Advent Day 14: Let Heaven and Nature Sing!

As I sat here in front of my little window from my "Room with a View" and started to write this post, my thoughts were directed to the sign above the window, and the view of Still Waters Pond early on this Advent morning.  This is kind of like opening a window on the Advent Calendar, if you will! You never know what may be there to surprise or bless you!

The Christmas carol "Joy to the World" came to mind, especially the first verse, which is where this words for this sign came from:

"Joy to the world the Lord is come

Let earth receive her king!

Let every heart prepare Him room

And heaven and nature sing

And heaven and nature sing

And heaven and Heaven and nature sing!"

If you've been reading my blog for a long time, you may remember that this picture below used to be the banner photo for my blog, which was at my kitchen window in our last house in Salt Springs, FL., in the middle of the Ocala National Forest. (Click HERE to read a post about this window sill and more)

There were many opportunities to view nature outside that window and all around us at that house.  (Click HERE for an example, in case you've forgotten, or are new to my blog since we left that house in 2019)

But today I wanted to focus on the beauty of God's "wild kingdom" right outside our current window, here on Still Waters Pond.  I love this time of year because it is the time when the migrating ducks and geese and other birds start arriving...some to stay around all winter, and others to just pass through, but all are a delight to see even if for a moment! They sing their songs and flap their wings and it seems to me that they are a part of the heralding in of the Babe born in the manger, the King of kings, and Lord of all creation!

Colossians 1:15-17 says:

"15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, 

visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. 

All things were created through Him and for Him. 

17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

Psalm 24:1 says:

24 

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,

The world and those who dwell therein.

2 For He has founded it upon the seas,

And established it upon the waters.

So it is only fitting that today we will focus upon the beauty and wonders of God's kingdom right here on Still Waters Pond!

I was so excited yesterday morning to look out the window and find a wonderful surprise!

Not just one or two, but a whole family of Black Bellied Whistling Ducks had arrived to our pond!

I know this picture isn't very clear, but I like it. It was early morning, and the sun wasn't fully up yet, so some of these pictures may be a little blurry. 

If you remember HERE in September, a couple of these ducks showed up and stayed around for a little while, and then they disappeared again.  And now look!  I believe this may be the same couple, and they've brought back their whole brood to visit here!  I feel like a proud Grandma of quintuplets! As best I can count, there are five youngsters and the two parents! What a wonderful surprise!

They stayed around for quite a while. There must be something really good for them to eat there along the mucky shore of the pond.  

Of course I took pictures for as long as they stayed in close enough range for me to watch them. I knew you'd want to see them too!

My statement at the top of this blog, under my cover photo says this:

Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!

When God closed the door on our previous home in Salt Springs and brought us here to this house on Still Waters Pond, we had no idea what might be out there waiting for us. I was afraid I'd really miss seeing our bears and deer and other critters from the forest (and I do miss them), but God has provided abundant beauty for us to behold here. I am so very thankful for this open window from my little "Room with a View".  There's always something out there to enjoy if I just open my eyes and look!

Here's a few pictures from the day before the ducks arrived:

Our Canada Goose couple continues to show up most every day. I am hoping they will decide to nest here again this winter/spring and that this time they will be successful. Last year didn't turn out too well for them, but maybe they were too immature yet and needed a year to 'grow up' before starting their own family? Who knows? God knows. Time will tell.

This morning there was no sign of the ducks, but the geese were out there on the pond again, however, you really can't see them in these pictures below. I was mainly focusing on how pretty pond looks in this late fall "early winter" season we are encountering. It was rather overcast this morning, and these pictures were from my cell phone, so they aren't quite as clear, but maybe you'll get the "picture".

As you can see, we still have some autumn leaves on the maple trees around the pond, but with the windy days we've been having lately, they are really starting to fall.  

Here's some added color from around the house and yard! The geraniums are loving this cooler weather, and the Christmas Cactus is starting to really bloom!  

This geranium is blooming under the back porch! I put it there to protect it from the bright sun (and frost whenever we get any) , and it seems to like it under there!  And it still gets plenty of sun and rain and has survived there for a while. Maybe next spring I will bring it back up to the porch.

I don't think I've shown you a picture of the grapevine tree in the daytime that is on the front porch. And a couple of little poinsettia plants beside it.

The little pinecone on the shelf of the table (above) has a story. One day when I went out to get the mail from the mailbox, I noticed this little pinecone just sitting there on the lawn, upright just like you see it above. I looked all around and thought, "where did that come from? There are no pine trees right over it or near by, and even if they were, they seldom land upright like that!"  I decided it must be a little gift from either a squirrel or maybe God just wanted me to notice it because it is special. So there it is!

Here's our shed "decorated" for Christmas. Those wreaths do have lights on them, but they are battery operated and it's too much trouble to keep remembering to go outside at night and turn them on and then go back again in the dark to turn them off, so this year they are just greenery by day to decorate.

And this is the wreath on the front door.

So that's the tour of the outside right now that you haven't already seen. And now I must close this door and open the window of the kitchen to get to work on cooking supper! LOL.  

"Joyful, joyful we adore Thee

God of glory, Lord of love

And hearts unfold like flowers before Thee

Opening to the sun above"

Happy 14th Day of Advent. I hope you enjoyed opening this Advent window today!

Saturday Wanderings in December

 Here it is the 2nd day of December, and we are back to shorts and t shirts and AC clicking back on.  We had a couple of days of wintry weather (for Florida), and I truly hoped it would stick around for a while, but I should know better.  I've lived in Florida most of my life, and there's been many a Christmas day that we were wearing shorts instead of ugly Christmas sweaters! LOL.  This morning started out very foggy

And now this afternoon it is just a rather humid, muggy, late fall day on Still Waters Pond.

Mr. Great Blue Heron doesn't seem to mind.  Must be a good day for fishing...

Normally if I step outside he will fly away, but today he just stayed perfectly still, not wanting to lose his place along the shore...

Perhaps he is practicing this scripture verse:  "Be Still and know that I am God..."  Psalm 46:10

All of creation knows that God is always near.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Cardinal was chirping away at me, perhaps inviting me to tea...

Yesterday morning it was Mr. Pileated Woodpecker pecking away and getting my attention:

We do not get to see them very often here as they are usually very quick and fleeting in their search for the perfect tree to find some choice bugs for breakfast.  

 I was happy that I just happened to be looking outside when this one flew in and stayed around long enough for me to find my camera, turn it on, focus, and get a few pictures. 

And then he was gone.

I feel honored and blessed when God provides such beauty for us to behold.  I am thankful that I was listening and paying attention!

If you've followed my blog for a few years you will perhaps remember that when we first moved here to our home beside Still Waters Pond that we had some areas cleared out a little bit so we could have better access to the pond.  This was in addition to the area directly in front of our house, through the little bits of woods that surround our property along the shore.  Over the past few years we haven't been able to maintain those  clearings very well, as the underbrush grows faster than we can keep up with it, and we really don't have the equipment to keep it clear.  But I've been getting anxious to take a little walk down to the pond again through that woodsy area, and mostly there were prickly vines and small bushes in the way.  I took along my pruning shears and managed to clear enough of a trail for me to get through almost to the water:

Take a little walk with me...this is a much easier way than the way I had to do it! LOL.

There are lots of little holly trees along the way

Oh, at last we can see the water!

I love the reflection of the trees over on the little island...

Yeah, it may not seem like much to some, but I really enjoy walking through here and seeing the pond from a different angle.  Each direction has its own natural beauty.

Thankfully I didn't step on this mushroom!  Maybe someone can identify it.  I'm thinking it is a Cortinarius Violaceus, "Violet Cort", but really it looked more brown than violet. However, it may have been more violet when it was fresh.   I don't think it is edible...at least I wouldn't try it even if it was...

This is the top of it...isn't it interesting?

And a little further down the trail was this interesting discovery.  I am thinking it is some kind of "scat" of a wild animal, but I haven't been able to identify it yet. I thought perhaps a deer at first, but now I'm not so sure.  It looks like something has been enjoying eating the berries...

Well, I hope you enjoyed that little walk with me. I find myself wanting to go back again every chance I get. Meanwhile,  our son Scott wasn't able to come home today to get the Christmas things out of the storage shed. He said he will be here tomorrow afternoon.  So I did manage to pull out this one item to put on the front porch...this is the wild grapevine tree that son Benton and I made several years ago from the wild grapevines growing on our property in Salt Springs. It was quite a task to do this, but it has lasted all these years and was well worth the effort.  Today all I've managed to do is re-string some lights on it after removing the old dead ones.  The ornaments are still in the storage shed, so I will have to finish decorating later.  

If there has been any theme to today, it would be:

Yes!  "Let Heaven and Nature Sing!"....as we enter into this time of preparation for the celebration of the Lord's Birth...may we be tuned into all the ways God's creation is singing his praises around us!

Joy to the world, the Lord is come

Let Earth receive her King

Let every heart prepare Him room

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven and nature sing

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing

Joy to the Earth, the Savior reigns

Let all their songs employ

While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat the sounding joy

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy

He rules the world with truth and grace

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness

And wonders of His love

And wonders of His love

And wonders, wonders, of His love

Have a blessed and joyous Advent season!!