Wednesday Treasures: Autumn Days in The "Secret - Memorial Garden"

 Oh friends! It's been SO long since I was able to sit outside in our "Secret-Memorial Garden" and enjoy a beautiful cool autumn breeze from the garden swing.  Yesterday afternoon and this morning have been just perfect for "porch sitting" or walking around the yard, enjoying these beautiful fall days here in north central Florida.  I will just share pictures so you can see what I've been enjoying...

Good morning from the garden! No, it's not your typical garden...I call it "My Secret-Memorial Garden" because it's a combination of the two, however there's really not much growing there except for what grows naturally and wildly. If you've been with me a long time, you will know that both garden ideas started at our previous home in the Ocala National Forest, and if you click on links over in the right sidebar for either the Secret Garden or Memorial Garden, you will find lots of posts telling about them both and their origination.  

Anyway, here at this house we combined them and it is primarily a beautiful and peaceful place in our yard and along the shore of Still Waters Pond, 

where I love to sit and enjoy the beauty of nature all around while I meditate on God's Word or read a book or magazine, 

or write in my journal or just relax and watch the birds and /or the cat!

Blackie decided to come join me on this beautiful afternoon. I was happy for his company!

He was very aware of any other activity around us, like squirrels chattering in the treetops at our intrusion into their world, or the birds flitting to and fro, who kept a watchful eye on this intruder...

This morning I was thrilled to find so many kinds of flowers blooming all around us, even though we've been in a drought situation here for the last few months! I love these wild purple asters that pop out in the fall:

And in the butterfly garden these seed pods of the Roselle plant I planted earlier this year are literally weighing down the branches of this bush:

Click on this link for more details about this plant.

It's a very unusual plant that I haven't quite figured out yet. 

This Cape Honeysuckle plant is blooming again.  I love these colorful flowers in the fall. They also attract butterflies!

This beautiful hibiscus that we planted in the "memorial garden" in memory of our son Matthew last year is still blooming every day!  This bloom was just starting to open up this morning! So pretty!!!

Out in the front yard the geranium is blooming!

I am so excited to see so many holly berries on the holly tree in the Memorial Garden this year! It hasn't had this many berries in several years.  Click on this link for a post about when the Robins and Cedar Waxwings came and cleaned off every berry in just a couple of days!  That was in November of 2020...5 years ago! It hasn't had that many berries since then, and so I am hoping that we will see those beautiful migrating birds come through here again this month like they did that year!  I will definitely be watching for them, and hopefully will be here to take pictures when they come!

Blackie has been quite active lately, and one of his favorite places to go "sit" is up in the very large Live Oak Tree in our front yard.  I happened to step outside on the front porch yesterday evening, and there he was. Of course, as soon as he saw me he started coming down to greet me...thinking I had food probably! LOL.

And here he comes!  He's becoming quite the character.    His buddy Sunshine has kind of traded places with him and seems to be gone most of the day lately, not showing up until supper time. Not sure where he goes, but at least he still comes home and stays a while and then leaves again for the night. Maybe he's found a warm hole to curl up in somewhere at night since it's been so chilly. Neither one of them are very interested in the nice warm beds Benton made for them.  Time will tell...

While I was in the Secret Garden I thought I'd better check on our Gnome Family! Sadly, I have been neglecting them over the summer because it was just too hot to go out there and look at them! But here they are...a little dirty from all the debris under the tree, but still intact and happy as a family of Gnomes can be I guess.

I probably should do a bit of housekeeping for them...

Speaking of Still Waters Pond...it's really the "Very Still NO Waters Pond" right now!   

But even with all the dryness, there is still a lot of beauty and growth on and around the pond...

These beautiful wildflowers are blooming all around the shore:
Be sure to watch out for the bees! They are quite active!

Yikes! Glad I didn't get too close!

And just when I thought I was finished with these pictures, I looked outside and saw this beauty laying in the yard:

Isn't she/he? beautiful? Look at that raccoon tail!  I believe this lovely cat belongs to someone else in the neighborhood...she took off as soon as I came out the door for a closer look.  Hopefully she/he?? will go back home where he belongs.  I'm not taking on any more boarders here on this porch!

He/she is really pretty, however...

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this little tour around our yard and gardens along the shore of  Still Waters Pond...right now things are still beautiful, but eventually the autumn days will turn into winter, and things will begin to fade away until springtime...but here's some good news:

And even these words from the Book of Isaiah are a great comfort and encouragement to us in these days of uncertainty in our world...

Amen.

Be blessed my friends, and enjoy these autumn days while they last!!

Friday Foto Friends~ Odds and Ends

Happy Friday everyone! It's been such a beautiful week here in north central Florida...we've had nice cooler mornings, starting out in the low 60's, and only getting up into the mid 80's for most of the week, with lower humidity.  It's been delightful, even though we still need rain so badly!  As I look ahead on my weather app on my phone, it appears that next week we might start seeing a change in the weather patterns, with some rain predicted each day,  (Oops! That just changed! No rain in sight until at least next Thursday or Friday! Bah Humbug!) and the temperatures starting to rise back up a little bit to more normal levels, low 70's to high 80's.  But if it brings us rain anytime, I will be thankful!

I've recently noticed a plant growing in my butterfly garden area that suddenly had quite a growth spurt, which totally surprised me.  But the biggest surprise was all of a sudden I saw this flower blooming on it! What?  A flower?  I had no idea that plant was going to get a flower on it when I purchased a very small, scrawny stick of a plant early this past late spring at the farmer's market.  It looked interesting and different, so I bought it without really knowing what I was getting! (Probably not a good idea, but in this case, it turned out okay!)

 

So I had to use the Google Lens app on my iPhone to find out what it is, and here's the scoop via Wikipedia:  It is called Roselle  "Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) is a species of flowering plant in the genus Hibiscus that is native to Africa, most likely West Africa. In the 16th and early 17th centuries it was spread to Asia and the West Indies, where it has since become naturalized in many places.[1] The stems are used for the production of bast fibre and the dried cranberry-tasting calyces are commonly steeped to make a popular infusion known by many names, including carcade."

Here's a picture from a distance, taken from my porch this morning, so you can see what a strange looking plant it is:

The flowers bloom in the morning, 

but then they fold back up in the afternoon sun. 

Here's another link for some more information.

https://www.gardenia.net/plant/hibiscus-sabdariffa-roselle-grow-care-guide

I had no idea when I bought this plant that is could be used for tea, medicinal purposes, and even some jams and sauces.  I'm wondering if anyone else knows anything about this plant, or if you know how to use it?  I'm not much into using natural things like this for tea or other things, so I don't know if I will try it or not...we'll see...but I can still just enjoy the beauty of the flowers while they last.

Here's another flower that finally decided to bloom! I bought this Rose of Sharon bush this past summer also, and I've been waiting patiently for someone to come dig a hole for me so I can plant it in the ground. It has become so rootbound in the pot that I have to water it constantly to keep it alive...and I really was afraid I was going to lose it,  when all of a sudden it decided to bloom! 

Hooray!  Now maybe this weekend I can actually talk one of my strong sons into getting it planted in the ground for me!  I wanted this particular plant because I had one before in the original Memorial Garden for our son Matthew that we created back at our previous home. When we moved here to this house 6 years ago I brought the Rose of Sharon plant with us, along with that beautiful Don Juan Rose bush that blooms every so often.  The Rose of Sharon did fine for a few years, but finally died.  So when I saw this plant at the farmer's market I decided to get it and try again.  

The other day we were taking a little ride in the evening, and we saw this young deer on the side of the road, eating his supper I guess!

Upon closer look, we realized there were actually two deer!

I love seeing them, don't you?  As long as they aren't eating my flowers, they are just fine! (Yes, they do that!

Now here's a bit of an oddity!  I pulled this apple out of the bag of Gala Apples that I bought recently from Walmart.  I don't think I've ever seen an apple with such a line of division of color on it before, have you?

It was literally divided in half by the brighter, bolder red color on one half, and the more yellowed mixed with red color on the other half!

What a phenomenon!  

It tasted the same all the way through, however!  Makes me think this apple was a product of some genetic engineering...what do you think? Yeah, I guess I probably don't really want to know the answer to that! I wish I could grow our own apples, but that just doesn't happen here in Florida. I tried once, but the apples never got beyond the little green apple stage and the trees eventually died.  I'm glad we are going to go to the mountains of North Georgia next month and get some fresh apples straight from the orchard...

Okay, here's another odd sighting this week...yes, that big red spot is hives..actually on my upper thigh. It is about the size of a 50 cent piece.  

Here's the strange story...I had to be placed on some antibiotics this week for an infection, which I won't name.  I had forgotten that this particular antibiotic had caused this strange itchy spot to appear in times past. (several times, actually, before I realized what it was! I thought it was a bug bite at first). It's been a few years since I've been prescribed this medication, and probably because I had mentioned to the doctor before when this happened, but apparently it didn't make it into my records and there's a new doctor and he wasn't even looking at my files when he asked about what antibiotics I could take, and frankly I had forgotten about this one. But the next morning when this spot started itching on my thigh and I looked at it I remembered it right away...and called the doctor's office and told them. Of course they said not to take anymore doses, which I knew that much already. They prescribed something else, but it was also another variety of antibiotic that I cannot take, so I had to call them back and tell them that so they could prescribe something else!  They finally got it right, and I am doing fine now, but think what could've happened if I ignored the symptoms?  I also told the doctor's office that they need to start paying better attention to my records!!  This was on Tuesday, and the spot is still slightly visible on my thigh, but thankfully it stopped itching when I put some cream on it and took an antihistamine. What's weird is that there were no other spots, but I did feel some itchiness in other parts of my body.  I am thankful that I am feeling better now, and that nothing really bad happened.

I guess you could say I'm cleaning out my photo files on my phone today! Here's something else I found that I took pictures of recently, but haven't shared yet.  Have you ever made your own "Maple Syrup"?  No, I don't mean the kind that you get from Maple tree sap. That's the REAL maple syrup, and there's quite a process to making it. First, you have to have the right kind of sugar maple trees, which are primarily up in the northern part of the country. Then you have to know when to "tap" them to gather the sap, usually in the spring. Next you have to boil the sap down to get the syrup, and I believe the formula is that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of Maple Syrup. Those of you who have done this may correct me if I am wrong.  

Pure Maple Syrup is the very best, but it is also rather expensive. When we lived up in New England we used to get some from friends who had their own Maple Syrup business.  However, throughout the majority of my life, I have mostly used Log Cabin Maple Syrup, which is not the real deal, but at least it doesn't contain High Fructose Corn syrup, so I prefer that one above most other commercial brands.

But there have been times when I couldn't really afford to even buy that, or I would run out of it, and then I would make my own "Maple Syrup". Here is the recipe that I've used for many years:

It's pretty simple, and tastes good too. Our kids never knew the difference!

I found this little bottle of Maple Flavoring in my cupboard the other day, and it was almost completely empty. However, there was at least 1/4 teaspoon left, (which probably had become mostly just the alcohol with a little flavor left, it was so old!) Rather than waste that last drop, I decided to make a batch of syrup since hubby was hankering for some French Toast.

I've had this glass syrup pitcher for years. I think it came with Log Cabin Syrup in it one time for an anniversary or something, but I can't find any information on that to prove it, so maybe it was from a different syrup company.  If anyone else knows for sure, please let me know. It has an old sailing ship embossed in the glass.  I've always used this pitcher to hold and serve my homemade syrup!

I used Italian bread from the Walmart bakery to make our French Toast. They have been selling these loaves of bread for just $1.00 for this past year, but only recently increased the price to $1.47 or something like that. Either way, it's still a great deal, and makes great French Toast!

Oh, here it is with the syrup poured over it.

Yum...however, I really can't eat this very often. Too much "sugar" for me, but hubby sure loves it.

Well, I've been working on this post all day, in between running errands, fixing lunch, taking a nap, and all the other stuff we do every day.  It's time to get it finished so I can move on to something else! 

I went outside for a minute, and this is what happened:

The kitties came running over to me, and after I petted them both they started loving on each other too. They are so sweet...they always make me smile.

Awwww...

Yes, I am thankful...

1 Samuel 2:1-2 NKJV

Hannah’s Prayer

1 And Hannah prayed and said:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;

My horn is exalted in the Lord.

I smile at my enemies,

Because I rejoice in Your salvation.

2 “No one is holy like the Lord,

For there is none besides You,

Nor is there any rock like our God.

Amen.