Wednesday Treasures

 

It's been a busy week. I'm sorry I've been a bit awol here in blogland.  Just a lot going on, and it's been hot! Too hot to think too hard I guess! LOL.

We did take a walk a couple of times...and I had to take a picture of this crape myrtle blossom, growing on a skinny little branch of what used to be a bigger tree probably back in the day in someone's yard in the old historic section of town where the highway went through and took away their houses...You know I just love to see how life goes on in one way or another...

And this morning we had an occasion to go into the "big city" of Palatka, which is about 15 miles from us. (Not really a BIG city, but bigger than where we live). Palatka is known for its many murals painted on the sides of the old store buildings in their historic section of town.  I happened upon this mural, and wanted to share it with you:

This mural is of a Cattle Drive to Paynes Prairie, circa 1930.

 Here's a brief summary of the history of the cattle drives to Paynes Prairie:

"Paynes Prairie, now Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, has a history of cattle drives dating back to the Spanish era and continuing through the Civil War. Specifically, Confederate cattle drives would stop there to fatten up cattle before moving them north towards the Georgia border. The prairie's landscape, with its vast open spaces and proximity to transportation routes, made it a strategic location for cattlemen. "

Link to more about the Murals in Palatka, FL.  There are so many, and they are all so interesting. I still haven't seen them all in person, but this link will show you what is there.

It's been so hot this week, the kitties have been finding different places to rest in the shade...Not sure that's much cooler, but Sunshine seems to like laying there under the tarp that covers the lawn tractor.

Some of you may have already seen these pictures on Facebook this week, but I'll share them again for those who haven't...One early morning Mr. Cardinal came calling at the bird feeder...I know many believe that when a Cardinal visits it's like having a visit from someone who's gone on to heaven.  I don't know if that's true or not, but I do love to see them, and they do always make me think of those who have gone on before us.. Always a comforting sight and thought.

Of course our "porch kitties", Blackie and Sunshine, are totally oblivious to the Cardinal just a few feet away from them.  That's a good thing, really!  Look at Sunshine...he's definitely enjoying his "catnap".

Mr. Cardinal seems to be oblivious to the cats as well...

Oh to be able to be so relaxed...

I guess you can tell I didn't get much done that morning!

But perhaps the kitties have the best idea for a hot summer day...

Mr.Cardinal seems to think so.

Isaiah 26:3

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

Ah yes, "perfect peace!"...something we are learning about...when our mind is on the Lord, and when we put our complete trust in Him, we can be at perfect peace.  When we allow the cares of this world and our fears for the unknown to get to us,  we get anxious and afraid.  But GOD! 

Remember this old hymn..."What A Friend We Have in Jesus"...

1 

What a Friend we have in Jesus,

All our sins and griefs to bear!

What a privilege to carry

Everything to God in prayer!

O what peace we often forfeit,

O what needless pain we bear,

All because we do not carry

Everything to God in prayer!

2

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful

Who will all our sorrows share?

Jesus knows our every weakness,

Take it to the Lord in prayer.

3

Are we weak and heavy-laden,

Cumbered with a load of care?

Precious Savior, still our refuge—

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?

Take it to the Lord in prayer;

In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,

Thou wilt find a solace there.

Amen.

We've been going through a lot of waiting and trusting and praying these past several months, while hubby has been dealing with some mystery illness and total exhaustion.  We've been to different kinds of doctors and had several kinds of tests...and still there haven't been any real answers.  Tomorrow morning he goes for more lab work to rule out some other possibilities...but here's the "good news"...

Yesterday he met with a neurologist (finally!).  After the Doctor looked over all the test results that have been done over the past few months, and also after asking my hubby many questions about how he feels, etc.,  finally my husband asked the doctor if he believes that he has any neurological disease? And the doctor said, based on what he sees, he does not believe that he does. However, he wants to run a few more blood tests to rule out some things, so that is why we go tomorrow, but he said he really doesn't believe they will show anything significant.  

Now, personally, I am a little frustrated with that answer only because we still don't know what's going on.  But the doctor reassured us that he doesn't see anything life threatening or serious.  It could be a kind of "chronic fatigue" situation, but there really isn't a whole lot that can be done for that.  However, to hubby, this news was great! It relieved his mind so much that I have noticed a new spring in his step...and tonight he even went to the church board meeting (where he is the chairman), and I thought he was planning to resign from his position because of his illness, but instead he rejoiced that God has given him the strength and desire to keep going. He was like his "old self" again,  and it was like witnessing a miracle of God right before our eyes!  So I want to stop and give thanks to the Lord for what He has done...because I know it was God who did that!   Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow!!

And so I will leave you with those words of hope and thankfulness for tonight. There's some other things going on, but I will save that for another post as I am tired tonight. It's been another long, hot day, but, oh! It did finally rain! We had a good little thunderstorm and rain this afternoon, so that is something else to be thankful for!

I like this translation of Philippians 4:19...

Philippians 4:19  New Living Translation

"19 And this same God who takes care of me 

will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, 

which have been given to us in Christ Jesus."

Amen!!

Good night dear friends!

Happy August!

Happy First Day of August! To me, August is a month of transition...summer begins to wane, and we begin to shift our thinking from vacations and summer gardens, to getting the kids ready for school (if you still have any at home) and getting back into a regular routine again.  Of course, for those of us who are retired and all our children are grown, it may not be as big of a change, but still there are subtle differences in the air, an expectation of things to come.   Some may feel a bit of anxiety about whatever the future may hold, but the verse shared below in this Thomas Kinkade calendar picture for August is a good one to remember:  "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." Isaiah 26:3

 

I love that painting, entitled "Weekend Retreat", and would LOVE to have such a place to retreat to, especially if it was somewhere cooler than where we are right now!

Perhaps this calendar picture below may be more what you are experiencing...picking the last of the summer flowers from your garden and trying to keep things watered and growing for as long as possible. 

And this would be someplace that I would love to be as well...Isn't that a beautiful farmhouse, and look at those lovely flowers and trees and the wheat field in the background...but most of all, I love the picture of the sweet old grandpa taking a walk with his, what I would assume, would be a great grandson.

John Sloane captures so much beauty and joy and love in these paintings in his Country Seasons calendar.  I enlarged this part of the picture to see what the little boy was looking at, and it is a chipmunk!  We don't have those here in Florida, but I have had some experiences with them  up north..especially in Ohio, where we had a chestnut tree, and in the fall I had a daily race with the chipmunks to see who could gather the most chestnuts off the ground! I think the chipmunks won! They took them and stored them somewhere for their winter meals.  I roasted the few I could gather and I think I also managed to chop up some into our stuffing for our Thanksgiving dinner! Sweet memories!

After enjoying a nice walk with a grandchild or anyone else, for that matter, it would be nice to come inside and make a pot of tea with this lovely Royal Doulton teapot from the Netherlands...and sit down together and have a nice long visit over tea and cookies...

There is something special about having tea with a friend or loved one...

Or maybe that young grandchild would prefer a glass of cold lemonade! That sounds pretty good too!

This Susan Branch calendar always captures my imagination...Yes, "Home, Such a lovely Place"...

And now that brings me to something special from my home!    This photograph is not current...I'm not sure of the date, but by the looks of it most likely it was taken in the late fall here on our own Still Waters Pond, when the Canada Geese were gathered to enjoy a peaceful place to swim and fish and honk at their neighbors as they swam around each other...always a lot of fun to watch in the fall and winter.

So why am I showing it now? Well, I did something I've never done before!  

First, I got a new bedspread, and I wanted to have something different to hang above the bed that would tie in the colors in our bedroom...

And I really didn't want to spend money on a picture from someone else's pond or woods or whatever, when I have such a beautiful place right here on our own Still Waters Pond.  So I searched through my photographs of the pond to find one that would show a peaceful scene, and I asked hubby what he would enjoy looking at more...the geese, the Sand Hill Cranes, or something else, and he said the geese...

So I sent in this photograph online to Walmart and had them make it into a canvas picture to hang on the wall!   I was concerned that the photo might look too blurry when enlarged that much, but it really doesn't! It looks just like the original, only bigger!

I am really excited and pleased with the way it turned out! 

This is my anniversary present to us, as August 16th will be our 56th anniversary! And it is nice to be able to sleep "beside the Still Waters (pond)".  

August is always a busy month for our family, with lots of other people in the family having birthdays and anniversaries.  We had hoped to get everyone together sometime this month to celebrate, but we're having difficulty finding a date that works for everyone. So we may have to break it up into smaller gatherings at different times.  Time will tell.  Either way, at least hubby and I already have started the celebration!  Today we had some errands to run in the "city", so we went to lunch at Captain D's. I like their grilled seafood dinners, and it's not too expensive, so we had that. I am thankful that he was feeling well enough to go. "One day at a time, Sweet Jesus! That's all I'm asking from you..."

This was the sunrise this morning!

And here's one last passage from the Thomas Kinkade calendar for August...some good words of wisdom for us all to remember...

So be at peace, my friends...and have a blessed and beautiful  and safe August. Bye for now!

Sunday Evening Meditation

Psalm 25:1-5

1 To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

2 O my God, I trust in You;

Let me not be ashamed;

Let not my enemies triumph over me.

3 Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;

Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.

4 "Show me Your ways, O Lord;

Teach me Your paths.

5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,

For You are the God of my salvation;

On You I wait all the day."

I thought you'd enjoy seeing that we not only have Bluebirds here on Still Waters Pond, but we also have "red-birds", a.k.a. the Northern Cardinal, and in this case, the male Cardinal. His mate is around there somewhere, but she didn't make it into the pictures.  This male just seemed to be waiting and watching and perhaps listening for God's instructions. "On You I wait all the day."  A good lesson for us today from God's Word.  Be patient and wait on the Lord for instruction...follow God's leading and teachings and you will not go astray!

Last evening I thought I would outsmart the Sand Hill Crane couple and go way around the shore of Still Waters Pond to where I could see their nesting place and wait for them to land for the evening.  They usually fly in around sunset and land on this little scrap of marshy floating island, (see below) where they will spend the night and also where they are building their nest for this spring.  

As I stood on the shore...this close to the water's edge! Yes, if I lost my balance I would be in that water!...

I looked around and across to where our house is and our shoreline, and what do I see?  Mr. and Mrs. Sand Hill Crane had landed on our shoreline, and they were enjoying taking their time and finding things to eat in the weeds along the shore!

So I stood there on the other side (I zoomed in for these pictures) and waited patiently for them to get tired of eating there and fly on over to their nest...

They seemed to be enjoying a leisurely stroll along the shore, and they were in no hurry at all to get back to their nest!

Meanwhile, I'm standing over there waiting and it's getting kind of chilly...I had run out of the house without a sweater thinking it was still warm out since it had been quite warm during the afternoon...

But no, they were in no hurry.  I took these next pictures with my cell phone, so I couldn't zoom in as well, but I liked the way the sunlight was changing the colors as it was setting in the west beside me.

I almost think they knew I was over there watching them, and therefore they weren't going to fly over that way as long as a strange human with a camera was there waiting for them!

Finally I gave up and decided to head back to the house before it got dark.

I didn't take another picture, but when I got back around to the house to go in the back door, they saw me and came right up on the shore into our yard and waited for me to go inside and get them some birdseed! Yes! That's what they were waiting for, the stinkers! LOL.  So I threw them out some seed and they were very grateful and stayed there and ate it until it was too dark for me to even think about going back outside to see where they would go next. Besides, it wouldn't have shown up in a photo anyway!  But perhaps I did what I was supposed to do.

Psalm 145:14-19

14 "The Lord upholds all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down.

15 The eyes of all look expectantly to You,

And You give them their food in due season.

16 You open Your hand

And satisfy the desire of every living thing.

17 The Lord is righteous in all His ways,

Gracious in all His works.

18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,

To all who call upon Him in truth.

19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;

He also will hear their cry and save them."

No, I am not trying to say that I am taking the place of God for these birds. But perhaps I am doing what God wants me to do for them.  Perhaps I am His ambassador here for these creatures of His creation. Or maybe it is simply an example to us of how God cares for us.  When we fall down or are feeling sad or blue or in a difficult situation, we can rely on God to provide for us.  "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him...and He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He also will hear their cry and save them."    If God provides food for the creatures of the earth, how much more will He provide for us, His beloved children who are calling upon Him in truth, and who are looking expectantly to Him for help in time of need?  Yes, as surely as we take care of our own, even sometimes in exasperation because our own don't always perform the way we want them to...yet because of love we take care of them...God also cares for us, even when we don't always perform the way He wants us to...because He loves us.   He will "hear their cry and save them."   Amen!

Now just for laughs as I close this out for the night, this afternoon I looked out the window here in my "Room with a View", and saw "Blackie" the neighborhood cat sitting on a little container on the back porch that has an old rug on top of it...just sitting there giving himself a bath and then relaxing and looking around like he owned the place.

I had to chuckle, because everytime I look out on the porch, Blackie has chosen a different place to sit! We have three wicker chairs, and he goes from one to the next and back again, depending upon his mood I guess. I told my hubby he reminds me of Goldilocks, trying out each chair and then the "bed" to find the one that is "just right".  

And speaking of beds that are just right...I guess it's time to say good night!

Isaiah 26:3  NKJV

3 You will keep him in perfect peace,

Whose mind is stayed on You,

Because he trusts in You.