Happy First Day of Summer!!

Happy First Day of Summer!  I looked out the front door this morning and noticed these sweet little pink wildflowers blooming, and decided they needed a closer look! 

It is a Pale Meadowbeauty  "Pale meadowbeauty occurs naturally in wet flatwoods, open savannas, marshes, bogs and wet roadsides. It flowers spring through fall and attracts many pollinators, especially bees."   I love it when God provides special little beautiful gifts to brighten our days!  Of course, once we mow that part of the lawn again, they will be gone, but hopefully they will come back to visit again.  I do see them scattered about in various places.  Just a happy little harbinger of summer!

Remember the other day when  I showed you these blueberries that I picked from our own bush?

Well, when I went outside this morning to look at those pretty little pink flowers above, I noticed that many of the pink blueberries that I had left behind had now turned blue, so I picked another handful of berries this morning, 

and there were just enough to do this for breakfast:

Yes!  I made Blueberry Pancakes!!

And those little blueberries were just popping full of delicious blueberry goodness!!

Of course, we had to have some scrambled eggs with bits of ham to give us some added protein with our breakfast,  but I can tell you this was delightfully delicious!  And with our very own blueberries!   

Can you tell that I am just a little bit happy about this?  LOL.

I thought it was a great way to usher in the first day of summer!

After breakfast we got cleaned up and headed to town to Walmart to do some necessary grocery shopping.  Nothing too exciting about that.  We wanted to get there early to beat the heat and the Friday morning rush, and we were thankful that we did just that.  

So now we are settled in back home with nothing particular to do today except stay inside and keep cool! Summertime here in our part of the world has felt like it was already here for the past month already.  Right now it is 92 degrees and hopefully we will get a thunderstorm this evening around 7:00 p.m.   I doubt that it will cool us off by much, but at least it will add some more water to the pond and keep the grass, flowers and trees (and blueberries) growing!  And the birds and critters are all much happier when there is plenty of rain to keep their food sources growing too. 

I went outside to get the mail and then did a little "walkabout" the yard to see what things were growing along the woodsy edges of our yard...

There is a lot of this:

Inkberry/Gallberry, which is growing wild in our woodsy area. The berries will turn black in the fall. The birds will eat them, although I understand they are bitter and the birds will only eat them as a last resort! 

We have a lot of different kinds of Holly trees/bushes growing wild, especially along the shores of Still Waters Pond.  These berries will turn bright red, and the birds do love them! Especially the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Cedar Waxwings and Robins!(if they migrate through here in winter)

So I am happy to see that there's plenty of extra bird flood growing all around us for the winter time. I'm sure they find plenty of other kinds of seeds and bugs and things to eat in the summer, along with the birdseed we put in the bird feeders.

As I walked around to the back yard, I was wondering where Sunshine and Blackie were hiding to keep cool on this very warm summer afternoon.  All of a sudden, here came Sunshine from out under the back porch...

He came right up to me, sticking out his tongue to say hello I guess, and wanted me to pet him right away, which of course I did.   Who could resist that sweet face?

And then Blackie saw me loving on Sunshine, and he came out from under one of the chairs on the back porch and headed down the steps right away to get his share of lovin'.  Of course, Sunshine went to meet him and they had to bump heads and nibble on each other's ears and say hello...

And then  Blackie came down and found a nice sandy spot to roll in the dirt to say hello to me. LOL.

Silly Kitty. But yes, I did pet and love on him for a while too. He's a sweeetheart, and he didn't want to be left out of any special attention.  I think he thought it was snack time, but as you can tell, Blackie still has a bit of a tummy and really doesn't need any extra "snacks".  But at least we know that HE isn't expecting! LOL.  

Well, speaking of food, it's almost time to start thinking about supper.  I guess I didn't really make any plans today for what to cook! Oops!  But we've been doing the pizza thing on Friday nights most of the time lately anyway, so I think that's what's happening tonight as well. I just have to go to the Dollar General down the street and pick up one and cook it. Easy Peasy!

Here's an old song..."Summertime", from Porgy and Bess...

Summertime, And the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' And the cotton is high Your daddy's rich And your mamma's good lookin' So hush little baby Don't you cry One of these mornings You're going to rise up singing Then you'll spread your wings And you'll take to the sky But till that morning There's a'nothing can harm you With daddy and mamma standing by

And here is a song that truly speaks to me, no matter what the season or time:

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Chorus:

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

2

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Chorus:

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

3

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Chorus:

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

Amen!

I hope that your summertime is filled with new mercies and all that you have needed, and that you will know just how great is God's faithfulness unto you! Amen.

Tuesday 4 and More

Good Morning from not so warm north central Florida! Looks like old man winter is catching up with us! It is 44 degrees right now as I write at 6:45 a.m., and the high will only reach 57 today.  Tomorrow morning it is supposed to get down to 37 degrees!  I know for many of you that is nothing...but for us here where we live, this is pretty chilly!  

It's time to pull out my "Christmas Flannel Shirt"...my normal house attire during the chilly days of December...

The birds have been quite active lately, gathering seeds to keep them warm...

Frankly, I love the cooler weather.  It helps get me more into the "Christmas spirit".  I am hoping to finally start putting away Thanksgiving decor and bringing out the Christmas things little by little.  I will have to wait for our son Scott to come this weekend to get everything out of the shed. It's a little too much and too awkward for us "old folks" to manage. 

I am still battling a lot of sore back muscles and other issues of that nature.  Last week I had a Doctor appointment to determine the progress of the healing of my torn bicep since having that stem cell procedure done a few months ago.  If there has been any progress at all, it is very very slow.  While in the office they put a "Tens unit" on my shoulder for a few minutes to see if that would help.  I'm not sure if it did or not as I've had a lot of issues since then.  However, they did send it home with me to try.  I haven't quite figured it out yet for myself, and I was too busy last week with Thanksgiving to take the time to study it. But after Sunday's episode, I'm thinking I may need some kind of intervention...

While at the Doctor's office he also prescribed a muscle relaxer for me to take. I have taken this medicine before, but this time the dosage was 2x a day instead of just once. I started out with just one a day, but on Saturday night I was really hurting so decided I needed to go ahead and take the second one as prescribed.  Let's just say that it was too much for this old gal to take. I was having terrible nightmares and had a hard time waking up. I actually had to miss church because of the effects of this, and the worst part is, I am still having the pain in my back/shoulder area like before. So no more of that stuff for me!   So anyway...I'm wondering if any of you have any experience with a "Tens" unit, and does it help? I would appreciate your input, and if you can come down here and help me figure out how to use it, that would be nice too. LOL.

Okay, so today is Tuesday and time for the Tuesday 4 meme.  I am not a big "fan" of Hollywood, but these questions are meant for fun and sharing our thoughts and experiences with our friends so we can get to know each other better.  So here we go!

Hooray for Hollywood!

Hello and welcome to Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4.

Per our hostess Annie: "Hollywood magic is well named. In Druidism the holly and it's wood were used in magic. Magic wands were often made of holly wood. Lightning will not strike holly so it is often planted next to homes to protect it. The word holly comes from the word holy and the holly tree was sacred in times past. Today Hollywood still churns out 'magic' and 'spellbinding' displays as well as 'stars in the firmament' who entertain, mesmerize and influence us."

I never knew this about "holly-wood", that lightning would not strike it! That's nice to know, since we have a large holly tree near to our house! (or rather a clump of holly trees grown together into one big tree!)

The birds certainly love the holly berries!

But that really isn't what we are here to talk about! LOL.

Let's talk about it....

1. Do you have a few favorite holiday movies you enjoy watching year after year? Do you make some popcorn to eat while you watch movies at home?

My favorite to watch during the Christmas season is "The Bishop's Wife".  We usually always watch one of the old Christmas Carol movies...I can't remember which one as there are so many.  No, we don't make popcorn while watching movies, but I think that sounds like a good idea.  There are other movies we watch too, but those are the ones I definitely want to watch.

2. Have you had a celebrity crush? Can we ask who it was?

Not really. I can't think of anyone in particular, and now I am too old for celebrity 'crushes'. LOL.

3. Do you have favorite actors/actresses whose movies you don't want to miss and what movie would you say is your all time favorite from those stars?

I loved the old Cary Grant movies, Gregory Peck,   Here is LINK to the last time we did this with a few similar questions that will answer this question. 

4. Have you met any famous Hollywood people in person or would you like to? Why or why not?

On my 10th birthday I met Gloria Swanson.

I even got her autograph on the photo above (which was in the newspaper!) and also in my little autograph book.  She was visiting at the grand opening of a new housing development in the area and it was quite a big event back in the day.  Strangely, that housing development today is probably pretty much a place you really wouldn't want to live...and definitely not movie star-worthy. LOL.

Okay, that's all folks.  It's time to get this chilly day started.  

Sunrise this morning

Before we go any further into "the Season"  of Christmas, let us never forget the "Reason" why we celebrate...

Internet Photo

Amen.