Friday Foto Friends and Blessings!

Good Friday morning from Still Waters Pond!  Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird greet you today!

To me, it appears they are sharing love messages with each other as they enjoy a cool bath in the late afternoon sunshine (yesterday afternoon).

God speaks to us with love messages every day, if we just pay attention...

Jeremiah 31:3

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;

I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird came back to check things out at their house and take a bath...

Ah, so refreshing!

Then she flew up into the tree to fluff her feathers and dry off...

Apparently their baby (ies?) flew the nest when I wasn't looking, as it appears the nest is empty. There's no sign of any eggs left in the nest, so I am assuming however many babies were in there flew away to the designated place in the treetops.  I am sorry to have missed it!  But sometimes they prefer to do it when no one is looking for the safety of the baby birds.

Maybe they will come back for a visit too in a day or two, but for now I will just believe they are enjoying their new freedoms and learning to fly "high" with the rest of the birdies.

Meanwhile this was happening next door to us:

This is a lovely large lot on Still Waters Pond that has been recently purchased, and the new owner is actually a developer who is planning to put a brand new manufactured home on the lot and then sell it.  

Thankfully this fellow was just clearing out the underbrush and not really cutting down any big trees.

He was also cleaning out an area to give visual access to the pond...

I went and checked on our Canada Goose father, who is still patiently guarding and waiting for his mate, who is sitting on the nest on the island. I have dubbed the big island "Goose Island" because that is where they have built their nest each time they needed it over the past several years. This is only the 2nd time that we are aware of in the almost five years we have lived here.  If they did it every year, we weren't aware of it. Maybe this isn't the same couple as before? No way to tell. 

Here is the view of the island from the perspective of the newly cleared out area on the lot.

I still can't figure out exactly where the nest is, but I know it is somewhere on the right end of the island above.

Here is a view looking from the middle of the new lot towards the pond:

This is where the bushes were cleared out along the shore...it is kind of mucky down there because the pond has a mucky bottom, due to the decomposition of all those water lilies over the years.  The water levels are getting kind of low right now due to lack of rain.

But this is what you can see if you stand down there and look to the left:

And this is what you can see looking to the right...see the goose to the far right?

This is a wider view looking toward the right...

And this is looking straight ahead:

Back up on the lot, there are some beautiful live oak trees in addition to many other kinds of trees, pines, maple and other kinds of oaks.

Whoever gets this lot will have a beautiful woodsy place to enjoy!

Another view looking toward the pond:

After the clearing was done we found this Yellow Bellied Slider turtle up on the land, laying her eggs and burying them in the dirt.  She apparently found the new trail out of the pond up onto the land and decided the newly cleared lot would be a good place to hide her eggs. She will leave them there and when they are ready, they will hatch and come out of the ground and go back to the pond to live.  I was thinking I should put a marker where she laid her eggs so I can tell the builder not to put the house on top of it!   

Later in the evening we walked over to the lot again, and it seemed as though the birds were making a lot of calls back and forth...this beautiful male Cardinal was calling and calling his mate from the big oak tree in the front yard of our house. I think some birds may have become displaced with all the clearing on that lot and they are trying to find new places to roost...

This was taken just before sunset. It was getting "buggy" out, and I didn't want to stay and get eaten alive by mosquitoes while waiting for the sunset, but it does look like it will be a lovely vantage point to watch the sunsets.

Just after sunrise this morning hubby and I ventured over to the lot again to go and check on our goose family. There's Daddy Goose, sitting on the pond, continuing his vigil of watch-care over his mate on her nest. But where is that nest? I wish I could figure it out!

This is the view of the island and pond around it in the early morning...

I asked Mr. Goose where his lady love was, and he pointed in that direction:

I said, I know she's over there on the island, but I can see her!  She's well camouflaged!

Meanwhile we heard a knock knock knocking sound in the treetops overhead, and I looked up and saw this Pileated Woodpecker up there pecking away at the bugs in that tree:

Then I looked back at the island, and zoomed in on something on the hillside at the end of the island, and what did I see?

That looks like the goose on the side of the hill!!! I NEVER would have thought to look on the side of the hill for her nest!  But she is definitely sitting there, pretty as you please, well camouflaged behind the tall grasses, in a little flattened out area on the side of the hill!!

She was right there before my eyes all that time, and I never noticed!  However, of course, until the land was cleared where I could move over to that different vantage point, I couldn't really see around to that side of the island very well!  So there she is, safe and sound!  I wonder how much longer until the eggs will hatch?  I'm thinking it could be very soon, so please stay tuned!  I hope all the noise on the lot being cleared, etc., doesn't upset her.  So far, she seems pretty oblivious to it all...she's just concentrating on keeping those eggs warm and safe!  Such a good Mother Goose!

Now, in case you are wondering, here is a view looking from the middle of the new lot toward the left (as I stand in the middle of the lot facing the pond), and there is our house!  If you were to come and buy this lot and the new home that is going to be placed there, we could be neighbors!!!!!

This is where I was standing when I took that picture above. This could be your view as you look out the back of your house, maybe from your kitchen window, or from your back porch, and look toward the pond!  Yes, you could probably clear out a bit more of the brush that's blocking the view from there, but just think, you could have your own spot right here on Still Waters Pond!

But you better hurry, because once this place starts being constructed, I expect it will be sold quickly! And it is the very last vacant lot on Still Waters Pond! And just think! We could be neighbors and enjoy watching all the wildlife/and birds together while we sip our cup of tea or coffee or iced tea and take pictures and enjoy all that God has blessed us with!  To quote Mr. Rogers, "Won't you be, won't you be, please won't you be my neighbor?"  

Matthew 22:37-40

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 

38 This is the first and great commandment. 

39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

I am praying for whoever our new neighbors will be. Perhaps God is preparing them for this move right now as we speak...God already knows who they are.  Whoever it is, it is my prayer that they will be blessed here in this location and that we will be able to be good neighbors to them.

Okay, one more thing...You may remember that I told you about my hubby not feeling well last week? Well, he ended up having a CT scan of the brain and a chest X-Ray, per doctor's orders.  We got the results yesterday...the doctor said his brain scan and x-ray were both normal, and that his brain looks exceptionally GOOD for a man his age! No signs of any kind of deterioration or former strokes or anything adversely affecting it! Wow!  We both said "Praise the Lord" right out loud!  That was pretty amazing! And he does feel much better. Not sure what was going on last week, but he's fine now, and we are very very thankful to the Lord for this good news. 

Well,  that's all for now my friends.  But seriously, if you are thinking about moving to Florida...or to relocate to a small country town and live on Still Waters Pond where you will have some good neighbors waiting for you...let me know!  I can put you in touch with the right people!  

Have a blessed and wonderful weekend!!

 

Autographs and Love Notes Revisited

Today is the day I have set apart to share with you my "Wednesday Treasures".  After our "September" questions yesterday for "Tuesday 4", I was reminded of these pictures and this little autograph book. I knew I must have shared it with you before, so I search for the post and found it. I hope you won't mind reading it again.  Be sure to click on the pictures from the Autograph book so you can enlarge them to read.

Note: This is a new picture. The Autograph book is the pink book standing up in front of pictures of my mother and my sister and me, and the dolls are also special "treasures", from left to right: 

Anne of Green Gables, which was one of my mother's collection of Madame Alexander dolls, which came to me because I am named after "Anne" of Green Gables...my name is Pamela Anne.  The next doll is Valerie, a gift from  my Dad for Christmas one year because she has red hair.  Next comes a doll that I gave to my mother for her 85th birthday, and the last one is my Margie doll, named after my Aunt Margie, who gave her to me for my 7th birthday. 

Original Post from 6/6/2017:

I was looking back through my old autograph book the other day...you remember those little books of blank paper that are intended to have signatures of special people, little funny sayings and other special words from friends or family...and I made a few discoveries that I'd forgotten or just hadn't really paid close attention to.

This particular autograph book was a gift from a friend on my 10th birthday!

It's right down there on the table at the far right end... I also received my first and only Barbie Doll for this birthday from my Grandparents!  I still have her today!

Here I am with my friends who came to my party.  L to R: my neighbor Kim, my cousin Becky, me, my girlfriend Rhonda, and my friend Linda. Linda gave me the autograph book!

I thought it would be kind of fun to go back through and share with you some of the funny and special autographs that I collected in this little book.

The most famous autograph in my book was from the actress Gloria Swanson:

 This was also on my 10th birthday.  Gloria Swanson came to a local new housing development for their grand opening, and my parents took me to see her.  I didn't even know who she was as she was a rather "old" movie star at this time, but it was exciting anyway.  I also had my picture taken with her and a friend of ours, whose mother was the local photographer for the community newspaper, so this picture also ended up in the paper!

Somehow, she also autographed this photograph, but I don't know how that happened since the picture wasn't developed when we were there with her.  The only thing I can figure is the photographer, Mrs. Bunny Rapalje, must have sent the photo to Gloria Swanson for the autograph and then gave it to me.  I never realized that until today as I wrote this!  And Mrs. Rapalje is no longer living, nor are my parents, so I can't ask them.  Maybe her daughter Janet would know, if I could locate her...

Anyway, I digress...

I was having such fun looking back through this little autograph book, reading all the funny, pithy sayings that many of my friends wrote back in the day...here are a few that were typical:

(You can click on the picture to enlarge for better reading)

My cousin Becky wrote this!

(This was written by my big sister...)

It appears that I didn't use this autograph book much after about age 12, so that explains the "maturity level" of these autographs.  I also noticed that even though I saved a special page in the book for a "special fella" to write on, none did.  I guess it was just the age...boys still thought girls had cooties and would never write in our autograph book...and if they did, it probably wouldn't have been anything very "special".

However, in between the silly sayings I did discover two very special messages from my mother.  One I actually chose as my life verse and the key verse that stays on the front page of this particular blog:

My mother wrote this as "A Thought for Every Day"....(and that is why I chose it as my life verse!)

Psalm 19:14

  I just realized that she inadvertently  left out a couple of words, so here is the verse in its entirety:

"Let the words of my mouth 

and the meditation of my heart

be acceptable in Thy sight,

O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

And this note I had actually forgotten or not realized was in here...and just rediscovered it when looking through the pages again...and it is perhaps the most valuable and important message of all to me:

When I read this I just cried.  My mother has been gone from earth for about 11 years now, and this was written to me way back about 55 years ago...and I honestly do not remember reading it before now. The other one I had read over and over again, but the pages must have been stuck together on this one because I just don't remember reading it before.  And what a powerful blessing and prayer for my life!

"Dear Pamela, 

I have nothing very clever to say...I'll just put it on record that I love you so much and pray that you will continue to grow in spiritual goodness and love of God.  

Your Loving Mommy."

Wow! How can I say thank you now to my mother for this wonderful blessing?  I am humbled and in awe of this, because when she wrote this to me, I was only about 11 years old...and I wonder just how much this "prayer" that I would "grow in spiritual goodness and love of God" had to do with the way my life turned out?  I will not claim that I have much "spiritual goodness" in and of  myself...whatever "goodness" is there can only be because of Christ and what He has done in my life...and my love of God is due to Christ loving me and giving Himself for my salvation as well...but I wonder if I would ever have reached that place in my life if it had not been for this prayer and the loving example of my parents and other godly people throughout my life who helped to direct my steps into the right paths that would lead me to Christ.  

When you are a child you sometimes take for granted the love of your parents and other important people in your life...but I know there are many perhaps reading this today who have never experienced that in their own lives.  We can't go back and "do over" life. We can't make our parents into what we wish they could have been for us.  But we can start now, wherever we are in our own lives, and make a difference in the children, grandchildren or other special young people over whom we may have some influence.  We can speak words of love and praise and encouragement that could make a total huge difference in the paths they may choose to take in the future.  We can PRAY for them even when we may feel we don't have any other way of reaching out to them due to circumstances beyond our control.  Many families are broken, separated, spread far apart, and you may feel you can't make any significant impact on them at all.  But you can pray!  Even if that is the only way available...it is always the best way!  God hears our prayers...and He answers them in due time.  

Thank you for taking this little walk down memory lane with me.  

"The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying:

"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you."

Jeremiah 31:3

Click HERE for another post on this topic.