Wednesday Treasures All Around Us

It was a lovely morning, so we took a ride down to the Kenwood Recreational Park, a lovely park and boat ramp into the Rodman Resevoir and Lake Ocklawaha area. We try to go there several times throughout the year, to see it in different seasons and to just enjoy the beauty.  Today was no exception! Here are some pictures that I took...and I have coupled them with Psalm 1 for today's Scripture reading. I hope you will enjoy the beauty of both the pictures and the Word together...

Psalm 1

1 Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

Nor stands in the path of sinners,

Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

3 He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so,

But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,

Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,

But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

A fitting ending to this passage...

Don't be like the ungodly...instead be like the man (or woman!) 

whose "delight is in the law of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night."

Sometimes it is good to get back to the basics, isn't it? In this world we are easily led astray by all the flashy things being offered on the internet or TV or in stores and places all around us.  But soon enough we discover that those things do not bring lasting peace or happiness. They might fill a void for a little while, but there is only one way to fill the empty places in our hearts and lives...

Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-29

  

"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."

He also said in Matthew 6:19-21 the following:

19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, 

where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 

20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 

where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 

21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Today was a good day to be reminded of these words, and to spend some time alone with the Lord, enjoying His beautiful creation all around us.  Now that fall is on the way and the temperatures are hopefully going to begin to cool down a little bit at a time, it is a good time to get back outside and take advantage of all the beauty that He has provided for us to enjoy.  I'm so thankful we were able to take this little walk today. It was a soothing balm for my soul.

How about you? What wonders or beauties have you noticed in God's creation around you lately? I hope you will share them on your blog if you can, or tell us about them here. Let's focus on what is lovely and wholesome, and try to stay away from the negative influences around us. That's what I want to do...who will join me?

Thank you for your kind comments on my previous posts. It's always so good to hear from you and also to read your posts to see what's going on in your lives! You are all a part of my special "Wednesday Treasures" (and beyond). Have a lovely week.

Saturday Wanderings in December

 Here it is the 2nd day of December, and we are back to shorts and t shirts and AC clicking back on.  We had a couple of days of wintry weather (for Florida), and I truly hoped it would stick around for a while, but I should know better.  I've lived in Florida most of my life, and there's been many a Christmas day that we were wearing shorts instead of ugly Christmas sweaters! LOL.  This morning started out very foggy

And now this afternoon it is just a rather humid, muggy, late fall day on Still Waters Pond.

Mr. Great Blue Heron doesn't seem to mind.  Must be a good day for fishing...

Normally if I step outside he will fly away, but today he just stayed perfectly still, not wanting to lose his place along the shore...

Perhaps he is practicing this scripture verse:  "Be Still and know that I am God..."  Psalm 46:10

All of creation knows that God is always near.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Cardinal was chirping away at me, perhaps inviting me to tea...

Yesterday morning it was Mr. Pileated Woodpecker pecking away and getting my attention:

We do not get to see them very often here as they are usually very quick and fleeting in their search for the perfect tree to find some choice bugs for breakfast.  

 I was happy that I just happened to be looking outside when this one flew in and stayed around long enough for me to find my camera, turn it on, focus, and get a few pictures. 

And then he was gone.

I feel honored and blessed when God provides such beauty for us to behold.  I am thankful that I was listening and paying attention!

If you've followed my blog for a few years you will perhaps remember that when we first moved here to our home beside Still Waters Pond that we had some areas cleared out a little bit so we could have better access to the pond.  This was in addition to the area directly in front of our house, through the little bits of woods that surround our property along the shore.  Over the past few years we haven't been able to maintain those  clearings very well, as the underbrush grows faster than we can keep up with it, and we really don't have the equipment to keep it clear.  But I've been getting anxious to take a little walk down to the pond again through that woodsy area, and mostly there were prickly vines and small bushes in the way.  I took along my pruning shears and managed to clear enough of a trail for me to get through almost to the water:

Take a little walk with me...this is a much easier way than the way I had to do it! LOL.

There are lots of little holly trees along the way

Oh, at last we can see the water!

I love the reflection of the trees over on the little island...

Yeah, it may not seem like much to some, but I really enjoy walking through here and seeing the pond from a different angle.  Each direction has its own natural beauty.

Thankfully I didn't step on this mushroom!  Maybe someone can identify it.  I'm thinking it is a Cortinarius Violaceus, "Violet Cort", but really it looked more brown than violet. However, it may have been more violet when it was fresh.   I don't think it is edible...at least I wouldn't try it even if it was...

This is the top of it...isn't it interesting?

And a little further down the trail was this interesting discovery.  I am thinking it is some kind of "scat" of a wild animal, but I haven't been able to identify it yet. I thought perhaps a deer at first, but now I'm not so sure.  It looks like something has been enjoying eating the berries...

Well, I hope you enjoyed that little walk with me. I find myself wanting to go back again every chance I get. Meanwhile,  our son Scott wasn't able to come home today to get the Christmas things out of the storage shed. He said he will be here tomorrow afternoon.  So I did manage to pull out this one item to put on the front porch...this is the wild grapevine tree that son Benton and I made several years ago from the wild grapevines growing on our property in Salt Springs. It was quite a task to do this, but it has lasted all these years and was well worth the effort.  Today all I've managed to do is re-string some lights on it after removing the old dead ones.  The ornaments are still in the storage shed, so I will have to finish decorating later.  

If there has been any theme to today, it would be:

Yes!  "Let Heaven and Nature Sing!"....as we enter into this time of preparation for the celebration of the Lord's Birth...may we be tuned into all the ways God's creation is singing his praises around us!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come

Let Earth receive her King

Let every heart prepare Him room

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing

Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns

Let all their songs employ

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy

He rules the world with truth and grace

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness

And wonders of His love

And wonders of His love

And wonders, wonders, of His love

Have a blessed and joyous Advent season!! 

Monday JOYS

Good Monday Morning!  I hope you are having a lovely Monday thus far!  It's a bright and sunny morning here in north central Florida, with temps currently (at 9:41 a.m.) hovering around 59 degrees. It was 47 when we woke up, and should reach 72 by the afternoon. That sounds like a picture perfect weather forecast to me! How's the weather where you are? I know many of you have had some horrifically cold weather over the past week. I hope you are beginning to thaw out a bit by now.

This squirrel is up on our back porch, enjoying an acorn.

I'm not sure that he is abiding by all of the "Porch Rules", but he is entertaining and fun to watch nonetheless.

I saw this on one of our Blogging Friend's posts this morning, and it really spoke to me, so I just had to borrow it. I hope Linda at "Linda's Life Journal" won't mind. (click on the link to read her beautiful post)   Borrowed from Linda's Life Journal blog post   Linda is an artist, and I thought this quote suited her perfectly.

And I thought to myself that applies to every day, not just Monday, although we all know that Mondays are usually thought of as the more difficult of days to get our best "colors" on the canvas.

Now that I am retired, I don't have much trouble with Mondays. Actually I kind of like Monday. It's the start of a brand new week...new opportunities and activities. It's kind of nice to get back into a routine of sorts on Mondays after the weekend events and Sunday routines of worship and rest...

Yesterday was mostly rest for me since I stayed home from church and nursed this  cold and laryngitis. I am feeling some better today, I can actually talk a bit more without feeling like it is such a strain.  But I do tend to break into paroxysms of coughing spells from the sinus drainage, so I am staying home from Bible Study this afternoon and away from people as much as possible. Thankfully each day brings progress.

Back to the "colors on a canvas" thought...Look at what God painted on His sunset canvas last evening:

God is the Master Designer of the most amazing "paintings" in His skies...no two are ever the same, and I find myself always standing in awe of His masterpieces...

And this is just a small thing, but again it is an example of God's artistry...these little azaleas are blooming after all the frosty and cold weather we've had recently...a beautiful little bright spot to remind us that spring is coming, so just hang in there...winter doesn't last forever (unless you live on the North Pole!).  

So today, even though it has taken me about 3 hours to get this post written because of interruptions and my mouse dying and even with new batteries it refused to work, and so I had to find an old mouse with a cord to attach to the computer and thankfully I found one and it still works...even with all of that, today I choose to paint my canvas with JOY.  Joy in being alive, joy in being a child of the King, joy in being a sinner saved by the grace of Jesus Christ our Lord, joy that there is beauty all around us if we just take the time to look for it, joy that this old cold I have will soon pass and I will be back to my old self, joy that I have interruptions and am not alone in this world...

Yes, today I paint my canvas with the color of JOY!

How about you?

This Is My Father's World-Oh Let Me ne're forget"

Thank you all for your prayers this week as we've been a bit under the weather, literally. It's been cold, and we've both been sick with a bad cold or virus or whatever you want to call it...it's been enough to keep us in the house and literally "under cover" all week.  I think we are getting better day by day and we are very very thankful for that.

It's been a bit too cold (yes, here in Florida!) this week for us to go outside anyway, even if we felt up to it.  We are thankful  that we can enjoy God's beautiful "world" and creation right here from our back porch anytime.  I took most of these pictures last week before we got sick, but  they are still representative of what we see here most every day right now.  The geese on Still Waters Pond, enjoying life!

Oh, you might enjoy listening to this song by this wonderful group of young musicians from "Fountainview Academy". I don't really know anything about them particularly, only that they make some wonderful music videos and I always enjoy seeing these very talented young people singing songs to the glory of God.  They definitely restore my faith in the young generation.

"This is My Father's World", sung by Fountainview Academy

This is My Father's World, by Maltbie D. Babcock

 This is my Father's world,

And to my listening ears

All nature sings, and round me rings

The music of the spheres.

This is my Father's world:

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas--

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father's world:

The birds their carols raise,

The morning light, the lily white,

Declare their Maker's praise.

This is my Father's world:

He shines in all that's fair;

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,

He speaks to me everywhere.

3 This is my Father's world:

O let me ne'er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong,

God is the Ruler yet

This is my Father's world:

Why should my heart be sad?

The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!

God reigns; let earth be glad!

I hope you enjoyed that song and the geese! 

These are just some of the things that I find delight in seeing.

On one of our recent walks in the woods I was amazed to discover some very unique and interesting fungi growing on the decaying forest floor. It is a always a wonder to me how there can be so much beauty even in decay!

I've never seen any fungi quite like these before. Kind of like star shapes.

And there were these growing on this tree trunk:

Again, everything has a purpose under Gods' heavens...

"To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:"  

Ecclesiastes 3:1

These fungi look like either beautiful sea shells or some kind of exotic fans

I never tire of seeing the beauty in God's creation. 

So this week we've been resting, recuperating, and thanking the Lord we are not as sick as we could have been.  Hubby did finally go to the Dr. and got some meds because his cough was getting worse and not really very productive.  Thankfully he slept much better last night and therefore so did I.  LOL.

Our kids have been very kind to pick up things for us at the store...and our sweet DIL Rose even dropped off a nice rotisserie chicken yesterday as an extra bonus. That was SO thoughtful! We are truly blessed.

Well, I need to bring this to a close. Hubby just asked if I'd like to go for a ride. That sounds like progress!  It's a beautiful day, and a ride might just be what the doctor ordered!

I hope this finds you all enjoying God's beautiful creation all around you, wherever you are...

Peace and Blessings