Saturday Meanderings

Today was a lovely autumn Saturday...a perfect day for some "meanderings" here and there.

We took a little ride in the country and came across this flock of wild turkeys doing the "turkey trot" across the field. Actually, they had just crossed the road in front of us, and we had to stop quickly for one of the stragglers. I would like to have had more time to get a better picture (maybe even have time to put the window down!), but there was a car right behind us who almost rear-ended us when we stopped, so hubby didn't want to hold up traffic any longer.  I see at least 11 or 12 turkeys there! I think they are getting out of town before Thanksgiving arrives!  LOL.

We ended up on this road where this old "Florida Cracker House" is... (You can click on that link for more information about Florida Cracker Architecture)

2026-looks like nature is about to take over this old house.

If you've been with me here in blogger for a while, you may have seen this old house before. See this link:  First post about this old house in 2017.  There was some interesting discussion about what people remembered about these old houses on this post:

First picture I took of this house in 2017

The next time we drove by was in 2020, and there was some yellow tape around the property and it looked like maybe they were going to either do some work or maybe sell it?  But apparently not.

Link to former post about this house in 2020

2020

I am concerned that the next time I drive by that house it may be gone or totally swallowed up by nature. I sure wish someone would rescue it and restore it before that happens. But it may be that all the family has either died or moved away and no one seems to care about it anymore. It makes me wonder about the old folks who lived there and raised their families in that house...and now perhaps they are also forgotten. 

This kind of leads me to these next thoughts...I actually hadn't planned to go there, but now it seems I am supposed to...

On Thursday morning I was awakened out of a sound sleep with some strange sensations in my left upper chest and neck area.  I've experienced this before, and it always goes away in a few minutes...not sure if it is a kind of heart issue or a heartburn issue or anxiety, but it was enough to wake me up and make me a bit concerned. I woke up my hubby and he got me a baby aspirin, and I just sat there a while and tried to decide if I should go to the ER or just wait and see how things go.  Actually after a little while it subsided and I was able to get up and move around and go about my normal morning routines.  Only one thing concerned me that I had never experienced before with these episodes, when it was time to read our morning devotions, I normally read out loud from a devotional guide with scripture verses.  Even though I was talking normally, when it came time to read, I was having difficulty forming the words as I read them. My mouth muscles and my brain didn't seem to be quite in sync with each other and it was quite an effort to read.  That kind of scared me, but as the morning wore on I was feeling much better, even though I was kind of tired and headachy most of the day. I decided to call our doctor's office and see if I could get in on Friday, and they just happened to have had a cancellation on Friday afternoon, so thankfully I was able to take it.   When I got to the Doctor on Friday, they did an EKG and checked all my vitals and did the exam for stroke, etc.  Although my EKG showed the same slower response in the right ventricle that had been seen a year or so ago, the doctor still did not see that as anything to be too concerned about. I passed all the other "tests" and he really didn't seem too overly concerned with what he was seeing, but to be on the safe side, he has ordered a CT Scan for me, which hopefully will be scheduled next week. He is trying to rule out a TIA or any other possible malfunction.

These verses below seem to speak to this issue of how I feel about these things...

Psalm 73:26 

26 My flesh and my heart fail;

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 

17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 

18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

I feel much like that old house that is outwardly failing and perishing, but I think about the lives that lived in that house over the years and how full of life and love they must have been during those years...and their spirit continues on into eternity even though the building they once called home is perishing.

  

Our human outward bodies are perishing, but the soul of our internal being is eternal, and when we keep our eyes and thoughts on Jesus, He will give us the strength we need to keep moving forward here until the day He calls us home to our eternal home in heaven. Then this outer shell will become dust and crumble in the earth, but our internal soul will live forever.   I am thankful for this hope of eternity through faith in Christ. No matter what the world may throw at us, we have an imperishable home in heaven that cannot be destroyed.  Praise God!

So Friday afternoon I didn't want to cook supper after an afternoon spent at the doctor's office, so we called Benton, who is still batching it this week until sweet Rose comes home from her father's in Minnesota on Monday, and we decided to go to Hog Wild Country Cafe' for supper.

I took this picture of Benton to send to Rose to show her his new "girlfriend", so she'll hurry up and come home! LOL.  Thankfully she's a good sport, and she sent us pictures of the pies she was baking for her father.  We are happy for her to have this opportunity to spend some time with her family there.

Today was another beautiful morning, and after our ride earlier, when we got home I wanted to stay outside and enjoy the fresh cool air for awhile.  Here's my fall t-shirt:

"Life is Good~Go Outside"

I set up the scarecrow and we bought a pumpkin at the "Walmart Pumpkin Patch" the other day.(LOL) , and I put out my "Happy Halloween" Black Cat flag that I got for my birthday...

I also finally put out this beautiful outdoor decor, which was a birthday gift from a very dear blogging friend...

I couldn't decide where to put it, and tried it on this shepherd's hook in the yard, but it was so windy today that I was concerned it would blow a bit too much there...

So I decided to hang it on this planter trellis frame in the garden, and Blackie approved of this decision:

Speaking of Blackie...this morning someone (not me) forgot to close our bedroom door and also our closet door while Blackie was inside the house for his breakfast.  After he finished eating he disappeared for a while and I didn't notice where he had gone. I went into our bedroom and was calling him, but no response. I looked in our closet, and there he was, asleep (before I woke him up) in the little baby cradle that our son built for me a few years ago to hold my sweet Baby Elva doll...but it is a little too big to put beside my bed in this house, and so it was relegated to the closet and my hubby likes to store some of his comfy pants and t-shirts there...and Blackie discovered it and decided it was a great hiding place for him to take a nap, snuggled up in "Daddy's clothes".  

I took this picture to show that there is still another baby doll and some other stuffed animals in there as well...but poor Blackie looks like he's going to cry and say ,"Please don't make me move".  And so I didn't. I let him curl back up and sleep awhile longer, and pretty soon he came out of his own accord and said he was ready to go outside. LOL.

Doesn't he look pitiful? He's holding on to Daddy's pants and pleading with me not to make him go. Who could refuse such a face as that???

This afternoon has been windy and cool and actually a little bit of a rainy day, and it just seemed like a good day for chili. So I made a pot of chili and called Benton over to share it with us while he and hubby watched some football.

The pot of chili while it was simmering on the stove. Smelled so good!

I meant to take a picture of our bowls of chili, topped with cheese and fritos and sour cream, but I forgot, so here's my clean empty bowl, so you get the idea. LOL.

I also made a pan of brownies, and so we had that for dessert...

Here's Benton enjoying his brownie, while the puppies, Sugar and Spice, are snuggled up next to him on the couch. I know they miss their Mom.

Well, friends, I guess this is all for today. I do feel much better, and I feel confident that everything is going to be fine, but prayers are always appreciated.  It's just one of those things as we get older, things happen and we need to be prepared for whatever comes next. But when we know Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we do not need to fear what the future may hold.

Strength and honor are her clothing;

She shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31:25

Here is the video of our service and choir song for tomorrow morning.  This really goes along with what I've been trying to say...I hope you will take the time to at least listen to the song. It is so beautiful.

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 and Good Night!

Saturday Morning

 Good Saturday Morning everyone!  I hope this morning finds you bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to enjoy a wonderful day!

This funny little ink pen says good morning to you...and to Blackie too!

Blackie loves to jump up on my computer desk when I'm sitting here trying to write to you and/or read your posts, and the only thing that saves me is this funny little fuzzy headed pen. I rub his ears and cheeks and chin with it, and he loves it, and then sometimes he bites it, but at least he's biting it instead of me! LOL.  He doesn't like for me to reach for the computer mouse or keyboard and so he nips at me and tries to get all my attention. It can be quite exasperating, but I give him some good head rubs and pretty soon he's happy to jump back down in search of other adventures (or to finish his breakfast food instead of me! LOL)

Yesterday afternoon, after I finished writing a post HERE, where I didn't have a lot of pictures to share, I went outside and took a little walkabout the yard, and as I was examining this holly bush to see if it had any berries forming on it (it didn't, I think it's male bush instead of a female, and I guess that makes a difference in whether or not it will bear berries!),  I almost missed it, but suddenly I discovered this teensy tiny little tree frog hiding in between the leaves:

I wonder if you can spot him in this picture below?  Yeah, so you see how difficult it was for me to discover him there!

Isn't he sweet?  He can't be more than an inch long, and he's quite well camouflaged there in his little hiding place:

After I took a few pictures he was starting to squirm a bit, and I was afraid he was going to suddenly leap out at me, so I decided to leave him alone and let him rest up for his evening activities. These little critters get much more active at night, catching mosquitoes on their tongues and having them for supper, and singing songs with their very loud voices for such a tiny little creature.

After looking him up, I decided that he is an American Green Tree Frog,  even though he looks a bit darker than what we normally see out in the open.

"The American green tree frog is a small, bright green amphibian native to the southeastern United States. [1, 2]

Physical Characteristics

Size: Adults grow between 1.25 and 2.5 inches long. Females are usually larger than males. [1, 2, 3]
Color: They have bright lime-green or yellow-green skin, sometimes with tiny gold flecks. A white or cream-colored stripe runs from the mouth down the side of the body. [1, 2, 3]
Adaptations: They can change their color to darker olive or gray depending on the temperature or background. Sticky toe pads help them climb trees and glass. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]"

If you want to hear a green tree frog "calling" his mate, here's a video for you. When you live in Florida in the country during the warmer/wetter season, you can hear this all night long if you leave your windows open. I grew up listening to these things because we didn't have AC back then, and so we had to leave our windows open. After a while you get used to the noise, but there were sometimes that the windows got cranked shut, oops!! Oh no! and the frogs were "silenced". LOL. You would have to have lived here to understand appreciate that...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyla_cinerea_call_video.webm

Not long after this fun discovery I was sitting inside looking out the window and noticed that it was suddenly raining, while the sun was still shining! 

That puddle over there next to the green bushes is getting larger. One of these days I hope it will cover the whole pond!

So of course I had to go investigate and see if perhaps there was a rainbow out there, and I was not disappointed:

Don't you just love to see rainbows in the sky after the rain?  The sign of God's promises to us:

Genesis 9:13-17 NKJV

"13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

After the rain stopped Still Waters Pond was bathed in golden sunlight...

It was just so beautiful! I can almost forgive it for not having much water in it when it looks like this! LOL.  But I'm still praying that it will fill back up somehow before time for the migrating geese and ducks and Sand Hill Cranes to come back for the winter. It will take a lot more rain for that to happen, but "all things are possible with God"!   Matthew 19:26

Actually, last evening before the little surprise rain shower, while I was still outside doing my little "walkabout" the yard, I was in the front yard picking up some branches that had fallen out of our big oak trees, and a car pulled off the side of the street in front of our house and a lady opened her window and said hello...and I looked and it was actually the two ladies who manage our Dollar General store here at the entrance to our neighborhood.  They recognized me and stopped to say hi, and they had their kids in the car, and one of the girls, probably about 11 or 12 years old,  stuck her head out the window and said, "Here, I wanted to give you this!"

It was this little clothespin, that had been painted and had written Romans 15:13 on it!  I was so very surprised and pleased and thanked her profusely, and told her I would go look up the verse right away and I would treasure it.  Here is the verse:

Wow! What an unexpected surprise and blessing!  And yes, I will keep this little clothespin as a reminder to pray for those children and also those two ladies. I mentioned recently that they both showed up at the Celebration of Life for one of our church members, and I was so surprised to see them at our church.  Me thinks I need to keep praying...perhaps God is working behind the scenes there and there's a lot more to this story...we just never know...

And so I will close this post on that note...remembering that God works in mysterious ways...and we need to always be ready to give an answer for the faith that we have.

Especially in this day and time in our country and world...our faith is being tested and we who are believers are often maligned for our faith and our stand for righteousness and truth...here's some good verses to encourage us in our daily lives and to continue to have faith and courage and not give up hope. God is working through us in ways we don't always realize or understand, so stand strong!

1 Peter 3:14-16 NKJV

14 "But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” 

15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; 

16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed."

Amen.

Friday Foto Friends~Another Celebration!

Today was a fun day, as you can see by the Spring Bonnet on this Longhorn Steer...(no, we weren't at Longhorn's, but the Mason Jar, a more fun country place)

We met with family to celebrate the birthdays of my sister Doris and also her hubby Art, as they both were born on the same day (tomorrow), but 2 years apart!  This was my dessert...Cherry Cobbler! The other food was good too, but this was the only one that was picture worthy. LOL.

Here's the birthday couple now...

You may wonder about the daffodils...well, the family tradition was that our mother always baked my sister an Angel Food Cake for her birthday, and when we were little we lived on a farm in Pennsylvania, and the daffodils were usually blooming for her April 5th birthday, so my mother would always pick a little bouquet and put them in a little vase in the center hole of the Angel Food Cake.

Doris wanted us to see that she was actually wearing a shirt with daffodils on it!  Anyway, in the past years since our mother died, I took up the tradtion of baking an angel food cake for Doris and putting the daffodils in the center. Sadly, here in Florida, where we moved to when we were still children, there were never any fresh daffodils available since they don't grow in Florida.  We would always search for potted plants of them to use, but most often they would come out earlier in March and not be still available in April. So, I have had to resort to using silk daffodils.  This year, since we were eating at a restaurant and not at my home, I didn't bake a cake, but brought the daffodils for her anyway. It's a family tradition!

Among some other things, I gave Doris this solar light hummingbird wind chime for her garden. She has a beautiful flower garden and all kinds of lovely things in it, so this will just be a nice addition.  Art got a gift card and a book of crossword puzzles, which he loves and does all the time.

So here's Art and Doris, my "little big sister", since she is littler than me, but is still my big sister, and yours truly.  It's nice that the Mason Jar has a covered front porch where we could sit and visit after we ate.

Also hubby and his brother Billy and his wife Peggy came and joined in the fun!

These pictures are not quite as clear (not my camera! LOL) But here is Doris, me, hubby, and Art.

And here's me, hubby, Billy, Peggy, and Art.

We had a great time and it was well worth the hour + drive to meet them there, which is a kind of half way mark for all of us.

Not to change the subject, but I was happy to see these fall mums making a comeback in my front yard! I always celebrate when any flower grows!!

I was also happy to see this Hippeastrum growing in the front yard, which was something that was a surprise to me last year when I first saw it. Apparently it traveled over from our neighbor's yard on that side of the house, as she also has some of those growing. I know I didn't plant it! It was gift!

This may be the first post in a long while that doesn't have any pictures of our wild kingdom. I thought I would give it a break and do different things. However, an update is important, I know.  To answer your questions that I can hear you asking:, No, those people have NOT yet come and picked up the Muscovy ducks or Blackie Sue.  I've been wavering back and forth on whether or not to let them take her, and if they don't hurry and come it will be a moot point as she will probably have her kittens somewhere in the woods and I will see them whenever she is ready to bring them to me.  I am leaving it in God's hands.  He knows what is best for the kitty and kittens and also for me.  So I will just have to wait and see how it all turns out.  If they come and can catch her, she will go with them. If they don't come soon enough, she will stay here and we will make the best of it.   May God's will be done.  However, I definitely DO want them to take those ducks! They are about to drive me nuts! LOL.

Now, that being said (without any pictures! LOL), let's move on to something else, shall we?   I never got around to posting these pictures last week. Last Saturday hubby and I traveled up to see where our son Benton was setting up a booth at a special community celebration at the Keystone Heights  Airport. We didn't know just what all was going on, and especially did not know there was going to be an antique car show going on there at the same time!  I basically said HI to Benton, and then went and looked at all the cars! I love classic cars and enjoy looking at them anytime I can. I know our friend Barb from My Journal Memories, and her honey Gary will enjoy these pictures, as I know they are also big classic car buffs!  So here you go...these are the ones I enjoyed the most...

55 Thunderbird!

GTO

Studebaker!

It's a 1950 Studebaker, which makes it the same age as me!!!!!

Roadrunner?

Mustang

Yes, I did say hello to Benton! LOL.

And all the great planters he is making. He will be selling them again tomorrow at another location!

Camaro SS

GTO

Another Thunderbird

Chevelle SS

Oldsmobile and another Roadster

Another Chevelle SS

Chevy Truck...Year?

Bet you can't guess what this one is...

Yep, it's a Packard!

That Roadster.

a souped up Ford Falcon

A souped up Ford Roadster

That Ford Falcon again

Dodge Truck

Firebird

Firebird

That Dodge truck again

That Ford Falcon

Corvette

Chevy Truck

55 Chevrolet

As we were leaving to go home, we saw more coming in for the day. We didn't know it was going to be such a big deal or we would've planned to stay longer, but we had things to do. Still it was fun and we enjoyed it. I hope you did too. How many cars did you recognize?


Well friends, it's getting late and I need to wrap this up. Tomorrow is another day, filled with hope and blessings as we put our trust in the Lord.  Here is the verse for the day from one of my devotional readings:

Romans 15:13  NKJV

"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."

May you also be filled with joy and peace and hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit and from the God of hope Himself. Amen!

Good Night!!