American Coot

We found this flock of American Coots grazing on the new grass at Oktibbeha County Lake this past Thursday.  Some of them were out in the lake dipping and diving on this windy afternoon.  The writing below is copied from the Internet.

 
The American Coot is a medium-sized bird with a white bill, yellow legs, and lobed toes. 

 
The body is dark gray to black with a blackish head and neck. Some of the undertail coverts are white and visible, especially during display.
   

Juveniles are paler and have greenish-gray legs. The downy chick's plumage is a colorful orange on the head and neck. In flight, coots may be distinguished by a white trailing edge on most of the wing.

 
Although it swims like a duck, the American Coot does not have webbed feet like a duck. Instead of having all the toes connected by webs, each coot toe has lobes on the sides of each segment.

Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving

In one of our Bible studies (we are involved in two at this time) we are studying Psalms.  Last week the Pastor who is leading the study, asked us to write a Psalm as homework, about a time when we felt that God was helping us through a difficult situation. Those of you who are regular readers of my blog can guess what I chose to write about.  For those who may be new, this was written about God’s healing power after my son was burned over 65% of his body on April 26, 2010.  Joe spent 2 months in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, GA.  You can click on my blog, Notes from Augusta, or on my sidebar to read more about it.  The picture was made at the church where we worshiped during our stay in GA.

Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving

(Despair to Hope)

Oh Lord, I will always thank You and praise You

For hearing the prayers from the depths

Of my soul when I was brought

To my knees by devastating news!

As we waited at the emergency room,

Tears came freely, and sobs racked my body,

But You reached out to help me through

The love and concern of Your people.

In the darkness of that first night, my prayers

Called out to You for healing and mercy.

But it was only after I prayed,

“Not my will, but Yours be done”,

That I felt assured You would have mercy on us.

I asked everyone I knew to join us in praying

To You, Oh Lord, for You are the source of all help and healing.

Our faith was strengthened by the knowledge that

So many people had joined us in praying,

Not just one prayer, but many prayers for the next two months!

While we waited for those two months, 

Your miraculous healing was

Brought about through the care and skill that You,

Dear Lord, have given to the doctors and nurses

Who care for those who are in need.

Each day I felt that You, or angels You had sent,

Were going before us, taking care of our every need.

Each day You sent a little more healing and wholeness

Until that happy day came when we could all come home.

Lord, we do not know why things happen as they do,

But we know we can always humble ourselves and pray,

And You will hear our prayers. All thanks, praise, honor

And glory be unto to You for Your love and Your tender care.

Skywatch Friday

I snapped this yesterday while Jeep was getting our mail at the post office in our little village.

Clouds through the windshield

 

Great Blue Heron at Oktibbeha County Lake, MS.

This shot is my favorite.  It was shot out the car window while my hubby was driving across the dam.

Today, I'm thankful for the occassional lucky shot!

Can Spring be far away?

This morning a pair of Bluebirds were checking out the nesting box.

The male seemed to be pulling the pine needles out of the box. 

 

After cleaning the box out last fall, I put in some pine needles so the birds might use it on a cold winter night.  They may want to clean it out and build their own nest.      Any suggestions?  Should I remove the pine needles?

Today I'm thankful for signs of Spring!

Scavenger Hunt

It's that time again!  I've missed a few weeks but here I am again trying to interpret Ashley's  word clues, which are

1.  Shadows

 

This squirrel is almost all in the shadows, except his tail.

♥ ♥ ♥

2. Patterns

This is my cousin's quilt.  It is the Cathedral Window pattern.
♥ ♥ ♥

3.Bright White

We had a nice snow, which gave us a few opportunities to make Bright White pictures.

I had to give you two of these.  This is the view from the back porch looking towards the woods.

♥ ♥ ♥

4.  Strong

This little fellow is Strong!  Can YOU do this?

♥ ♥ ♥

5.  Warmth

I was fascinated by this electric heater at our grandson's house.  It looked so real and it did give warmth!

Today, I'm thankful for warmer weather!

♥ ♥ ♥

Happy Valentine's Day!

Fun with the Birdies

The Pine Warbler is one of my favorite little birds.  One or two of these come every day and eat bread crumbs and suet.  He always provides a bright spot on the landscape.

Here he is perched on the back of a chair on the porch and is looking in the window at me.   I call this one, "Funny Face"!

I wonder what the Cardinal is thinking while he is watching the parade of the Goldfinch.

The Blue Jay is a beautiful bird but he's a big bully just because he's so much bigger than most birds.  He loves to swoop in and chase all the other birds away.

 Most all of the birds try out the tree-top perch sooner or later.  Here the Dark-eyed Junco is trying it out.

Not a good picture, but this is a Chipping Sparrow at the top.

The sweet little Goldfinch clings tenaciously to the tree top as the snow comes down.

This Mockingbird is another bully.  He likes to fly in fast and intimidate all the birds.  He thinks the tree top belongs to him.

Today, I'm thankful for another day in the sunny South!

Snow Birds

An afternoon of snow brought out lots of birds looking for a meal.

I called this one 'Snow Twinkies' when I posted it on Wunder Photos.
(Jeep just now told me that this picture got the Approver's Choice Award on Wunder Photos!!!)

The Pine Warbler is a daily visitor to eat suet which I tied in this old discarded tree.

 

This Cardinal is wind-swept as he perched on a weak twig during the snowfall.

I think this Purple Finch looks like he is saying, "What you lookin' at?"

This ole bird is on her way to the Wellness Center to exercise.  It was fun to get out and drive to town and see the pretty snow falling. 

♥ ♥ ♥

 I'm thankful that my Jeep did not say,  "It's too bad to go out in the snow!"

Missed Me?

Maybe I should explain to the bloggers who check in with me from time to time, as to why I've been scarce here lately.  There are just so many hours in the day, and I've been spending a lot of time with Spark Guy!!!!  No, I haven't dumped Jeep for Spark Guy, but I have been spending a lot of time at his website  http://www.sparkpeople.com/

Chris Downie (Spark Guy)

Three weeks ago I joined SparkPeople to try to get some help and encouragement in trying to lose weight. I picked up an old  ‘First’ Magazine that I bought a year ago and it featured several pages about women who had lost LOTS of weight with this program. I remembered reading about it when the magazine was new, but I wasn’t ready to commit at that time. This time, I was at the end of my ‘fat clothes’ and decided I had to do something about it. I went online and checked it out, and since it’s free, I joined.  I even made those dreaded 'before' pictures and posted them on my blog on SparkPeople!!!  I hope to have reached my goal weight by my next birthday, September 2nd. 

It's NOT a diet, but a healthy lifestyle!  It has made me more conscience of my choices of food.  Just thinking about having to enter what I've eaten for the day, deters me from making bad choices.  After you have entered your information as to your age, weight, etc. they tell you what your goal weight should be and how many calories you should have each day.  They also keep up with your exercise and you are encouraged to do several kinds.  There is a ton of helpful information on this website as well as a vast amount of support from the many different teams that you can join.

Then last week, Jeep’s Ham Radio buddy was talking with him about possibly joining the Wellness Center (it's like a gym) in our town. This stirred Jeep's interested and he asked me if I would like for us to join.  Of course, I said “Sure, that would fit in just right with SparkPeople!"  We plan to go three times a week, but we can go anytime they are open.  I sure hope that we will hang in there and eventually lose some of this excess weight we have been carrying around too long. 

SparkPeople has a lot of help to offer anyone out there who needs to lose a few pounds, or a hundred or more.  Check it out.

Today, I'm thankful for Chris Downie (Spark Guy) and SparkPeople.com