Summer::July Part 2:beautiful in its time...

[As mentioned in July Part 1, Hurricane Irma has been a major disruption this summer. It's a story for September, but not until I get through July and August in my summer photo series--though I realize that it's technically no longer summer. Looking at the pre-Irma photos of our property is bittersweet. It's hard to see how much was destroyed by the hurricane, but I'm confident that much will also be restored in due time. There will always be beauty--and sometimes it can be found in the most unlikely places.]   

After the beach, the remaining weeks of July showcased our typical mid-summer flare--muscovy ducks gliding across the pond's surface, shimmery-winged dragonflies on barb-wired fences and wildflower blooms. Swallow-tailed kites, pileated woodpeckers, blue jays and mockingbirds...and bushes and bushes and bushes of ripening beautyberries. 

And those air potato vines. I'm well aware that they are an unwelcomed invasive species, but how do I not love those shiny heart-shaped leaves in the thickets along the creek before the air potato beetles do their work. 

Virginia creeper climbs the tall pines, and primrose willow dots the open field and pasture. Resurrection fern, unfurling from its dried spiral with every summer rain, drapes the live oak limbs, as 3 armadillo pups root in the ground underneath. 

And when the goldenrod shoots begin to grow--I'm delighted to remember that there will be not-summer days.    

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

~Ecclesiastes 3:11 

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

~Isaiah 40:8 

No beauty contest winners here...

But they're mine - as much as anything wild that shares our space here on Pollywog Creek is mine.

Muscovies may not qualify as one of God's most beautiful creations and they are considered to be a nuisance by most Floridians, they eat their weight in mosquitoes and larva, as well as, flies, spiders, and other insects. It's been said that they eat roaches like candy. For that fact alone, I'm more than happy they often call our little pond home.

Unlike most ducks, muscovies are quiet. The males might hiss and the females sometimes have a faint quack, that's more like a "pip," but if I don't see them, the only way I know they are here is if I hear them crash-land into the pond or they miss the mark and land on the roof. It happens. 

I find them peaceful and entertaining - and a photography challenge. They will either fly or paddle away from me if they see me coming, but I enjoy trying to capture the iridescent feathers along their back as they glide across the surface of our pond. 

ECHO {Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization} no longer keeps muscovies at their farm in Florida, but they have experienced success in developing countries throughout the world that have muscovies to control insects and as a food source. 

I'm content to keep them off our dinner plates and happily munching on 'skeeters around the pond. 

{Photos::the pond the last week of August on Pollywog Creek.}

What I learn from the ugly duckling...

In my wanderings about lately, I've given up pushing past momentary difficulties - choosing instead to simply sit on the ground and rest where ever I happen to be when the energy and effort to take one more step escapes me. 

I've come to appreciate this ground-level perspective - especially when surrounded by wildflowers in the thick pasture grass or near the cypress knees at the sloping edges of our Pollywog Creek pond. It's where you're most likely to find me these days - in the cool of morning and late afternoon.

A small badelynge of muscovy ducks spends most of every day in and around the pond. I've never see them flying in with enough time to grab a camera and focus, so capturing these large and heavy ducks' big-splash landings has thus far eluded me.

With a reputation for being a messy nuisance and a red-warty face that only a mother duck could love, there's no denying that the muscovy lacks the painted bunting's photogenic appeal. 

Even so, I'm entertained by their antics as they float around the pond, waddle about on their large webbed feet, and rest and preen in the shade of the cypress trees, but their appetite for the mosquitoes and lavae that multiply in legions in our tropical south is what I appreciate the most.

But here's what I've noticed about these ugly ducklings - when sunlight falls on their backs they are beautiful - their feathers shining iridescent green and purple - and I forget about their mess and red-warty faces. 

And I think about the ugly sin and mess in our lives that is hidden by who we are in Christ as the light of the gospel shines on you and me.

The Lord is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.

Psalm 118.27

I recently updated my Free For Bloggers Set on Flickr with new photos. No strings attached - you can link them to me, or not. Those photos are my gift to you. 

Christian hands never clasp and He doesn't give gifts for gain...a gift can never stop being a gift - it is always meant to be given.

― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

{Photos - around my Pollywog Creek pond}

Content with silence...

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.

Ansel Adams

In community this weekend with Sandra .


{Photos - this past week on Pollywog Creek}