Simple Beauty

Simple beauty from my back porch- a pink geranium, verbena, and a white trailing flower whose name I forget all tucked into a hanging basket.  These along with the hummingbird feeder which gets frequent visits, and the wind chime in the background, all make me very happy when I look out the window above the kitchen sink.

Where do you find simple beauty around your home today?

The View from Here

I took a walk this morning, camera in hand.  Here are a few of the beautiful things I found just outside my door today:

Mexican Hat wildflowers blooming in the fields

 Thistle, one of my favorite wild blossoms

 Bright Lights chard

Sycamore leaf

raindrops on roses

What beauty can you find outside your door today?

Weekend Wishes

To find the universal elements enough;

to find the air and the water exhilarating;

to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter;

to be thrilled by the stars at night;

to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring -

these are some of the rewards of the simple life.
~ John Burroughs

Wherever you may wander this weekend, may you find delight in the simple beauty around you.

Just in case you're wondering where I've been ...

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.  - Nathaniel Hawthorne


I'll be back shortly, just need a few more days to settle in to a new season ... :)

Weekend Wanderings

We took a hike this weekend to one of our favorite places to wander about and enjoy nature. My husband and I have been hiking along this creek for 15 years, and our oldest daughter made her first trip in a baby backpack when she was only months old. After sisters #2 and #3 came along at just 14 month intervals a few years later, our hiking took a hiatus. Once they were old enough to walk "most of the way", we resumed our family hikes and have been exploring along this spring fed creek together for the last 6 years or so.  We visit spring, summer, fall, and winter and there is always something new to see.  Sometimes we see snakes and lizards, sometimes butterflies and bees, other times falling leaves, or just barren branches ... it is always lovely no matter the season. 

wading

peeking into a cave (the roof was covered with spiders so no one ventured very far inside)

spring water

cliff wall covered with Maidenhair fern

another spring

catching tadpoles

Chalk Ridge Falls

moss fight with Dad & Grandma

swimming

And who has the most fun of all? ...

Great Outdoors Challenge ~ Wildflowers and Such

A few photos from our wanderings during the Great Outdoors Challenge:

Bluebonnets

Not sure about this one.  Someone told me it is called Crow's Poison ... not a pretty name for such a pretty flower.

Dandelion ... a favorite of ours.

This is the view outside from my desk.  Looking at it from this view you'd never know there is a house just on the other side of the Nandina bushes.  It is a lovely shady spot to sit, and if you are very quiet, the birds and squirrels will ignore you and you can watch them building nests, bathing in the nearby birdbath and digging in the leaves for goodies.    It is a perfect spot for building fairy houses, which will be a project for this week, I think.

Sorry I've not posted many entries during the challenge ... but, we're having so much fun outside, I don't have time for posting much.  I also seem to not remember to take photos, I guess I'm having too much fun to bother most days.  I'll try to do better this week!

 

Get Outdoors Challenge

Evidence of time well spent playing outdoors ...

green grass stained legs and purple painted feeties from tumbling in the clover and grape hyacinths.


Play along with us during the month of April for Children and Nature Awareness Month by posting a picture of your child(ren) each day enjoying the outdoors! Get outdoors and climb a tree!  Visit 5 Orange Potatoes to find out more about the get outdoors challenge

Spring is Springing!

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!
~Robert Browning

Signs of spring abound here- birds singing, bees buzzing, bulbs about to burst into bloom, busy children building fairy houses and Barbie swings in the backyard... oh the simple joys of springtime!

Contemplating Creatures

In a mouse we admire God’s creation and craft work. The same may be said about flies. Animals are the footprints of God. Adam and Eve derived the fullness of joy and bliss from their contemplation of all the animal creatures. ~ Martin Luther

In a mouse ... yes, cute little critters that they are, it is easy to admire God's creation in a mouse. In the rat(s) ? that have inhabited the walls of my house, that seem to find the spot in the wall behind wherever I'm sitting to be the perfect place to scratch and chew and make all sorts of odd noises; rats that sneak out at night to collect their dinner from the kitchen, and scare me half to death when I disturb one in its garbage can diving ... I'm not admiring this creature these days. No... not admiring rats at all. I might be able to admire them better if they would kindly remove themselves to the backyard.

Right now I'm contemplating the bliss of walking into the kitchen without the dread of seeing a rat's tail disappearing under the stove ... or reading a book without hearing the scurrying and scuttling of creatures racing about in the wall (what are they doing in there anyway?).

I'm trying to find Joy in this situation ... really I am.

p.s. my husband keeps telling me they make great pets. i'm not buying it. no, rats are not pets. not in my house.

Autumn Sunshine

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

This is exactly how we feel these days...lovely autumn-like mornings, too precious to be spent indoors, find us heading out into the yard as soon as the sun begins to peek over the treetops. Bike riding, games of follow-the-leader and tetherball, watching the deer (who are watching us just as closely), feeding the birds and filling the birdbath, sitting together in the yet unfinished tepee, enjoying each other and God's creation around us are the first order of the day in our "school" for now.

Yes, yes, we do get to the other things- math, language arts, geography, history, etc...but, right now, we are beginning with the best, enjoying nature and having fun together!

Early evening finds us right back where we started...

Such simple joy to be found in spending a few lovely hours each day enjoying the great outdoors with my family.

Farewell October!

November is on its way! I hope to be moving to our new nest soon. Like really soon, maybe even next week. Since I'm not packed or otherwise prepared, it will be a mad dash to get our household in order before the day arrives. Moving to another home in less than a year...not something I relish, but something that is necessary. This new nest will prayerfully also be a temporary dwelling. It is not where I want to be for an extended time; but it is a dwelling place for a season.

The photo is of a little melon that grew in our garden this year. Even though I had given up the garden as a total failure and ceased to water, weed or otherwise acknowledge the presence of anything resembling a garden outside my backdoor; nature persevered, without a bit of assistance from the gardener. My girls were out digging in the garden one day, and discovered not one, but three small Eden's Gem melons on the vine. This was after a Texas summer with virtually no rain all season and no watering by the garden hose for many weeks. Most of the pepper and tomato plants also survived and we are harvesting peppers and tomatoes now at the end of October. Chard and okra also proved their stamina through the Summer and came back to give us a harvest after the first rains of Autumn. I had to laugh at my own foolishness, when nature fooled me this Fall! Soon I will clean out this garden plot and leave it for some other gardener to enjoy.

Our Fall & Winter garden is also growing quite well without my gardening "expertise" ;) ! We planted our garden at our new dwelling place, thinking that we would be moved in by the end of August. That didn't happen, but with just a few waterings by our friends down the road, the seeds came to life and did their thing. Now we pop over there at least a couple of times a week to snip lettuce, spinach, and chard; or a bit of cilantro for a nice bowl of salsa. Thanks to a thick layer of hay, the weeds haven't taken over entirely, and the veggies are thriving in the cooler temperatures.

Once we are finally settled in, I will add a few more veggies to the garden plot and of course, some of my favorite herbs and flowers. I absolutely love violas for the Winter garden! Sweet little flowers, and edible as well! Fall is for planting in my part of the world :) .