Friday Foto Friends

 Oh my goodness! Friday is almost over and here I am just sitting down to try to write something to you. I might have mentioned a few days ago that this week was going to be busy, and so I didn't know how much I'd be able to communicate here throughout the week...and I was right about that! It has been busy, but all in such wonderful ways!  If you're a Facebook friend, you may have already seen some of these pictures I'm going to share with you, but there are also some new ones from today that are brand new.  So you might want to get a glass of iced tea or a cup of coffee and pull up a comfortable rocking chair and let's visit a while, shall we?

We'll start out with yesterday (Thursday), which was just so very special.  Since our "kids" are unable to spend Mother's Day with me due to work schedules, etc., Benton and Rose said they would like to take us over to the beach and then out to lunch yesterday.  So we left fairly early in the day, which, BTW, was a very HOT 93+ day, but thankfully there was a nice breeze.  We arrived at Crescent Beach around 10:00 a.m., which is just south of St. Augustine a little ways, and about an hour's drive from where we live. I will let the pictures speak for themselves:

Our first view of the ocean:

Flowers and grasses along the way on the sand dunes, all a necessary part of the protection from beach erosion...

My first step into the "cool" ocean waters....it really did feel wonderful!

Turn on your sound for a little "beach therapy"....

No, I wasn't wearing long pants...they were capris, but I ended up having to roll them up when the tide started coming in while we were walking in the water.

The "Three Musketeers" LOL.   All in serious need of some suntan! LOL.  (That's why you can't see my legs above!)

Oh, here's some cuties:

And this doggy was enjoying playing frisbee in the surf...

More birds:

And finally I managed to get some birds diving into the surf:

And no trip to the beach would be complete without seeing "Jaws"!  Thankfully not the real deal!

After we finished our walk on the beach it was getting time for lunch, so we headed down A1A highway, which skirts along the coastline through sleepy little communities along the way...well...I take that back...there's NOTHING sleepy along the beach anymore...except for these houses out on the shoreline, who are actually abandoned since the last hurricane that came through here. The beach erosion was so bad that it washed away their property, and the houses now stand empty and will be torn down because there's no way to fix the problem:

And there's actually no road left to get to them, so that's the bigger issue. It was all washed away.

Finally we arrived in what used to be a sleepy little beach town, "Flagler Beach", but no more. There are houses, condos, RV parks, hotels, cottages, etc., EVERYWHERE.  

These pictures are actually at the Flager Beach pier, which was washed away in the hurricane. They are still trying to repair it...but guess what...hurricane season starts again next month! I'm not so sure it's worth all the money they are spending to try and replace it...

But it is historical...actually I remember this pier and little beach front communityfrom over 60 years ago, when one of my school friends invited me and another friend to spend the weekend with her and her mother at their family's beach cottage! We were about 14, and we had the time of our lives! Oh, not to mention the cute boys who showed up with surf boards and tried to teach us to surf! Can't say that we learned all that much in the short time we were there, but it was fun trying...and did I say the boys were cute? When you're 14, even 14 year old boys look cute to you! LOL. 

I tried to figure out where the family cottage was, but the place has grown up so much since then there's no way I could figure it out. I just know it was within walking distance of this pier.

Finally we reached our destination of a place to eat. They were very few and far between, but this one sounded promising:

And it was in this hotel building where that porch is:

And this was the view across the street:

And THIS was my best view:

And next to me was my sweet daughter in love Rose:

And across from us her sweet hubby and my son Benton:

And here I was...as you can tell, I was quite windblown! Did I mention it was breezy? But that breeze felt wonderful since it was in the 90's.

Our food was really good...I had the grilled salmon and cole slaw...

And some seafood/clam chowder, which was really tasty:

It was a perfect way to spend an early Mother's Day!

Oh, we saw this BBQ place on the way over to the beach, and thought the sign was pretty funny:

And the party wasn't over yet. Last evening after we got home and (we took a nap, hence the bed head look), the kids came over and brought me this lovely planter that Benton made. It has some marigolds and a vinca plant in it, and I'm going to put it outside near my vegetable garden to help ward off the bugs.

Speaking of which, I didn't tell you that it has been raining this evening! Here's the current look at Still Waters Pond, which is damp on the top, but still has a LONG way to go before it will actually have water in it. However, there's rain predicted all weekend, so we are hoping and praying that it really gets down to business!

My vegetable garden is happy:

So now for Part 2 of the current activities going on.  Today was our church Ladies' May Fellowship Luncheon, where we invite ladies from other churches in our community and have a guest speaker and a nice luncheon.  It was really a lovely day, with about 65 women in attendance, which is a LOT for our little church. We had a soup and salad buffet, and it was really good.

Here's a smattering of pictures from the day:

Here's the table where I was sitting...(can you find me? LOL)

LOTS Of FOOD!!

Our ladies in worship and praise...

Our two youngest ladies!

A beautiful cake!

Our theme song was "Shine Jesus, Shine".

Here are the lyrics:

"Lord, the light of your love is shining

In the midst of the darkness, shining

Jesus, Light of the world, shine upon us

Set us free by the truth you now bring us

Shine on me, shine on me

Chorus:

Shine, Jesus, shine

Fill this land with the Father’s glory

Blaze, Spirit, blaze

Set our hearts on fire

Flow, river, flow

Flood the nations with grace and mercy

Send forth your word

Lord, and let there be light

Lord, I come to your awesome presence

From the shadows into your radiance

By the blood I may enter your brightness

Search me, try me, consume all my darkness

Shine on me, shine on me

(Chorus)

As we gaze on your kingly brightness

So our faces display your likeness

Ever changing from glory to glory

Mirrored here may our lives tell your story

Shine on me, shine on me

(Chorus)

Graham Kendrick

Copyright © 1987 Make Way Music,

www.grahamkendrick.co.uk

All in all it was a beautiful day, filled with the JOY of the Lord. The theme of the program was "Wildflowers of Joy, Growing in the Spirit".   We are the "wildflowers", planted by God  and filled with His Joy, as He leads us day by day in our walk with the Lord and as we "grow in the Spirit".  What a blessing to spend that time with our sisters in Christ!

Okay friends, I guess that should cover the past couple of days! Now I hope I can get caught up with the rest of you and see what you've been up to. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to spend some time visiting with you.  Until then, 

"Shine, Jesus, shine

Fill this land with the Father’s glory

Blaze, Spirit, blaze

Set our hearts on fire

Flow, river, flow

Flood the nations with grace and mercy

Send forth your word

Lord, and let there be light"

Amen!

Saturday Catch Up

Happy Saturday!  I promised in my last post that I would tell you about where we went yesterday.  

But first, I want to thank you all for the very kind comments on my special memory post HERE yesterday.   Your compassion  and thoughtfulness truly touches my heart.  I trust you all understand that sometimes we just have write about those we have loved and "lost" to help keep their memory alive.  I find that looking at those pictures helps me to feel like it wasn't that long ago, and also that our son is really not that far away.  After all, heaven is only a breath away...think about it!

Now on to what we did yesterday.  We took a little ride over to St. Augustine to meet up with my cousin (who is actually a second cousin, the son of my first cousin...  First cousin, once removed? I get so confused on that part of genealogy)..but I won't give the whole genealogy list here, LOL).   He is in Florida on a little vacation and wanted to meet us over at my son's store, "Dixie Cottage", in St. Augustine. But more about that later.  On the way over we took the "scenic route" to avoid a lot of traffic, which took us past many acres of farm land.  I think most people who think of Florida are not aware of its rich agricultural history.

This particular part of Northeastern Florida (St. John's County) is well known for its vegetable farms, primarily potatoes and cabbage.  These are acres and acres of cabbages...

As far as the eye could see in many different directions there are fields of cabbages, ripe and ready to go to "market".  That's a lot of coleslaw!

Probably good for some "Corned Beef and Cabbage" on St. Patrick's Day too! LOL.  Anyway, I thought you'd be thrilled to know about where your cabbage comes from! 

As we got closer to the coast, we had to cross the Intracoastal Waterway, which I didn't know actually runs all the way from Boston,  MA, all the way down the Atlantic coast of the U.S., around the southern tip of Florida and up the Gulf side and all the way around the Gulf to Brownsville, Texas!  Wow. I will have a little more respect for this waterway the next time we are stuck on the road waiting for the drawbridge to go back down...which is what was happening here, although in this  picture below the bridge was already back down and we were crossing it after waiting for about 15 minutes:

This is why we had to wait...there was not just one...

but TWO sailboats with their tall masts (but no sails up!) that needed to pass under the bridge!

But I really did not mind the wait as it gave me ample time to sit and enjoy the view on either side of the bridge. I believe the tide was out as there were many sand bars and little islands exposed that you can't always see completely when the tide is in...

And, happily for me, I was able to also capture a few pictures of some pelicans flying over and around the bridge ...

My sight was limited by being inside the car and not able to get out and get better pictures, but I feel pretty happy that I got any pictures at all!

They were busily flying about and swooping down to catch a fish for their breakfast...

Do you see him on the far right side of this picture below?

And here he kind of blends in above the houses:

Finally we were on our way and my hope was that we could cross over to the beach side and perhaps drive a little ways on the beach before we had to continue our journey to our destination.

The first opportunity we found to go down to the beach had this warning:

We turned our car around on this little "ramp" street because we could see the sand was way too soft/deep for our non-4x4 vehicle.

So we drove further down the highway until we found another location where we could access the beach, and the sand didn't look too bad there...

Well, until we got down onto the beach, and the driving area was in one direction only, no turning around, and no place to park our vehicle where we wouldn't get stuck.  As a matter of fact, we almost did get stuck!  Hubby was not real happy with my "ideas" at this point and just wanted to find a place to get back off this soft sandy beach and back to "terra firma!"

Thankfully we made it. Next time we will go a different direction where we know there is a parking lot where we can park our car and then walk to the beach across a long pier. We were just in too big of a hurry on this day to do that. But it was still lovely to see the ocean and hear the surf pounding on the shore.  

We finally made it to our destination in plenty of time. My cousin arrived shortly after we did. This is the same cousin who recently sent me that box full of old books and those pictures of my grandparents. (I told you about it HERE)

Here we are: L to R: my cousin Grant Moss, me, hubby, and our son Benton.

If you read Grant's t-shirt, you will see that he "turns wood into things..." and yes, he certainly does! He creates the most beautiful items with select pieces of hardwoods...the type of craft he uses is is called Intarsia woodworking  Here is a small example of what he does, and this was his gift to me:

Yes, that is a hummingbird, created out of many different pieces of different kinds of wood to give it dimension, depth, and its unique coloring. He sells a lot of his pieces at a shop where he lives in Tennessee, but also will take orders from people online. And one of the reasons for meeting at Benton's store, "Dixie Cottage", was to talk about offering some of his pieces there for sale. He is going to prepare a lot of new pieces using a coastal theme, in keeping with the design of the store.  Here are just a few other examples of his work:

Pretty amazing, huh?  I am excited that he is going to be working on some special designs to sell here. I'll be sure to show them to you when he gets them done.  His "wheels were turning" as they discussed lots of ideas for special designs, like Lighthouses, Fish, Sea Turtles, Whales, Mermaids, etc. Should be fun!  

So that was a wonderful visit and we were so glad we were able to get together. 

After he left to head back to where he was staying with some friends for the week, hubby and I headed to our favorite little seafood restaurant not far from Dixie Cottage, called "O'Steens". We were blessed that there was no long line to wait for a table, which was a small miracle on a Friday at lunch time! Their food is that good!

This is what I had, although this picture came from their menu online. I was too busy eating to remember to take a picture! LOL.

It was a lovely day and we enjoyed getting out and about, but of course, it's always good to get back home again, safe and sound.  Traffic was getting pretty heavy!

So, this morning our son Scott was off from work, and he helped finish up our flower project for the Memorial Garden.  We picked up some bags of mulch at the hardware store this morning, and Scott spread the mulch around some plants for us, including the new "bottlebrush" we had just planted:

He also added some new mulch to the little azalea bushes we planted last year.

I guess that about covers it all. 

"The Lord is my strength and song,

And He has become my salvation;

He is my God, and I will praise Him;

My father’s God, and I will exalt Him."

Amen.

Exodus 15:2

Have a blessed and wonderful rest of your weekend, my friends. And thank you again for your kindnesses.  You are a wonderful bunch of friends to have!!!