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!)

Friday Fotos-God's Green Thumb

I really don't have a green thumb.  Somehow, when God was handing out green thumbs, I must have had mine in my mouth, so He gave the green thumb to my sister...who can grow most anything!  Her yard is full of beautiful flowers and I must admit to being a bit envious from time to time.   If you happen to be one of her Facebook friends, you will see the beautiful pictures of flowers she posts almost every day...and they truly are wonderful!  That is her special gift from God, and it is a blessing to all who see them!  

I love beautiful plants and flowers, and I do try to grow them...and often times they DO grow, but I wouldn't give myself much credit for their ability to survive under "harsh conditions." (lack of watering, lack of fertilizer, lack of knowing what I'm doing).   If they do thrive, it is because God has the green thumb and takes care of them for me. Sometimes He nudges me to go out and water and take care of them, but it just doesn't seem to come as naturally to me as it does to my sister. 

 Some of my current "gardening"

 I love this "Crown of Thorns" plant that a new friend from our church recently gave me! So far it is still growing!

More of my current garden projects

My Memorial Garden Rose Bush that I brought with us when we moved is about to bloom again! Praise God!

I've usually blamed my lack of gardening expertise on the fact that we've moved a lot in our 50+ years of marriage.   It's hard to grow nice gardens and shrubs when you pick up and move every so often. I won't say how often or how many times we've moved because many would not understand the whys and wherefores that brought about such mobility through the years.  But just trust me, it was all for a good cause...further education, Jobs, Seminary, Ministry, Family...someday I will write that book that tells about all of our "Giant Leaps of Faith and Other Crazy Moves" (the title I've given my book in my head if it ever gets written), but until then, you will get the story in little bleeps and blurbs if you are paying attention to what I am sharing.

So, back to the subject at hand...God's Green Thumb.  I have always relied on God to provide His natural beauty to our landscape. He has surprised me many times with flowers and shrubs growing that I did not even know existed or that were actually living in our yard. Since many plants do not reveal their true beauty until certain seasons, primarily spring and summer...and some in the fall,  one may not know what is there until that season reveals exactly what that green thing is that keeps growing in the yard. It is a good idea to try and figure it out before you cut it all down not realizing what you've got until it is too late.  That's what happened here in our yard.

 When we first saw this property last summer, the back yard was completely overgrown with a wild growth of weeds and trees, so much so that you couldn't even tell that there was a pond out there. (You can read more about this on this post from last summer)

 As a matter of fact, some of our neighbors did not even realize there was a pond there, and were really surprised after we moved in and had the overgrowth removed  and they could see the pond for the first time.

 Our house had not been lived in for quite a while, and the previous owners never did really develop the property so that the pond view could be enjoyed.

 In some ways I liked the woodsy feel of it, and really didn't want too much of the foliage to be removed, but then again, the whole purpose of buying this particular house was because we wanted waterfront property...so I caved in and let the undergrowth and overgrowth be cleaned out...within reason, so that we could see views like this:

And views like this:

And so it was definitely worth it to have it cleaned up.  

But now that spring is here, some of the things that were cut down last summer are starting to sprout up again in areas where we do not mow so much.  Last summer there were a lot of bushes in this one area that had many berries on them. They were green at the time, since it was summer, and I was not sure what they were. I really didn't want them cut down because I knew they would be good food for the birds and potential deer, but I didn't speak loudly or quickly enough and the kind man who was doing the brush hogging for us cut them all down.

 (this was last summer, after we moved into our house)

So now these little plants are sprouting up and they have little tiny flowers on them where the berries will eventually appear:

So I decided to look them up online to see if I could find out what they are before they get mowed down again:

And this is what I discovered:
https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/plants/trees-and-shrubs/shrubs/yaupon-holly.html

These plants are a "Yaupon Holly", which is a native holly plant here in Florida, which will get beautiful red holly berries in the fall and winter for our birds.

Photo from Internet

After looking this up, I realized that this is what the holly trees are that are still on the property, and I just didn't know what we had:

This group of holly trees below are in my favorite spot to sit in the shade in the afternoons and look at the pond beyond and watch the birds...

And then I noticed there are other such trees along the shore in the areas where we didn't cut them down and they are blooming now too...so if I leave these bushes and trees alone, we will have lots of wonderful holly bushes to help attract and feed the birds and hopefully some deer in the winter!

That makes me happy!

I also saw more of these little yellow flowers blooming along the shore of the pond and decided to look them up online to see if I could find out what they are:

http://hawthornhillwildflowers.blogspot.com/2010/01/pineland-heliotrope-heliotropium.html  According to this, the closest I could figure out they are a variety of "Pineland Heliotrope".  UPDATE: After closer inspection and consultation with my sister, who is the plant expert, and also after looking at Google Lens to inquire what this is, we have determined that this is actually St. John's Wort.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypericum, which has many medicinal applications. I'm not going to be eating it anytime soon, but wanted to update this info for future reference. (5/24/2020)  Isn't that interesting?  I may not have many cultivated flowers, but God has provided many beautiful wildflowers and trees for us to enjoy, thanks to "God's Green Thumb".

Okay, last photos I promise.  We took our morning walk in our usual place this morning, and God blessed me with this beauty:

 A beautiful large Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. Sadly, he is missing one of this "swallowtails", but he was still flying about enjoying sipping nectar from different bushes in the woodsy area where we walk.

 And these beautiful yellow cactus blooms were awaiting my perusal and delight.

Pretty close to perfect, wouldn't you agree?

These profound words of Solomon certainly seem to apply to our current situation in this world. Again, I say, "pretty close to perfect, wouldn't you agree?":

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

1.  "To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

2.  A time to be born,

and a time to die;

A time to plant,

and a time to pluck what is planted;

3.  A time to kill,

and a time to heal; a time to break down,

and a time to build up;

4.  A time to weep,

and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

and a time to dance;

5.  A time to cast away stones,

and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,

and a time to refrain from embracing;

6.  A time to gain,

and a time to lose;

A time to keep,

and a time to throw away;

7.  A time to tear,

and a time to sew

A time to keep silence,

and a time to speak;

8.  A time to love,

and a time to hate;

A time of war,

and a time of peace.

9.  What profit has the worker from that in which he labors?

10.  I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied.

11.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  

Also He has put eternity in their hearts,

except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.

12.  I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, 

and to do good in their lives,

13.  and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor--

It is the gift of God."

Amen!

Have a blessed and beautiful day my friends.