Friday Foto Friends and "Photo-a-Day" Challenge

 Well, one thing's for certain, you can expect a LOT of photos on this post. I never was very good at posting just ONE photo ever! LOL.  Happy Friday everyone! While I am writing this I hear thunder rumbling outside, and we are supposed to get some much needed rain any minute now. To answer some questions, no, our pond is still not filled up, nor does it even look like it's trying to be. It is like a giant sponge that keeps soaking in whatever rain we get, but there just hasn't been enough yet to make any difference.  Hopefully with these afternoon thunderstorms we've been getting, one of these days I will see a puddle on top of the "sponge". I will be sure to let you know when that happens! 

Here's how it looks right now:   It just started to rain!

Here's basically that same view, taken in February of 2025:

What a difference!  Now you see why we need a lot more rain!

It's raining outside pretty good now (but it's too dark to take a picture), so if it keeps raining like this for many more days, we may get back to that beautiful pond once again. Praying it doesn't take a hurricane to do it, however.  We can live without those!

Life does continue on out there along the "shore" of Still Waters Pond anyway.  Here's Mrs. Bluebird, sticking her head out of the birdhouse, and Mr. Chickadee is on top of the house saying hello:

Mr. Bluebird is up above, keeping an eye on things, and making sure Mr. Chickadee doesn't  try to move in on his territory!

Apparently Mrs. Bluebird is still taking care of babies in there. I thought they were farther along than that, but either she's still sitting on the nest, or she's feeding babies. Time will tell.

Mr. Hummingbird says he doesn't care what they do, just please keep my bird feeder cleaned and filled with fresh sugar water so it doesn't ferment in this high heat.  I try to change it about every 2-3 days. The hummingbirds have been quite active this summer in spite of the heat.

This morning we took a ride down to the Kenwood Boat Ramp and came upon this family of wild turkeys out for a morning stroll:

They were doing the "Turkey Trot" across the road in front of us:

You just never know what kind of slow moving traffic you will run into around here!  LOL.  

 

So now we come to the Photo-a-Day Challenge for July, and today is July 17th, which means I have to look for something that is "on the shelf".  Well, if you came to my house, you would see that I have way too many shelves to look at, so I tried to narrow it down to just some here in my "RoomWith A View"

I'll start with this bookshelf (which is something my son Benton built for me quite a few years ago).

This sits beside my desk, and I keep a lot of different kinds of things on it...a lot of special books about tea, devotional books, Bible Study books, a few cookbooks, and other various gift type books that I've been given over the years.  The top shelf has some special treasures that remind me of my "boys", but I won't go into all of that today.  The photograph hanging above the shelf is of "My Three Sons", taken way back when our boys were still just "our boys", before they all went their separate ways in life. It's pretty special to me.

This shelf has some special gifts from my sister Doris...she gave me that sweet teapot with the little bird on top of the lid, and the little book that says "Sisters!", and the other things in the background...

This little framed picture that says "Sisters Are Forever!, and one is a redhead and the other a brunette, which would be just the way we were when we were younger.

And also this greeting card, that has a story.  You see, my sister liked this card so much, she gave me the same identical card three years in a row (not realizing she'd already given me the same one the year before).  I still have two of them, but the third one I sent back to her to see if she would recognize it! LOL.  We both agreed that Hallmark needed to change up their cards each year so that wouldn't keep happening to us! LOL.

I am very thankful for my dear sister.  Yes, we do "belong to each other", and yes, we are Sisters Forever!

Further down on another shelf on this bookcase is this little "teapot for one" with the attached tea cup. This was a special gift from a dear friend of mine named Sharon, who gave this to me just prior to her moving away to go back home to be near family in Minnesota as she lived out her last days after a valiant battle with cancer. There is the last sweet note she wrote to me before going away enclosed in the teapot.  I keep it there to remember this precious friend and what a courageous woman she was.

This verse from 2 Corinthians 12:9 would be representative of the way she lived even until God called her home. Her faith in God never wavered, even though it meant leaving behind a young son who had just graduated high school, whom she had adopted when he was about two years old. He also moved back to Minnesota, and we keep in touch with him. He has a good job and a year ago he became a father to a precious little girl. Little "Ellie" is adorable and I pray for her and keep up with her via Facebook. I know my friend Sharon would be so proud of her son and this precious little granddaughter that she can only see from heaven's windows.  But I can assure you, if our loved ones who have gone on before can have any positive influence in the lives of their dear ones still on earth, Sharon is definitely keeping a close watch over little Ellie and cheering her on as she grows up and hopefully learns how much Jesus loves her.  I don't know if that's possible or not, but I can't help but think that Sharon is well aware of this dear little girl.

Across the room is another set of shelves, another cabinet built by our son Benton! (Yes, I've been blessed!)

Yes, there's a LOT of stuff on those shelves, but I am just going to zero in on another special item from another special friend, who also happens to be named Sharon!

When we lived in New Hampshire there was a very dear friend in our church named Sharon.  She was such a precious soul, and I loved her dearly.  She gave me this sweet doll, and I named her "Rose of Sharon".  (Little did I know at that time that one day I would also have a sweet daughter in law named Rose!)

When we moved away from there, she gave me this plaque, which reads:

"God in His wisdom and His love very often sends His angels down to walk with us.

We know them best as "friends."'

I can only tell you that the only "angel" in this case would've been this dear friend Sharon. She was a woman of a very special kind of wisdom...someone who would appear to be kind of humble and simple in some ways, and yet when she spoke it was with such wisdom and faith. I truly treasured our friendship. Sadly, again, another dear friend who was called home to heaven  much too soon.  All I know is I've got two very special friends named Sharon waiting for me in heaven some day. They both came from different places and in different times in my life, but they were both God's gift to me for that time.

Well, friends, the rain has stopped, and as you can see, even after a couple of hours of rain, there is still no sign of water on the pond...but every drop counts, and one day we will all be surprised!

Oh, btw, we stopped by to see our son where he was working at the Trading Post at Deep Creek on our way home from the boat ramp this morning, and I noticed this sign on the inside of their gate...and I thought I should add it to the 'signs' from the photo challenge from the other day...I liked this...

And with that, I will close this post with a Psalm of Praise to our Awesome God!!

Psalm 66:1-5

For the director of music. A song. A psalm.

"1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth!

2 Sing the glory of his name;

make his praise glorious.

3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power

that your enemies cringe before you.

4 All the earth bows down to you;

they sing praise to you,

they sing the praises of your name.”

5 Come and see what God has done,

His awesome deeds for mankind!"

Amen!