Saturday Wanderings

Happy Saturday!  I hope this day finds you enjoying some beautiful skies, fresh air, and God's lovely world around you!  Or, maybe you are enjoying staying indoors in your "cool" house, away from the heat and humidity and/or other weather issues.  Wherever you are, I hope you are doing well.  

It was such a lovely morning, we decided to take a little ride to the Kenwood boat ramp...not to go boating as we do not have a boat, but just to enjoy the natural beauty of a morning that started out a few degrees cooler than it has been the rest of the week, and humidity was lower as well...so it was a good time to get out while the getting's good!  This lovely dragonfly above was enjoying sunning himself on a picnic table. I appreciated him staying still long enough for me to take his picture!

It was a picture-perfect morning...blue skies and green trees reflecting in the cool green waters of the canal leading to the Kenwood Recreation Area and Rodman Reservoir

I enjoyed walking around and taking pictures of everything I saw...I hope you don't mind a lot of pictures...I missed the weekly Friday Foto Friends post for yesterday, so this will make up for that.

Beautiful Live oak tree shading the picnic area...

 I am not going to attempt to identify all the water plants and flowers...just enjoy them...

Ah, but those eggs are actually Florida Apple Snails, and I believe these are the native variety. There are many invasive species starting to takeover our fresh waters, but these look like the native snail eggs.

It's a great day for boating and fishing, and there were many trucks with boat trailers in the parking lot already, so I assume the lakes/rivers are full of fishermen out enjoying a beautiful day on the water. 

We were quite content to stay onshore and admire God's wonderful creation.  

Another Post about this location from last Fall

And also a post from the winter time

Back on the home front, last night I noticed this little Brown Anole (lizard) on our back porch. He looks kind of funny because he is shedding his skin.  Apparently they do that several times a year. It is interesting to get to see this actually happening:

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

"16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 

18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Here is the latest photo of the Century Plant/Agave, that is blooming as it is actually dying:

It is still quite beautiful, even in its last days of life...

We stopped by to see the Hawthorn bush that I've been watching on our walk, and this strange thing was growing on the tree.  Here is the link to what it is...a kind of fungi.

https://wiki.bugwood.org/Gymnosporangium_clavipes_(cedar-quince_rust_on_hawthorn)

Here is what the actual hawthorn berries look like:

I just think that's interesting!

Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird are at it again, building another nest in the birdhouse!  They've been quite busy at their task, even though we've had 95 degree temps most every day this past week. Seems like it would be too hot to stay in the birdhouse and sit on a nest...but hubby said maybe the heat will help incubate the eggs for them so they can take more breaks! LOL. Probably not, but I hope the baby birds will develop and maybe we'll get to see them this time!

And Mr. Red Shouldered Hawk has still been fussy about the loss of so much of his habitat on the lot next door...

He was scolding me for being so close (although I was really quite far away...trust me!)

I hope the Hawk family will be okay once the dust settles.

Oh, btw! Today is the first day of June!! Hard to believe we are already to the half way point in this year! My, how time flies!  

As per my usual post for the first of the month, here are the calendar photos for June:

This is the John Sloane Country Seasons calendar, which I love so much. This picture is so beautiful...I can just visualize myself standing there with that sweet doggy, looking at "Out Town". I think I would love to live in a town that looks like this...no cars, just horse and buggies...sometimes it's nice to dream about living in such a world...but then reality hits...no air conditioning, no electricity, no indoor plumbing...so, if we could live in a town like this and have all the amenities mentioned above, that would be lovely...what do you think?

And then we could have a tea party...although this particular picture/tea display looks more modern than the above picture.

Here's the quote for the month from the Teapot Calendar.  Funny...

Now, here's the cute little Susan Branch calendar for June...cute ideas for summertime picnics...speaking of watermelon...I have one waiting to be cut, but I don't have room for it in the fridge, so we are waiting until we can make more room, or until there are more people here to help us eat it. "The Kids" said they'd come over tomorrow afternoon and help us eat it! LOL.

Here's the Thomas Kincade calendar for June...isn't that a lovely garden?  Oh, wouldn't I love to have a garden that looked like this!!  I'm afraid my brown thumb just can't quite accomplish this kind of beauty, try as I might! LOL.  

Amen to this verse:

It goes very well with the following picture from the calendar in my bathroom...isn't that beautiful?

So, how does your June look? Is it going to be busy? Are you going on any vacations this summer? Our June calendar already has several medical appointments listed...still working through all the follow ups and test results, etc.  Hopefully maybe by the end of the month we can think about doing something fun, like getting away from the heat for a while. Not sure where or how, but we can dream, can't we?

Well, friends, here it is the end of the day and time to say good night.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and we get up early to get to Sunday School on time. Hubby is the teacher, so we'd better not be late! LOL.

One last verse from my daily devotional book...the header page for June...Good place to end the day...

Amen.

Good Night!

Monday Monday...

Here it is Monday, August 22, and I still haven't posted my usual monthly calendar post! August has just slipped right through my fingers with so much activity going on.

There's been no time for me to go swing on a swing like this sweet little girl and her doggy...the caption says "After Chores"...that's probably why I haven't...the chores just keep coming! LOL.

This painting is from my "Country Seasons" Calendar by John Sloane. His paintings always seem to capture my heart. Wouldn't you love to be there too? Oh to be a carefree child again...

Then on another wall in my "Room with a View" I have this Teapot Calendar, which features a different delightful teapot each month.  My dear sister Doris gives me this calendar each year for Christmas, although she said last year they are getting more difficult to find...so we shall see what happens this year!  I save them from year to year because they have so many interesting pictures and stories about teatime around the world...like this one from Rustic Brittany:

Now don't you want to find a delicious loaf of crusty bread and slather it with some creamy fresh butter and have a cup of tea with me?  Let's do it!!

We can pretend we are sitting in this lovely cottage, which was painted so beautifully by Thomas Kinkade...Now that truly would be a delight!

One delightful thing that happened this month was our anniversary, which you already know about. We received this beautiful card from a thoughtful gentleman in our church who makes it his ministry to send out cards to everyone for their birthdays and anniversaries.  Little did he know that swans are especially meaningful to us.  My hubby bought the lovely glass swans for me one year because he remembered that his mother told us that swans were a part of our family crest on her mother's side. And even though I have been unable to verify that claim, it was still a beautiful thought and we have adopted it for ourselves.  So receiving this lovely card on our anniversary was very touching.

Next week we will celebrate our son's birthday on his actual birthday...and then again we will celebrate with the family at large on Labor Day! Family from a couple of hours away will be traveling here on Labor Day so we can actually celebrate not only Ben's birthday, but our nephew Nicholaus' birthday, which is on the same day, just 31 years apart, and also my husband's brother Bill's birthday, which was earlier this month, and also my niece Debbie's birthday, which is a few days after Ben's birthday! Then of course there was our anniversary, and my hubby's brother Bill and wife Peggy will have an anniversary this month as well! August is a big month! Oh, wait! I almost forgot, my niece and her hubby had their anniversary this month too! And their son will have a birthday right around Labor Day...so it will be a BIG celebration!  Everyone is coming here and they all want to tour Dixie Cottage after lunch! It will be a fun fun day!

So moving right along and flying by to say so long, like this pontoon plane that flew over us the other day while we were walking...

I will say farewell for now!

Have a happy Monday!