Friday Foto Friends~Lost and Found!

 Good Morning my Friday Foto Friends! 

First of all, again I want to thank all of you again for your thoughtful words of encouragement and prayers for me this past week as I endured that procedure on my neck .  I am feeling so much better and am so very thankful for how well the epidural has helped me to get some movement back into my neck without so much pain. I will be going back to physical therapy this morning and trusting I will be able to do so much more now without so much resistance! Praise God for healing grace and modern medicine!

Last week, if you read my post over at The Adventures of Lily Grace about the baby bluebirds leaving the nest, you will recall that Lily reported that we watched altogether four baby bluebirds leaving the nest. It was quite an exciting event...and in all the excitement of course I was taking pictures left and right. However at one point I had become so excited with checking my pictures on the computer and then having more action going on outside that I forgot to put the memory card back in my camera and as I was taking pictures of the last birds leaving the birdhouse, I realized too late they were not being recorded on the memory card, but in the "internal memory" of my camera.  This is an older model Kodak "EasyShare Z650" camera, which I love...but I never had the attachment to retrieve the pictures from the internal memory...a special cord that attaches to the camera and to the computer, and so those pictures were now stuck inside the camera with no way to send them to the computer! I could see them on the little "review" screen on the camera, and there were some very good pictures there, which I very much wanted to be able to share with you! And so, I had to do some googling and find the attachment I needed on Amazon.com, and thankfully it was available and not terribly expensive, and so I ordered it! So I have told you all of this so that you will fully appreciate the trouble I have gone to in order to share these photos with you today!!!

And so, drum roll, drum roll, without further adieu, here are the missing baby bluebird pictures:

This was actually the fourth baby to emerge from the birdhouse.  We did not realized there was a fourth bird still inside! We were so busy watching the others as they flew up into the trees to meet their parents that we had turned our backs on the birdhouse for a while. So you can imagine my surprise and delight when I looked again and saw this timid youngster, hanging on to that ledge with his right foot, wondering whether or not he should let go or not...

And THIS is the best picture of all! Somehow he turned himself around and flapped his beautiful blue wings for us to see, still holding on to the ledge, not quite sure of himself enough yet to let go...

He held on for another few seconds, and then, finally getting up his courage, he flew over to the deck railing and sat there for a few minutes to catch his breath and get up the courage to finally fly up to the trees...

He looked up at me (I was inside the house looking through the window), and I guess seeing me there made him realize he'd better get a move on and find his family before the funny looking lady with the silver camera got any closer...

I took this picture of the mother or father bluebird up in the tree, (bird on the lower left) calling to him.  I didn't realize until I finally was able to enlarge this photo on the computer that there was a Brown Thrasher sitting there, on the right, very close to the Bluebird!  I don't know if he would have hurt the baby bluebird, but I am sure Mama or Papa Bluebird were ready to fight for their baby no matter what!

And so that was the end of the Baby Bluebird photos on my "internal memory".  But there were a few other pictures that had been trapped inside my camera for some time that I was happy to finally "set free".  I figured you might enjoy seeing them as well, so here goes the remainder of my "trapped photos":

Last winter you might recall that we had a huge flock of Robins and Cedar Waxwings fly in and literally strip our holly tree of all of its red berries within the space of a few days.  Even though I posted many pictures from that event, apparently there were a few that I missed, again due to my overzealousness in taking pictures without remembering to put the memory card back inside my camera.  So here's a few of a Robin, having his breakfast, taken last November:

Our holly tree is once again loaded with berries, but they are still green. I expect we will have another rush of birds again later this year to look forward to!

And these last few pictures are the rest of what was hidden on my camera. Nothing too exotic or surprising, but we might as well get them out there and look at them, right?

One of our favorite Canada Geese, sometime this past winter or spring...

And my attempt to take a picture of a goose flying across Still Waters Pond. I like the golden ribbon effect from the motion of the wings in flight...do you see it?

Here is a picture of one of our lovely water lilies, which I had pulled up from the pond when I was out kayaking last year. I miss paddling around the pond in the kayak...maybe now that my neck is not quite so bad I might dare to venture out again one of these days...maybe when it cools down a bit...we'll see...that's a good goal for me to work  towards...

And if you look closely, you can see the female and male Wood Ducks swimming on the pond. I am always happy when I can get a picture of them because they mostly stay on the other side of the pond and if they detect my movement at all they take off and fly, so it is very hard to get a decent picture of them. 

Okay, that's all that was on there! But the good thing is, now that I have this attachment, it doesn't matter if I forget to put the memory card in or not!! Yay! Anything to help my feeble memory these days is a good thing!

Okay, so tomorrow is going to be a great day, as I am going to meet our blogging friends Barbara from Sweet Tea and Sandals and Terri from Your Friend From Florida for lunch over in the little town of Micanopy.    We are all very excited to be able to get together again. I have met both Barbara and Terri in the past, but never all together. So you can expect to be seeing lots of pictures from this little adventure from all three of us, I am certain!  It would be wonderful if sometime more of us bloggers could plan to meet together! Wouldn't that be a "hoot"?  

It might make history!

Have a blessed and wonderful weekend, my friends.

My Kind of Day

Don't you just love Saturdays when you don't have anything particular planned, and it kind of plans itself while you sit back and enjoy the ride?  That's how this day has been.  Now, first, let me say right off the top...I know our friends in Texas have not had a good day...and they are in for a rough ride for a while...so by all means we must continue to pray for our dear friends along the Texas/LA. coast line and surrounding areas.  Been praying for a couple of days for them...and will keep on.  We have some sweet blogging friends there...and so far they seem to be okay...but let's keep them in our prayers, okay?

Now, back to my day here in "sunny Florida"...well, not so sunny here today either . Woke up this morning and it was already raining softly...making it sort of difficult to wake up and get out of that bed, let me tell you!! But eventually we climbed out and had our cups of coffee and tea

and checked our messages on facebook/email/blogs...you know the routine...just takin' it easy...

And then our sweet new daughter-in-law-to-be showed up on our doorstep bright and early! She and our son had big plans for the day to celebrate his birthday. (which is Monday). We had an impromptu family gathered around the table big breakfast of waffles, eggs, and sausage, and then they were headed over to the coast (Atlantic side) to take a little River Cruise and lunch on a beautiful paddle wheel boat.  Being the typical "mother", I was afraid they would get rained out, but they were determined to go anyway...and I'm so glad they did! The sun came out and they had a beautiful day.


While they were gone hubby and I took a slow ride to the "dump", the hardware store, the local small grocery store and back home again.  I was having withdrawal because I had loaned my camera to the "kids" for their excursion today (See my camera in Rose's hands above...taking their "selfie" in a mirror on the boat)...and it is very difficult for me to go anywhere without my camera. I don't have a fancy cell phone with a decent camera...it wouldn't work around here in the woods anyway. So I hoped I wouldn't see any exciting things happening like a bear or a deer or an eagle and not have a camera in hand.  It finally got so bad that I dug out a spare camera that hadn't been used for a while because the last time I used it it didn't work so well...but I dusted it off, put in new batteries and a blank memory card, and guess what? It worked!

By this time I had decided to bake a couple of pumpkin pies! Why? Because hubby had mentioned how much he wished I would...and I had all the right ingredients...and didn't have any other plans...so why not?  The spare camera came in handy to take a picture just as they came out of the oven:

I wish our computers had a "scratch and sniff" app so you could smell just how delicious these pies smelled, with their cinnamon, ginger and clove spices mingling with the aroma of the pumpkin and baked pastry...are you drooling yet?  Who says you have to wait until Thanksgiving for pumpkin pie???? I say a rainy Saturday afternoon with nothing special to do is as good a time as any...especially when it makes so many people happy as these pies did! You can imagine how much the "kids" enjoyed these when they got back from their cruise...too full from their lunch for any supper...but just the right appetite for a piece of pie with whipped cream! A perfect ending to a perfect day!

Now it is raining again...my tummy is full and happy from eating that pie...hubby has been singing my praises for baking it...the "kids" (I call them kids, but they are both in their 40's and hardly can be called "kids"...but you know what I mean...your kids are always your kids no matter how old they get...) have been enjoying talking about their little excursion and also happily making plans for their upcoming wedding in a couple of months...and future plans to fix up their house and begin their lives together....

Yes, this has been "my kind of day"... family time...peaceful moments...joyful expectations...the kind of stuff that makes for a happy home and life...even saw this deer meander through our front yard this evening, just before the rain started to really come down again:

Kind of blurry because it was getting dark...but such a neat way to end the day...

Before the "kids" left for their little trip this morning we shared our morning devotions with them...and the Psalm that was read was Psalm 128:

"Blessed is every one who fears the Lord,

Who walks in His ways.

When you eat the labor of your hands,

You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

in the very heart of your house.

Your children like olive plants all around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed 

who fears the Lord.

The Lord bless you out of Zion,

and may you see the good of Jerusalem

all the days of your life.

Yes, may you see your children's children.

Peace by upon Israel!"

What a beautiful blessing to be read with a sweet couple about to be married...and even for us, the parents, who feel very blessed to have our children all around our table...We don't know what the future holds for us or for our "kids"...but we pray their home will be filled with peace, joy, and love...and who knows what further blessings the Lord may have in store for them? We'll just leave that up to God, Who knows all things and what is best always.

Yes, this was "my kind of day!!"

Praise the Lord!

Friday Foto Friends-Reflections of a "Happy Camper"

Well folks, today is "Friday Foto Friends" again...and this week has flown by without any significant photos that I can recall, so I will go back through my camera and see what pictures I've taken recently that you haven't already seen here.  Some of you who are my Facebook friends may have already seen some of these, but maybe not.  It's been a rather busy week in some ways...and a rather lazy week in other ways.  So here goes...they may not be cohesive or have any running "theme" that I know of yet...Let's see what happens, okay?

This lovely Great Egret was enjoying her own reflection in the pond early one morning...actually she was fishing for her breakfast...I doubt she even noticed her reflection...but I did!

This beautiful male cardinal was sitting in a tree in the Secret Garden, singing merrily away one evening! I believe he was giving thanks to the Lord for his lovely home here in the woods...

And this frisky squirrel has been enjoying the fountain in the Memorial Garden...seems to think this is his own private water fountain...

He also loves to run along the top of our new fence...It is amazing how agile and adept he is at running on that skinny "balance beam"...

The knockout roses are beginning to "knock themselves out" with blossoms again...

What's left of our confederate jasmine is blooming, alongside the Louis Philippe roses along the fence...

This young baby bear stopped by for an early drink one morning

And this bigger bear stopped by later for a bath in the pool! That is one tough plastic pool...and this bear is saying "I dare anyone to try and make me get out of this pool!"

Just gotta finish washing my paws before I leave....

AND THIS is what happens when new neighbors from out of state leave their garbage cans/bags outside overnight...we end up with their garbage in our yard and road and woods...thanks to our friendly neighborhood bears who were just looking for a midnight snack....

And now I am happy to say that our neighbors did clean up the mess in the woods promptly this morning, and so now I am a "happy camper!"

This is my new TERVIS replacement "tumbler"...Did you know that if you purchase a TERVIS tumbler (any size), that they have a lifetime warranty?  If it cracks or starts to show condensation on the outside, or any other issue, they will replace it free of charge?  You just have to mail them the damaged cup, and complete the form online to go along with it, and they will give you a coupon to replace it with a new one free, including shipping!  So, I just got this "Happy Camper" tumbler to replace a pink flamingo one that had cracked...and this just suits my style so much better these days!

Even though I don't really go camping, I feel like I live in a perpetual state of camping here in the woods, with the bears and the trees and the campfires and marshmallows...and see the camera in the first picture?  That would be me!! Taking pictures everywhere I go...

And as long as I can do that....I'm a "Happy Camper"!!

So, to end this story on a positive note...today I am thankful to live in the wild forest, even though the bears do sometimes make a mess (still not their fault), and they even like to take a bath in my front yard pool, and the neighbors are friendly and willing to take care of issues that happen... and the birds are free to fly and sing (and fish for their breakfast) and the squirrels are free to frolic about...and the flowers grow and blossom in spite of the drought (as long as I water them...)  and God is in His heaven, and all is right with the world, at least in my little part of the world...

"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

For His mercy endures forever!"

Psalm 107:1

Now please go back and check out what other Friday Foto Friends are posting over here...