Wednesday Treasures

Some words of wisdom from God's Word for this Wednesday:

Proverbs 8:34-36 NKJV

34 "Blessed is the man who listens to me,

Watching daily at my gates,

Waiting at the posts of my doors.

35 For whoever finds me finds life,

And obtains favor from the Lord;

36 But he who sins against me wrongs his own soul;

All those who hate me love death.”

Happy Wednesday!   This picture of "Sunshine" makes me think about that first verse above..."Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors...",  And although the writer of the Proverb was speaking about man listening to God,  it made me think about how our kitties are doing in this transition of moving over to our house from our neighbor's house for meals...  Sunshine has been listening for my call, watching daily for me not far from the porch, and then running right up the steps and waiting at the back door for me to bring out the food:

She is a pretty kitty, don't you agree?  

Whearas Blackie, on the other hand, has not been listening, nor has he been showing up on time for meals, and I'm afraid Sunshine has been gobbling down his and her food at the same time.  I have stopped putting out both bowls at the same time, and I wait for Sunshine to finish hers and leave for her daily hunt in the woods before I put out the other dish now, but still I'm not seeing Blackie show up since Monday.  Somehow the food does get eaten, and I don't know if it was Blackie, or if Sunshine came back and helped herself to some more (most likely, because I caught her at it once).

This picture was taken on Monday when they were both here, and although it looks like Sunshine is about to confront Blackie, she actually came over and rubbed cheeks with Blackie and they had a very sweet moment. But since then I don't know what Blackie is doing for meals, and I can't go searching for him. He knows where the food is, and hopefully when he gets hungry enough he will come. The neighbor's daughter, who is still here taking care of things at her mother's house, said she saw him the other night so we know he's still alive, but maybe he's found another place to eat. Who knows? Outdoor "wild" cats like to do their own thing, although Blackie is quite tame and has been well fed for quite a while. So I will give him a little more time to figure it out...there is a full moon, and I've noticed a lot of cat activity in the neighborhood with other "wild" cats...so that could explain everything...

I will keep you posted. I sometimes think one needs a degree in cat psychology to figure these things out. LOL.

I went to check on the Gnome House in the yard this morning because hubby was going to mow the grass and I wanted to make sure they were safely out of the way.  Click HERE for when this little house was first created.

When I arrived I was shocked to discover everything in great disarray and it looked like a war zone...

What on earth happened here?

 Help!

Oh No! What a disaster!!

Everything was blown to bits and the Gnome family was almost buried in the rubble.

The green Toad "toad" me the story of the huge monster that flew in and just started pecking away at their home, knocking off all the bark from the outside and boring big holes in the wood in search of bugs! He didn't care at all about the Gnome family or their belongings. It was just awful!

So I gathered everyone up out of the rubble and took them to the "hospital" and washed off their wounds, and then began the search for a new home for them, someplace much safer away from the giant woodpecker (most likely a Pileated Woodpecker! )

I decided to put them in the Holly trees in the Secret Memorial Garden, where they should be much safer since the holly tree is a healthy tree and no woodpeckers should be knocking on their doors!

The Gnome family has plenty of nooks and crannies to explore and build their little homes...

So hopefully they will be much safer here and live happily ever after:

Mr. Toad said, "I could've toad you so if you had just listened!"

Yes, sometimes it pays to listen to the little toads who may be much wiser than we are about things having to do with nature!

Oh, finally the beautiful old fashioned azalea bush in the secret garden area is blooming! 

This is the kind of azalea bush that seems to live forever and you will often see beautiful bushes of them blooming in old deserted house lots long after the houses are gone...

Here is a small example...the place where we walk used to have several old homes that had to be removed or torn down when the highway was widened, but it's interesting to see what little flowers are still trying to bloom there...

Those are azaleas at the foot of that old tree, small lasting remnants left behind from what was once a beautiful old home.  

Makes me think about what kinds of things will I leave behind when I am gone on to heaven? I hope it will be a lasting legacy of love and hope and joy and especially the love of the Lord...a fragrant offering of sacrifice to God...

One last thing...the other evening we had a most unusual golden sunset and rainbow after a very stormy day:

I thought those trees looked a lot like the burning bush!

This was looking across the street...do you see the rainbow in the clouds?

It really was gorgeous.  Sadly there had been a tornado earlier in the day at a city a couple of hourse south of us, close to where my sister and her family lives, but thankfully none of them were hurt or had any damage. We give thanks to God for that. My niece said the tornado was about 3-4 miles from where she lives. That's too close for comfort, if you ask me!  Thank You, Lord, for your protection over our loved ones!

Romans 15:13

"13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Amen.

P.S.  Great News, just after I posted this, I tried one more time to call Blackie home for supper.  He was across the street at the neighbor's house, and he saw me and ran pell mell all the way here so fast you'd think he had wings on his feet!

And true to form, just eating from his own dish wasn't good enough...he wanted to share Sunshine's dish of food too.  They are very compatible and fun to watch, and I am much happier now that I know Blackie is safe and sound, although I was a bit nervous as he ran across the street without looking...Thank the Lord nothing was coming!!  I think he knew that...I've noticed that they are both very aware of the traffic on the street and normally they stop and don't cross until the cars are passed.  Shew! I'm glad this story has a happy ending!

Praise God!