Blooming Beauties

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We took a jaunt up to ‘our’ best loved islands one sunny afternoon this week…

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The slopes are abloom with ‘lemon chiffon’ flowers…

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But we weren’t the only pair enjoying a get-away….

Meet the Mergansers, diving fresh-water fish ducks trying out the salt-water chuck, just back from wintering in Mexico…

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Mr. Merganser…                                       and the Missus taking a look back at us…

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What a hair-do she sports eh?!

 

And in our ramblings we were secretively surveilled by this SKINK until Jim noticed him and called me back to see what I had walked right past….

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Then it was our turn to do the staring.  He refused to give us the time of day, just stood (yes, he has feet) motionless hoping we really didn’t see him as we got closer and closer with the camera lens… till we were only a couple inches from his face—then he relinquished his spot in the sun and slinked off…

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I did a little reading up on this fellow later.  Glad not to have tried picking him up.  Apparently young skinks do bite and then they drop their BLUE tails to squiggle and squirm while they run for cover!  The tails grow back but usually not blue…thus this stoic camouflaged fellow—older and wiser.

 

But back to the blooming beauties of the place…

…a trailing blackberry(?) gets its start on a rocky ledge…

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…and tiny wild things bloom underfoot, miniature bouquets for the passersby…

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…tokens of God’s glory,

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…and His Love.

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–LS

“We love Him because He first loved us.” (I Jn.4:19)

Visual Happiness

Ok, so maybe I should leave the fireworks photography to the professionals…

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but it was pretty cool (and a first) to watch fireworks over the water from the deck of the boat!

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You get the idea.  It was Sea Fair weekend in our little sea-side town.  This was the extent of my participation.

I prefer a quiet walk in the woods, seeing what’s up…

The next town event will be the Blackberry Festival.  The blackberries have gotten plenty of water, now for some sunshine!
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Check out these mysterious and rather ghastly emerging life forms…

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Apparently white is in vogue in the woods right now…

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But in my garden there are great splashes of color.  Nothing so satisfying as growing up a flower from seed not quite sure what it will look like and then, Voila!  your very own cut flowers!

Visual happiness!
 

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“…for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.” (Prov. 15:15)
 
–LS
 
 

God’s gallery…

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Well, I made my way up Scout solo for the first time, (handicapped hound left at home),
distracted from my aloneness by the beauty along the way…

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burgundy

Cinderella

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(Here is finery fit for a bride!)

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And discovering in the process that there is no aloneness when  the Artist Himself guides the tour…

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“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in his temple.” (Ps.27:4)


–LS