Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends

It's Thursday of Holy Week...many will be observing this day as "Maundy Thursday", "Maundy Thursday, also referred to as Holy Thursday, or Thursday of the Lord's Supper, among other names,[note 1] is a Christian feast during Holy Week that marks the beginning of the Paschal Triduum, and commemorates the Washing of the Feet (Maundy) and Last Supper of Jesus Christ with the Apostles, as described in the canonical gospels.[1]" (Wikipedia).  Our church does not have a special Maundy Thursday service, but we will be having a Good Friday service tomorrow night.

HERE is a link to a post I have shared several times in the past regarding Maundy Thursday, or the observance of The Lord's Supper.  You may want to read it again for a special blessing today. (I actually reposted this earlier today, so may have already seen it.  I just couldn't let the day go by without acknowledging how special this day was in the life of Christ and for Christians today).

I am so excited that my Amaryllis flowers have finally blossomed!  I was afraid they weren't going to make it this year, and now they are open and beautiful for Easter! To me, this is significant, that they are blooming in time for Good Friday...the crimson red of this flower reminds us of the blood that Jesus shed on the cross for our sins.  The white Easter lilies on Easter Sunday will remind us of His resurrection from the dead and that He, the perfect and spotless Lamb of God has overcome sin and death on our behalf.  Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Hallelujah! What A Savior! 

by Philip B. Bliss

“Man of Sorrows!” what a name

For the Son of God, who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile, and helpless we;

Spotless Lamb of God was He;

“Full atonement!” can it be?

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Lifted up was He to die;

“It is finished!” was His cry;

Now in Heav’n exalted high.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

When He comes, our glorious King,

All His ransomed home to bring,

Then anew His song we’ll sing:

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Back to the present...This morning we took a ride to the Blueberry Farm! The blueberries are finally ready to be picked...and thankfully they pick some for us for a little higher price...

You could also purchase your own blueberry bushes, already loaded with berries!  I did that a few years ago, but most of them have never really produced anything since...

Except for this this one..it looks like it will have some berries for us this year in a little while...

So until then I will purchase the already picked variety and enjoy them! They are so plump and juicy I may have eaten a few before we even got home.  Hubby said "They haven't been washed yet!"  I said, "If they kill me I'll die happy!" LOL.   I didn't eat that many...and if that little bit could kill me then they shouldn't be allowed to sell them! LOL.  Besides, I know the people who pick their own berries eat them while picking and I haven't heard of anyone getting sick or dying from it yet.  I'll trust these berries more than the ones I buy in the grocery store, which can't even compare in flavor and quality.

The plan is to bake a blueberry pie for Easter Sunday...hopefully I'll still have enough left by then. LOL.

I know you are probably wondering about the kitty-cat situation here...

Well, here's Blackie Sue, still just relaxing in her favorite blue chair on the back porch...no kittens yet...and the full moon is over...so she's on her own schedule, and the kittens will appear when they are good and ready!

And this picture is hilarious to me...this is how Sunshine was posed this morning as we were leaving to go get blueberries...He'd just had his breakfast, and because it had been a chilly night (or maybe he's just all tuckered out from whatever he was doing last night!??) I think he wanted to soak up some "sunshine" for himself!  I've never seen him able to get up on the porch railing before...and his face was resting on the little light fixture there. He seems to be a bit more frisky lately...oh...and there's been a pretty little black and white female cat coming over to visit from down the street...I hope she's been appropriately "fixed"...and so I am thinking something is going to need to be done about Sunshine. Here I thought he was just a tired old cat...but I think he still has some tricks up his paws.  I am anxious to see what color Blackie Sue's kittens are...that will tell us the true state of their "friendship".  

Good caption "It's been a hard day's night..."

Oh My Goodness!  I just heard via Facebook that our family's former store, "Dixie Cottage", is moving out of Interlachen to Keystone Heights (a town about 20 miles northwest of here)!  The person who bought the business from Benton and Rose a couple of years ago lives in that area, and apparently she has found a place there that is more reasonable rent and it will be closer to home for her, so we wish her well.  There will be a big sale here at the store before she leaves at the end of the month. 

 

This is how the store looked on our Grand Opening Day

This is a link to when our kids first opened the store here in Interlachen, after moving it here from St.Augustine.

Our kids enjoyed owning the business while they did, but they were also happy when God provided a buyer so they could sell it! Owning your own business takes a LOT of work, time, and money.  They are much happier now working from home (Benton), building things and selling them online and in local farmer's markets.  Rose has continued to work at Home Depot all these years, so for her trying to run a business and work outside of that was pretty exhausting.  

Although we are sorry to see the store leaving our town, we wish the owner much success and blessings in starting over in a new location.  And so closes another door...but a new window of opportunity for her and for that community.

Here's some thoughts to carry us through tomorrow on Good Friday...

This weekend will be pretty busy for us, with Good Friday service tomorrow night, and a wedding at our church Saturday afternoon. (There will also be a community breakfast at the church Saturday morning and an Easter Egg Hunt for the children, but we most likely won't be participating in those). Then Sunday morning we have Sunday School and Church, and our choir will be presenting the Easter Cantata "It Is Finished".  The kids will be coming over after church for dinner.  Rose will be baking a ham and I will hopefully get some potato salad and deviled eggs made on Saturday sometime to have ready for Sunday, as well as bake that blueberry pie. So, if you don't see much of me over the next few days, you will know why!  Praying you and yours will have a blessed and joyful Easter weekend.

 

Thursday Thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends

We will work in reverse tonight since I am getting a late start, as per usual these days.  Here was tonight's sunset on Still Waters Pond...pretty nice, huh? I'd say so.  A lovely ending to a lovely day. Read on for more details about "the lovely day".

Today was a very special day. It was my hubby's 75th birthday!  We mostly spent a quiet day, until this afternoon when we met up with friends from our church for an early supper at the Hog Wild Country Cafe'.

Here's part of the crowd that gathered to celebrate...Our Pastor and wife and some other men from the Men's Bible Study and their wives. My hubby teaches the Men's Bible Study, so we wanted to get together with them and also some others from the church...

And here they are...some members of the Adult Sunday School class and other friends...we were also celebrating two other  people's birthdays...the lady in blue in the middle...our friend "Pamela", whose birthday was also today, and our friend Norman, on the far end with the ball cap on...it will be his 80th birthday this weekend!

It was too bad they couldn't put us all at the same table, but we managed to have a good time and enjoyed the great atmosphere of the back porch at Hog Wild, which we had all to ourselves.

Here's my friend Pamela...she was enjoying her birthday...looks like a lightbulb popped on over her head...I am sure she had a good idea about something fun to do!

These are just some of the items for sale in the restaurant...it's a fun kind of place to visit...

We were in good company with Elvis and John Wayne and I think there was even a picture of Lucille Ball. Some of the greats...

I think Pamela may have found a new boyfriend..."Pappy"... maybe there's gold in that bag...

And John found some new friends...a couple of kitties who hang around hoping for leftovers...

And here I am, wishing I could ride on the tractor, but the seat was a bit broken and old, and I didn't want to become like it...broken and old...LOL.

We had a great time. But the party isn't over yet. Saturday our extended family will be coming up to celebrate with us at our house. It will be another day of fun and good food. I can't wait! But gotta get the house cleaned up and ready first...

Now back to Still Waters Pond and all the activity surrounding it these days...Things have gotten pretty interesting now that Mr. and Mrs. Sand Hill Crane are expecting a "baby" (or maybe two?) in a month or so.  Mr. Crane has become quite protective and territorial...and this Great Blue Heron was on our side of the pond, but that was still too close for comfort for Mr. Crane:

He flew across the pond and landed on our shore just to let Mr. Heron know who's the boss around here right now...

And then he flew back over to the island where Mrs. Crane is sitting on the nest, just to reassure her that he's got things under control. No need to worry.

However, I don't know if you can see it or not, but there is a Great White Egret on the marsh island out in front of where the cranes are nesting...

Mr. Crane just noticed, and flew right over to give him a stern warning about getting too close. Mrs. Crane is standing up and saying be careful Mr. Crane!  Baby Valentine and I are going to need you!

Mr. Crane landed right beside Mr. Great White Egret, and you can see it would not be a very fair match if it were to come to blows...

Meanwhile, in the pond the little diving ducks, "The Ring Necked Ducks", are busily doing their thing, bobbing up and down and having their breakfast. They don't appear to pose a threat to the Crane family, and they are just minding their own business.

Mr. Great White Egret decided to join them for a few minutes to cool off and get out of harm's way.

Mr. Crane stood on the marsh island to remind Mr. Egret not to trespass into his territory any further...

I think Mr. Egret got the message, and he swam off to another part of the pond to fish for his breakfast.

Meanwhile the Canada Geese flew in for their morning swim. They don't seem to pose a threat to the Cranes either, well, at least they seem to know better than to get too close...

All of a sudden Mr. Crane flew across the pond again and warned Mr. Egret to not come back...

Then Mr. Egret flew away and around the other side of the pond and we didn't see him anymore:

Bye Bye Mr. Egret...

So that's the excitement from Still Waters Pond for today. I wonder what will happen tomorrow morning? Stay tuned and I will try to watch and see and share with you whatever happens.  

However, I won't have as much time tomorrow, as we will be going to Dixie Cottage in the morning, and then I have physical therapy in the afternoon. BTW, I started therapy yesterday, and I must say I am sore today, but that's probably a good thing, right?  I do hope it helps...and I know I need to maintain my exercises and hopefully my shoulder/arm will heal eventually. It would be nice to have two good arms again. It's been a long time since I've had full use of them without pain.  I am thankful to be able to have therapy, and I am thankful that my problems aren't worse than they are. 

We had a break from Dixie Cottage today as their friend came to take care of the store for the day so we could all have a break.  Our son and DIL have both had the same sinus/coughing crud that I had, and they needed a day to rest and recuperate.  However, while I was there yesterday, I took a few pictures of a few things that are kind of new to the store that maybe you haven't seen yet...

We have a new vendor who builds these potting benches. I showed you another one HERE last week.  This one is a little smaller, but still really cute and functional. I love these and wish I had a place to put it, but I really don't need it. It's just cute.

This fireplace (electric) surround/mantel is an item that my son painted for some customers. It was a dark brown and not nearly this pretty. So they asked Benton to paint it for them. Isn't it beautiful? It really did turn out very nice. They were quite pleased.  

This is a hall tree/storage bench for sale.  Really a nice item, especially for a busy family!

This vendor comes up with some really cute items that she repurposes/flips:

Pretty cute, huh?

I think this is so cute, but of course I have no idea what to do with it. If you have a sewing room or garden room or something like that, this would really be cute.  

This is kind of funny..."Farm Fresh Butt Nuggets"...another name for eggs I guess. LOL. Eggs are definitely like gold nuggets these days! Wow.  We've really cut down our egg consumption recently, which is probably just as well. My cholesterol is high enough even with medicine, so I have to watch it...

We took a walk a few days ago, and I wanted to see if the Lady Lupine was blooming yet. I had noticed pictures of it in a previous post written about this same time a few years ago, HERE, and so I was wondering if there was any blooming yet.  Sure enough I found some, but not nearly as much as in the past couple of years.  It has been such a dry and cold winter, I think it is a bit behind in development this year. But at least I found this much of it. I will keep checking as it should start blooming more soon...

It is nice to get out and walk in the evenings again, now that it is staying a little lighter later as we head back towards Daylight Savings Time in a few weeks.  That's the only thing I really like about DLS, as we can take walks in the evening when it is cooler. Otherwise I wish they'd just leave it alone and we'd all adapt I am sure. What do you think?

This was the sunrise yesterday morning. Let's see, when we "spring ahead", it will be dark again in the early morning, right? Well, maybe for some of you that will be a good thing...you will get to see the sunrise. For us early birds we will have to wait awhile for it. Kids will be waiting in the dark again for the school bus. I don't like that, even though I don't have any kids riding school buses anymore. 

But anyway, I am thankful for the beautiful sunrises and sunsets and the flowers and birds and all of God's marvelous creation all around us.

I am thankful for my hubby's 75th birthday and for our almost 54 years of marriage together (in August).  I am thankful for our health and God's provision for us in so many wonderful ways.

We are blessed beyond measure, and we give thanks to God.

That's my thankfulness and Friday Foto Friends post for this week. Oh, and I am thankful for each of you and your kind comments and the things you share with us in your posts.

Have a blessed night and upcoming weekend, my friends.

Good Night.