Sixty::Thirteen

Holy Week posts from my blogroll/reader (in no particular order): Why We Call This Holy Week by Christina at Heavenly Springs

Holy Week: What Happened on Wednesday? by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

What Your Starved Soul is Really Hungry For: on the road to Calvary by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience

Sixty::Twelve

"In order to glimpse the glory of God where he hides himself in creation, we actually have to engage with creation." ~ Bill Walsh

For more about this photo: "..the strange glory of ordinary things."

Holy Week posts from my blogroll/reader (in no particular order):

Holy Week: What Happened on Tuesday? by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

We Never Walk Alone by Jim Gibbons at Caffeinated Thoughts (HT-Christina)

5 Ways to Make Passion Week Count for Your Kids by Ruth at Gracelaced (HT-Z)

Does Christ Have Fans or Followers: On the Road to Calvary by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience

Sixty::Eleven

Red-headed woodpeckers are not as common as other woodpeckers are in Florida. Finding two of them on the same branch, one on top of the branch and one on the bottom, was a treat, but the orientation was terrible for photography...unless I was shooting silhouettes. Even so, it is still one of my favorites.

Shades of spring...

A foggy sunrise... around the pond... in the trees... on the feeders... and under the trees... Holy Week posts from my blogroll/reader (in no particular order): Hosanna on a Monday: on the road to Calvary by Ann Voskamp at Holy Experience That's My King at Kevin DeYoung's DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed Holy Week: What Happened on Monday? by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

Holy Week::Palm Sunday; Sixty::Ten

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” ~ Matthew 21:9

Holy Week: What Happened on Sunday (Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds)

More Holy Week from my blogroll* (in no particular order):

Jesus Messiah! by Christina at Heavenly Springs

Holy Week Geography and Harmony in Google Earth by Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds

Photo: Brooke Fraser and Hillsong United(Encounter, Miami, August 2009 - a fantastic weekend with two of my favorite young ladies.)

Sixty::Nine

Owl hasn't exactly got Brain, but he Knows Things. A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) Photo: Great Horned Owl, October 2007

Sixty::Eight

A breakfast under the oak tree by the pond...a most delightful way to begin the day on a cool December morning. Hot coffee in a hollyberry mug, oatmeal with cranberries, and a basket of crisp apples. December weather in SW Florida is unpredictable. We might be running the air-conditioner, or we might be warming cold hands and feet by a fire. That particular morning a couple of years ago was my favorite - a warming-up-around-a-fire kind of day and that is why this photo is a favorite, as well.

Sixty::Seven

On our way to the east coast last February, we stopped at the Ortona Cane Grinding Festival, for Louis to buy the syrup. The festival was held at the Ortona Indian Mound Park (NYTimes article about the archeological discoveries at this mound), and it was all things delightful: a cool, clear day, barbecued chicken and ribs cooked outdoors, and bluegrass music under the large live oaks.

The photo of these bottles of amber sugar cane syrup remind me of that perfectly lovely winter day with so many people I dearly love.

Sixty::Six

I did say I love dragonflies. Enough said. I'm too exhausted for words. Common Green Darner, January 2008

Sixty::Five

Just outside the walls of this tiny chapel, the loud clamor of construction mingled with the conversations and activities of college students as they moved across the campus. Noticing the sign on the tall wooden door, I left the crowded walkway and entered the empty, dimly lit chapel. A tall wooden cross hung on the brick wall in front of the pews. A single wood shelf with two candlesticks and a few Bibles and hymnbooks was mounted just underneath.

It was like walking through C.S.Lewis's wardrobe. The contrast between the noisy, busy campus on that bright, sunny spring day and the dark, cool quiet of the chapel was stunning. I loved discovering that peaceful chapel in the carillon tower at Belmont University, and that is why this photo - taken on Emily's 18th birthday - is one of my favorites.

This week...

 ...we found pennyroyal blooming in the pasture and the field by the road.

...muscovey ducks paddled 'round the pond.

...the azaleas remained glorious.

 ...a hawk kept his evil eyes on the feeders.

 ...a gopher turtle slowly made his way along the pasture fence.

 ...and we watched a small black racer eat a whole lizard.

 ...the green

 ...and male painted buntings flew in from the thickets and feasted at the feeders.

 ...while the pretty cedar waxwings landed by the dozens to drink from the bird bath.

Cardinals, bluejays, mockingbirds, warblers, turkey vultures, swallow-tailed kites, woodpeckers, sparrows, white ibises, goldfinches, grey squirrels and fox squirrels...they've all stopped by to amuse us, as well. What have you seen in your neck of the woods this week?

Sixty::Four

Dragonflies - with their incandescent wings and smiley faces - have long been one of my favorite subjects, but this particular dragonfly was amazing to photograph. I found him early this past October, clinging to a blade in the dew wet grass near the pond. He barely moved as I inched closer. When I opened the photos on my computer screen, I was amused to think that he might have been mesmerized by his reflection in the water drop that he appeared to be grasping like a mirror.

It reminded me of a much earlier photograph I captured of a yellow jacket who appeared to be fixed on his reflection, allowing me to get closer than if the circumstances were different and the yellow jacket had seen me.

Fortunately, for both the dragonfly and the yellow jacket, I intended no harm - though I'd smash a yellow jacket in a heartbeat - but their apparent distraction with their own reflection seemed to make them vulnerable to approaching danger.

I'm sure there's a lesson in that.

Sixty::Three

"If inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how puny we are. We cannot move the least of all the twinkling stars, or quench so much as one of the beams of the morning." ~ Charles Spurgeon

Sixty::Two

Can you think of a better way to celebrate the first day of spring than with a flower? Me either. Morning glories have been one of my favorites for years. The way the leaf appears to be shading the purple blossom and the layered background colors are some of the reasons this is one of my favorite archived photos.

This photo was taken late in August 2008, the time of year a little shade is most welcome, which is why I'm fairly certain that it was early in the morning that I was outside with my camera that day. The heat and humidity of summer and I are not at all agreeable. When others suffer through SAD in the winter, I am delighting in the cold, dry air. Summer is my SAD season, but as I looked through my hundreds of uploaded photos, I was more than surprised to discover that most of my favorites were taken in the summer.

Sixty::One

I do love this photo. I took it the same day in October 2006 that I also took the froggy photo that has frequently greeted visitors to Pollywog Creek in the header. It might even be the very same frog, watching the sunrise and waiting for breakfast from a leafy ledge in the bed of zinnias.

Lord willing, and with a heart bursting with gratitude for all the Lord has done for me, I will celebrate my sixtieth birthday sixty days from today.

One of the ways I want to document my gratefulness is by posting one of my favorite archived photos every day for the next sixty days. My initial plans for these posts were elaborate, but life has a way of pressing in when I least expect it. I want this to be a joy and not a burden, so I need to keep it simple.

Choosing just 60 favorite photos is a daunting task all by itself, so I set a couple of boundaries for myself. The first is "no people." It would be impossible for me to narrow my favorite people photos down to 600 of the little boys alone. So "no people" photos in this group of sixty favorites. I also won't spend hours perusing the thousands of photos on my hard drives. It will be enough of a challenge to choose from the photos I've already uploaded since 2006.

One word, one sentence, one paragraph, one poem, one song, one hymn, or one scripture - maybe.

I have two minutes left to publish Day 1! See what I mean about life pressing in?

Beauty, books and distractions...

We were meandering up and down the highway on our trip through Gainesville, Atlanta and Nashville this third week of March last year. When we returned to Pollywog Creek, the feeders were empty and the Painted Buntings were gone. This year I'm home and keeping the feeders filled, and I'm curious to know when their wintering here will cease. Part of me wishes they lived in the thickets by the creek all year, but then I would miss the joy and anticipation of their return every winter. Recently I've been enjoying hours on my backyard swing with a basket of books and fresh cups of coffee. Despite a desire to lose myself in the mystery of compelling fiction or a well-crafted memoir, I've been too distracted by the antics of my aviary guests and the glory of azaleas to make much progress in that direction. The combination of both delights - the beauty of spring and the joy of a good book - is just one of the reasons my life here on Pollywog Creek is rich. The nearness to those I love is another - a faithful and handsome husband of over thirty years, a beautiful, intelligent and fun-to-be-with daughter (my other spring baby), and my sons and their families. Even in the midst of lovely distractions, I recently finished - Jeanne Damoff's Parting the Waters, and I'm nearly at a loss for words to describe this beautiful book. The true story of Jeanne's son Jacob's near drowning and the journey Jeanne and her family traveled over the days and weeks and years that followed takes the reader down a road of unimaginable suffering, yet each painful step is cushioned by a grace that unmistakably testifies to the depth of George and Jeanne Damoff's faith and in the goodness and sovereignty of a faithful and loving God.

"God, in His mercy, was taking me beyond myself and into His higher purposes, teaching me how to balance amid the rolling waves. I could choose to be introspective, or I could open my eyes and behold His marvelous work. As I learned to look for God's design, I found beauty in the most unexpected places." p. 59

Parting the Waters is rightfully recommended "for anybody whose life didn't turn out quite the way they expected." That's most of us - don't you think?

I'm still reading The Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns, and hope to soon be receiving David Platt's Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

What about you? What is in your basket of books?

Shades of Green...

Lack of natural light and a soggy ground aside, I love the greens of a rain-soaked day. Even in Florida, green is the harbinger of spring, when almost overnight winter's dull brown is splattered with chartreuse as buds break through barren branches and burst into leafy sprigs.

Two of my children were born in the green of spring. Today I am thanking the Lord for the gift that is Nicholas, who burst into our lives twenty-nine years ago today - and I'm asking Him to rain blessings upon Nick's life this day and in the days and years to come.

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee...

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love; Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day! All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise. Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea, Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee. Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed, Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest! Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began; Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife, Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life. ~ Henry J. Van Dyke

I'm feeling quite joyful lately. A new perspective can do that, you know - when God adjusts our focus past the "could'ves, should'ves, would'ves" to the cross of Jesus Christ. Shame and regret blur as grace and mercy sharpen.

How could I have forgotten? It has been the lesson from my camera - perspective and focus.

I have a choice - I can focus on the frost-bitten grass or the tiny yellow wildflowers. The barren trees or the waxwings with tail feathers dipped in yellow. A neighbor's unsightly trash heap or the iron scroll work propped against his shed.

I once was lost, but now I'm found...was blind, but now I see.

A glimpse or two from the past week or so, if you care to take a peek:

Swamp Cabbage Festival

Camp Mimi