Saturday Meanderings

 Hello Everyone! Hey! It's the first Saturday in September! And it's 90 degrees here in sunny north central Florida!  However, there are some clouds forming and we are supposed to get some rain later this afternoon. 

I will believe it when I see it. They keep telling us that rain is coming and then it goes completely around us, so we shall see. The forecast for next week also looks like rain every day, so I am hoping and praying that the dry spell is coming to an end and maybe Still Waters Pond will begin to fill up again in time for the Canada Geese to fly in! I actually saw and heard a flock fly over this morning, heading over to a bigger lake nearby...but that is the group that usually likes to come over to our pond in the fall/winter months for a while most every day, so I really hope they will still be able to do that!Speaking of the neighborhood, guess what happened yesterday??? Do you see it??? Yes, that is a U-Haul truck in the yard of the new house next door, finally! The house was actually sold a few months ago, and I've been watching and waiting ever since for someone to move in, and yesterday was the day!



I may not have noticed them over there except that we went outside on our front porch to help our son Benton load up my old green recliner to take to the church Thrift Store finally, and there they were!


And there goes Benton and hubby, taking the chair away! Oh, and btw, that little house right across the street now has people living in it as well. It sat empty for quite a while after an older man purchased it but he never moved in. Instead, he put it back up for sale. However, the house did not sell, and after a while I guess he decided to go ahead and move in there after all. We haven't had a chance to really talk to him, but he seems quiet and pleasant.


I actually got to meet the new neighbors on the side of us as they were leaving last night to take the UHaul truck back. I was out in the front yard watering the plants, and when they went by I waved first at the truck, and then at the car behind it. The man in the car pulled over and stopped and rolled down the window, and he said, "Hi! We're your new neighbors!" He actually had a young lady with him who he introduced as his daughter, and he said that it would be him, his daughter, and his elderly father all living in the house together. Oh, and yes, they do have dogs...3 to be exact, and also a house cat. Thankfully they already put up a fence in the back yard for the dogs, and when hubby went outside this morning to bring our garbage cans back in from the street, the dogs greeted him with some nice loud barks. From here it looks like they are big dogs, like maybe a German Shepherd type. Again, thankfully they have a fenced area in the back that is not actually connected to our property, and it appears they are house dogs, so hopefully they won't be outside barking all the time. And the man and his daughter seemed very friendly and pleasant, so here's hoping that my prayers have been answered for having some good neighbors finally!!


September is a good time to take walks and enjoy the early fall foliage and wildflowers that are still blooming. We went to our historic village walking trail yesterday morning and enjoyed seeing the sights along the way. September is also a good time to see butterflies it seems.



This is a Zebra Longwing butterfly, and I didn't know until now that it is the state butterfly of our state of Florida! Huh! I wonder how come I didn't know that???





Anyway, I was enjoying chasing it around these Firebush flowers . "Firebush is a perennial or semi-woody shrub that is known scientifically as Hamelia patens. Gardeners love firebush because it produces flowers from late spring until the first frost, and the bright red flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies, including the zebra longwing and gulf fritillary butterflies. Song birds also like to feed on the berries."





All the while I was trying to capture pictures of that butterfly, I kept hearing a bird in the tree above me. Finally I looked up and saw this Mockingbird , who just so happens to be the State Bird of Florida! So how interesting to have the state butterfly and the state bird right there together at the same time!!!


Also right there in the same area was this beautiful Beautyberry bush. I think that may be what the Mockingbird was after, as they do love these berries. These berries can also be used to make a mosquito repellent! I have actually had some made from this, and it did work, but it is kind of a dark liquid that stains your skin, so I wasn't really too thrilled with putting it all over myself! LOL. The berries can also be used in jellies and wine, but again, I'm not really into anything quite this wild for my jelly. LOL.



I guess this post is becoming a nature class! LOL. That wasn't my intention, but I do like to identify the things I see for my own education and I figure you might like to know what these things are too! We are never too old to learn something new, right? Anyway, the next creature I saw was this Long-tailed Skipper butterfly. He was enjoying the nectar of some Lantana, which most likely is growing wild, although it may have been planted years ago around these lots that once had houses on them for a hundred years...

The Skipper was also enjoying the nectar of the Coral Vine flowers that were growing all over the same area.




I've shown you this same trunk of this palm tree before, and right now it is covered in coral vine. Earlier this year it had wisteria flowers, and then there was some Cat's Claw flowering vine on it after that. It is amazing to me how many different species of flowering vines can grow on this same tree trunk throughout the year!

The butterflies and birds weren't the only ones enjoying some nectar on this lovely fall day...(actually it is still officially late summer, but you know what I mean), any way...look at this bee! I am happy to see the bees on the flowers, but I just don't want to get too close!

I will close with these thoughts from Psalm 28 today...I am feeling much better these days, and so is my hubby.  Little by little we are regaining our strength and stamina and are looking forward to the beautiful fall days ahead where hopefully we can take more walks and get stronger day by day. We are very thankful to the Lord for helping us both through some difficult days this past summer and giving us a brighter hope for tomorrow. 

Psalm 28:6-7

"6 Blessed be the Lord,

Because He has heard the voice of my supplications!

7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;

My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;

Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,

And with my song I will praise Him."

Amen!

P.S. 4:00 P.M.   It's RAINING!!! Praise the Lord!

Thursday Thankfulness...Friday Foto Friends: Fall Has Arrived!

Good Morning, and Happy Autumn, Fall, Autumnal Equinox, whatever you want to call it, it's finally here and we are so glad!  My calendar says that actually the Autumnal Equinox isn't until tomorrow, but everything else says that Fall begins today, and so I am going to accept that and run with it! I will never forget the first time I remember hearing the term "Autumnal Equinox" used was by my then 5 year old grandson Noah. We had just arrived in Maine on the airplane from Florida and they came to pick us up at the airport. As we were driving out the gate and down the highway I was remarking about how beautiful all the fall leaves were and I asked Noah what he thought about it being "Fall".  He promptly corrected me and said, "Oh no, Grandma! It's the Autumnal Equinox!".  I about fell over with surprise! Out of the mouth of babes should come such big words! LOL. He was very precise in his pronunciation of those words and I was totally stunned that a five year old would even be able to say such words, let alone know what they meant! LOL.  He always was very good with words, and even to this day when he is now almost 23 years old he has a very rich vocabulary. (I just wish he'd call and say Hi more often...)

So today I am thankful for the beautiful weather we are having...it has finally started to cool down just a tad, and the rains seem to have let up for a little while so we can dry out and not be quite so humid.

And so hubby and I decided that on the mornings we go to work at Dixie Cottage we will get there a bit early and take a walk on the beautiful walking trail that starts right outside the door of the store:

There he goes...hey! Wait for me! LOL.  Anyway, this lovely walking path follows the old railroad track line through the old historic section of town, and it is a perfect place for us to take a nice morning walk before we open the store for business.

I was happy to see a variety of wildflowers and Beautyberries along the trail...

A perfect place to catch a glimpse of a Zebra Longwing butterfly sipping its morning nectar from the flowers:

It was quite elusive to my camera's eye...I had to keep trying to follow it as it fluttered and flittered by me:

You can tell that his wings were fluttering in this photo below:

And finally he lighted on this Firebush plant so that I could get a good picture:

I finally also caught up with hubby so we could take a selfie:

We are both wearing our "Dixie Cottage" t-shirts so you know we are "official". LOL.

I loved seeing these Turk's Cap Mallow flowers, which is kind of like a Hibiscus that never opens up. I remember as kids on the school playground we would pull out the flower and suck the nectar out of the end of it...it was SO sweet! Yes, the butterflies and hummingbirds love this flower too!

The view across the highway from where we were walking...a beautiful little lake

We turned around and headed back towards the store, and then I noticed these

beautiful Coral Vine flowers blooming all over the bushes and up on the trees along the road:

Coral Vine 

Even though they are beautiful, they will take over wherever they are if not kept pruned back...

Oh, another butterfly on the wild lantana bushes:

This is the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly

And there were lots of bees and Skipper butterflies on these wild Coreopsis flowers, (see picture below) also known as "tickseed". I thought this was an interesting comment in the Wikipedia explanation and description of these flowers: "Coreopsis is a variable genus closely related to Bidens. "  Here is the definition of that:

"Bidens is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. The common names beggarticks, black jack, burr marigolds, cobbler's pegs, Spanish needles, stickseeds, tickseeds and tickseed sunflowers refer to the fruits of the plants, most of which are bristly and barbed, with two sharp pappi at the end. The generic name refers to the same character; Bidens comes from the Latin bis ("two") and dens ("tooth")."^[3]

Without getting political, I'll just leave that information right there...LOL.

Okay, switching gears a bit, something "new" is developing in our neighborhood.  At the entrance to our subdivision is a large 3 acre tract of commercial land that was nicely wooded. It had been for sale for a while, and finally was sold. So this week they began to clear the land.  Being the good nosey neighbors that we are, we stopped and asked the foreman of the land clearing crew if he knew what was going to be put on this land. He said a "Dollar General Store".  I about choked. I said, "You've got to be kidding!" He said no he wasn't...   Well, here's the scoop on that...we already have a Dollar General store 2 miles to the east of this location. AND, we have another Dollar General store 2 miles to the west of this location, and about a mile beyond that one is a Family Dollar Store that is also a Dollar Tree store since they merged.  Our little town is overrun with Dollar stores, gas stations and thrift stores and one grocery store.  We need restaurants and other kinds of businesses...not another Dollar General Store! And especially not in the entrance to our subdivision.  I contacted our County Commissioner to verify this and he was actually surprised himself, but did some research and found out it is true. So I asked him to please make sure they put a traffic light at that intersection because it is already a dangerous intersection trying to get out onto the highway, etc.  We'll see what happens with that.  

So here are the pictures of the work being done...

These were taken a couple of days ago. The property is mostly clear now. Thankfully they left a boundary of trees around the edges that connect to our housing development.  We live about 1/8th of a mile from this.  I am not a happy camper. My husband actually is a huge Dollar General fan, and now he can just walk there if he wants to. LOL.  Life goes on...trying to keep a positive attitude.

And so here's something funny.  I am working on my outfit for the "High Tea with Mrs. Henry Flagler" that is coming up next weekend.  It was suggested that we come in "period style clothes" of the 1890's, etc.  When I called to get more information I was told that the hats should be large and have lots of flowers. Please don't laugh. I was just sticking some fake flowers around the brim of the hat, but they aren't fastened yet and I didn't know my hubby was going to take my picture or I would have fixed it better.  

A friend from our church gave me the beautiful turquoise colored hat and said I could keep it and do whatever I needed to do with it. So that became my color guide for figuring out the rest of the outfit.

This is definitely still a work in progress.  When the outfit is finally complete, I will take some better pictures to share with you.  Meanwhile, I am excited that one of our friends who comments on blogs occasionally but doesn't have her own blog and who lives in this area is going to come and go with me to the tea.  Then today I heard from another friend in the area who also plans to attend.  It's going to be a lot of fun.

Here is a brief history of Henry Flagler, and HERE is more information about his third wife, who loved to throw lavish parties and was the one who loved the big hats and lots of flowers. It should be a very interesting and fun tea party!

 I guess that's enough stuff for today and tomorrow.  I am thankful for how God watches over us in so many ways.  Oh, and I am also thankful that I did actually hear from our grandson today. I sent him a text this morning to wish him a "Happy Autumnal Equinox Day", and he wrote back a text and told me what he's been doing and apologized for not staying in touch better. Of course I'd love to have a real phone call, but for now I'll take whatever I can get. I know he's busy working every day, and that's a good thing, and he's healthy and safe...and that's an even better thing.  So that was an answer to prayer.

"To everything there is a season, 

A time for every purpose under heaven."

Ecclesiastes 3:1