Healed by Nature

 

Prayer by Farrell Mason

Dear God,

This morning began quite ordinary, as miracles do.

A walk in the emerald wood.

Until the skies opened and the Spirit revealed Herself twirling in the wind.

A squirrel, a pair of chipmunks, and a blue jay stopped what they were doing waiting in rapt attention as I received a raindrop baptism.

How quickly the ordinary can become sacramental.

Today I received a raindrop blessing, Your might trees as my holy witnesses. 

You must have known I was due a transformation.

I shall not be returning home the same.

Amen

 

 I enjoyed this prayer so much, it spoke right to my heart. During a walk on a trail in a woods with our dog Ernie, he slowed way down and sniffed. As I looked to see what he was looking at I could not believe my eyes, a fawn.

Ernie did not bark or anything, he simply walked away from the fawn. He knew that it was a precious baby and mama was close by.

I can honestly say that I did not return home the same, I was blessed and healed by the simple act of nature and love.

 ♥

Carla

The 10 PM Visitor

 

 

Hello Friends, Happy September to you!

Take a peek at our 10 PM visitor. He wanted to party!! We had to tell him we were heading to bed. He would have to hop on down to the next house.

 

Ospreys

 

Our local osprey... photo taken with our phone.

Hello Friends, today I am going to share about the osprey that nest at the football field  at our local school. They have been nesting at this location for about three years. The school placed a special platform for the osprey to build their nest up on the football lights. Their nests are huge and can weigh up to half a ton!

We know when the osprey are back, because we can hear its call. It is a whistle-like call.

Another name for an osprey is, fish hawk, and for good reason. Ninety-nine percent of the osprey's diet consists of live fish. 

The base of the ospreys' nest is made with sticks. We were lucky enough to witness an osprey grab a dead branch from our neighbors tree, it was amazing. Osprey are strong enough to grab a dead branch and break it off a tree trunk!

It is always a joy for us when we take our dog Ernie for his walk, we walk the school path which is right along the football field, so we can keep a look out for .... Jack and Diane. 

That is what my husband and I decided to name our osprey. 

♥

Carla

 

Sitting at the Bank

 

Hello Friends, today I am going to share a little story that happened to me a few weeks ago. I will set the stage first. My husband is the treasurer for our local Sportsmen's Club. He recently designed the website for the club Check it out! During one of our days of errands he needed to do a deposit for the Club. He went into the bank, I sat outside in the car with the window down enjoying the summer breeze blowing on me. I was busy people watching and enjoying the summer breeze when a man came up to my open car window.

He gave me the above artwork. He shared with me that God gifted him with the talent to draw and he likes to give his artwork away, along with the important message of The Good News. 

I thanked him and he got in his car and off he went. 

My husband came out of the bank, got in the car, and looked down on my lap. 

"Where did you get that?"

I shared the story above with him.. and he said "You just never know what might happen to you when you are sitting waiting at the bank."

We both were touched because this happened shortly after our son returned home from deployment. The American Eagle is a favorite in our family. 

♥

Carla

 

On The Road Friday ~ Snowshoeing at Crex Meadows

 Hello Friends,

It is Friday and it is time to hit the road. Today I am taking you to Crex Meadows Wildlife Area, Grantsburg, Wisconsin.

Saturday January 7th the sun was shining and we headed off to Crex Meadows.

 

We enjoyed the sun, snow and beauty of it all together.

 

 

We had a long stretch of cloudy days. When the sun comes out and makes diamonds on the snow you cannot help but smile.  

 

 

I was going along when I noticed something on the side of the trail. Everything is white and full of sparkle, then I see a patch of something dark.

Oh goodness! I have a feeling the trail groomer and this little fella had a collision.

 

 

 

RIP 

Little Mouse of Crex Meadows

 

 

Into the Winter Wonderland we go snowshoeing.

 

 

 My blog friend Sheri asked what our snowshoes looked like and how we use them. The above photos are of my husband on his way into the Winter Wonderland.

 

 

 Another Snowshoe Kiss

In case you missed our New Year's Kiss click here to find it. 

♥ 

Thank you for coming along with me today.

Carla

 

 

Joy List Monday

 Joy List Monday

♥ a weekly ritual ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 

♥ Our kitchen is done, all that is left to do is some trim work and I plan to sew some some curtains. I will share proper photos soon. We are so happy with the results. It was a big job for the two of us, it feels great to have it completed.

♥ Treats from the bakery.. we had a craving for donuts. 

 

♥ A thrift find.. a sturdy bulb planter.

♥ A Mourning Dove is nesting in our Wood Shed. She has laid two eggs. She is sitting on her nest. If you look at her nest she has used some hop flowers in her nest. I can see her sitting when I look out the window from my desk.

♥ Easter treats and spring flowers.

Happy Easter my dear friends.

Wishing you a beautiful week full of little things that make you smile.

♥

Carla

Rescue Mission

 

See that little robin. Well, he is the main character of this story. Do you see the net like stuff that his mom made that nest out of? Well, that is the cause of the rescue mission.

 

This is the second year that a robin family nested on top of our birdhouse. This year the robin got some kind of netting in the makings of the nest. Three of the four babies did fine leaving the nest. One remained over night, which I thought was odd. In the morning I looked closer at the little guy. He had some of the netting stuck around his leg, making it impossible to leave the nest. 

 And so a rescue mission was put into action. My husband carefully caught the little robin, I had scissors in hand and we carefully snipped the netting off the leg of the little robin.

All the time the little robin was squawking.  The parents dive bombing and squawking.

Ah, there  is a happy ending. The little fella was so happy to have the netting off his leg. He was no longer held down, he could fly and fly away he did.

 The End

Book Review ~ Raising Butterflies in the Garden ~ Brenda Dziedzic

 

Hello Friends,

I want to share a helpful book that a friend recently shared with me.

Raising Butterflies in the Garden ~ author Brenda Dziedzic

 

 

A little about Brenda Dziedzic. She is an award winning Master Gardener and an expert on the subject of raising butterfly and moth species. Her memberships include the Southeast Michigan Butterfly Association, Monarch Watch and the North American Butterfly Association.

 

I appreciated all the tips she shares on how to attract butterflies to your backyard. And why it is important to plant both nectar and host plants.

 She also shares how to create your own butterfly nursery.

 

Black Swallowtail have been visiting and living in our garden for the past two seasons.

I was so happy to learn from Brenda, how to help our Black Swallowtail survive and flourish during the seasons by planting host plants and nectar plants.

 

 Brenda goes into detail with the following butterfly and moth families..

Swallowtails

Whites and Sulphurs

Blues

Brushfoots

Skippers

Silk Moths

Sphinx Moths

Tussock Moths

 

As the winter months are fast approching and we soon will be looking at seed catalogs. We can start to plan our gardens around attracting our favorite butterflies.  

Some people may feel they need to have a large garden to attract butterfly. Hey, no worries, butterfly enjoy small gardens and container gardeners too.

If you are a container gardener, Brenda gives tips for the container gardener on attracting butterfly.

If you like butterflies, you will enjoy this book.

Happy Butterflying!

Pollinator Sky Rise

 St. Paul,  Minnesota has a Pollinator Sky Rise in the park areas in hopes to help Urban Pollinators.

Como Park Offers Home for the Pollinators 

The above link is an article about the idea of the Sky Rise for Pollinators.

 

“This is a great big beautiful sculpture that can draw people in and get them to pay attention in ways they might not have otherwise before,” Lovelee said.

I loved what Amanda Lovelee said in the interview. Getting people to be aware of our loss of pollinators is the first step. What a fun idea with this beautiful sculpture. It will get people to stop and think about things for a moment. They may decide to do more research and see how they can help. 

Good Luck Urban Pollinators.. hope you find this Sky Rise, Home Sweet Home.

 

And the winner is..

Kris from Junk Chic Cottage 

Click here to visit Junk Chic Cottage

Kris won The Stroll in the Garden card collection from The Little Garden That Could.

The Little Garden That Could 

Decorating for Christmas Outdoors

Take a peek at these pine cones. I picked the pine cones up while on some  of our hikes in Georgia. The pine cones where all closed up and tight when I picked them up on the Georgia forest floor.  When I got home I set them out on a table in the basement. They slowly began to pop open. Yes,Wisconsin has pine cones, but there is something really cool about how big and fat these Georgia pine cones get. They also have a sharp point on the tips. Ouch!

I hot glued the pine cone to a willow branch. I used the pine cones in my outdoor Christmas decorating. 

 

 Pine, birch, pine cones and gold twirls.

 A pop of red.

 And now lets peek at the greenhouse.

 A little tree in the greenhouse with solar lights.

Jackfrost has been visiting the greenhouse.

  

Looking out at the greenhouse in the dark of night.

 

Joy List Monday

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

John Muir

 ♥ a weekly ritual  ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces

that make life magical and to set aside time for gratitude each day

 ♥ a lovely Autumn hike 

 ♥ letters from our son who is at Basic Training and letters are the only way to communicate for 10 weeks .. those letters are true treasures

 ♥ sharing memories about our dog Molly who recently passed .. sharing all the adventures 

 ♥ brownies 

 ♥ baseball .. Go Crew Go!