Musings in May

Greetings Friends ~ Here it is almost the middle of May. I do believe the last of our cool weather is gone. We were blessed with some lovely late cool temps, such a blessing. Summer's heat and humidity is starting to settle in now. I am thankful for my new room ac which is working just fine. If you want to check it out you can find it here. at Home Depot and I am not receiving anything for this little ditty about how great I think it is. ;-)

Easter has come and gone. Our church's Resurrection service was wonderful, the adult and children's choir did a fantastic job. I had a nice piece of lamb about 1 1/2 inches thick by 8 inches around, fixed in the crockpot with herbs, garlic, mustard and wine. It came out delicious and tender, fixed it the day before. Had mashed potatoes, LeSeur Peas, asparagus vinaigrette and a glass of merlot in remembrance of Jesus and His great gift to us. He gave His life so that we'd be set free from sin and death. He paid all of our debt. For dessert I had a slice of Key Lime pie.

A week or so after Easter,  ladies of the church were invited to a sunrise service at the beach. It was wonderful!! It was the first time I've been to the beach in years and years, (I only live 3 miles away from it), since before my dear husband left this planet to be with God. It was so nice to sit with my feet in the sand, to feel the breezes, to view the ocean, look at the clouds in the sky and see the sunrise finally, the seagulls flying around and walking the beach were a nice beachy note, and then I enjoyed our devotional and singing time. All just what FlowerLady needed. Someone in our church owns a limousine business so we ladies were treated to a ride to and from the beach in a huge black limo bus. It was really neat!

Above is our music minister and his wife. (They've been a big help to me these past two years, with love, prayers, help and encouragement. They have an adorable baby girl.)

 We kept waiting for the sunrise to happen but there were too many clouds for us to see the actual happening. We had to wait awhile for the beauty of the sun peeking out from the clouds.

 My feet enjoying the cool, damp sand. As I walked down the beach looking for shells I remembered how hard it is to walk in beach sand. My legs got quite the work out.

Shells below, as I found them from left to right. My little treasures for the day. No hearts to be found, but my heart was happy none the less with these gifts from God. The second photo shows the two end shells turned over to see the other side.

 

 

 

Flyer folded to fit into my fanny pack hence the creases.

Ok, I think I'll end this post now. I was rejuvenated after our beach sunrise service. A blessing.

May you all have a wonderful weekend.

FlowerLady 

Overgrown, cleared out, rediscovered

Good morning Folks ~ Here it is nearly a month since my last post. Time seems to be passing so quickly. I've been able to tackle the back of my main garden. The jasmine vine that is back there took over. What a mess!! About 6 feet out from the fence, encroaching on paths. I can usually work out there a couple of hours in the mornings. 

We've been having some nice cooler weather, we've gotten some much needed rain. The rain in Ft. Lauderdale, south of me, caused flooding of homes and businesses. 2 feet of water. This was a couple of weeks ago. Since gasoline comes into the area via ships, and trucks take the gas from the port to gas stations, because of the flooding it wasn't possible and gas at stations became unavailable. What a shock!!! I was finally able to get gas Sunday. What a relief that was! We don't realize how much things mean in our lives until we can't get them or don't have them anymore.

Sunday a week ago we had horrific thunderstorm activity here with heavy rains, we got almost 3 inches in 24 hours. There had even been tornado warnings that thankfully I hadn't seen. Was glad when the storm vacated the area. I was able to mow Saturday and it's a good thing I did as we've had more rain each day since then, more on the way. We were really dry here so this rain has been a blessing for watering my gardens and refilling the water table down here.

Below are some pictures of the jasmine before and after.

Starting to unearth pots, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

Beveled mirror is a section from a wall hanging made up of several of these in various sizes. We found the mirror many years ago. I've been separating the individual pieces from the backing. This one I had attached to the fencing. It slid down some time during the last few years but didn't break.

When I changed my position a little I noticed the lady's reflection in the beveled mirror. This touched my heart for some reason. i think it is the look on her face.

 

What a surprise to see her face reflected three times in the mirror, because of the beveled edges.

 

Part of the old, old dead portion of vine stem.

Finding this lady again after years of neglect, hidden under the overgrown vine made me think of myself, burdened down by life. First by God's calling my dear husband home in 2012, losing the job I'd had for 17 years, 2 1/2 years later, (because of boss closing business and  moving across the state), then covid happened 3 years ago. The whole world found out what it's like to be sequestered, on lock down, no physical contact with others.

I watched a lot of uplifting msgs, and music on you tube, read my Bible and other uplifting books. All of this kept me growing in faith. I googled churches in this area, after the one I had been going to closed down and was not opening back up any time soon. I found the one I've been going to for the last two years, and have found my 'church family'.  I have a wonderful group of ladies that meet on Wednesday mornings for prayer and a Bible study. That has been a huge blessing also.

Will share an uplifting song that came my way in the past couple of days. Jesus has been my strength. Life without Him would be desperate and bleak. Thank you Jesus for Your promise to never leave or forsake us.

 
Thank you for visiting, for your encouraging words, for love and prayers. They/you mean more than words can say.

Love, hugs and prayers,

FlowerLady

Work in progress

Good morning Folks, here we have the gift of another day.  Right now it is 81 but with the humidity the real feel temp is 98. I was out earlier working in my main garden. I have a jasmine vine that was like Jack's beanstalk, growing, twisting and taking over everything. I work outside 1-2 hours in the mornings when I feel like it and the weather permits. Every little bit done makes a difference even though I feel like I'm hardly getting anywhere. There is still so much to do for clean up, deweeding, etc in this main garden, all in good time. I want to move potted plants to the area, maybe get some planted into the ground.

I made a short little video, nothing fancy, just raw footage. It is amazing what 'real' you tubers can do with their videos with all of the editing and adding music, etc. That is a lot of work and some of it is absolutely beautiful!! I don't have a video editing program. I just did a quick google search and saw that there is a free 'Open Shot' program that I'm going to look into. It would be fun to make 'nice' little videos. 

Here is the video. I'll do another post with still pictures of this project. I just downloaded them and have to edit them before making a post. That will take some time.

 That's it for now. Enjoy your day and be thankful.

FlowerLady

 P.S. I ordered  from Amazon a sunhat dark gray UPF 50+. Foldable and washable. Has a nice mesh section to let breezes in. I read that the dark colors were found to be better for UPF according to a study done in Spain, I think is what I remember reading. The hat fits nicely. There is a cord to tighten it around your head, then there is the chin strap to keep hat on during wind.

Sunglasses are also from Amazon. A friend had these on one day and I tried them They go over your prescription glasses or you can wear them normally as you would any sunglasses. These are GREAT!!  UV protected and polarized.

I've been using now for a couple of years a good electrolyte powder to mix with water. Gatoraid has nothing beneficial in it so I googled and found this one from Key Nutrients. I drink this on days that I work outside. It tastes great and I feel good using it.

I'm not sponsored by any of these companies. This is just my personal little review. Summer is coming and these will be a great help for FlowerLady. ;-)

Bye.

 

Plum Cottage Flowers

Happy Spring ~The first day of spring was my 74th bday. Time is zipping right along. I've been enjoying lots of flowers in bloom down here in tropical south Florida. We've also had some days that felt like summer, then a couple of chilly times when 'cold' fronts have moved down this far. The past few nights it's been in the high 50's. Day time temps have been beautiful, mid 70's to 80. This is probably the last of chilly weather though. Summer will be here shortly with it's humidity and hot temps.

I'll share some pics from Valentine's day up to now for your enjoyment.  Too bad you can't smell the wonderful scents that fill the air. Lots of bees, butterflies and also some hummingbirds have been visiting the hamelia patens flowers and the coral honeysuckle.  The hummers are too fast for me to get a picture.

 "Angel Face" her lovely scent fills the air for several feet around her.

Blue Butterfly bush

Pink Hibiscus

Art glass solar flamingo with cats whiskers flowers

Tiffany 

'Diva' hibiscus

Amaryllis

Orchid from Mary

Thunbergia erecta or Bush clock vine or King's Mantle

Florida native Coral honey suckle - hummingbirds love this

Black and blue Salvia

Begonias

Miss Joaquim vanda orchids ~ These grow wild all over the property and bloom several times a year.

St. Francis with Louis Philippe or Florida Cracker Rose

Spiderwort

I don't know what this next little flower is, it self seeds and is a pretty thing. It's about the size of a quarter, maybe.

Pink hibiscus after some rain

Here we have Double Delight rose. I've noticed that she closes up at night, reopens in the morning looking different. She's a beauty with a lovely rose scent.

Shown with periwinkles

Here the roses are two days later.

I am so thankful to my Creator God who gave me so much beauty to enjoy right here at Plum Cottage. Each day is a new gift. May I always be thankful and give Him all honor and glory for what He has done, what He is doing and what He will do in the future.

Easter is coming and I celebrate Jesus who died on the cross for my sins as well as the sins of everyone else. and rose up from the grave after three days, so that I and any who believe in Him will have life eternal and be with Him forever. All we need to do is believe He is who He says He is,. Jesus, God Almighty.

 Have a wonderful spring and a glorious Easter.

FlowerLady