White Sunhat

This youngster was enjoying the shore, recently in San Diego.

This was a couple of weeks ago, before the cold - 50-60 degree - weather moved in.

white

we had a little snow on a recent trip to gatlinburg....it sure was pretty. 

i want to wish everyone a safe, blessed and happy Thanksgiving!!  :)

White Skies

Last Friday Allyson and I were out playing in the driveway. We started talking about all the leaves changing color and we noticed how blue the sky was. We talked about it for a little bit. And then she asked me where the white sky was? White sky? I assume she was asking about the clouds...where were the clouds in the sky. So today we were doing the same thing and she looked up and said, 'look Wammy, white sky.' We had a lot of white sky today.

indigo

i wasn't really sure what shade indigo was, so i googled it and found 2 answers...one was "between a blue and violet" the other was a deep midnight blue.  i thought this beautiful Christmas tree fell into the first category.

blue

sorry to be so late, but here is my blue....beautiful blue sky just after a rain in the smokies last weekend!

Double Indoor Rainbow

I wanted so much to capture a picture of an indigo bunting but that didn't happen. Instead while I was pondering what to do, I looked up to look out the front window to see what the dog was barking at and found this on the wall behind the couch.I think the sunshine was coming thru the front window and reflecting/refracting on the beveled glass of the coffee table and on to the wall. Pretty Cool...a double indoor rainbow. God gave me that one for sure.

Indigo sky

I think my sky, this week, has been indigo.

Blue Skies

Thought I better get a really good shot of the beautiful blue sky we were blessed to have today. I know that winter is coming and I am going to wish I could see this beautiful blue again....a million times before winter is over. Don't get me wrong, I love the snow and the crispness of the air but I miss those blue skies. Makes you appreciate the change in seasons even more.

Ocean Beach Pier, San Diego

95 degrees in Novemeber.  I love how the sunlight dances on the water.

Sky and Sea,

San Diego, on Wednesday.

Blue All Around

Oh, to have a peaceful day like this again. The skies were so blue and the water a completely different shade of blue. Early morning simplicity.

Weeds

Beautiful weeds.

Upshot

Green palm fronds, in my front yard.

green beauty

this shot is an oldie...but one of my favorites.  i shot this in mexico...haven't seen a green butterfly before or since.  :)

Seasons

Fall is special to me in so many ways. I love all the colors, smells and tastes of this time of year. Gardening has been in full force for months and now it is time to close up the yard and dream and plan for next spring. Wouldn't you just love to know how all of this was rolling around in God's head and how it all came to be? It is beyond my comprehension. I have a hard time coming up with a weeks worth of dinner menus.

We Got Swooped

I have always hoped to see an owl in the wild. I have even toyed with the idea of going on a night hike at one of the nature preserves but just have never made time to do it. God did it for me this past weekend. We were driving down the hill from having wedding photos taken at Devou Park and a big bird almost swooped into our windshield. I looked in the woods to see if I could find out what kind of bird it was and this is what I saw.
I was about to climb out Mark's window to get a good look. And wouldn't you know...I didn't have the other lens with me. (I gotta start carrying everything with me). Can you find the owl?
I am going to ask Michael if he will do the research to find out what kind of owl this is.

Another thing to mark off my Bucket List. Seems my list is getting shorter. Wonder if I should be concerned? Still looking for that hummingbird nest.

yellow

for years and years...as long as i can remember actually, alabama was truly a land of cotton. over the last 10 years or so, little by little, many cotton fields are being replaced by subdivisons. the past couple of years, however, we are seeing oil fields replacing some of the old cotton fields....sunflowers are being grown and sold for vegetable oil and biodiesel. beautiful! i definitely see them as some of God's abundant gifts. :)

The Beginning and The End

It seems to be that season of plant life living out it's last days. No matter how much I water or how much God water's this time of year everything looks so tired and worn out. Even the most hardy black-eyed Susan's have seen better days. Life in the garden goes on. The plants supply the seeds for the hungry birds in the winter. A resting place for a garden spider. They provide me with a good harvest of seeds to share and for planting for next spring. I dread this time of year. The yard looks so drab unlike all the life I see in the spring. But I know that better days are coming. I just need to be patient. It is a just kinda like life if you think about it.

Our Hearts

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic. One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my 8-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'til morning." He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success, no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face ... I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments .." For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning." I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch.. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. "No, thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag.
When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an over sized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her 5 children, and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury. He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was preface with a thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.. At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him.When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I told him he was welcome to come again. And, on his next trip, he arrived a little after 7 in the morning.As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen! He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4:00 a.m. and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us. In the years he came to stay overnight with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden. Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk 3 miles to mail these, and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious. When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. "Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!" Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But, oh!, if only they could have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God. Recently I was visiting a friend, who has a greenhouse, as she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!" My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden." She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. "Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body." All this happened long ago - and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (1 Samuel 16:7b)

My cousin sent me this in an email. I am thankful for two reasons...that she considers me worthy of such a story. And I am hoping that you were touched by the words. Makes you think of how we view others. God made us all just the way he thought we would be perfect. We just need to change our hearts towards others sometimes.

another sunset

grayton beach state park

red sky at night...

sailor's delight....

august sunset in panama city beach, florida

It's Just The Little Things

I am so fortunate that I can work from home. But it really isn't like work to me. Don't get me wrong some days are more challenging than others but at the end of the day I can smile and say that I had fun. I have always said that I would have a house full of kids. Kids around me until I am 90. Never really want to be an empty nester. But I know someday that will happen and another chapter in my life will begin.

I am blessed to have little ones with me during the week...other than my own who are quickly growing and will be spreading their wings. But my little buddies, they are the ones that keep me young. All those years I was blessed to be a preschool teacher come in handy. Then all the years of foster care have given me patience. All the years of raising our own kids...gave me tons of experience. Then there are all those others kids that have come and gone in my life. I can cay that they all have taught me lessons about life. They all hold a special place in my heart. God has surely given me abundance joy and an abundance of gifts. And I am truly thankful.

Proud

Seems every time I am on FaceBook this week, someone is posting a video of soldiers surprising loved ones . They get me every time. I cry like a baby. Last night I was sitting on the porch trying to get a pic of a goldfinch and the flag just jumped out at me. We are so lucky and privileged to live in a land where we can made our own decisions. We are safe. All because men and women work hard to give us these things. I am proud to say that my dad and father-in-law are veterans. Several nephews are in the armed forces now. One is getting ready to be deployed. Sure puts things in perspective. I am a proud American. And most importantly...we are all under God.

All Creatures Great and Small...

...the Lord God made them all. I have been told if I want to photograph a butterfly,I need to be still and very patient. They land and eat. And then fly away but they usually come back to the same spot quickly.

Queen Annes Lace

The Wild Carrot (Daucus Carota) or Queen Annes Lace is one of many umbelliferous plants to be found growing around the world. Although the species name for this ferny plant with the elegant, white lacy flowers is "Daucus carota", the same one used for cultivated carrots it is not the same plant. As a member of the carrot family it has a long taproot and lacy leaves. Dig up and crush a Wild Carrot root and you will find that it smells just like a carrot. I like the legend better...

The American legend says that Anne of Denmark (1574-1619), queen consort of King James I, was an expert lace-maker. The central flower of the carrot's umbel is reddish-purple. This odd flower was placed upon the umbel for the time Anne pricked her finger and a drop of blood stained the lace. According to Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary the name Queen Anne's lace did not appear in print until 1895, two hundred seventy-six years after Anne's death.

Another says:
Queen Anne’s Lace is said to have been named after Queen Anne of England, an expert lace maker. English legend tells us that Queen Anne challenged the ladies of the court to a contest to see who could produce a pattern of lace as lovely as the flower of this plant. No one could rival the queen's handiwork. She however, pricked her finger with a needle and a single drop of blood fell into the lace, that is said to be the dark purple floret in the center of the flower.



There are several anecdotes as to why the Carrot Flower is named the Queen Annes Lace.

1. Queen Anne's Lace: so called because one tiny purplish floret in the centre is the queen. The white florets make up her lace collar.

2. The reddish flower at the center of this herb is also referred to as a drop of blood from Queen Anne (1655-1714) who pricked her finger while making lace, drawing a drop of blood.

3. English botanist Geoffrey Grigson suggests that the name of the plant comes not from a Queen of England but from Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary and the patron saint of lacemakers.

4. The origin of the name is reputed to be based upon an English legend. Supposedly, when the future Queen Anne arrived from Denmark to became the queen of King James I of England, wild carrot was still a novelty in the royal gardens. The legend states that Queen Anne challenged the ladies in waiting to a contest to see who could produce a pattern of lace as fine and lovely as the flower of the wild carrot. The ladies knew that no one could rival the queen's handiwork so it became a triumph for Anne.

5. One fable associated with the name of this plant describes the occasion of Queen Anne of England pricking her finger while working on lace, staining the lace with blood. If you look closely, you'll notice that each large "flower" has many small white florets with a red/purple dot in the middle.

6. Queen Anne's Lace is also known as Mother Die, because if you brought it into your house, according to superstition, your mother would die.

7. The white clusters apparently reminded the British of Queen Anne's lace headdress.



Here's a poem. By Mary Leslie Newton

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has washed her lace
(She chose a summer's day)
And hung it in a grassy place
To whiten, if it may.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, has left it there,
And slept the dewy night;
Then waked, to find the sunshine fair,
And all the meadows white.

Queen Anne, Queen Anne, is dead and gone
(She died a summer's day),
But left her lace to whiten in
Each weed-entangled way!

Amazing Creativity

I am looking forward when I can sit with God under a big oak tree on the most green, plush grass there is and talk to him about a lot of things. His imagination will be the first thing we talk about and then I plan on asking the more serious questions that have puzzled me all my life. What is one question that we would ask?

Wings

I was sitting outside watching Doodles play inthe pool and this butterfly swooped down to get a drink of eater serveral times. Then it moved on to the hosta blooms. I have never seen a butterfly try to get it's entire body in any kind of bloom.

A Little Boys Smile

Last night Mark found this turtle coming into the yard from the ivy. He called me and I picked up the turtle and took it to the garage to find something to keep it in.

Michael was a little timid about picking Bowser up but once he saw me pick him up he was okay with it.

Does he look like someone just made his day? He was so excited and couldn't wait to show Luke. So today we let Bowser back into his world because "he is a living creature that needs to live in the wild."

Baby Birds

I don't know how she does it but every year a little grey bird builds a nest down in the post of Luke's basketball hoop. We see the parents working on the nest and then one day we hear baby birds. Then Mr John gets out the ladder and we watch as they grow from skinny naked babies to feathered birds. I'll have to get the bird book out to see if I can figure out what kind of bird it is.

Beautiful Weed

Mark and I have been working really hard trying to get the yard back in shape....and man do we have along way to go. Last weekend while putting up our FreeCycle .org fence I saw this beautiful little purple weed. I've been thinking about it all week. Thinking that God created something so beautiful out of a annoying little weed that is eating up our vinca vine. I keep thinking about Sarah Beth and the legacy she leaves behind. Such a beautiful soul. But cancer is such a horrible thing. It just continued to eat away at her day by day. Until God decided that it was time for her to have a new body, free of pain. Something horrible but with a beautiful result. Each year this little vining flower will show up in our vinca vine. Each day someone will read LoveYourGuts.com. Sarah Beth's mission in life will live on thru her thoughtful words.

Bleeding Hearts

Mr John made the most beautiful flower bed in the front of their house. I am so jealous! Emmy took this shot of his bleeding hearts. I am hoping to find some for our yard. We have pink ones but these white ones are so beautiful.

Pure White

I was walking through the ivy this morning and found that we have some totally white daffodils. I have never seen any like this before. They remind me of lace for some reason.

Sharing Spring

I am sure by now just about everywhere you can find signs of spring. I sorta cheated this morning. I was sitting on Aunt Kate's porch enjoying a cup of coffee on the swing and saw all these beautiful flowers. Just thought I would share. Hope they brighten your day...as they did mine.