Fledging

Hi Everyone!

I (finally!) figured out how to attach the picture I was trying to attach to my previous blog post!  The above picture is of a baby cardinal that I took two days ago in our garden--isn't he/she so ugly that they are cute???  Definitely a face that only a mother could love, if you know what I mean! ;). Anyway, as I was writing about what is going on in our family with our oldest child fledging, it reminded me of this little baby bird and I just wanted to share the adorable picture!  Mama and Papa Cardinal built their nest in my rosebush, which is just fine with me.  What THEY might not be so thrilled about is they choose the rosebush that is a climber and is climbing over our walk through trellis gate, so every day at least once or so we are walking through that gate to get into our garden area.  The mother and father bird will fly away from the rose bush and fuss and hop all around in the garden--but still nearby--keeping an eye on their precious baby.  I feel bad disturbing them, yet sometimes I DO have to get into the garden, and this is the only gate in!

This little bird reminds me--our Great and Wonderful Heavenly Father sees even this baby bird.  It's parents are not the only ones watching over him:

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?  And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father."  Matthew 10:29

This little bird belongs to Someone:

"I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine."  Psalm 50:11

And just as the parent birds are "fussing" over their fledging baby, I may be "fussing" over mine.  Trying to make sure he has everything he is going to need.  Worrying about what dangers he will face. . .

And yet--I needn't worry.  Because his Heavenly Father is going to be watching over him, and can do a MUCH better job than I ever could.  And He will never forget him. . .

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.  Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;  your walls are continually before me."   Isaiah 49:15,16

There will never be a situation that my son will face that he will not have his Heavenly Father watching over him and ready to help.

And He is ready to help us--His "big" children--just as much.

Random thoughts--taught by a cardinal.

~Susan

Home Sweet Home

 Springtime sweetness is in the air!

I love to travel and see new places--but I admit--home is my most favorite place to be.  :)  I thought I would share a few pictures of what is currently around our little corner of the world. . .

Love this pink flower!  I think it is a salvia, but am not positive.  I bought it half dead on the clearance rack last summer at Lowes.  Brought it home and planted it in one of my flower beds--and this year it is telling me "thank you" for rescuing it!

This blue flower came from the same clearance rack--they were both only $3.00!  And the tag said they were perennials, so $3.00 is a great price!  I am going to watch this year and see if I can find more clearance plants at Lowes. . .
 

This flower is an herb named "Rue."  I bought a little four inch pot of it when I lived in Texas, because it is one of the host plants for Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars.  When we were moving away from that house, I brought some seeds with me from the original plant, and they grew me a new plant here--which has self seeded and grown a couple more plants.  Now my Rue plant takes over more than half of my 4x8 flower bed, and it's working on taking over the other half!  I don't mind, though, because I like the butterfly caterpillars it attracts!  I have no idea how to use Rue in cooking for people--I grow it just for the butterflies!

A visit from a friend--a Carolina Wren.  :)  The birds sing every morning in the Spring and Summer time--and they sing LOUD around here!  I love hearing them!  Honestly, I have heard birds sing in other places, but NEVER as much as they sing here in our corner of Tennessee!  Maybe it is because of all the trees around here?  Even my mother remarked about the birds as she was visiting me in April.  It truly is remarkable!

We had a shed built on our property so we would have a place to store our lawn mower (we have only needed a shed for the past eight years!).  We had to build a ramp so we could get the lawn mower inside.  Wanting the ramp to last a long time, we painted it with primer paint and waited for it to dry overnight before we put the top coat of paint on it.  Well, the next morning when we got up, we could see we had had some visitors during the night.  Maybe they were testing out our new ramp for strength!

This little friend was visiting in our garden this past week.  I am not positive, but I believe he (she?) is a box turtle.  His eyes were very red in color--strange looking to me, but I am sure to another turtle he was probably a handsome fellow.

And last but not least, the cutest of all--a baby bunny!  Every Spring, we grow baby bunnies in our garden.  This is the third year in a row--and even though they love to eat our garden up, they are so very adorable that I can't stay mad at them very long!  But this year we did fence in a large garden area with bunny fence to keep them out of it.  Don't worry--there is PLENTY of nice fresh clover in the rest of the garden area for them to eat!  We have even been known to put a large carrot out for the bunnies.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the little glimpse into our yard.  God is so good, to give us the beautiful things in our yard.  And He created them just because He loves us!

Enjoy Spring with your Savior!

~Susan

Some Bunny Loves You!

Hi Everyone!

It is definitely SPRING in our yard, and one thing that Spring brings to us is always BUNNIES!  I love all the bunnies that hop around in our yard, even though they DO eat my garden.  One day earlier this week our daughter was out in the back yard riding her bike on the grass.  This was not WHERE she wanted to ride, but since "I" was tuckered out and had already taken her bike riding on our street, it was back yard or nothing.  Our yellow lab Holly was happily romping and chasing Alison around the yard as she rode, when all of a sudden Alison comes dragging Holly back into the house, saying one word:  "BUNNY!"

 This was the little fellow Holly had discovered.  Isn't he cute????  I mean, who could be mad at a face like this, even if they ate your garden?????

 Holly had discovered Mr. Bunny, and scared him over into one corner of our yard.  So of COURSE a carrot sympathy offering had to be made.  I think the carrot was larger than the bunny. . .

 We knew where the bunny nest was, as my hubby had discovered the nest while mowing.  So we went and looked to see if there were other bunnies still in the nest--there were!  This photo above is a different bunny--little sister bunny, I believe, still tucked away in the nest.

 Alison decided to go back to Mr. Bunny and see if he was eating the monster carrot yet.  He wasn't.  So she thought she would move it closer and encourage him to eat his vegetables.  See?  If the bunnies aren't eating enough of your garden all on their own, you can always bring your garden produce straight to the bunny.  Fortunately, this particular carrot was not from my garden but rather the grocery store, so I didn't mind too much.  :)

Since we were not 100% sure if Mr. Bunny had left the nest on his own, or had been flushed out by Holly, we decided to pick him up and move him carefully back to the nest.  It was a good idea, and Mr. Bunny rode very nicely back across the yard.  However, when we gently placed him back in the nest with Little Sister Bunny, he said it was too crowded in there and hopped quickly across the yard again.  Not to be left out, Little Sister Bunny decided to hop in the opposite direction of Mr. Bunny.  Well, I guess they are ready to leave the nest!  Now we just need to keep Holly on leash for a while, to give the bunnies a chance to grow bigger and faster.  And keep an eye out for hawks.  And maybe we should take turns keeping watch in case there is anything else out there that might hurt those bunnies.  I wonder if I could just invite them in each night. . . 

It's amazing how much our family would all love to protect those bunnies and keep them safe.  And they have absolutely no idea!  How much more God loves us--His creation--and desires to keep US safe.  

"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  Matthew 7:11

Have a beautiful Spring!

~Susan

A Walk in the Woods

Hi Everyone!

Our family is blessed to live close to the school campus where my hubby works, and they have lots of wonderful trails that we are able to hike on. . . 

as busy as we are, we do not go often enough.  But when we do, I love to bring my camera.

A couple of weeks ago, we got a chance to go out hiking.  Being Fall, there were not a lot of wild flowers, but I found a fascinating selection of fungi! 

I loved the red cap on this one!

Sweet little shape.  Just needs a little frog sitting underneath it in a gentle rain!

I love the woods!  The trails just invite you on and on. . . 

These looked almost like golf balls, all sitting on the same log.  So funny!

And the color arches here I thought were beautiful.  Just like the log was growing little rainbows.

The view at the top was worth the hike up!

So delicate looking ferns. . . 

Smiles for being at the top!

My sweet heart!  

Hope you enjoyed this little hike in the woods!

Butterfly Time--Final Update!

O.K., I realize it has been a LONG time since I updated all of you on our butterfly caterpillars, but better late than never, right?  

Our three caterpillars stayed sleeping for around two weeks.  Sadly, one caterpillar never made a chrysalis, so we knew he (she?) wasn't going to make it.  Of the two remaining, one hatched out but had a deformed wing.  I've seen this happen before, though have no idea why.   An enemy did this.  I hate sin.

HOWEVER,

in spite of this sin filled world, there is still plenty of God's grace and beauty all around us.  Caterpillar #3 hatched out just perfect.  What a thrill it is to hold a butterfly on your hand.  Of course, this only lasts until their wings dry enough for them to fly!  But the brief moment of time makes it all the more special.  In heaven, we can hold them all the time.  

Watching a butterfly fly around in the air that you were able to watch hatch is like seeing a piece of laughter take wing.  Like a piece of God's smile.

A week after this beautiful butterfly took wing, I was watering a friends garden while she was away for two weeks.  Guess what I found devouring her parsley?  Yes--two more Black Swallowtail caterpillars!  I knew my friend was more interested in growing parsley, NOT feeding caterpillars--so I decided to relocate those two caterpillars from her yard to our indoor container.  Currently one is in his (her?) chrysalis and the other is still munching away on the food we feed it.  And soon, if we are fortunate, we might be able to hold a piece of God's smile again!

Butterfly Time--Update!

Do you remember those little tiny black specks with a white spot that I showed you a week ago?  And I told you they were Black Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars????

Well, they ate.  And ate.  And ate some more.  It's a good thing my two Rue plants are LARGE plants in my garden, because every day I went out to pick some fresh Rue for these little critters to eat.  And. . . . just look at them now!

Yes, I know it is hard for you to believe me that these are the very same caterpillars.  But trust me--they are.  The little black furry caterpillars eat and eat and eat until they don't fit into their skin any more.  Then they shed their skin, and underneath they look like this!

This is pretty much full size now.  One of the three caterpillars is notably larger than the other two.  I think he ate more!  But even the two "smaller" caterpillars are large enough that they could go into their chrysalis stage any day now.

I "was" going to try and keep them in their large two quart jar for just one more day--as I wanted to take them back to church this week to show the kids who saw the tiny black caterpillars last week.  But last night I saw the warning sign.  Yup.  One of the caterpillars started wandering off of the Rue leaves, and climbing up the side of the jar.  THAT is a definite warning that they are looking for a nice spot to hang their chrysalis.  Eek!  I did NOT want that to happen in the small two quart jar!!!!  Why?  Well, first of all, I didn't have any sticks in there for them to hang their chrysalis on.  But the main reason why is because when they come OUT of the chrysalis they will be butterflies--and will need room to spread out their wings.  The two quart jar is definitely too small for that, and I would have a real hard time getting them out the small opening.

So--time to quickly move those caterpillars out of the smaller home, into a larger one!  I have them in a larger plastic critter container now--just one I picked up at Walmart years ago.  It's nice because when you take the lid off, it is taking the whole entire roof off.  So you do not have the problem of trying to guide a butterfly through a small opening.  It is also much easier to put a couple sticks in it for them to climb on and hang from.  I actually took a picture of their new container to show you on here, but then forgot to get that picture off my camera and onto my computer!  Oh well!  Maybe in the next butterfly update?

Anyway, just wanted to share how our little caterpillars are growing.  Hope you enjoy this close up look at God's beautiful butterflies!