Happy Halloween!

Thanks to all of you who visited my "Scavenger Hunt" post this past week. Many of you ventured to make a guess as to what the mystery item was in #10.  Some were close, but not quite close enough. If you recall, I gave you a hint that this item could "possibly be related to the title of my blog."  

I thought that was a pretty good clue myself, but perhaps just not quite enough information.

So, in my post yesterday, "What Do You See?",  I gave you another clue, but I am not sure that many of you caught that it was a clue, so here is the picture again:

Does that help?  Any further guesses before I reveal the real answer?

Well, here is another clue...does that make it any easier to guess?

I'm sure some of you are saying "Ah Ha! I see it now!", while others may still be scratching their heads. What does "Closed Doors, Open Windows" have to do with these pictures? Well, what do you use to close a door? 

Eureka! You've figured it out!! Yes! A glass doorknob in the sun on our back porch!

Yes, the mystery object was none other than the sunlight shining through a glass doorknob from my collection of antique doorknobs!

What do you use to "close a door?"  A Doorknob!

 Whew!  I'm glad we finally figured that out! 

Now one more "creepy" picture just for Halloween:

We were standing out on the back porch last night after supper, visiting with our kids, and I just happened to look over at this tree in our yard and noticed something I'd never noticed before:

What do you see?  Is it just me, or is there a scary Halloween face in that tree?

Never saw it before, so I'm thinking it is just for Halloween!

Boo! Did I scare you?

Now, in case you wonder what I do when I'm not taking pictures of glass doorknobs in the sun or creepy faces in trees and other crazy stuff, I do have a real life.

Yesterday, (well, actually the last two days), we decided to go car shopping. After much discussion, praying, and counting the cost and studying our budget, we decided it was time to do something about our 14 year old car with 200,000 miles on it before it decided the issue for us by breaking down. Now mind you, our sweet silver 2006 GMC Envoy has served us well for the past almost 8 years that we've owned it, and we have felt that it was a blessed by God vehicle that rarely ever gave us any trouble. But we have been thinking for a while that it was time to make a trade.  And so we went shopping.  After two days of test driving and haggling over prices and how much they would give us for our trade (not much!), we decided to take the plunge and buy a "new to us" car. We never buy a real "new" car. Looking at the prices of even the used cars gave us sticker shock and about caused us to back out of any deal several times... But finally, after more prayer and discussion we decided to sign on the dotted line and drive home in this:

Yes, another GMC vehicle...we figured the one had been so good why not try another?

This one is a 2017 GMC Terrain. Kind of a sparkly charcoal gray.  There was another beautiful sapphire blue one that I really liked, but it was more money and we couldn't quite make it work, so I compromised on the gray for less money.

And we pray that God will bless this vehicle the way He did the other, and that it will also last us a nice long time.

The family all came over to check it out and make sure we had a good deal. And they even brought us supper!

Our daughter in love and her sister (who is visiting for a while) brought a delicious homemade chicken noodle soup and some wonderful "Red Lobster Cheesy Garlic Biscuits". It was a perfect supper for a chilly fall evening after spending our day in a car dealership haggling...

And then after supper we all played a game of "Scattergories", which was a lot of fun.

It was actually rather brain teasing for this old gal, but that's a good thing. The older we get the more we need to keep "teasing" our brains and keep them functioning.

Back outside, a flock of Canadian Geese flew over the pond and house.

I hope they will decide to land in the pond and entertain us again soon!

A perfect ending to a perfect day.

Happy Halloween!!

Psalm 105:1

 

Oh, give thanks to the Lord!

Call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples!

 

"Let Heaven and Nature Sing" Again!

 People have asked where I was going to put this sign in our new house. It used to be the banner picture for my blog until we moved here. (For more history about this sign, go back and visit HERE) It has taken some time to be sure exactly where I wanted to put it. To me, it needed to be over a window that speaks to the subject. Although this particular window in my little den is rather small, it is where I sit to write to you and I can view "heaven and nature" singing all day long, and so this is the place that answered the call. Here on this wall I have put some of my favorite nature photos from our previous home, as well as the little cross-stitched plaque that reads, "When God closes a door, He opens a Window"...the inspiration for this blog (you can read more about that HERE). 

And so now that that is settled, I can relax and begin to enjoy all the beauty and joy of "heaven and nature singing" all around me.

One thing that is different here at our new house is we don't really have a good place to walk right in our own neighborhood like we used to. Hubby and I used to faithfully take a walk every morning and evening on our old road, because it was a quiet, peaceful walk through the woods, and nature abounded on all sides.  Here we have more neighbors, more traffic, and not much to look at of real beauty outside of our own back yard and pond.  So we decided we needed to find a place to take regular walks before we get too much out of shape! If you will recall, this past summer while we were waiting to move into our current home, we were staying at our church's parsonage temporarily.  That house is located on a quiet street with more woods surrounding it, and it was a good place to walk. It is about two or three miles from our new house, but not too far to take a little ride over in the mornings and take a walk...so that is what we decided to start doing.  Here are a few pictures from what we saw while on our walks:

 I absolutely love seeing the fall wildflowers blooming all through the woods and along the roads.

And then we came to a spot where someone had abandoned this boat...in the middle of the woods, away from water...no houses around...someone apparently just decided this was a good place to dispose of it. Why? I don't know...but if you know someone who would like a "project" boat...

 I know where you could find a couple of them to fix up...

Back to the lovely wildflowers...

Purples and yellows seem to be the color theme for fall wildflowers...

Oh, big foot showed up...actually, that is MY big foot, size nine, next to this giant pine cone!

Back to the flowers again...

There were so many and so lovely that I decided I just had to bring home a bouquet...

 However, I soon discovered that wildflowers do NOT have a delightful fragrance to go along with their natural beauty...and the scents perfuming the air were actually causing me some sinus distress...so out to the deck they went...and eventually I had to put them even further away outside because the odor was so strong we couldn't sit on the deck near them....so I guess that is why they are meant to grow out in the wild, and not in people's gardens!

However, speaking of people's gardens, the "memorial garden" Don Juan Rose bush is at it again...blooming and giving me such joy...and this fragrance is truly heavenly!!!

You may note in the bottom corner of that picture a little bit of my flannel shirt showing...yes!!! It was actually cool enough these past few mornings to put on a flannel shirt while going out for our morning devotions on the deck and then our walk to the woods....Hooray! Fall has finally arrived in Florida!  Today we are getting some much needed rain from that tropical storm that passed through. I hope it isn't doing any serious damage anywhere else. We are very happy for the rain. Our pond was starting to evaporate!! Now it looks much happier.

 This giant blue heron was walking quite close to shore the other day...and I could tell that the water was getting rather shallow by where he was able to walk...

Our resident hawk continues to keep a watchful "hawk eye" on everything that happens around here.

The hawk may have even noticed that we had some lovely visitors pop in for a delightful visit this week:

You may recognize Barb and her "beloved" husband Tom from her blog, "Sweet Tea and Sandals", located HERE.  If you know Barb, you know that she and her hubby love to take little day trips, and they often link up with some of our other blogging friends in the process. We were so blessed to have them visit...this is actually our third visit within the past year! Now that they are located just  a little over an hour away, we hope to get together more often.  We would also welcome other blogging friends to join us! We may have to plan a meeting at a location that would be more central for some of our Florida friends, and have a real "blogging-gab-fest". 

It's always nice when friends go out of their way to make something special for you...this banana nut bread, baked by Barb, was delicious!!! Thank you so much!!!


This was our view the other evening as the sun was going down across the pond. In the early mornings and the evenings we can truly hear "heaven and nature sing" around the pond...in the mornings the birds are eagerly awakening and calling to one another as they seek out their food for the day, and in the evenings the frogs and the cicadas and night birds call out that the evening has come and it is time to settle in safely for the night.

I will close with these words from Psalm 105, which we read in our morning devotions today:

1.  "Oh, give thanks to the Lord!

Call upon His name;

Make known His deeds among the peoples!

2.  Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him;

Talk of all His wondrous works!

3.  Glory in His holy name;

Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!

4.  Seek the Lord and His strength;

Seek His face forevermore!"

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!"

Psalm 150:6

Have a blessed day, my friends.

Perhaps you can looks for places where you can hear

"heaven and nature sing"...