Wednesday Treasures: Things I See!

Good Morning Friends! Today is Wednesday...oh it is also "Hump Day"

I told Mommie that even though I already showed you this picture last week, I wanted to show it to you again today, because this is "Hump Day", and we are not allowed to go more than 15 miles per hour to get over this big "Hump"! I thought that was a funny way to tell people there was a bump in the road.

Instead of any particular "treasures" in our house, I wanted to show you some things I've been seeing here and there this past week.  They are special "treasures" too.

This is a bouquet of beautiful Easter Lilies that are in the courtyard at our church.  My big sister, who I call "Auntie Rose", made this pretty arrangement of (silk) Easter Lilies  to decorate at our church for Easter.  When Mommie told me what they were, I said, "Easter Lilies? That's MY name!"   Oh how exciting! There are beautiful white flowers with my name on them to celebrate Easter!!! I didn't know that!! That makes me very happy to know that I can be a part of the flowers that help make Easter day so wonderful!

And speaking of beautiful flowers...

that lovely red rose bud in the Secret "Memorial" Garden finally bloomed.

Isn't it just gorgeous? And it smells so heavenly!

Mommie cut it and brought it inside so we can enjoy it every day. She said it smells "heavenly" because it is a gift from my big brother Matthew in heaven.  This is from the bush that was planted in the memorial garden after he went to heaven, and then when Mommie and Daddy moved here from that house they brought it with them, and Mommie finally got it planted in the ground and this was the first blossom after it got planted.

Just in time for Easter!!  Mommie says this rosebush always blooms for special occasions.

Speaking of special blossoms, I will have to wait until the sun come up to show you how our Amaryllis flowers are starting bloom.  So I can't finish posting this until after sunrise.  Don't let me forget!!

Meanwhile, when we went for a walk I saw this very unusual looking grasshopper!

I think he looks like a creature from outer space! What do YOU think?

I could certainly see him as an alien monster on one of those scary movies that I don't like to watch, couldn't you?

And then, if that wasn't scary enough, here was another strange looking creature:

This caterpillar had fuzzy looking brush like things sticking out all over his body.

Mommie said not to touch him because he might sting me and that would really hurt.

We aren't sure what kind of caterpillar he is...Mommie said he would turn into some kind of moth most likely, and maybe not a good one, but we let him go wherever he was going.

Now, I don't know if you can see what is going on in this picture or not, but if you look down under the chair on the ground on the left, you can see a cat crouching down, trying to hide under the chair.  He is watching that Canadian Goose who is standing under the bird feeder.  The goose is being very, very still, because he probably knows the cat is there and he doesn't want the cat to come after him. The goose was having a little snack of bird seed that is on the ground. And he is also watching over to the island across the pond there in front of him, where his mate is sitting up on the shore near the left tip of the island where you can see those posts sticking up out of the water.

She has been spending a lot of time there, and we think she has a nest! Oh! I hope so! I hope so! Wouldn't it be wonderful to see some baby gooses (goslings, Mommie said) some day? They are safe on the island so this cat can't get to them, because cats don't like to swim that far.

It is hard to see the goose, but she is in there, sitting on her nest! Oh! I do hope she will have babies, don't you?  That would be the bestest Easter present ever!

Oh! Guess What!  While we were writing this post and after the sun came up a whole big flock of geese landed on Still Waters Pond, and our resident goose couple chased them off...well, the male one did, and the female sat back in the water safely away from them while her mate chased them away:

There was a lot of honking and flapping of wings like they were under attack!

Mommie was excited to be able to take these pictures!

And off the intruders flew!

And once again everything is calm and peaceful on Still Waters Pond...for now...

Mommie said that Easter is all about new life, and that is what we are seeing a lot of these days. Flowers blooming, trees are getting their pretty new bright green leaves and little plums are growing,

And I've been helping Mommie water our plants that we planted so they will grow and be pretty:

And HERE are the Amaryllis blossoms that are open so far this morning!  I didn't forget!! As soon as the sun came up we went outside to see them. Aren't they amazing?

And lots more are going to open in the next few days, hopefully in time for Easter!!

These are all signs of new life at Easter time.

But the best of all is this: Jesus came back to life after those mean people killed Him on the cross.  He arose from the grave on Easter morning and didn't stay dead in the tomb.  

And so because Jesus lives, we will also live if we believe in Him.

Mommie said that is the most important thing to remember about Easter.

I am glad that Jesus is living today.  Even though He had to go through some very bad and sad things before He died, which Mommie said we will talk more about in the next few days, we want to always remember the good news that Jesus is alive today!

That's very good news!

 

Springing into March with Lily Grace

Hello all my friends in Blogland! Mommie said it's a new month and so we had to turn the pages on the calendars to the month of March!

Mommie has some other calendars besides this one, but I like this one!  I could just imagine that was me sitting up on that sled, being pulled by those beautiful big draft horses, feeling the warmth of the sunshine on my face even though there was still snow on the ground and a chill in the air.

But what is that man doing with that bucket?

Mommie said he is pouring the sap from the buckets that were attached to the maple trees into that big container to haul it back to their "sugar house" where they will boil the sap down to make maple syrup. Mommie said it takes a LOT of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup because it has to boil down to the right sugar content and consistency (that's a big word for me, but Mommie's typing this so she could spell it for me). She said that is why real pure Maple Syrup is so expensive to buy, but is sure tastes a lot better than the kind we get in the supermarket that just has maple flavoring added to corn syrup.

But Mommie says if we have to buy the man made stuff in the stores, she prefers Log Cabin syrup because it doesn't have any of that "high fructose corn syrup" in it, because that stuff isn't good for you.

The little tin of "pure Maple Syrup" on the left is something Mommie saved from when she did have some REAL maple syrup from up in Maine, when they used to live up there.

Those are a couple of syrup pitchers above.  Mommie says that if she runs out of maple syrup she can always make some from "scratch", which means she makes it from sugars and maple flavoring and water and vanilla:

Now I am hungry for some pancakes or waffles!

Thanks, Mommie!!

Speaking of "sap",  this squirrel is sitting on a sappy looking pine tree. I asked Mommie if we could tap that tree and get some sap to make syrup, but she said this is the wrong kind of tree. This is a PINE tree, and PINE sap doesn't make MAPLE sap for MAPLE syrup. But she said it does make turpentine! However, we wouldn't want to put turpentine on our waffles!

Maybe that squirrel likes the pine sap to put on his acorns and pine cones that he eats! Ha Ha!

Speaking of pine cones:

One day last week on one of our walks in the woods I saw LOTS of BIG pine cones everywhere!

They fall out of those big pine trees there in the woods.  Some of those pine cones were almost as big as me!

Oh,  and if you look really really close, you can see the beginning of a tiny little wild plum on that branch of the plum tree:

Next time we go to the woods I will check and see if it is any bigger. Mommie said it will grow to be about as big as a grape by early summer.  I can't wait to see them!!

Oh, one day when we were riding in the car I accidentally snapped the button on Mommie's camera and took a picture of her denim shirt that she had in her lap. Isn't it pretty? I love this color of blue, don't you?

Today is kind of cloudy, breezy and cold right now, and so we haven't gone for our walk yet. But we just went outside to look at Still Waters Pond and we could see two Wood Ducks way over there swimming around:

 

You can't see them in this picture above, so Mommie zoomed in on them and we could see them better:

That one below is just the female duck.  They are very shy, and when we come outside to see them they swim or fly away as soon as they see us. I wish they'd come closer so I could see them better.

Mommie said the month of March is kind of unpredictable. Some days it might be warm and sunny, and other days it might be cloudy and cold, but one thing is for sure, she said it is usually always windy!

She said March has some important dates to remember:

March 14th is the beginning of Daylight Savings time!  She said in the spring we have to "spring ahead" and set our clocks for one hour later, so like at 8:00 it is really 9:00! She said we lose an hour of sleep in the spring, and we get it back in the fall! I don't think I can wait that long to get my sleep caught up!

I hope our bluebirds don't get confused about what time it is!!

Then comes St. Patrick's Day on March 17th:

I don't quite understand all this stuff, but Mommie said it is all just for fun, and we'll talk more about it when it comes!

Mommie says I need to have something green to wear or I might get pinched! 

I'd like a pretty dress like that to wear! I wonder where I can find one? I sure don't want to get pinched!!

And then on another day in March is my big brother Scott's birthday:

There's my brother Scott now...he just created that motorcycle last night from some copper wire! He likes to create all kinds of neat stuff from wire, candy wrappers and straw wrappers.  Someday I will show you more of his creations.

He's very talented.

Then on March 20th comes the first day of Spring!

It already feels like spring here in Florida where we live, but still we are waiting for more flowers to bloom and leaves to pop out on the trees and stuff like that. I think our baby bluebirds will be born pretty soon. I hope so! I sure would like to see them!

Well, that about takes care of March! I think March is a happy month, don't you? 

I hope you enjoyed this little adventure with me today, looking ahead into March.

I hope you have a happy month of March.

Love, 

Lily Grace

xoxoxoxo

 

February Brings HOPE!

Hello to all my wonderful friends in Blogland!  I am so happy to have made so many wonderful new friends this past week.  And now it is already a new month! The month of February!! Mommie says February is a very special month because a lot of happy things happen this month. 

(John Sloane's Country Seasons Calendar)

There's Valentine's Day, And President's Day... Mommie said we celebrate the birthdays of all Presidents on that day, but that really only Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington were born in February (that she knows of).  Mommie said she remembers when she was a little girl like me that they used to have a parade on George Washington's birthday (February 22) and a carnival with big rides and games and lots of fun stuff to to do. She said she used to get to march in the parade when she was a Girl Scout and then also as a Junior Majorette, twirling her baton. But she said she got blisters on her heels from the boots they had to wear and it wasn't much fun after that.  I wish I could have seen her then. She doesn't know where any pictures are from then or she'd show me.  But here is a recent picture of some Junior Majorettes from that same parade that they still have every year:

Mommie said she noticed that they aren't wearing boots anymore! She said that was a smart move! She said that her costume was red and white, but that was a LONG time ago!  

I wish I could be a Junior Majorette! That looks like fun!

Oh, Mommie said that my Daddy's birthday is also in February and that we might have a party to celebrate!! Oh, I hope so!! That would be so much fun!

Mommie said that Valentine's Day is a special day for friends and sweethearts to give cards and gifts to each other, like candy or flowers.

I'm happy that I already have my pretty new Valentine's dress to wear!

Yesterday afternoon Mommie introduced me to the "Aunties", also known as "The Martin Sisters". They invited me to come and have a little tea party with them.  So I got to wear my new dress.

Actually, I had met them on my first day here, but I was still wearing my play clothes and I showed them my guitar.  They seemed to think that I needed to dress more appropriately for a young lady, and they would like for me to learn how to play the piano instead of the guitar.  

Mommie said that I could do both, and that it was okay for me to wear play clothes when I am playing, and I will dress up when I visit with special people or go to church.  

She said that "The Aunties" are kind of old fashioned but I do need to learn proper manners and how to visit with older people. Mommie says they are very nice ladies and that they could teach me a lot about how to do things like knit, crochet, sew, and have proper tea parties and such...

So maybe we can do that in the future!  They were very nice to me and I think I will enjoy visiting with them more often!

So this morning Mommie and Daddy and I went for our usual walk. It was kind of blustery and getting colder, so we didn't stay long...but Mommie wanted to see if there were anymore flowers blooming on the wild plum trees:

Look at all those blossoms!! Just since a couple of days ago more and more have popped open all over the trees!

Looky how pretty this is!!! And they smell sweet too!

But look at these trees! They are not very pretty trees, with old Spanish Moss hanging down from the branches, and they look old and dead, except for all those beautiful little flowers opening up all over them! 

And here's another one nearby! Who would believe that these scraggly old trees would have such wonderful blossoms on them?  I asked Mommie how they do that! 

She said that in the fall and winter the trees lose all their leaves and they look bare and like they are dead.  But God made the trees really special, because during those cold winter months they are really kind of like "sleeping" and resting up for the spring.  In the spring the new rains come and water the trees and plants in the ground, and they wake up and drink in all the fresh water and the buds start to form in the branches until they can't hide in there anymore, so they burst forth with new life and the flowers blossom again.  And then, once the flower goes away, a tiny little plum begins to grow and develop where the flower was.  And in a few weeks it grows and grows and pretty soon there is a pretty purple plum where the flowers were! Since these are wild plum trees, the fruit is kind of small, but the birds love them and probably some animals on the ground eat them too when they fall to the ground. It's all a part of God's wonderful way of replenishing the earth with new life every year.

Seeing the flowers blossom in the spring always gives us great hope that something wonderful is going to happen soon!

Speaking of Presidents, one of our former Presidents' First Lady, "Lady Bird Johnson", loved flowers a lot. She had many many wildflowers planted along the highways of our country, to make everything look so beautiful. She is quoted as saying:

"Where Flowers Bloom, So Does Hope".

"But I will hope continually,

And will praise You yet more and more."

Psalm 71:14

Back home at our Still Waters Pond Mommie showed me that the Maple trees around the pond are also starting to "blossom".  Their flowers aren't like a plum blossoms, but they are little tiny red blossoms that will become maple leaves soon and turn green.  She said these are all signs that spring is on its way and therefore we should all have "hope" for better days ahead!

I HOPE you have enjoyed this little adventure today.  Mommie said that we don't always get to go to special or important places, but we enjoy what we have around us and we should thank God every day for the things He provides for us to enjoy, like flowers and Valentines and nice "Aunties" who want to teach us things! And for springtime!

And for YOU, our special friends in Blogland!!

Love,

Lily Grace