Beauty in this world is just a glimpse...

 Beauty and nature inspire me in such a special way. It’s hard to explain why. Why does it seem to inspire so many of us? Perhaps C. S. Lewis was right. It is a glimpse into what, will be, one day. I'll let him speak for himself....

~ “We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words — to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it..... That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that “beauty born of murmuring sound” will pass into human face; but it won’t. Or not yet.

For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so. Some day, God willing, we shall get in.” ~ C. S. Lewis

I have written about how C. S. Lewis felt about beauty before and thought I should write it here. Beauty and nature affect me in such a wonderful way and I know I am not alone. 

It is the beauty, that draws me back to places like this time and time again. What am I seeking? A glimpse into what will someday be? I think so. I also find myself refreshed, with the clutter and stress of daily living fading into the background.

Tim and I sat on the sandy beach above and watched the river in front of us flow by one day. It was shady and quiet. We hardly said a word. We just let the beauty of it all speak words of silence. 

I guess some would call this, a place of retreat. A place where their hearts can be still and just listen. We all need those moments. Jesus too, went to a quiet places to pray. 

Not everyone can get away to a place like this at any given time. Sometimes, we have to bring the beauty to where we are. We can, with the use of a birdfeeder bring beauty to just outside our window. Bird beauty is two fold, the sight, as well as, the sounds of nature, come to within the reach of just about anyone who would want to give it a try.

We can also bring a bit of nature into our homes with the use of flowering plants or useful medicinal and culinary herbs.  They will freshen the air and add some greenery to the picture.  I have seen beautiful urban rooftop gardens that could have the same affect as this place had for us. Fountains trickle, lush green leaves and bright flowers make it a place of retreat for those who choose to seek it.

I am really lacking in bird photographs, I find birds harder to capture than the butterflies. I can quietly, slowly, creep up close, without disturbing the 'flutterbys'. - if I'm careful-
 With birds, a good 'zoom-in' lens is really needed.  -I don't have that type of camera, right now.-  I do want to try more, with what I have though. I'd love to be able to capture their beauty on film.  But really, the butterflies are also a piece of nature that can be brought close to home. With the right flowers they also can be lured in close to watch and enjoy their graceful elegance. 

Painted Lady butterfly on Purple Coneflower

The Gift

Do we know the gift we have been given? Life, love, beauty. I  want to write about my gratitude for that. Often, as I look at the World around me and the seeming unfairness of it all, I could be discouraged that there isn't more I can do. Sometimes, I wish for wealth so that I could give to those who do not have. But, I am beginning to realize that wealth is not necessarily a gift or something to really be desired.

I have been reading a book called Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey. In it, are 13 short biographies of people who helped, in one way or another, to restore the waning faith of the author. One of these men was Leo Tolstoy. A famous Russian author who wrote such books as War and Peace and Anna Karenina. No, I've never read them, they are both very long and are not really my type of books. I have read several of his short stories such as Where love is, there is God. -by going to the link you can read it online.- It is a short little story of a poor shoemaker who has lost his family. One day he hears a voice tell him that Christ will visit him tomorrow, but is surprised to see it happen in a different way than he expected. I recommend reading it. Great story.
One of the lessons that Leo Tolstoy seems to have found in his quest in this life, was that money could not buy peace, contentment or even lasting happiness. He wrote several stories of Russian peasants who had found this elusive peace. It hadn't been brought about by wealth and material things.

Another chapter in Phillip Yancey's book was on a Harvard Professor named Robert Coles. He was also a child psychiatrist who wrote a series of books called children of crisis. In this series he interviewed ordinary people and often children. He was trying to gain an honest perspective of how people lived. In the first four books he focused on poor people or those who wouldn't be considered wealthy. The final volume called The Privileged Ones is about the rich and well off in America.
His conclusions are similar to what Leo Tolstoy found. Money does not buy us happiness. That those who were lacking in material things were by far happier and better adjusted to life. One of the reasons he felt this was so, (and this point is often ignored by his peers) was their faith. Many of the people who lacked wealth, that he interviewed, had faith in God and often pointed to Him as the reason for their peace.

As I was reading these biographies a verse from Proverbs came to mind. ~...give me neither poverty nor riches...lest I be full and deny Thee and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. Pr. 30:8-9~
It seems, to me, that in our society, as more and more people gain in material wealth, they turn away from God. As if they do not need Him. Those who have just enough to get by, know that they do indeed, need Him and turn to Him for their source of security. In Him, they find peace.....

As I look at my life and the things that I do have, I become more and more grateful for the life that He has given me. We have never had a lot. Certainly, more than many in this world. Honestly, though, it has always been just enough. Never more, never less. We have always known, Who provided that. We have found peace in that. Things would get tight and we would worry. But in the end, it would always be enough and we wondered why we had gotten so uptight about it.

So, as I mull all these thoughts around, I look around and see such wonderful gifts. I find them all around me. In the little House Wren that sat on a fence post just last evening, singing his cheery little song, as if it were  for me alone. The Indigo Bunting that came and showed off his brilliant blue feathers to us, nearly every day for several weeks. In the amazing green and growing things I am surrounded by and so desire to learn more about. In that very knowledge of them, He has allowed me to gain.

We love where we live. The four seasons are perfectly spaced, each with 3 months of their own. Even now, as I write this, I feel fall in the air, slowly inching it's way into summer. God has given us a piece of his Earth. I watch the trees, flowers, birds and even the insects and am filled with gratitude for His over abundance.

I look at my family and how much they care for one another and for Tim and I. I look at my smiling grandchildren as they reach out their arms for a hug from gramma. My heart is filled and overflowing, with no empty spaces.

I hear his voice bring me comfort as He speaks through the Psalms of David. I think of the Shepherd boy  and once king of Israel, that wrote them from the depths of his heart. A man, not so different from us. A man, who had learned to find his peace, in God his Father. He found that peace, while watching his father's sheep in the wilderness. The words written so long ago, are still so fitting for our lives today. I find so much comfort and understanding in this book.  reading schedule of Psalms I often follow

I am overwhelmed with all that He has given us. It is a Gift.

~ Either we are adrift in Chaos, or we are individuals, created, loved, upheld and placed purposefully,   exactly where we are. Can you believe that? Can you trust God for that? ~ Elizabeth Elliot

Summer memories

Do you recognize this place? Look at our cover photo above. Yes, it is the same place. Our river is hardly flowing here. We've been having quite a drought year. The falls are simply not "falling" as they should.

Our youngest daughter -who was married just over a year ago- came to visit with our son-in-law. She arrived around noon and the weather was hot! One of the first things she wanted to do was head to the river. Tim and I have been so busy that we have sadly neglected it.
 We've been missing  the cooler, wet summers that we usually have. The weather has been dry here, our lawn is yellow and crunchy when we walk on it. The clay soil is dry and solid like rock, the air, stifling and heavy. So the river sounded like the place to be on a hot July day.

 I've been having flashbacks from living in the desert in Arizona and so I thought I'd write about them.... Tim loved it in all it's uncommon and unique glory. He used to go out with his friends and hike the rocks and mesa's among the giant Suguaro Cacti. The Sonora Desert is an amazing place.  I never made it out there with him. I was busy, taking care of our kids, and hiding from the heat in the air conditioned apartment....I regret that. Not finding a way to get us all out more.

Tim feels bad about all the desert  that has been consumed and paved over to make room for the ever growing city.  They cut the orange groves down and made room for tract housing and shopping malls. He talks about driving through them when they were in full bloom and the wonderful scent was unlike anything he'd ever smelled before. They would watch the Road Runners scurrying around as they worked out there at the edge of it all, building those homes. He was in love with the desert. If it weren't for the city and the heat we might have stayed. I'd like to take him back someday. Just him and I.  To go and see the places that we neglected to see while we were there.

Reminds me of a line in a song. ~ "....don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you got 'til it's gone. They paved Paradise 'n put up a parking lot." ~   Oh well, I'm not really what you could call a true conservationist. I believe I would simply fall under the category of take care of what God has given us and be a good steward, it's just on loan anyway. I think conservation efforts can mean different things depending on who you talk to. In its worst extreme, I also think of these lines to a song.  "As we're sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children"....   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A8nsql1zi0 It is wrong to care so much for something that doesn't have an eternal soul and neglect to care for a helpless, innocent human life.

My parents had lived in the northern part of Arizona during the time we were there and we probably would have liked that better, temperature wise. But no, we lived 'smack dab' (redneck term) in the middle of Phoenix. It was extremely hot with  asphalt, traffic and city everywhere and the usual crime that seems to infect large populations of crowded people. We hear it has doubled in size since we lived there.

There was one thing that we both agreed upon.... We did not want to raise our children in that tangled mess of industrialized civilization. We wanted them to breath fresh, cool mountain air. To know the freedom that only nature can give. To explore, to watch, to see and  hear the sounds of God's creation. To grow up without fear of riding their bikes down the road,  climb trees and splash through the waters of a cold running stream. And you know what? They did those things. It wasn't easy, but we managed to make that happen for them. (Thanks Tim, for always being the hardworking man you are, who never gives up when you set a goal in your sights.)

Now, here is a something I did not know when we lived there. Hummingbirds! Arizona has a wonderful variety of hummingbirds.  They claim to host 18 different kinds!! In the eastern part of the country we only have one kind that actually live and breeds here, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  Although, there is also the Rufous Hummingbird that they are finding  is wintering here. Now, that would be fun to see and I'll be watching for sure.
One of my regrets is that while I lived in Arizona, I didn't feed them and try to attract them. I didn't make this place my home, I should have and I missed out on some things because I focused on what I didn't like instead of finding something I did. Home is where you decide to make it. Abraham Lincoln said "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be." I have since realized just what it was, I should have been enjoying. I have remembered this lesson. Each place where I have lived since, I have intentionally tried to make it my home and enjoy it's specialty. The world is so full of unique places that often we only get to experience once in a lifetime. 


   ~Be content with such things as you have ... or perhaps you could say, to be content with where you are at. ~



I have been sidetracked once again. I'll show you a few pics of our day at the river....

This is the riverbed. It was pretty dry, but we headed downstream in hopes that our swimming hole would be better.

We weren't disappointed. The water was perfectly cool and so refreshing.

This inlet in the picture below comes into the river from the side and it  just beckons to me. 'Come and explore' it seems to say. I have all kinds of lovely imaginations about this place. In fact it feels rather like something I would find in one Tolkiens books.....My daughter tells me she thinks people live up there not too far and that would have just ruined my expectations, so no exploring took place on this day. 

It is a lovely place though. We believe the water must come from underground as it's temperature is much cooler than the river itself. It's so dark and shady, the trees form a canopy above, blocking out much of the sunlight. With just a few bright sunbeams reaching down through. Lichens and ferns are growing along the banks with plenty of other mystery plants that make me want to know their names. The air feels humid yet cool and fresh . 

Now doesn't that just sound like the perfect place to let your imagination run wild? A place to let the world just pass you by and leave all your troubles behind for just a bit. 

As I sit typing this out, I listen to the growing sound of pattering rain on our tin roof. I sigh... knowing that the moisture is so badly needed. Once again, I thank God for this place we live in. Our Appalachia, that He has so graciously loaned to us, for a time.

“But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

                                                  And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
                                                  Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;
                                                  And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
                                                  Who among all these does not know
                                                  That the hand of the Lord has done this,
                                                  In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
                                                  And the breath of all mankind?" Job 12:7-10

Smelling the Honeysuckle

Did you ever find one of these when you were young?

I found this nest and the egg separately the other day and it brought back all these memories of feeling young, summer and pure joy at having found such a treasure.

I wonder if it was just me or if there are other people who have found their peace in the things of nature?

When I was a girl, I found pure joy in these things, a nest and a bird's egg. Sunny flowers would make me smile, the summer sun and a water hose were the perfect combination. Who could ask for more?
Somewhere along the line, life got in the way of these simple things. I forgot to smell the flowers, to watch the birds, to feel the rain on my face.
After all, it was just life and it was hard and wasn't going the way I had planned.

I would cry out to God to change things and make it better. 
I would wonder why He didn't hear me. I would dwell even more on all my problems and seek Him harder. Thinking that I was doing something wrong for God to not hear me. I tried many ways to please Him. It all seemed to no avail.
Then one day, someone mentioned the following verses from the New Testament to me and felt they should be taken literally as an anecdote for depression and anxiety.
Let me share them with you.








~ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin,  yet I say to you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ~ 


These words were spoken by Jesus when he walked on this Earth. 

I remember reading a book written about life in Appalachia. I don't recall the name of the book or the author, but I do remember that they mentioned smelling the honeysuckle in the air. At the time I thought, "that's funny, I've never smelled it before. I wonder why?" I even went and intentionally smelled honeysuckle....but no, I just didn't remember ever smelling it before.

So, I began to implement "the Jesus cure for depression" into my life. First, Tim made a greenhouse and I began to grow flowers from seed. My daughter and I made flower beds that we planted all of these in. I bought field guides about birds, butterflies, wildflowers and herbs. I made and put up bird feeders in my yard and I started feeding the hummingbirds. I began to go for walks just for the purpose of searching out new plants and identifying them. I started making new friends through the internet that had the same interests. Slowly I discovered I was noticing things I never had before. Nature.... that had always been there, began to take on new appearances...or so it seemed to me.  The grass was simply greener wherever I looked, trees were so fascinating to me, I  was noticing flowers and herbs that I'd just never seen before. When I would look at these, I would thank God in my heart for creating them. I would think of Him "looking at all that He had made and saying It Was Good." Genesis 1

Then one day, it happened, I smelled the honeysuckle.... it was in the very air around me and what  a heavenly scent it was! It was surely there all along....At that moment I realized that I was getting better. I was healing from the hurts and disappointments that had destroyed my joy. The "Jesus Cure" was working. 

Have you smelled the honeysuckle today? 

Summer Days and Summer Nights

Hibiscus. Beautiful summer flower. It always begins to bloom when the heat turns up. I grew some from seed a few years ago and ended up with three different colors. You don't know what color you'll get, when you start from seed. They don't always remain true to the mother plant. Beautiful flower, very tropical looking. It's my daughter-in-laws favorite. But then, she loves the heat of summer too.

This is another color with some Purple Coneflower (echinacea) growing along the edge of it. You can also see part of a tomato cage. That's the way I garden. I like to call it Cottage Gardening. Some might just call it a jungle! I love the tangled, natural look of it.
This type of gardening has it's roots in Colonial times and before that, England. The pioneers of this country would often grow their flowers/ herbs/ medicine and to some extent, vegetables, all together. Usually right outside the kitchen door. This might inspire you to make your own. Myself, I just plant it and watch what happens.

Last night, after the sun went down, we sat in the backyard enjoying the cool night air. For my simple camera this is the best night picture I could come up with. Maybe I'll just try to write a word picture for you....

In this part of the country even on the hottest day, when the sun sets, the air begins to cool. The ever present humidity only adds to the coolness. Dampening your skin and cooling with the air. As the light fades, the temperature cools until you are most comfortable. Neither hot or cold.

The fireflies begin to light up the fields and forest edges. First, just a few, but gradually they increase their flickering. I watch the trees darken into soft shadowy mounds. The moon rises just above them.

Then, slowly the chorus begins....Tree frogs, Cicadas and of course the Mockingbirds and other mysterious sounds that I wonder about. Nature has so much to say here. I sit in my backyard and soak it all in. The sounds of summer. The day fades away and once again I sigh in pure gratitude  for His wonderful Creation.

Beth's Bird Boutique (guest post)

This a guest post I did for Kim over at Snug Harbor Bay. Thank you, Kim and what a privilege to share this hobby I have. It's funny that I even do this at all. My older sister gave me hard time about it when we visited them in November.....I used to say that the artisitic/crafting gene must have skipped a generation with me. I am really not very artistic, but it used to be I wouldn't even try. I was what some would call "anti-crafty". I actually hated doing art/craft work of any kind. I don't know what changed.....I got over the idea that crafts and arts were somehow not me, I guess. I gave it a try and somehow I found it most enjoyable and a way of expression. Of course, artistic creativity can be expressed  in many, many ways, this is just one small example. Wherever yours is expressed at, enjoy it!

This is my first guest post....so forgive me if I don't do this quite right.

The picture above is of a birdhouse my husband's grandfather built. It is 50 plus years old as near as we can figure! Built properly you would be amazed at how long a birdhouse will last and remain functional. I've been noticing the older ones still around in our area. Yes, it is the old handmade ones that are still hanging from fence posts possibly being used by some of our feathered friends! Now, really, I'm not just being prejudiced. I know that we happen to build them as a side business but, do take a look around yourself. You won't see too many mass marketed birdhouses that are very old and built to last. 

This is a picture of a little wooden Wren house that my husband made and I painted. I call it my Mexican style birdhouse. I've always liked the bold and brillant colors that many of the Mexican houses are painted! So, I painted one in that style. Some cactus's on the front finish it off! This series that we built have been fun to just paint. Simple little houses that we can sell more economically. The wood we use is "upcycled". That simply means that we have turned otherwise unusable wood into something useful. Most of our birdhouse are built this way. We've always enjoyed "upcycling" in any way we can. It's a lot of fun to take something old or broken and fix it up new!

I also paint on birdhouse gourds. These are some unfinished gourds my daughter brought from South Carolina for me. I have painted and sold several of these but still have quite a few to go. I am almost always in the process of one. They start like this and need to be cleaned before you can even begin to paint on them. They are hard shelled and can be painted, dyed, woodburned, carved on or simply left natural. The traditional use of gourds goes back for many thousands of years! Native North Americans were the first to use them for birdhouses. 

Here are a few in various stages of cleaning. The white on the outside is mold and needs to be cleaned off. A good soak in sudsy hot water and a plastic scrub brush is what I use. I fill my sink with soapy water and lay the gourd in it turning it, to get all sides wet. I let it soak for 5-10 minutes, again turning it occasionally. Then I begin to scrub the mold off. It usually comes off quite easily. My daughter uses a spray on bleach cleaner. She sets the gourd in the sink and sprays the cleaner on, waits a few minutes and scrubs the loosened mold away with a plastic scrubber of some kind. She rinses the bleach off well and then lets it dry. Either way you need to make sure they dry well before beginning any art work on them.

This gourd I have used leather dye as the base coat. You must wear rubber gloves when using this product. It is a permanent dye! It can be found at most hobby shops in the leather crafting section.

This gourd I have begun a base coat of acrylic paint. Which is a very common medium used in painting gourds. Gourd art is an amazing art form. I am enjoying learning it, but I have so far to go. So many beautiful things can be done with them. 

This is the finished gourd. A hole must be drilled in the size of opening you wish. My husband uses a hole saw to do this. Then the loose seeds and pith must be emptied out. I don't worry about any that can't be loosened as it adds insulation to the house anyway. Also some small holes are drilled in the bottom for drainage. Two holes in the top serve as ventilation and a place to insert leather cording to hang it with.  After a base coat, a design is painted on with a final coating of clear spray on exterior lacquer to help make it weather resistant.  Most of my designs are usually of birds, as I am totally in love with these feathered, graceful and singing creatures! What a gift to mankind! 

Thank you so much Kim, for the invite to write this guest post! Be sure and take a peak at her blog at Snug Harbor Bay. You can see more of my birdhouses and feeders at Etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/BethsBirdBoutique 

New Year Goals

Above is a picture of my Geranium plant that my daughter in law gave me this summer. I had it on the porch all summer and not one single bloom. I brought it in this fall and just look at it. It is so full of life and blooming it's little heart out. It's amazing what a change in location can do. Not all changes are that drastic but some are...

So, it's the New Year. Time to make new goals for 2012! Forging new pathways and making changes are usually a good thing. I heard a pastor once tell this story. " There was a farmer who had a mule and wagon that for years followed the same path amongst the sugar maples, during sugaring season. After so many years, ruts began to form and the farmer no longer had to steer the mule. The wagon wheels were caught in the ruts and guided the mule in the direction he needed to go."  I'm sure you see the analogy here, if we don't make new goals, we will simply be guided by the past "ruts" of our life. Changes and goals can be bring about new and better things!

I'll just tell you a few of the goals I had in mind for our blog. I call it ours even though I do all the writing....Tim inspires me, so he is part of this too.
In a way we're sort of like these birds.... different in our approaches to life, yet somehow, we manage to make it work and even share the same feeder. (big smile)
This is one of the new goals I have. I'd love to photograph more birds or wildlife in general.

Here's another....keep working on my birdhouses. I actually sold a couple, which surprised me, because I had so few in my Etsy shop. It encouraged me enough to keep going though.
 Jayme (youngest daughter) made this little mushroom birdhouse. She has written a children's book about little people who live in Mushroom houses and how they learn to accept each others differences.
We've been making some new birdhouses also. My goal is to add more, regularly, to the shop. I'll share a glimpse of my favorites once in a while.

This lovely flower is called Passionflower. It grows quite well in what was once our horse pasture. A lot seems to grow in our horse pasture. It is slowly turning back into forest, I'm afraid....We can't seem to slow it down. With just the two of us now, some things just have to be let go....
Passionflower is a medicinal herb that is quite useful. Dried and made into tea it is a relaxing herb something like chamomile. Medicinal herbs, both wildcrafted and the ones I intentionally cultivate are a particular passion of mine. I'd like to write some more about those.

Of course I'd like to spend some more time with this guy. We're at a place in life where people really start to have problems.....unfortunately, the statistics for divorce after 40 are pretty sad. Marriage is always worth working at and never to be taken for granted!

....and this is what we really, really want to spend more time doing! Getting out, walking, hiking, watching the birds, looking for that exotic and rare herb! See, you can combine them all. I think that's a pretty good mix don't you?
 We've had a hard time trying to fit this in. Our schedule is so full at this point in our life and our budget is stretched to the limit. I'll be looking for ways to "backpack on a budget!" (a serious budget)
 Of course, I'll write about that!

Most important to us of all.... Our family! This was taken last year at Christmas. We didn't all get together this year or I'd have an updated picture for you. I just love this one. Look at all those joyful smiles! (We are missing our newest granddaughter in this picture. You can read about her here.) I'll write about family too. We started with three kids....now we have six! We've doubled our investment in just a few short years. I love it!

So, that's what I want to do this next year, write about...Our Appalachia and all the things we love!


                                               Have a very Happy New Year!!

A bit of Red

That is Winged Sumac pictured in the gourd. My field has quite a bit of it growing out there. Snoopy (Jayme's horse) moved to South Carolina with her and now my field is once again reverting back to forrest... or jungle....whichever you prefer to call it. I just love the fall color of it. It really is a weed around these parts although, it did manage to catch Tim's eye. He doesn't usually notice such things but, the other morning he commented on the color of our "field". It is a beautiful red isn't it? Lots of this color around right now, I'm really enjoying it while its here, soon enough the leaves will all fall and winter will have arrived. Winter is not my favorite time of year....but I am determined to enjoy it anyway this year. Somehow....

Today, I'll just enjoy the Reds of Autumn.

These were just turning. I took them a couple of weeks ago, there are so many reds around. They are my favorite leaf color. This year anyway.

and one more.

This lovely Red Cardinal deserves a place amongst the Reds of Autumn, don't you think? I took this at Jeff and Tash's the day they were moving. (our son and daughter in law) He was enjoying the left over bird seed Tash had in the back yard. He and his lady friend, whom I did not get a picture of.

My favorite Red of all!! Estella Cheri, our oldest grand daughter. Also taken the day they moved. We really miss that little "Missy Girl"!




What's your favorite color of autumn?

What we've been up to

I hope everyone is out enjoying this lovely fall weather. At least it is around here. I love the colors, the fresh cool air and oh, just everything about it. In case I haven't mentioned it, fall is my favorite time of year! Above is a photo of  uncleaned gourds Jayme brought me from South Carolina the other day. Don't they just look like Autumn? I thought they did anyway. They also sort of look like work.....they need to be cleaned, painted on, holes drilled in them and the inside cleaned out. Turning a gourd into something usable is not so easy.

The use of gourds for bird houses and cooking utensils has been around for literally thousands of years. Here is an interesting article on the history of hard shell gourds. They are fun and interesting to work with. I'm enjoying them and learning as I go along. 

This was my fall inspired gourd. Jayme swiped it from me when she was here. I'm just kidding it was her birthday gift. 

These are the four I've made so far. I really just want to use them, but the idea was to try and sell them to supplement our income just a bit. I'm not sure if birdhouses will sell or not but, we'll see....you can only try, right?!

In case you didn't notice, we now have an Etsy Shop widget in the right sidebar. We don't have much there yet but hope to add when we can. Tim also made some wooden birdhouses that I painted on. Also a very nice Red Cedar bird feeder that I really just want to fill with bird seed and put in my yard!

Indigo Bunting on Goldenrod and Chipping Sparrow on pine branches. Did you know that bird watching is good for your health?! Yep, sure is. You can read a blog post written by Taking a Walk on the Wild Side that will tell more about that.

Isn't that a lovely bird feeder? I think I should just put that right out in my front yard....Tim won't let me.....it's for sale too.....but.... it just goes with my yard. I have the spot picked out and everything! Oh well.....maybe next time.

Letters From Eden ~ book review

Every once in a while I read a book that is just so enjoyable from start to finish that I can't put it down. This is one of those! Delightful, enjoyable, relaxing and peaceful are just a few of the words I would use to describe it. Her writing style is so readable. It just flows from one page to the next. You are hardly aware that you are reading and not just listening to her tell it. It's like you've sat at her kitchen table and listened while she tells you about the happenings in her life.

Julie Zickefoose is a naturalist, writer and painter of nature. Her paintings throughout the book just captured my attention. So realistic and yet still have that wonderful blend and flow that only watercolor can do. At least that's the way I feel about watercolor paintings. One day, I was watching our two grandchildren while Tim, Jeff and Tash (our son and daughter in law) were loading up the moving truck. We sat on a mattress, in the empty living room and looked at all the lovely pictures in this book. They loved them! Especially Everitt, our 17 month old grandson.  He would laugh, point and say "birdie" at the bird pictures. I think it would make a great read aloud for most any age of readers.

It is full of information about nature, wildflowers, bird-eating bullfrogs, turtles, deer and a lot about birds. Even some about wildlife gardening and the use of native plants which has become a new interest of mine. I have had enough of mowing my acre plus of lawn and have goals of turning part of it back into a meadow. I gleaned a few tips about that from this book.  She is an avid birdwatcher and master naturalist, something that I wouldn't mind achieving myself....

So if you love good writing, beautiful painting, birds, nature, stories about family and country living, you will also love this book! My new favorite. I found her blog before the book. I ordered the book through Inter library loan. I told Tim, "the next gift giving holiday this is what I want!" You can purchase a signed copy here. I have also added it to our amazon store.

She  has a new book coming out soon which you can pre-order here. It looks just as wonderful. You can see her style of painting by the covers. Beautiful Watercolors!