Happy First Day of Summer!!

Happy First Day of Summer!  I looked out the front door this morning and noticed these sweet little pink wildflowers blooming, and decided they needed a closer look! 

It is a Pale Meadowbeauty  "Pale meadowbeauty occurs naturally in wet flatwoods, open savannas, marshes, bogs and wet roadsides. It flowers spring through fall and attracts many pollinators, especially bees."   I love it when God provides special little beautiful gifts to brighten our days!  Of course, once we mow that part of the lawn again, they will be gone, but hopefully they will come back to visit again.  I do see them scattered about in various places.  Just a happy little harbinger of summer!

Remember the other day when  I showed you these blueberries that I picked from our own bush?

Well, when I went outside this morning to look at those pretty little pink flowers above, I noticed that many of the pink blueberries that I had left behind had now turned blue, so I picked another handful of berries this morning, 

and there were just enough to do this for breakfast:

Yes!  I made Blueberry Pancakes!!

And those little blueberries were just popping full of delicious blueberry goodness!!

Of course, we had to have some scrambled eggs with bits of ham to give us some added protein with our breakfast,  but I can tell you this was delightfully delicious!  And with our very own blueberries!   

Can you tell that I am just a little bit happy about this?  LOL.

I thought it was a great way to usher in the first day of summer!

After breakfast we got cleaned up and headed to town to Walmart to do some necessary grocery shopping.  Nothing too exciting about that.  We wanted to get there early to beat the heat and the Friday morning rush, and we were thankful that we did just that.  

So now we are settled in back home with nothing particular to do today except stay inside and keep cool! Summertime here in our part of the world has felt like it was already here for the past month already.  Right now it is 92 degrees and hopefully we will get a thunderstorm this evening around 7:00 p.m.   I doubt that it will cool us off by much, but at least it will add some more water to the pond and keep the grass, flowers and trees (and blueberries) growing!  And the birds and critters are all much happier when there is plenty of rain to keep their food sources growing too. 

I went outside to get the mail and then did a little "walkabout" the yard to see what things were growing along the woodsy edges of our yard...

There is a lot of this:

Inkberry/Gallberry, which is growing wild in our woodsy area. The berries will turn black in the fall. The birds will eat them, although I understand they are bitter and the birds will only eat them as a last resort! 

We have a lot of different kinds of Holly trees/bushes growing wild, especially along the shores of Still Waters Pond.  These berries will turn bright red, and the birds do love them! Especially the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Cedar Waxwings and Robins!(if they migrate through here in winter)

So I am happy to see that there's plenty of extra bird flood growing all around us for the winter time. I'm sure they find plenty of other kinds of seeds and bugs and things to eat in the summer, along with the birdseed we put in the bird feeders.

As I walked around to the back yard, I was wondering where Sunshine and Blackie were hiding to keep cool on this very warm summer afternoon.  All of a sudden, here came Sunshine from out under the back porch...

He came right up to me, sticking out his tongue to say hello I guess, and wanted me to pet him right away, which of course I did.   Who could resist that sweet face?

And then Blackie saw me loving on Sunshine, and he came out from under one of the chairs on the back porch and headed down the steps right away to get his share of lovin'.  Of course, Sunshine went to meet him and they had to bump heads and nibble on each other's ears and say hello...

And then  Blackie came down and found a nice sandy spot to roll in the dirt to say hello to me. LOL.

Silly Kitty. But yes, I did pet and love on him for a while too. He's a sweeetheart, and he didn't want to be left out of any special attention.  I think he thought it was snack time, but as you can tell, Blackie still has a bit of a tummy and really doesn't need any extra "snacks".  But at least we know that HE isn't expecting! LOL.  

Well, speaking of food, it's almost time to start thinking about supper.  I guess I didn't really make any plans today for what to cook! Oops!  But we've been doing the pizza thing on Friday nights most of the time lately anyway, so I think that's what's happening tonight as well. I just have to go to the Dollar General down the street and pick up one and cook it. Easy Peasy!

Here's an old song..."Summertime", from Porgy and Bess...

Summertime, And the livin' is easy Fish are jumpin' And the cotton is high Your daddy's rich And your mamma's good lookin' So hush little baby Don't you cry One of these mornings You're going to rise up singing Then you'll spread your wings And you'll take to the sky But till that morning There's a'nothing can harm you With daddy and mamma standing by

And here is a song that truly speaks to me, no matter what the season or time:

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

Chorus:

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

2

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Chorus:

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

3

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Chorus:

“Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

Amen!

I hope that your summertime is filled with new mercies and all that you have needed, and that you will know just how great is God's faithfulness unto you! Amen.

Friday Fotos - A Lovely Day on Still Waters Pond

Psalm 113: 1-3

1.  Praise the Lord!

Pale Meadow beauty https://flawildflowers.org/flower-friday-rhexia-mariana/

Praise, O servants of the Lord,

Marsh Pink - https://flawildflowers.org/flower-friday-sabatia-grandiflora/

 Praise the name of the Lord!

 2.  Blessed be the name of the Lord

Pineland Heliotrope http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2010/01/pineland-heliotrope-heliotropium.html Update, we now think this is St. John's Wort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypericum

 From this time forth and forevermore!

Florida Swamp Sunflower http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/bakerco/2017/11/13/species-spotlight-swamp-sunflower/

 3.  From the rising of the sun to its going down

 The Lord's name is to be praised."

The flowers above were from my early morning walk around the edge of Still Waters Pond. As you can see from above, the wildflowers were so lovely, I just had to pick a few and bring their sunshine inside with me to enjoy all day long.  I believe the wildflowers were created by God, to show forth their praise to God all day long.

So that is how I started my day. I really can't think of any better way, than to rejoice in God's beauty that is all around us...we just have to have eyes to see and a heart to appreciate His glory.

This afternoon I decided to sit outside in the shady garden beside the pond and read my new book for a while. It was so peaceful and beautiful, listening to the birds sing and the squirrels chatter in the trees above me.

Suddenly there was a flurry of bird activity, and this lovely Blue Jay flew into the bird bath to get a little drink.

I was surprised that he came so close while I was sitting nearby. Aren't his back feathers just gorgeous?

And then, much to my continued surprise, the Blue Jay disappeared, and this beautiful red male Cardinal flew in so that he could also get a drink. It has been so dry here lately, I am sure all the critters are thirsty.

Isn't he beautiful?

I think he is trying to pose just like that red poinsettia beside the birdbath. They certainly could be "twins". LOL.

I looked up in the tree above because I kept hearing something scratching around on the tree limb...and who do you suppose was up there watching me?  Yep...that same pesky squirrel (or one of his family members) who was scolding me yesterday morning for not having the right kind of birdseed for his breakfast!  He's still miffed at me because I haven't gotten anything different yet...so he's keeping a close watch on me!

 I hated to go back inside, but unfortunately "a little birdie in the sky almost threw "whitewash" in my eye"...but thankfully, but not really too thankfully, it landed on my open book...So I had to go inside and clean up the page before it soaked in and ruined my nice new book!! I guess I will have to make sure the umbrella is over me and my book next time. LOL

This morning we did actually go do some shopping in the "big city" next to us. (Not really a big city, but much bigger than where we live.) We went to "Ollies", where you get good stuff cheap, so they say...
And actually, they did have some good bargains. Like this beautiful new garden flag for $3.99. I love its vibrant colors and patriotic theme with Memorial Day and 4th of July coming up, so I couldn't resist.

And then I saw this one! Wow! I love that scene. My dream scene...sadly I don't think our pond will ever quite look like that, especially now as it is SO dry. If we don't get any rain soon, we will just have a bunch of dead lily pads in a mud bog.  But this flag cheered me up and made me smile.

 And since I haven't been shopping in over two months, I decided that I deserved to buy myself this little treat, especially since it was such a bargain!

I also picked up another "bargain"...these rubber boots so that I can go tromping around the pond in the dewy mornings a little better.

 And just as I was taking that picture of my new boots, we heard the Sand Hill Cranes fly in and land somewhere on the other side of our little island.

As you can see in this picture above, it is practically all dry all the way to the island now, but I still can't walk on it as it will sink down into muck...and I am not that game just yet... (Please pray for rain!! We need rain so badly! I'd gladly sacrifice my excursion to the island to have water back in the pond again.)

But, with my new rubber boots, which I quickly jumped into, I was able to walk around the edge of the pond to see the other side of the island...and there they were!!!!

We have noticed that the Sand Hill Cranes have been flying in each evening and flying out in the mornings.  So apparently they are making this their nighttime headquarters for now.  They are standing on a marshy area on the other side of the little island, and I am sure they feel safe there away from predators for the night.

 Here I am in my new boots on the dry pond shore...

After that little adventure, I turned around and climbed back up the bank to our back yard.   Very peaceful in the evenings,

with a nice breeze once the sun goes behind the trees and slowly sinks down into the western sky.

 And another surprise! As I sat there watching the sun setting and enjoying such a lovely breeze, someone plopped down in the chair next to me and enjoyed the sunset and cool evening with me! Now that was a pleasant surprise for certain!

And as we sat there we discovered that we weren't alone...there was a lone opossum making her way across the dry pond bed...

So we sat and watched as she explored a little while, and then she headed back for the bank and we decided it must be time for us to go in too if the night critters were already coming out!

Again...a perfect ending to a perfectly Lovely Day.

"From the rising of the sun to its going down, 

The Lord's name is to be praised!"

Psalm 113:3

(Written on Thursday evening for Friday Fotos!  I am looking forward to seeing what you have been seeing this week!)