All I can say is ”What a beautiful morning”! I think every bird in the world is singing the song of Spring! Ive been up and out since early… Coffee ☕️ ✔️ Breakfast ✔️ Watering ✔️ … We have moved pottery a bit and potted some things up as well. Its mid-morning break time, so I thought I would write this little blog and fix some homemade Lemonade 🍋 Nothing tastes as good as a fresh glass of sweet lemonade on a spring morning.
I just Love Spring!
“It’s lemonade in a cardboard cup between the legs of a freshly tanned, sunglass wearing, brown eyed girl. It’s a white Jeep, blaring Enrique loud.
It’s the sweat beneath the dark curls. It’s the country song that brings tears to your eyes. It’s the lessons learned, the mistakes made. It’s the future ahead, bright and beautiful. It’s the laughter, memories. It’s the good things in life.
I am an animal lover! That love of animals is where I got the motivation to start our Annual Parade of Ponds to raise money for our local Humane Society. Earlier this year I found myself in South Florida to earn CEU’s (continuing education units) for my company’s Professional Pond Certification (CAC). The class was at a really cool place! Blakes exotic animal farm! This place has so many different animals! Lizards, fish, otters, turtles, birds and more! We spent 3 days there building some really cool Water Features! But todays video is about a really cool bird I met there… His name is Marty, he is a Laughing kookaburra and he is from Australia. Check him out as Blake tells you a little bit about him and shows you HOW he got his name 😊
We always have fun designing and building Water Features, but having animals like Marty around is just Awesome! We have native Kingfishers all over Tennessee, but they are small compared to this guy.
Jump down, turn around, and its #waterfallwednesday once again… I don’t know about you, but 2021 has flown by ✈️ Thank goodness for Waterfalls 😊 They slow things down a bit… They help you relax and forget about things. Here is a beautiful Waterfall i posted a while back and I promised a completed picture when i had one. Well here ya’ go – A beautiful waterfall and stream complete with some beautiful plants and pine straw mulch. I hope you like it😊
Waterfall Wednesday is hard to beat 😊
This one changed this entire backyard! no more road noise! No more blank/boring hillside! Now they are enjoying the sight and sound of flowing water. Groups of birds fly in to bathe and eat. Even deer have dropped by to check things out. At night when the lights kick on… Show Stopper folks! 💥
Y’all enjoy this beautiful day! From here I can almost see the weekend!!!
No sunrise to view this morning… A grey sky just became slightly brighter over time. But the birds woke up in turn, and the bees 🐝 came out and went to work as usual. This is my favorite part of the day! When I have the whole world to myself it seems… No phones, no demands, just the birds and the bees and some plants to attend too. Sunday morning and I’m in the right place…
Quietly taking care of business 🐝
Outside, there was that predawn kind of clarity, where the momentum of living has not quite captured the day. The air was not filled with conversation or thought bubbles or laughter or sidelong glances. Everyone was sleeping, all of their ideas and hopes and hidden agendas entangled in the dream world, leaving this world clear and crisp and cold as a bottle of milk in the fridge.
I love nature! Rivers, streams, lakes, flora & Fauna… That’s why today I thought I would share the call of this nesting mother Osprey (fish hawk). She’s on her nest, feeding her brood. We just happened to be taking some pictures from the boat and saw her on the nest. There is nothing more “Zen Like” to me than a true moment of nature.
It’s Monday! We are leading up to Memorial Day and I Love Ospreys 🦅 I hope you enjoyed this little moment of Zen. Have a great week 😊
We don’t get “BIG” snow like this very often… Thank God! So many aren’t prepared for it! Power goes out, heat goes out, no water, etc, etc… I myself even lost one of my main greenhouses from the sheer weight of the snow… But, today I’m gonna try to focus on the Beauty of it all. Much of it from my window 😊 Its COLD out there 🥶
This doesn’t really say “Way down South in Dixie”… But this is from a window in my house today… My front yard… Beautiful! But, ‘Come on man’ 🥶From my front porch, looking down the hill past the Pond into the holler… Again, how Gorgeous! But just try walking down there! Slip and slide 🛷 From an upper window after dark. It’s hard for me not to just stay out there all day like a kid.. it’s just so beautiful! But it’s so cold!🥶
I just thought I would share a few pictures of what I think is a Beautiful, Winter Landscape. The “Entertainment of the day” the last few days has been sitting in front of the French doors and watching the birds eat the seed we’ve been throwing out. Even our dogs are glued to the ‘Theater of Life’ that’s just on the other side of the glass.
After work yesterday, we got out on the water to see how the Fall color show was progressing. I Love ❤️ Fall 🍁 I am blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world and I know it 😊 In a few shorts weeks we will be looking at Thanksgiving 🦃 And all the reds and oranges and golden color will be gone for the year… Get out and see it now because it won’t stay around long… Time flies by 💨
“Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.“
~ Robert Frost
The colors are becoming more vivid and the birds 🦢 are busy preparing for the Winter months to come. So much to see right now 🍁
It rained almost all day on Easter Sunday, but it finally quit and the sun came out and the clouds were moving right along, beautifully reflecting the setting sun. You can hear the wind and the birds… I was thinking how quiet and peaceful it was, very Zen like…
Just a quick piece of advice from my viewpoint. Stop watching the news! The 24 hour news cycle will drag you down and steal your hope!
Instead, do something you don’t normally get to do while at home.. Do a puzzle! Play a board game ♟ Read a book 📚 Draw or paint 🎨 or go outside on the porch and listen to the birds sing 🐦
The birds are out in force feasting on seeds, berries & worms 🐛 It’s Springtime in Tennessee!
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
~ Emily Dickinson
Stay positive and keep your hope. This will be over sooner than later ❤️
I got out in the gardens a little bit yesterday. It was such a beautiful day! Warm-ish and sunny, it strangely felt like a breezy Spring day… The soil is so soft from all the rain & warm temps & the robins and other birds were pulling worms 🐛 out of the ground and singing.
The birds were out in force feasting on seeds, berries & worms 🐛
I took this short video from above one of my Waterfalls looking down the stream as it flows away.
Carter's Water Garden 