Solid Rock to Stand On

It has been a bit cooler here this afternoon after the cold front began to move through.  We got some rain, but last night, the bird bath was filled with the rain we got.  I was afraid that the rain getting on the bird feeder food might discourage the birds from feeding, but that has not been the case.  I actually saw some different birds at the feeder this morning.....through my 2 windows and screens.

This is a Chipping Sparrow.  According to Birds and Blooms, they are the most common sparrow in North America.  They winter or spend the whole year in the southern states.  You know you are looking at a Chipping Sparrow by its chestnut cap and black eye line, both of which fade somewhat in the winter.  The males and females look alike.

This is the female Brown-headed Cow bird, from everything I could find out.  And, it makes sense, being this is the only day I have seen her, and......................

.....him.

And, guess who came to breakfast with Mr. Cardinal?

Why, Mrs. Cardinal, of course!  She hasn't shown her face in public much!

And, I'm pretty sure this is Mrs. Bluebird, even though her feathers don't look very blue in this picture.  But, she did NOT come to eat breakfast with the other birds.  She came to........

.....gather nesting material from the pine needles that Calvin put down yesterday.

Well, believe it or not, in 10 minutes time, I took 178 pictures of these birds this morning!  Aren't you glad I spared you the agony of looking at all of them?!  :D  Actually, how I managed to take that many photos is because I found a "Bird-Watching" setting on my camera and you have a choice of setting it for multiple photos with one click OR the usual single photo.  I chose the multi-photo setting.  That way I could pick the best photos AND I would be able to capture them if they decided to fly away suddenly! 

Tim's mom told me the birds would probably not like the slick, painted bottom of my bird bath and that I should add a rock that they could stand on and feel safer.  So, I dug through some of the aquarium stuff we have down in the basement and, voila!  I found a nice, flat rock!  Actually, I found two, but even one is so big and takes up so much of the bathing area that I might have to buy a bigger dish anyway!  But, we will see how this one does!

Like the birds need a solid rock to stand on, we need a Solid Rock to stand on when we are fearful, or troubled, too, and He is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!  Can't even begin to count the number of times I've needed to climb on my Solid Rock for strength and support!  I need His firm foundation!

Of course, the first (dumb) thing I did was to drag the rock from one side to the other, to move it to the deep end, and scratch off some of the blue paint in the bottom.

Well, the Chipping Sparrow came back for another visit after lunch, and also tonight.  And, believe it or not, a chickadee ran him off tonight, even though the chickadee is a bit smaller!  Little bully!

As the clouds began to roll back in, and the cold front started moving through, the temperature dropped pretty quickly and the sprinkles started.  Lori and I were sitting out under the car port, but we had to come inside.  She had brought over a heating pad and some angels to add to my collection.

I love the cloud formations when the storm clouds start rolling in.

Another thing I found the "bird-watching" setting to be useful for.....capturing bees in flight.  Do you see two bees in this picture?

This one is in flight.

This one was starting to move, too.

Maple tree helicopters.  Love the color of them.

LOVE!

Cheryl shared these photos that Nat took and sent to her.  He has Addy.  Looks like he is teaching her well, LOL!

Addy and daddy enjoying being goofy together.

Looks like it's a case of like father, like daughter!  I think Addy's hair is getting lighter.

And, I think I shall fix some coffee and sit in my chair to read with a heating pad on my back.  I did something to it yesterday.  I am thinking when I went to the Goodwill outlet store, that I overextended some muscles stretching across those big bins to dig through the books.  I've done it before, even though I try to be careful!  I might just have to quit going and doing that.  I don't find much, anyway, for all the time I spend digging!  And, my hands are always filthy black by the time I get finished.  No wonder some of the people you see there have rubber gloves on!

Anyway, nite to all!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Precious Prayers

We did our thrifting in Charlotte today.  Instead of going to just Goodwills, Tim got a list of thrifts together.  And, if a Goodwill was on the same street, then we visited both.  He didn't find anything, but I found more books!  That is one of the reasons I like to go to something different because the books at Goodwill do not change much.

Some photos from our day:

Traveling together.............

Gloomy, cloudy day, but not very cold.

Cell tower in disguise.

Our first new thrift store.  This is where I found four or five books.

The clouds were hanging low over Charlotte today.

The tops of the sky scrapers were in the clouds.

An interesting sculpture down town.

And another.

Gas at Walmart by us is $2.11.  But, we HAD to get it!  We were headed for home and had less than 1/8 of a tank before getting on the freeway.

Remember the days when your gas was pumped for you, not by you?

When we got home, a beautiful blue jay was at the feeder.  He flew up into the tree when we pulled under the car port.  He would never stay at the feeder long enough for me to get a good shot of him!

Here's my goodies I found today.

We had Arby's coupons we used for lunch today.  We paid for our meals separately so we could use 2 coupons.  I got the 2 Loaded Italians for $6 deal.  I ate the other one for supper tonight.

Tim got the Grand Turkey for $2.99.  We ate 2 hours later than he usually eats, so he was happy to be eating!  :D

After we got home, I went back out to a couple of thrifts near the house.  Coming back, I stopped at Lori's to help her get Carolyn changed and back into bed.

Liz posted this sweet prayer of Abby's from school today:
Liz says, "Abby is our prayer helper today.  Before snack this was her prayer:  'Thank You for the food.  Thank You for everybody that's livin'.  Thank You for You cuz You make all Your stories real.  And help papaw because he has cancer."

Wasn't that a precious prayer?  I am praying that God answers her prayer for her papaw!  Wouldn't that be just wonderful?!  You betcha'!

And here's my prayer for you.....Lord, please bless each and every person reading this.  I pray especially for those who have not yet trusted You as Savior in the free pardon of sin. I pray that You would draw them to Yourself and show them their need for a Savior.  I pray for those who are already Your children, that You would bless them in a special way!

I love You, Lord!
And I lift my voice
To worship You, O my soul, rejoice!
Take joy, my King, in what You hear!
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear!

Bath Time

Let me think.  What did I do today?  The first thing I had to do was take care of a headache that I had all night long!  But, I take two Equate acetaminophen PMs every night, so I couldn't take any more meds til this morning!  An hour later, I'm good to go.....usually, which was the case today.

I did some more cleaning of bed linens and the window sill of one of the windows down in the guest room, as well as dusting in there.  I'll have to run the vacuum really good in there in the next week or so to get ready for the revival speaker that will be staying with us.

Jersey Mike's sub shop was donating 100% of their proceeds from today to charity, so Tim wanted to go there for lunch.  My stomach is still a tad "off" so I got a mini Italian on wheat and he got a regular Italian on white.  He also got chips and a drink, but I just wanted a drink.

After we got home, I put the clean linens back on the bed in the guest room.  Then headed outside to work on a project that I started before we even moved here in 2008!  When I got that done, I walked next door to take a picture of Lori in her work clothes where she had been trimming branches all afternoon.  And I helped her move her lighthouse bird feeder from the porch area to a tree branch across the drive way because she couldn't reach the branch.

Then back to the house to shower for church, fix supper and then help Lori with Carolyn and then to church.

We had a nice surprise at church tonight.  If you remember, back in January I mentioned a member's husband, who was in rehab at a nursing home at that time, made a profession of faith when Tim went to visit him after we got back from our Florida vacation.  Well, we have continued to pray that he would eventually make it to church.  And tonight was the night, praise the Lord!  Everyone was just so happy to see him!  It was a wonderful answer to prayer!  Thank You, Lord!

OK, now for the pictures from today:

To begin with, some spring blooms I saw on the way to and from Jersey Mike's.

I'm pretty sure this is a poppy, which I LOVE because it is red!

And this red bud tree is beautiful, but never could understand why it is called a red bud when the buds are purple!

This beauty is a tree in front of Lori's house.

OK, so here's an evolution question for you.....What do you think these objects "evolved" into?

A couple of piles of Lori's hard work today.

It's days like this that she really misses Frank!  We miss Frank, too!

The new location of her bird feeder

You have to look really hard to see the bird feeder in this picture.  There are two feeders.  One on the left and one on the right.  Also, you can see the parsonage (our house) across the field on the left of the picture.

Here's something fun you might be interested in.  Tim's mom told me about this site today.  It is a daily electronic jig saw puzzle.  I was thinking it was a site of bird puzzles, but it does have other puzzles, some being dumb ones, according to Tim's mom.  So just realize that.  Anyway, here's the link, if you want to take a look-see:  Jig Zone

Today's puzzle was a Black Night Heron - Beautiful!!!

OK, if you guessed that the miscellaneous items in the above "evolution" picture would "evolve" into a bird bath, you are a winner!  :D  It is hard to tell in this first picture, but the base is dark green and the dish is blue.

Now, the story behind this is that I saw the DIY bird feeder (shown in the first picture below) in a craft magazine several years BEFORE we moved from Buffalo, WV to Winston Salem, NC.  I had the three pots and the dish FOREVER!  When we moved, I decided I was going to bring the pots because ONE OF THESE DAYS I was going to make this bird bath!!!!!!!

Well, since I've been bird-crazed lately, I decided it was time!  So, I gathered up the spray paints down in the basement that we have collected over the years and all of the other items you saw in the previous picture and.....................

Voila!  The new bird bath!  I know, I know!  If you are thinking that it doesn't look ANYTHING like the one above, you are correct!  But, this was a USE-WHAT-YOU-HAVE moment!  And, for right now, I really like the dark green base and the blue dish!  And it was such a beautiful day today that the spray paint dried pretty quickly, which allowed me to get it done quickly!  A win-win for me who likes to see QUICK results!

I first sprayed a clear finish over the pots to seal them.  Then I sprayed the green.  The dish was already sealed, except for around the rim, for whatever reason.  So I sprayed the edge and then inverted the dish to spray the bottom of it green and then sprayed the inside of the dish the beautiful shade of blue!  I purposely sprayed the blue so it would run down the side, to look like water running over the edge.  But, I don't like it, so I will probably cover it up with the green.  Plus, I got some of the blue on the green pots that I need to cover up, anyway.

Here's the color of the dish.  Isn't that beautiful?  I will add water to it tomorrow!  Well, I will probably wait until Friday because we won't be home tomorrow.

That was my day!  Hope you had a great one!

Tomorrow is our thrifting day!  Have a good one!

Father Nature

I looked up the "definition" of Mother Nature because there has always been something about that phrase that has bothered me.  Here's how Miriam Webster has defined the phrase:   "nature personified as a woman considered as the source and guiding force of creation."  And THAT is why it has always rubbed me the wrong way!  The source of creation was God!  Genesis 1:1, the very first verse in the Bible tells us so, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."  John 1:3 says, "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."  And He continues to take care of nature today.  Matthew 6:6 says, "Behold the fowls of the air:  for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.  Are ye not much better than they?"  Matthew 6:30 says, "Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

Anyway, today's photos are of Father God's nature here in my own back yard.  Enjoy!

Dark-eyed Junco

House Finch (compared size to the dandilion).

 

My own wire suet cage!  Crude, but the birds didn't seem to mind.

Carolina Chickadee, which looks like their cousin the Black-capped Chickadee.  Read about the differences here:  http://www.audubon.org/news/identifying-black-capped-and-carolina-chickadees

Tufted Titmouse couple.  I think they were getting insects from the tree.  By the way, you can say Tufted Titmice for more than one.  Read about this and other things about Tufted Titmice:  http://www.birdwatchersgeneralstore.com/Titmouses.htm

 

Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird

Mr. Bluebird's colors are a bit brighter.

Mrs. Bluebird's colors are a bit washed out.

The bumble bees are out!

Mocking bird

Watching from the car port (loving flip flop and capris weather!)

Once again, I came into the house to fix supper and the cardinal showed up at the feeder.  So, once again, I took this photo through both windows and screens. 

The morning dove

Sun is setting.

Watching from the back door porch.

Besides waking up with my stomach messed up, I got a few groceries and washed bed sheets and blankets today.  And this afternoon Tim took a break from the office and invited me to visit our regular thrifts with him.  He found a suit.  And I found a platter that I am going to use as a bird bath.

There you have it!  Have a great evening!