Wednesday Treasures

Hey everyone! It's August already!  Where did this summer go? I like what Jane Austen says in this picture on one of my calendars below:

(Susan Branch calendar)

Ain't that the truth?  It's been HOT everywhere this summer! And I definitely feel like I am in a "continual state of inelegance".  LOL.

Hard to feel very "elegant" when you are constantly sweating and trying to find ways to keep "cool". 

I do love this John Sloane Country Seasons August calendar picture...Such a beautiful garden and a lovely lady with her kitty and flowers and birds...However, she would never be able to dress like that here in Florida in the summertime!  At least not while she's outside cutting flowers in the garden! 

 

Seems as though all of my calendars are full of lovely garden pictures this month:

Even the Teapot Calendar has a garden theme:

Here's the quote from that calendar for this month:

Oh, speaking of "The Secret Garden"...I like what that says, because "if you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden"...even my little "Secret Garden"...it seems as though it's a secret to everyone that it is really supposed to be a garden...

Not much blooming there right now except for these little purple wildflowers...

And we do have lots of holly berries growing on the holly tree...they just aren't red yet...

Yes, it is the Memorial Garden as well.  I'm ashamed that there isn't much blooming that would be a very good memorial to our son in this garden, but he was a lover of nature and ponds, so I am sure he wouldn't mind this little memorial along the shores of Still Waters Pond.

The butterfly garden has been suffering in the heat of this summer, but I am thankful for the rain that keeps it alive.  We just planted the Bottlebrush bush to the right of the bird bath. Hopefully it will grow and thrive here.

Since I started writing this post today we have been out to eat with our sweet kids Benton and Rose for an early supper.  They had to take us in their  (quad cab) pick up truck because our car AC decided to malfunction today.  It comes on for a while and then shuts off and blows hot air. When the temperature outside is already 92 degrees +, we sure don't want to ride around in a car w/o AC.  Just seems like if it's not one thing it's another!  We have an appointment tomorrow morning to have it checked and hopefully repaired...but that's another major expense that we were not anticipating at this time. 

Anyway, these pictures were actually taken last year at the same place, around the same time...when they took us to "Johnny's BBQ" for our anniversary dinner.  Our anniversary isn't for a couple of weeks yet, so this was not a special occasion...just wanted to go out to eat with our kids...(we already had this planned before our AC decided to quit on us. We decided we weren't going to let that spoil our lovely time with our kids). 

This was last year...we had just opened up Dixie Cottage, and so we were wearing our Dixie Cottage t-shirts.  This year our family no longer owns Dixie Cottage, but I still have those t-shirts and I can wear them around the house for "house shirts". LOL. They were about worn out anyway.

And there's sweet Benton and Rose...last year.  Nothing's changed much...we all still look pretty much the same, so I figured these pictures would suffice for showing where we were today.

When we got back from "lupper" (lunch and supper combined, lol), our library called me to let me know that the next batch of books I had ordered online was in...so I took back the old bag full of books that I had just finished last night and picked up this bag full of books to keep me occupied for the next couple of weeks...yeah, still reading the Beverly Lewis Amish stories...I tell you I am practically speaking Amish/Pennsylvania Dutch after reading these books...they are so "wunderbar gut!" LOL.

I am so thankful for this sturdy leather bag that my dear friend Sharon Watson created for me many years ago when I still lived in the forest amongst the bears...

Here's a picture of us together...Sharon is next to me, then my niece Debbie and my sister Doris. Sharon made these wonderful bags for each of us for Christmas that year.

And sadly, here is a link to a post about Sharon back before she passed away from cancer (in the summer of 2019).  Such a very dear and precious friend whom I will never forget. I am so thankful for her friendship and also for this bag to remind me of her...along with many other special gifts she gave me back in those days. Sharon was a treasure for sure.

So, speaking of sorrows and difficulties and unexpected events, here is a great verse to remember:

This is on the Thomas Kinkade calendar for this month.  Always so inspirational.

Another great verse to remember.

Well, folks, these are my "treasures" for today! I pray you are looking for treasures in your day each and every day.  It's kind of like the quote above from "The Secret Garden",

"If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden."

I say, If you look the right way, you can see treasures in the whole world all around you...

Have a "wunderbar gut" day!!

Tuesday 4 on Wednesday: Book Worms

 This is this week's Tuesday 4, and I didn't get around to participating until today,  Wednesday. Yesterday was a busy day, and I honestly didn't think I had anything to contribute to this dialogue, so I thought I would just let it pass for this week. However, then the *Library called me and said they had all the books I had ordered online waiting for me to come pick up...and I said to myself, "Self, you may have something to say here afterall...so go ahead and give it a whirl."  Better late than never...So here we go, and thank you to Annie for faithfully coming up with these discussions each week.  Perhaps you are also late to the "party", and maybe you would like to add your thoughts about this topic. The link up is still available at Tuesday 4 if you still want to join...or go visit the others who participated on time, unlike yours truly. LOL.  So here we go:

Book Worms

Welcome back to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 where we try and challenge you to think , discover and make new friends through blogging.


1. Did any book besides the Bible have an impact on your life or beliefs?  I would be hard pressed to come up with any other book that has had such an impact on my life as the Bible.  It is the book that tells the story of my very existence...and yours too!  It tells us all about our beginning and also our 'end'.    Other books that I appreciated in my life were varied and diverse.  I remember having as required reading in our senior year of high school the book 1984, by George Orwell.  I remember how we all discussed the predictions made in that book,  and this was in 1968...55 years ago.  The book itself was written in 1949, and what is amazing to me to think about now is how George Orwell thought up all the ideas he presented in his book...and even though he may have been off by a few years, I'm thinking we are seeing much of what he wrote about coming true now in this day and time.  What's interesting now to me is what my father's reaction was when I brought home that book to read. He picked it up and looked at it and threw it in the trash because it had some inappropriate language in it and he didn't want his daughter reading that trash!  I had to go fish it back out of the trash to take back to school, explaining to him that the book belonged to the school and I had to make a report on it or I would get a bad grade.  He was very upset about it and said he would talk to my English teacher and ask her why she was requiring us to read such garbage!  Bless his heart, he meant well...but I am thankful that he is not around today to see the garbage that our children and grandchildren are being  exposed to in our schools today.  I have a difficult time with it and if I had kids in school today, I think I might be reacting much like my father did 55 years ago.  Sadly, "Big Brother is watching you" is no longer a fantasy idea...


2. What books influenced you as a young person.?

To be honest, except for the book I just told you about above, I cannot remember what books I read when I was a young person.  I don't recall reading all the usual books that many have mentioned...I do remember reading "Little Women", and also loved the movie version with Katherine Hepburn as Jo.  

One book that my hubby and I used on a regular basis in our early years was "Streams in the Desert", 

a daily devotional book by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman.  It was always so amazing to us to see how the daily devotional always seemed to speak to whatever was going on in our lives at that time, and even when we would read it again the next year, it always seemed to fit our situation.  Here is a link to today's reading.  I was happy to see it hasn't changed.  The copy we have was published in 1950. The Copyright is 1925.    Here is an excerpt from today's reading: (July 19):

"The present circumstance, which presses so hard against you (if surrendered to Christ), is the best shaped tool in the Father's hand to chisel you for eternity. Trust Him, then. Do not push away the instrument lest you lose its work.

Strange and difficult indeed

We may find it,

But the blessing that we need

Is behind it.

The school of suffering graduates rare scholars."

3. Do you continue educating yourself by reading books or listening to podcasts or lectures?

I think it would be safe to say that the majority of my reading today, besides the Bible and a daily devotional, would be primarily for my relaxation and enjoyment.  I do not do well "listening to podcasts or lectures". I am too easily distracted to focus on audio type learning at this point in time. I am a hands-on, let me hold it in my hand and see it up close kind of reader. I do not use a Kindle or other electronic type of reader.  However, that being said, my eyesight is getting to a point where I cannot read for long periods of time anymore, so I have to read in smaller increments than before.  

4. Have you ever sat in a coffee shop/restaurant/cafe reading a book? What is your preferred place to read?

I do not like to sit anywhere in public reading, except while in a waiting room in a Doctor's office or something like that.  My preferred place to read is in my recliner, in the living room, next to my hubby, who is in his recliner usually watching something like sports on TV.  I like to be in the same room with him even though I am not watching what he is watching.  

*Now, on that note, this is what I am currently reading:

Yes, a stack of Amish Fiction books.  I may have read some of these before years ago, but long enough ago that I've forgotten the stories so I am enjoying them once again.  This is the stack I just picked up at the Library.

And I think these cozy Amish stories are having an influence on me.  If you have read any of those kinds of books, you know how they are always baking or cooking something...Shoo Fly pies, Whoopie Pies or noodles and meatballs or something else equally fattening but hearty and delicious.  The women spend a good bit of their time in the kitchen, rising up early to prepare a big breakfast for their hardworking men folk.  This morning I felt like an Amish woman as I rose up early and started baking right away...here's what I made...our favorite Blueberry Bran Muffins:

Click HERE for the recipe.

Here they are, fresh and hot out of the oven, bursting with delicious blueberries that I had put up in the freezer earlier this summer when they were fresh picked from the blueberry farm here in our town:

(I didn't pick them...they had some already picked that were fresh, and saved me the trouble! If I were a true Amish woman, I would have grown them and picked them myself LOL).

This reminded me of passage found in Proverbs 31:

"14 She is like the merchant ships,

She brings her food from afar.

15 She also rises while it is yet night,

And provides food for her household,

And a portion for her maidservants."

I didn't exactly provide a portion for my "maidservants", because I don't have any maidservants. Neither do the Amish women.  They have to work without the benefit of electricity or other modern conveniences.  I do admire them, but not enough to want to be one.  They have hardships we do not fully understand or appreciate, and even though I believe they have a true faith in God and Jesus Christ, they live with rules that I don't believe Christ ever intended for us to have to endure.  However, the way things are going in our world today, we might be wise to take some lessons from the Amish about how to survive without modern conveniences...

Okay, that's all I will say for today. I hope you enjoyed this little visit. I wish you could come and have a cup of tea and a blueberry muffin with me. Just let me know when you are coming and I will put the kettle on!    God bless you all and have a wonderful rest of your day!