Giving up Something for Lent?

Lent is the 40 day period between Ash Wednesday and Easter. We usually prayerfully consider some type of food fast or other form of self-denial. I believe giving up the time I spend blogging and reading blogs would be the most painful form of self denial for me at this time. I will try to spend more time in studying God's Word and doing some other services of self-denial. I have a deep conviction that this is what I should do at this time. During the 40 days before Easter I will not be posting on my blog or reading other blogs. If you want to write me a note of encouragement or just say 'Hi', you can still send it to my e-mail.

Since retiring from working in a public office all my adult life, meeting so many nice Christian ladies and exchanging ideas, joys, sorrows, prayer requests and just enjoying girl talk, has filled a big void in my life. I hope you won't forget me and will look for my post on Easter.

Blessing & Peace,

Love on Wednesdays during February

Suzanne, at http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/,

is hosting this Meme for the month of February. You will enjoy her blog!

What could be sweeter or stronger than a Mother's love for her baby??

What could be a nicer blessing than having grandchildren?

A to Z on Mondays ~ Letter G

GEESE

This is my A to Z on Mondays post for the letter G for February 23rd.
To join this meme and/or see who is having fun with this, click on Jen's blog,

Unglazed and check out her sidebar.

These first three pictures were made a week ago at White's Creek Lake.

This Canada Goose was balancing on one leg.

I think this is the mating season for the geese. This one was intent on chasing the other goose.

The one below was made at a stream on the way to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

The next two were made at Oktibbeha County Lake.

I can't tell the difference between the male and the female

but that doesn't matter.....they know!

These are beautiful birds and I enjoy watching them because

they are fairly tame and will let you get close to them.

Lady in Red

Although it has been a dreary, rainy afternoon, I managed to get a few pictures. This female Cardinal posed for me as I sat less than 20 feet away from her.

Hope all my friends out there in the Blogosphere have a Blessed Sunday of worship and rest.

Skywatch Friday

Here are a few Skywatch Friday pictures made on the way home from Indiana. To see skies around the world, click HERE.





This is the way the sky looked at the close of day one coming home.

We saw several airplanes close enough to photograph.

Towards sunset the sky was pretty with pink and lavender clouds.

We kept watching this little cloud which looked pink around the edges!

What kind of Bird is this?

I hope some of you birders out there can identify this bird. The picture is not as clear as I would like, but I'm hoping that you can tell me its name. It has heavy streaking on its brest and has a little Yellow on the edge of its wings and under its rump. I thought it might be a Pine Siskin.

Click on picture to enlarge.

My Little Wren

I'M WET, I'M COLD, AND I'M MAD!

Love on Wednesdays

Suzanne, at http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/, is hosting this Meme for the month of February. Join in the fun by clicking on her blog and following the instructions. You will enjoy her blog!

This little sweetheart frame with a picture made at our wedding was given to me by a dear friend. While we knelt at the altar, Jeep's daughter-in-law, Laura, sang "The Lord's Prayer". Oh, how I wish that you could hear her sing! Her voice is so clear and sweet and she has a lot of volume. Jeep's oldest son, Doug (Laura's husband), is a United Methodist Minister and he performed the ceremony. My pastor read the 13th chapter of Corinthians, known as the Love Chapter. Jeep's daughter, Jennifer and his other son, Jeff played and sang "Walk throught this World with Me." Although they didn't have much time to practice, they sounded like professionals and their harmony was so beautiful. Jeep's grandson, Wesley, and my grand-daughter, Kym, were Best Man and Maid of Honor. Serving as Ushers were Jeep's son Jeff, his son-in-law, Bryan, my grandson, Jesse and Kym's boy friend, D. J. We felt so blessed to have our family participate in our wedding! It truly was a worship service of Love.

Camera Critters

This cute little Carolina Wren is my Camera Critter for this week. Sunday as we were about to leave for Sunday School and Church, I heard this bird singing loudly on the back porch. I peeped out the dining room window and saw him sitting on the back of a chair just a few feet away. I got my trusty camera and as he sat there singing, I made about a dozen pictures of him. I think there is only one pair of these here. I usually see them one at the time, but sometimes both of them are out there. He seems to think that the parch and all of the seed and bread crumbs belong to him!
To see more Camera Critters, click on the title of this post or the badge on my sidebar. Have a great new week!

A to Z on Mondays ~ Letter F

This is my A to Z on Mondays post for the letter F for February 16th.

To join this meme and see the other bloggers who are having fun with this, click on Jen's blog, Unglazed, and check her sidebar.

FOX

Isn't this one a beauty! I should have let Jeep do the post for today, because he can tell you a lot more about these creatures than I can. For several years he had a kennel and raised Fox Hounds. They used to go Fox hunting at every opportunity. Of course, you already know that they don't actually kill the Fox, they just like to hear the dogs bark as they chase them.

This is a rustic, hand-carved and painted little paper weight that someone made for Jeep during his years of Fox hunting. This little piece of folk art looks like they are barking up a tree, but I don't think that Foxes climb trees!

During Jeep's Fox Hound days he was playing the piano for Springhill United Methodist Church, a little country church a few miles away. One of his special friends from that church painted this picture for him. This picture hangs on the wall in his Ham Shack/computer room.

Stopping by the Lake

Last Thursday I had to go to Starkville for a doctor's appointment. Since I just 'happened' to have my camera, I asked Jeep about stopping by Oktibbeha County Lake to see if there was anything interesting to photograph. We drove across the dam to the other side where there are camping areas, piers and pavilons. We didn't see much to photograph and the sun was in our eyes.

Driving back across the dam, Jeep caught a glimpse of something splashing in the water. He backed up and the picture below is what we saw. It turned out to be a lot of ducks splashing and flapping their wings in the water. Starting to drive on, we saw a gravel road that looked like might take us up by the south side of the lake. We both like to explore, so we decided to take the road and see where it would take us. We were driving along and suddenly Jeep put on the brakes and started backing up. When I asked what he was doing, he said he saw an interesting looking old tree. We backed up enough to see it out across a pasture. He wanted me to get a picture of it, but when I started to focus, power lines were in the way! I hate power lines in pictures if they can possibly be avoided. Jeep suggested that I could walk out in the pasture far enough to get a shot without the power lines. I should have handed him the camera;-) There was no fence, so like a dutiful wife, I jumped the ditch and started out. Dogs began barking at me but I saw that they were in a pen, so I continued to shoot. When we started to leave, a man had come out of a house across the road and was looking at us like "What are y'all doing?" Jeep lowered the window and explained that we were just making pictures of the old tree. He said "okay", but I know he was thinking, "crazy people...acting like they have never seen a tree.....they must be from a city up north or somewhere!" The picture of the old tree is above.

We were happy to find Griffin Cove, which is being developed and is for sale. Here we have the sun behind us. The afternoon is like a Spring day with clear skies and temperatures around 70 degrees. If you click on the pictures you can get a better view. I like that you can see the shadows of the trees in the water.

The Canada Geese on the other side of the lake honked loudly as they got up and started to fly to the opposite end of the lake.

They flew right down at the waterline. This was shot from across the lake and cropped severly so you could see the Geese.

This is a view across the lake from a pier.

This sailboat is anchored out in the lake and it doesn't appear to be used very much. The dinghy that they use to get to the sailboat is pulled up on the bank and full of water. The lake was rather still which provided some good reflections.

We tried to get to a place where we could get some pictures of the ducks, but they were in a little inlet and we couldn't get any closer. They stayed in the same area all the time we were there.

On the way home we saw this old barn and guess what....

Jeep stopped and let me make a picture!

This side trip to the lake on our way home was such a pleasant surprise.