Glimpses of Spring & Walking!

The last couple of days have been simply amazing for me. I have felt very energetic and less tired than I have felt in months! When you go through life in pain and tired all the time, you don't realize how very hard it is until you have days without the tiredness!

So, today I did so many things that I've been talking about doing for so long. One of those things was to go outside for a walk. Yes!! A walk! Me - with the bad knees and back! I didn't go far, mind you, but I did it! I walked around enjoying the sunshine and looking at all the beautiful things that are opening their "eyes" after a long, winter's nap.

First thing I had to check out was this

Look at all those beautiful yellow irises! So many blooms! Tomorrow hubby will fill the birdbath with water for all the gorgeous birds we saw today. Next I walked up the road and saw all these...

That's just a small snapshot of all the iris down our road. Hubby spent countless hours planting and planting iris down the road and now we have these beauties to greet us, and others, as we drive to our home. This wasn't the only exciting thing on the road. Look who came along with hubby and I on our little walk...

In case you can't tell, here's a closer look...

My youngest son! He had a back shot yesterday and was miserable, but today, he felt better - good enough to come along on our little walk. Praise God! Here's some more pics of things we saw...

That last picture is a bit fuzzy but I still had to share it because it's my lilac bush! We have about 5 of them around the property and I love, love, love them! They should be out in full bloom by tomorrow or the next day at which time I will be going out to gather a nice bouquet to enjoy inside. The smell of lilacs is so lovely!  Here is a favorite picture - the hubs and my son in front of the Blue Spruce - one of my favorite trees.

We also had another family member along for the walk. Look at that happy "smile"!

Sammy loves to go for a walk with his family and here he is with "his boy". Two of MY favorite boys...

I also saw these guys. I'm not sure if you can see them, but I had to share this pic...

Can you see the quail? You can see two of them to the left of the picture and then there is one next two the wire ring on the right side of the picture. I tried to get closer, but they were too fast. I love quail! We have so many here now.

I rejoice in the "small things". The small things can sometimes be the big things when you haven't been able to do them for awhile. I really love going out in God's creation and enjoying all the sights, smells and feeling His cool breezes that remind me He is there. Thank you, Lord.

God bless you - Julie

It's September!

Maybe I'm goofy, and I'm pretty sure I am, but I love when September rolls around. That means that the hot summer is almost over and beautiful Autumn will soon arrive! Yippee!! I love Autumn and look forward to it every year. I love the cooler weather, the falling leaves, the pumpkins and all that stuff. I decorate my house for Autumn and even have a little village that depicts a farm during the harvest completely with apples, falling leaves and people harvesting their gardens and crops. I was thinking today that it's probably time to get everything out so I can enjoy it until Thanksgiving. That gives me almost 3 whole months to enjoy all my Fall decorating!

It cooled down here beautifully yesterday. The cool winds blew through and we even got a bit of rain, which we really need. I slept great with the breezes coming through the windows last night. My sons had their friends over again and they seemed to get all refreshed by this weather. I know they have enjoyed going over to the park (which I can see from my house) and throwing the football. Someone at the park had this gorgeous kite they were flying last night. It was so huge! It was a pleasure to watch it high up in the sky from my bedroom and porch.

I've almost finished one of the baby afghans I'm working on. I just have to crochet the hoodie part and then sew it on the corner. I am also working on a prayer shawl. It's absolutely gorgeous! I got the yarn on sale at Michaels and it's a chenille yarn. It's so soft when it's worked up and I know it will comfort those whom I'm going to give it to. I'm going to make one for my sister, my mother-in-law and for myself. I got the pattern from the Lion Yarn site for free! They have some wonderful free patterns there and I also found some really cute purse patterns. I got some yarn for a couple of purses, too. My hubby actually went with me and helped me pick out the yarn. I know it's shocking, but true! LOL

We have had an infestation of grasshoppers here and they are eating everything in site! They have completely stripped some of my rose bushes of their leaves, eaten small trees down to nothing and devestated my flowers! Since we don't like to use poison, there's not much we can do. We had a huge flock of birds here feasting on the horrid things, but they barely made a dent. I'm hoping we get cold weather soon before they eat everthing we've planted this year. It's been very devestating to us to lose so many of our plants.

I hope you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!!