Everyday Living

Simple + Southern Sunday No. 307

~ Everyday Living, Faith, Simple + Southern Sunday, Summer

Summer’s Final Sunday

A walk in the wetland!


“Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭33:8‬ ‭

 

Congressman Jim Martin, from our hometown, was a champion for conservation, wildlife preservation, and saving some natural space for all to experience. This park, on Lake Gadsden, is one of those places that many have enjoyed since it opened 29 years ago. It had been quite a while since Pam and I walked the trails and boardwalks in the park so we decided to visit this past week! We are sharing  only few of the many interesting things we found! Let’s take a stroll.

As you can see, the boardwalk is maintained well and enables visitors to go a number of places that would otherwise be inaccessible!READ MORE

Goodbye Summer 2020

~ Everyday Living, Faith, Family, Food & Entertaining, Gardening, Summer, Sunshine Cottage

Hello sweet friends. Fall, my favorite season, begins one week from today. Before moving onto all things fall, I must properly say goodbye to summer. I think we can all say that the summer of 2020 will be one for the history books!

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.”
‭‭James‬ ‭1:19-20‬

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“When summer gathers up her robes of glory,
And, like a dream, glides away.”
-Sarah Helen Whitman

The July garden is my favorite when limelight and vanilla strawberry hydrangeas are showing off their best blooms!

 Every summer we look forward to happy sunflowers…READ MORE

Chasing Swallowtail Butterflies

~ Everyday Living, Faith, Gardening, Outdoors, Summer

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭15:13‬ ‭‬‬

Happy Thursday sweet friends. I hope you are well and having a wonderful week. Tuesday morning I went out to our small cutting garden to cut back the spent zinnias and tidy up everything. Much to my surprise, there were butterflies all over the zinnias, lantana, and sunflowers. I ran back inside to grab my camera, thinking they would all disappear in the meantime. I couldn’t believe more butterflies had joined the party. The next thirty minutes were pure bliss as I stalked them. I discovered that if I stood still and was patient they would come really close.

“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.
-Maya Angelou

Last year my Renaissance Man added a raised bed on the other side of our driveway near a wooded area. We planted zinnias and a couple of rows of sunflowers for a late summer harvest. The butterflies were also enjoying our garden, but they much preferred this area.

Butterflies are always flitting about in the garden and the raised bed, but never like they were on Tuesday morning.

I made a couple of observations while photographing the butterflies. They never landed on any color of zinnia but pink. I have purple, yellow, red, salmon, orange, lime green, and white zinnias that the butterflies never once landed to drink their nectar. Note in all the photos, they are on pink zinnias (perhaps Ella Mae told them that pink and preferably hot pink was her favorite color). Second observation, they preferred the zinnias that were losing petals. I am guessing they prefer those because it is easier to reach the nectar!READ MORE