Sunday Morning in a Winter Garden

Sunday Morning in a Winter Garden

Music for you to enjoy....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4cLgcapk9A

      God is in winter. He is in the dead ends, cold, wind, problems, losses, sufferings, challenges, disasters. The seasons in our lives are overseen by God. They are not random or chance. Every season is designed and allowed by God.

                      In winter there is more going on than we think.

                                                  Things have to die.

                   
                      Winter is for trusting. Just wait. Just stand. Rest.

                                          New beginnings will come.

                                                                                  

                                    On our journey we pause and see....

                                                  

Out of the darkness God shines

Out of the ashes we rise.

There's none like him,

None like him.

Our God is greater.

Our God is stronger.

Our God is higher than any other.

And if our God is for us,

then who can ever stop us?

And if our God is with us than who can stand against us?

(Chris Tomlin)

Nature Coast Botanical Gardens

Nature Coast Botanical Gardens

1489 Parker Avenue

Spring Hill, FL 34606

www.naturecoastgardens.com

Hello my friend ~

    Last week we were on a trip to Florida for a  wedding in Spring Hill which is 40 minutes north of Tampa. While there I came across this delightful, little botanical garden. The gardens are maintained by the Spring Hill Garden Club. There was no charge to enter the gardens. When I arrived at the gardens the volunteers were scurrying around to  cover up the most tender plants as it was COLD and a freeze was fore casted. As we on the way to the airport the next morning in the predawn hours I noticed it was 35 degrees. I was happy that all the growing things had survived their near death experience!

I hope you enjoy these photos of  the Nature Coast Botanical Gardens.

     The gardens are divided up into 23 themed gardens though the general feel of the place is that of a shady woodsy retreat. Paths topped with wood chips and fallen scrub oak leaves meandered around and in and out of shoulders of azaleas and banks of tropical plants.

                                                                                                            
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        My favorite gardens were the Memorial Garden and the Desert Scape. I probably liked them the best because they were the areas with the most flowers blooming!

The Memorial Garden

 

      Along the perimeter of the Memorial Garden was some sort of evergreen hedge and behind the hedge  was a row of  interesting shrubs. They grew about 10 or 12 feet high and had red flowers that looked like bottle brushes.  Here they are:

      Guess what the name of this flower is? Yep, that's right, they are called Bottle Brushes.

The Desert Scape

 

      I have no idea what the large tree behind the hedge was. It looked like a giant cactus tree. My only complaint of this place was a certain lack of identification markers. A Yankee like me is not familiar with all the plants that grow in Florida. If anyone knows what it is, let me know! It was loaded with these fat, promising buds:

      I thoroughly delighted in wandering around this charming garden. I can never resist meandering down a garden path.

  Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove your foot from evil. Proverbs 4:26&27

Grace and peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ

Squirrel Baffle

 A squirrel baffle for a 4x4 inch post. Made from aluminum flashing.






    Do you have trouble with squirrels or raccoons getting into your bird feeder?  I have had this bird feeder for many years but always had a problem with squirrels eating most of the bird seed. One or two of these ingenious little critters can totally decimate your bird feeder in very little time. I have tried all kinds of tricks to keep them out but to no avail. They simply out-smarted me every time!
     Finally last summer one day I had had it with the squirrels. In total frustration I went into the basement and grabbed a roll of aluminum flashing that had been there for years.

                        I then proceeded to whack off two pieces of of the stuff with a pair of tin snips.

     The aluminum was 8 inches wide and I cut pieces roughly 20 inches long. I cut a couple of pieces of wood from a 1x2in board. I cut 2 pieces of board 4 inched long and 2 pieces 6 inches long. Then I grabbed a handful of galvanized nails and my hammer and went up to the Battle of the Bird Feeder.  First I attached a piece of flashing right to the post. All the way around. It is about 3 1/2 feet off the ground.Next I attached the rest of stuff to the post like this:

   I have to admit I did not really have much faith in my efforts because I had been beaten and out maneuvered so many  times before. Much to my surprise I have not had one squirrel in my bird feeder since nailing the flashing to the post. Victory is sweet.
  So remember this the next time you are feeling defeated, overcome and out maneuvered:
  God made you alive with Christ. Forgiving you of your sins. Then he cancelled the written code with its written regulations that was against you and that was opposed to you. It is nailed to the cross.
Colossians 2:14
Victory is sweet.
   

   

Be Salty Today!

My daughter gave me these adorable salt and pepper shakers for my birthday one year.

Salt makes food taste good. It also preserves it.

Jesus commands us to be the salt of the earth.

As Christians that means we are to be Gods' salt shakers, sprinkling His Word into the world around us.

So, load up your salt shaker with a little salt.

Sprinkle it in your world.

In every way you know how.

In everyplace you can.

As often as you can.

Put Gods Word somewhere that needs to taste and see that the Lord is good.

May you be salty today!   In Christ, Gwen

Blue Birds

 Hello Pilgrim,
 Enjoy listening to Eva Cassidys' lovely and haunting rendition of Over the Rainbow while you browse this post.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuSNxZb47Ns&noredirect=1

      I always clean out my  blue bird houses in the winter as I never seem to get it done in the fall. It is one of those gardening jobs that you can do in the snow and cold!  Blue birds come back to Western New York in early March so as it is almost the middle of February I need to get out there and get the boxes cleaned out.

  I have 6 nesting boxes. The boxes on posts up near the woods usually have wrens in them. Then I have swallows in one box and blue birds in the rest. I had a much longer trail of boxes a few years ago. I had put up the blue bird nesting boxes all along a split rail fence. The fence  rotted and we decided to just take it down. So down came the blue bird boxes also. I have about 10 of them sitting in a pile in the barn. I just need to get 10 posts and, oh yeah, someone to dig 10 post holes.

    The blue birds love to eat berries. When they come back to New York in early March it is still winter and there are not many insects around and so they find berries to eat. We have had a flock of 12 blue birds dining  from our Winterberry bush [Ilex verticillata].  They congregate on a tree branch high over head and then take turns coming down to daintily pick a single berry. Off they go with their prize, to were blue birds fly, and very soon the prize is gobbled up. Not long ago I saw a flock of blue birds alight on a very grizzled, old, poison ivy vine that snakes it way up the maple across the road. There they feasted with seemingly great enjoyment on the small white berries.
  I must say, to see one blue bird is a treat, but to see a coterie of blue munching on your berry bush is well....oh, I do not even know how to even pick out a word! Just imagine.I have only ever seen them in a group in the winter. Must be as courting and nesting begins they are more territorial.

                       
   Today remember The One who makes little blue birds fly and rainbows and blue skies. Remember He is The One who loves you and gave his life for you. Not one sparrow falls without His knowing. How much more does He care for you?  Grace and Peace.

Outside My Window This Morning....Snow

   


 Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The very first thing I usually do when I roll out of bed in the morning is to go to my bedroom window. I pull back the cotton muslin curtains and I greet the day. Usually I am saying something like, ' this is the day the Lord has made' or 'bless the Lord oh my soul' or 'from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same the name of the Lord is to be praised'.

        Outside my window this morning, winter was in full force.
Today was a day to
say 'wash me and I shall be whiter than snow'.
       I see God doing that in my life. Washing me with the water of his Word. Cleaning me up, sanctifying me, changing how I think and what I believe.
   May I share my winter day with you? May you be blessed to see the beauty of God in it. The storehouses of snow are His.  

   THE  SNOW

                                                                    by emily dickinson

It sifts from leaden sieves,

It powders all the wood,

it fills with alabaster wool 

The wrinkles of the road.

It makes an even face

Of mountain and of plain,---

unbroken forhead from the east

Unto the east again.

It reaches to the fence,

It wraps it, rail by rail,

Till it is lost in fleeces;

It flings a crystal veil.

On stump and stack and stem,---

The summers empty room,

Acres of seam where harvests were,

Recordless, but for them.

     It ruffles wrists of post,

        As ankles of a queen,---

       Then stills its artisans like ghosts

            Denying they have been.

~

May you be blessed today by the God who 

can make you 

whiter than snow.

YES!

Whiter than snow.