Monday Monday~"This Is My Father's World"

Happy Monday!  After a busy and somewhat difficult week/weekend, I am happy to be starting a new week. Our calendar looks relatively free (so far), and it looks like a good week to try to let my mind and body relax and recapture the joy and beauty of the world around us.  We started out the morning by taking a little ride down to the Kenwood Boat Ramp, because there's a good place to walk around for my hubby, and a good place for me to get close to nature and just enjoy what the Lord has provided. And He didn't disappoint this morning. (He never does!).  

This very familiar old hymn, "This Is My Father's World", came to my mind as I was writing this and looking at the pictures that I took this morning at the boat ramp, and also some taken in our own yard this morning and yesterday afternoon.  Maybe you can listen to the music while you look at the pictures.

This is my Father's world

(Little Blue Heron)

And to my listening ears

All nature sings, and roundly rings

The music of the spheres

This is my Father's world

The birds their carols raise

The morning light, the lily-white

Declare their maker's praise

This is my Father's world

I rest me in the thought

Of rocks and trees,

 

of skies and seas

His hand the wonders wrought

This is my Father's world

Oh, let me ne'er forget

Vulture

That though the wrong seems oft so strong

God is the ruler yet

This is my Father's world

Why should my heart be sad?

The Lord is King, let the heavens ring

God reigns, let the earth be glad

This is my Father's world

He shines in all that's fair

In the rustling grass I hear Him pass

He speaks to me everywhere

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the music.  Especially these last pictures of our Blackie...the giant flower in the zinnia garden...I was mildly scolding him for laying on my flowers, but he was so cute, I couldn't be very mad at him...He just wanted to enjoy smelling the flowers along the way. 

The blueberries are on my own bush.

I picked this many ripe ones this morning...

And there are still many more ripening for the future!

I enjoyed them on some yogurt and granola...

The pictures of the Baby Bluebird in the birdhouse shared above and then the empty nest is actually a sad story. I hesitate to even share it, but it's all apart of the cycle of nature. Sadly, I witnessed a very large crow come and snatch that precious little bluebird right out of that window not too long after I had taken that picture. The parent bluebirds rapidly zoomed into action and chased the crow, who was still holding the baby in his beak, out across the pond, where they had quite a battle, but I am sorry to say that the poor baby bird did not survive the fight, and the parents flew back home to the nest bereft of their child. As far as I know that was the only baby they had from that clutch of eggs.  However, I have noticed that they have been coming back and checking out the birdhouse again, and perhaps they will start another nest.  I removed the old nest from the house, because they won't build on top of it.

I am sad about the bluebird, but I love the way the parents have come right back to start again. I don't know whether they will be successful this time or not, but they are not easily discouraged. They have a 'calling' to "multiply" and "replenish" the Bluebird kingdom.   So they get back to work, building their nest.  They did grieve...I saw how they chased that bad crow and tried their best to rescue their baby, but when they knew they couldn't win that fight, they came back home and said we'll try again.  

Sometimes in life that's what we have to do as well.  We can't rescue every child, we can't keep bad things from happening in this world. We can't stop the process of aging, no matter how hard we try. But we can keep trusting God for every new day. We can count the blessings we do have, and rejoice in the Lord for each new day.  Because when we take the time to count our blessings, we realize that we often have more reasons to Praise God than we do to feel sorry for ourselves. 

Psalm 103 KJV

103 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5 Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

I bet if we tried hard enough, we could find 10,000 reasons to praise Him!  

Okay, on that note I will close this for today. I am trusting God for a good good week...one day at a time! How about you?  

 

Tuesday 4~Simply the Best!

 Simply the Best!

Note from Annie, our Hostess: "Here is an older Tuesday 4 from Toni with a few changes I've made. I hope you enjoy."

I am scratching my head on all of these questions today. I am almost 76 years old. In 76 years of life, I cannot think of just one thing that was the best thing in each of these instances.  There have been so many wonderful things throughout the years...how can I possibly choose? I can barely remember all the things I've purchased or read or places I've been or TV /movies I've watched, let alone narrow them down to the best. There are so many different categories to choose from.  So I will do my best to come up with some appropriate answers, but I really can't say that any of these will be the very best...

1. What was the best thing you have ever bought?

Well, I was thinking perhaps our house, even though it's not perfect, it meets our needs and was an answer to many prayers.  But then, I thought how about my computer? It opened up a whole new world for me...and gave me a connection to people that I never would've known or met  or even heard about without this amazing invention. It also connects me to family and old friends that otherwise I would've lost contact with.   The other thing is my digital camera, but that was a gift from my brother when he felt sorry for me being the last person on earth who was still using a film camera! LOL. But then the cell phone came along with another camera, and that really opened things up! See? It's impossible to answer this question with just one thing.

2. What was the best book you have ever read?

Well, that one's easy: The Bible! It's a book that I keep on reading every day. It's a "gift that keeps on giving". It's a love story with a very happy ending. There's mystery, adventure, romance, poetry, everything you could ever ask for in a book...and it's  personal...written for each one of us...a love letter to us from God, through His Son Jesus Christ! It is the Word of God, inspired by God's Holy Spirit, and it is the Truth.  Other than the Bible, there is no other book to compare. I've read lots of good books throughout my life, and I even have collections of books that I loved, but none can compare to The Bible.

3. What is the best trip/vacation/holiday you've ever had?

 Again, it's impossible to narrow it down to one.  I've not taken many exotic trips to faraway places, (actually NONE), and throughout my whole life it seemed that the majority of our trips/vacations were to go visit relatives...grandparents when I was a child, and then to bring our kids home to visit their grandparents when they were children.  Those were our "vacations".  We did have some trips that were just vacations to different places, but I honestly cannot narrow it down to the best of any of them. I loved visiting my family as a child, and the trips we took to get there and back were wonderful. We camped in tents in the State Parks through the mountains, and waded in freezing mountain streams to find a perfect rock to bring home with us, we saw lots of sights along the way and played road games with my siblings as we traveled on the winding mountain roads and through the fields and woods and cities. I guess those special vacations that we took as a family when I was a little girl will always stand out in my memory as "the best".  This is a LINK to an older post about family vacations, with a surprise "visitor" in this post!

4. What was the best movie or TV series you've ever watched?

Again, I can't narrow it down.  I guess the movie would be "The Sound of Music". I can still sing most of the songs from it! I don't think I sound too much like Julie Andrews anymore, however.  TV: I remember enjoying watching Downton Abbey...and I did watch the last "movie" they did, but I was not overly impressed with it. It kind of fell flat if you ask me.  Oh, I loved the Anne of Green Gables original series...   As a child I loved to watch all the old shows, I Love Lucy #1, Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver...and there were SO many more.  I really can't narrow this down. Sorry!

So what would your answers be? Get blogging and let us know.

Those are my answers. I'll probably think of a bunch of other stuff once I hit "publish" on this one! LOL. Meanwhile. this morning we took a ride to the Kenwood Recreation Center/Boat Ramp. They finally have water again...Remember when I shared THESE photos in February? Click on the link.

Well, here's how it looks now. They opened up the dam again and allowed water to fill the river/lake. 

This "Little Blue Heron" was happy to be able to fish here again:

I love this tree...

It always makes me think of this scripture passage from Psalms:  (from "the BEST BOOK I've ever read!)

Psalm 1:1-3  KJV

1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

And I found another little friend there...

Hello Mr. Squirrel:

He re"TREE"ted to a safe spot to watch me pass by! 

See? Without my "best purchase" of a cell phone/camera/and computer, I wouldn't be able to share these pictures with you. We wouldn't even know each other! 

Thank you, Annie, for coming up with these questions each week. I know it gets difficult sometimes to come up with good topics...and sometimes it gets difficult for us to come up with good answers...but at least we try, and that's all that matters!  It's all about making friends and getting to know each other better, and that's the best gift of all!

Have a blessed day my friends! You're "Simply the Best!"

A Little Bit of Nature to Start off the New Year

Happy 1st Saturday of the New Year!  It's a beautiful day here...breezy and sunny, with the hope of some rain tonight!! Keep Praying!  Speaking of rain and our "Still NO Waters Pond", this was the scene that greeted us early this morning:

It was quite unusual to see all these different species of water birds out on the dry pond together this morning! From left to right there were Canadian Geese, a Great White Egret, Sand Hill Crane, a Little Blue Heron that I almost didn't see because he's so small, another Canadian Goose  and a Great Blue Heron, and the other Sand Hill Crane! Normally they are rivals for any space on the pond, but today they are sharing what little bits of water rivulets they can find among the grasses and mud!

It really was quite a scene!!  We haven't seen any Canadian Geese all fall, which is unusual, but because the pond is so dry they haven't been landing here. So it was a surprise to see three of them out there today.  They didn't stay a long time, but it was a joy to see them at all!

You can see how pathetically dry the pond is.  It really is heart breaking.

But still they came and stayed a while and must've found something interesting out there to eat...and they weren't fighting over it either!

In this picture below, if you look way back in the back on that fallen tree, there are actually two of those pesky Muscovy Ducks sitting back there!  They didn't try to join the party of the other birds, however. Maybe they know they aren't welcome...

Hi Mr. Goose! I'm sorry there's no water for you to swim in right now.  

Still, I think these pictures are interesting as they foraged for whatever food they could find...

Looks like something must've gotten their attention! They are all facing the same way!

Except for Mr. Goose...something else has his attention:

I think these are his two lady friends...

Well, everyone is back to doing their own thing again...but wasn't it nice to see them all being cooperative with each other for a while? Gives us hope for our world in 2026...

Now, switching gears for a minute to a new location... Remember when I showed you these pictures HERE at the Kenwood Boat Ramp in October?

Well, we took a little ride down there this morning, and THIS is what it looks like now!

I don't think they need to worry about hitting any manatees in that water now...

However, don't be alarmed. This is NOT because of the drought!  This waterway is connected to a large dam and reservoir, and they do a "drawdown" of the water every few years to help restore the waters. Here is a link to more information: Rodman Reservoir Drawdown 2025

Even though we knew this was happening, it was still quite a shock to us to see it like this...

This is a close up of the area at the end of that canal above, which was a big lake before and a great place for fishing before the drawdown:

If you really want to know more about the controversy surrounding this place, here is an interesting article that gives you more information than you probably really want to know, but for some you may find it interesting: https://floridaphoenix.com/2025/12/11/rodman-drawdown-exposes-the-beauty-of-floridas-lost-springs/   That particular article doesn't paint our Governor in a very favorable light, and I must say on this subject I tend to agree with them, but in everything else he's been a remarkable Governor. Of course, I don't know all the ins and outs of this whole subject, but I would like to see the Ocklawaha River restored to its original beauty and place.  When man starts messing with nature, a lot of natural beauty is destroyed.  But that's all I will say on that subject. It will be interesting to see what develops on this subject in the future. 

I will close this post with this Psalm...I was going to just quote a few verses, but they are all so good I decided to include the whole thing. It just seems appropriate for all we are facing in this day and time.

Psalm 33

"1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;

it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

2 Praise the Lord with the harp;

make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.

3 Sing to him a new song;

play skillfully, and shout for joy.

4 For the word of the Lord is right and true;

he is faithful in all he does.

5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of his unfailing love.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;

he puts the deep into storehouses.

8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;

let all the people of the world revere him.

9 For he spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.

10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations;

he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.

11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,

the purposes of his heart through all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

the people he chose for his inheritance.

13 From heaven the Lord looks down

and sees all mankind;

14 from his dwelling place he watches

all who live on earth—

15 he who forms the hearts of all,

who considers everything they do.

16 No king is saved by the size of his army;

no warrior escapes by his great strength.

17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;

despite all its great strength it cannot save.

18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,

on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,

19 to deliver them from death

and keep them alive in famine.

20 We wait in hope for the Lord;

he is our help and our shield.

21 In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,

even as we put our hope in you."

Amen!

Oh, one more thing...thank you to all who commented on my previous post HERE. Some wondered about the Black Eyed Peas that we ate, and I should've said that what I made was called "Hoppin' John", which is a recipe that adds a few things to the black eyed peas to make them more tasty.  Here is a recipe I found online that is pretty similar to how I made mine, except I cheated and used canned Blackeyed Peas, so I didn't have to soak them and cook them all day.  Other than that, I did add the onions, green peppers and celery and some smoked ham, plus some seasonings to give it a little more flavor. We don't eat a lot of hot spicy foods, so my seasonings were pretty mild (not cajun, like this recipe).  Just a little garlic and a slight bit of cayenne pepper along with salt and black pepper. Everyone's tastes are different, so some make like it with a bit more "heat" than we do.  And we served it over white rice, but any other rice is fine too. It was very good!

Hoppin' John Recipe for New Year's

Happy New Year's again dear friends!!