Wednesday Treasures: Autumn Days in The "Secret - Memorial Garden"

 Oh friends! It's been SO long since I was able to sit outside in our "Secret-Memorial Garden" and enjoy a beautiful cool autumn breeze from the garden swing.  Yesterday afternoon and this morning have been just perfect for "porch sitting" or walking around the yard, enjoying these beautiful fall days here in north central Florida.  I will just share pictures so you can see what I've been enjoying...

Good morning from the garden! No, it's not your typical garden...I call it "My Secret-Memorial Garden" because it's a combination of the two, however there's really not much growing there except for what grows naturally and wildly. If you've been with me a long time, you will know that both garden ideas started at our previous home in the Ocala National Forest, and if you click on links over in the right sidebar for either the Secret Garden or Memorial Garden, you will find lots of posts telling about them both and their origination.  

Anyway, here at this house we combined them and it is primarily a beautiful and peaceful place in our yard and along the shore of Still Waters Pond, 

where I love to sit and enjoy the beauty of nature all around while I meditate on God's Word or read a book or magazine, 

or write in my journal or just relax and watch the birds and /or the cat!

Blackie decided to come join me on this beautiful afternoon. I was happy for his company!

He was very aware of any other activity around us, like squirrels chattering in the treetops at our intrusion into their world, or the birds flitting to and fro, who kept a watchful eye on this intruder...

This morning I was thrilled to find so many kinds of flowers blooming all around us, even though we've been in a drought situation here for the last few months! I love these wild purple asters that pop out in the fall:

And in the butterfly garden these seed pods of the Roselle plant I planted earlier this year are literally weighing down the branches of this bush:

Click on this link for more details about this plant.

It's a very unusual plant that I haven't quite figured out yet. 

This Cape Honeysuckle plant is blooming again.  I love these colorful flowers in the fall. They also attract butterflies!

This beautiful hibiscus that we planted in the "memorial garden" in memory of our son Matthew last year is still blooming every day!  This bloom was just starting to open up this morning! So pretty!!!

Out in the front yard the geranium is blooming!

I am so excited to see so many holly berries on the holly tree in the Memorial Garden this year! It hasn't had this many berries in several years.  Click on this link for a post about when the Robins and Cedar Waxwings came and cleaned off every berry in just a couple of days!  That was in November of 2020...5 years ago! It hasn't had that many berries since then, and so I am hoping that we will see those beautiful migrating birds come through here again this month like they did that year!  I will definitely be watching for them, and hopefully will be here to take pictures when they come!

Blackie has been quite active lately, and one of his favorite places to go "sit" is up in the very large Live Oak Tree in our front yard.  I happened to step outside on the front porch yesterday evening, and there he was. Of course, as soon as he saw me he started coming down to greet me...thinking I had food probably! LOL.

And here he comes!  He's becoming quite the character.    His buddy Sunshine has kind of traded places with him and seems to be gone most of the day lately, not showing up until supper time. Not sure where he goes, but at least he still comes home and stays a while and then leaves again for the night. Maybe he's found a warm hole to curl up in somewhere at night since it's been so chilly. Neither one of them are very interested in the nice warm beds Benton made for them.  Time will tell...

While I was in the Secret Garden I thought I'd better check on our Gnome Family! Sadly, I have been neglecting them over the summer because it was just too hot to go out there and look at them! But here they are...a little dirty from all the debris under the tree, but still intact and happy as a family of Gnomes can be I guess.

I probably should do a bit of housekeeping for them...

Speaking of Still Waters Pond...it's really the "Very Still NO Waters Pond" right now!   

But even with all the dryness, there is still a lot of beauty and growth on and around the pond...

These beautiful wildflowers are blooming all around the shore:
Be sure to watch out for the bees! They are quite active!

Yikes! Glad I didn't get too close!

And just when I thought I was finished with these pictures, I looked outside and saw this beauty laying in the yard:

Isn't she/he? beautiful? Look at that raccoon tail!  I believe this lovely cat belongs to someone else in the neighborhood...she took off as soon as I came out the door for a closer look.  Hopefully she/he?? will go back home where he belongs.  I'm not taking on any more boarders here on this porch!

He/she is really pretty, however...

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour around our yard and gardens along the shore of  Still Waters Pond...right now things are still beautiful, but eventually the autumn days will turn into winter, and things will begin to fade away until springtime...but here's some good news:

And even these words from the Book of Isaiah are a great comfort and encouragement to us in these days of uncertainty in our world...

Amen.

Be blessed my friends, and enjoy these autumn days while they last!!

Thursday Thankfulness

Happy first Thursday of Lent, 2025.

Actually, these sunrise photos were from yesterday morning, and these clouds ushered in a very stormy, windy  Ash Wednesday.  The winds are definitely in keeping with the month of March's reputation!

Seems like I can see and angel flying into the midst of this sunrise, which gives us encouragement that even in the midst of storms, God sends His angels to watch over us and keep us in all our ways...

Psalm 91:9-12

9 Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge,

Even the Most High, your dwelling place,

10 No evil shall befall you,

Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;

11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,

To keep you in all your ways.

12 In their hands they shall bear you up,

Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

What a beautiful promise from God's Word for us in these chaotic times! So very thankful for God's protection and provision always!

As you saw in the preceding pictures, the Goldfinches have arrived on their spring trek back up north!  It is such fun to watch them feeding at the finch feeder, and even the Bluebirds don't seem to mind them being here. I think they know they are just here temporarily, and that they are not a threat to their home territory, so they seem to get along just fine for the short while the finches are here filling up on food for their journey. 

Other signs of Spring are these blooming trees on the corner of our property:

This is a Carolina Cherry Laurel tree blossom, which I never realized before now was it's name! We always called it a wild cherry.

And the yellow flowers are some that I've shown you many times before, the Carolina Jessamine, or Yellow Jessamine are growing like wildfire this spring! They are so beautiful, and I've been noticing them almost everywhere we go along fencerows and up in the trees. Funny that both of these plants today have the name "Carolina" in their name!  And yet we are in Florida, but really not all that far from the Carolinas!  I am really enjoying their beauty this year for certain!

And I am really happy that the red Hibiscus plant we planted in the garden on Sunday is still blooming beautifully, and still has a lot more buds on it!  This makes my heart happy indeed, since this is the bush we chose to plant in memory of our son Matthew for his birthday.  

Here is something else that makes my heart happy.  A very dear young woman in our church gifted me with this painting on Sunday.  She actually painted it based on one of my sunset photos on Still Waters Pond:

She is learning to paint with watercolors and said she struggled a bit in getting it just right to her liking, but I love it. This young woman is currently going through a lot of issues in her family...her father has terminal cancer, her mother is not well at all and has some deep emotional issues, and her own daughter is getting married next month and so she is planning a wedding while in the process of being a care-giver for her parents, (and praying that her father is well enough to be able to attend the wedding and watch his granddaughter get married) and balancing that with her own life with her husband.  The painting is good therapy for her, but I honestly don't know how she finds the time to do anything extra.  This young woman's name is Nicole, and if you have a moment to lift her and her family up in your thoughts and prayers, I know she would appreciate it.

Yes, the Sand Hill Crane couple are still nesting, and they still take turns sitting on the nest and then coming to our shore looking for a handful of seeds to eat for a snack to help sustain them.  It has become a regular daily event to have each one of them show up at our back door waiting for us to appear and throw out some seeds. So we do, but it is just a little supplement to what they are able to get from around the pond, which is actually much better for them. But we enjoy the little interaction we have with them, and they seem to appreciate it too.

I just hiked around to the other side of the pond to see if I could catch them changing the guard on the nest, but I just can't seem to hit the right time.  There's mother Crane resting peacefully on her nest as per usual:

I do hope that since we've developed such a "close relationship" with them, they will be sure to bring their young baby colts around to visit us as soon as they are able. I'm sure they will. That has always been their tradition!    Judging by the calendar I've kept, we will be watching for that happy event sometime around St. Patrick's Day or thereabouts.  That seems to be their favorite birthday time period!

Regarding Lent...this 40 day time period prior to Easter, I wonder if or how you are observing it? I haven't made any specific promises or set any goals, but I am using this time to prepare my heart for the remembrance of what Christ has done for us on the cross, and most especially in His resurrection from the dead.

Our choir is working on our Easter Cantata, "It Is Finished", and one of the songs we are singing is this one:

Sung here by the Florida Boys

"When He Was On The Cross, I Was On His Mind"

I'm not on an ego trip I'm nothing on my own

I make mistakes I often slip

Just common flesh and bones

But I'll prove someday just why I say

I'm of a special kind

When He was on the cross

I was on his mind

The look of love was on his face

Thorns were on his head

The blood was on his scarlet robe

Stained a crimson red

Though his eyes were on the crowd that day

He looked ahead in time

For when He was on the cross

I was on his mind

He knew me, yet He loved me

He whose glory makes the heavens shine

So unworthy of such mercy

Yet when He was on the cross

I was on his mind

Yet when He was on the cross

I was on his mind

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Ronald Payne / Ronny Hinson

When He Was On The Cross lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

And this is what I am truly thankful for today.  I hope you are too.

Have a blessed and beautiful rest of your week.