this was the picture at sunrise today:

And THIS was the sky about an hour ago, after we had received a Severe Thunderstorm Warning...

You can see that something big was brewing out there in the skies...

And here it was just a few minutes later...the storm was moving in and heading in our direction...

It looked pretty awesome and somewhat concerning for a few minutes...

The wind started blowing  and leaves were swirling and we braced ourselves for a big storm, and then we got another notice that the storm had died down and wasn't as severe as expected.  I am still waiting for the rain to hit us, but it appears it has gone a different direction.

I just stepped out on the front porch, and this is how the skies look right now...

It still looks rather stormy to me, but apparently it is moving away and we didn't get but a little sprinkle of rain.  Oh well!  I still rejoice that little by little Still Waters Pond is showing signs of filling once again, and I will just keep believing!!

The other nice blessing today was that our kids came over for lunch after church, and we had such a nice meal together. I roasted a Pork Tenderloin  and made some scalloped potatoes, and Rose brought the delicious mixed vegetables.  That's all we had, and it was plenty and SO good!  Sadly Scott didn't come down today, so it was just the four of us, with the grandpups, of course, and we had a really nice afternoon.

We spent some time discussing some possibilities and ideas for our future, which is really just that right now...a discussion...but also some things for us to truly think and pray about as we aren't getting any younger and we want to have a "Plan B" in our minds for consideration should the need arise to make any kind of changes as we age.  There's nothing concrete or definite or even more than a discussion, but it has given us some "food for thought" and some things to pray about and consider in God's timing.

I saw this on Facebook this week, and of course I saved it because it goes along with the title of my blog perfectly. And it also goes along with our line of thought as we look to the future.  But God knows how difficult it is for me to sometimes "let go of the doorknob".  We often place our security in the things we have and the places we live and the people we have in our lives...and there comes a time in every person's life sooner or later that they have to make some tough decisions and be willing to "let go of the doorknob" and let God take control.  I especially love the verse attached to this: 

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans." Proverbs 16:3

Yes, that's always the best plan...whatever it is we want to do or think we should do, we need to commit our thoughts and plans to the Lord, and HE will take care of the rest.  

And so on that thought I will close this post and do exactly what this message is recommending.  There's no need to worry or fret about the future...just give it to God..."let go of the doorknob", and He will direct our steps in accordance with HIS sovereign will for us.  There is NO better place than that to be!  

Amen, and good night!