More Spring Snapshots

On Sunday - hostas beginning to unroll their large green leaves in the sunshine

A two toned tulip... Isn't it sweet?

Our garden shed at a distance

Beautiful pastel petals of Phlox from Wednesday

One of the flowers carefully unfolding...

Forget-me-nots, so intricate in design

Forsythia showing it's beautiful green leaves. Not too many yellow flowers appeared on their branches this year. Maybe due to several nights of hard frosts?

Although we've (thankfully) had rather mild New York winter... It is always a very long, plant-less season. What a blessing to breath the scents and see the colors of nature all around our landscape.

A beautifully landscaped spot at our neighbor's... Can you see the flowering tree in the background? So lovely! :)

A blue jay watching a starling nearby... 

Yesterday evening's moon behind a hickory tree just starting to green up.

Sun setting in the west...

Beautiful sunset from Wednesday night. The soft blue sky with gentle whisps of white clouds and yellow sunlight are so peaceful to look at. And so reassuring too.

1 John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hast bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God...

I'm so thankful God planned a way for us to be adopted as His children, since before we were born. He provided a way for us to be saved from our sins and reconciled to Him through Christ. He always knew we (who believe) would accept His truth by faith, believe His truth. We are so richly blessed in Christ, beyond what we could ever imagine. 

Ephesians 1:3, 5, 6, 12 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ... Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved... That we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace, who first trusted in Christ.

God bless! Danielle

Wildflowers and more

These flowers are my favorite so far this week... Low growing wildflowers in the woods. So pretty!

A tiny creek running in our woods after a day or two of rain...

A close up of a dandelion

Trees in the hedgerow behind the field. They're trying to show a little green!

More violets... Against a backdrop of a large clay pot.

Our tulips opened up this week! This one is pictured against a backdrop of snow flowers, although their little white snow flowers haven't appeared yet.

A shaggy bark hickory tree. I love it's tiered, peeling bark...

This robin turned it's little beak toward me just long enough to snap one clear picture.

Sometimes I wonder if squirrels fall asleep upside down like this... They rest so still on the side of a tree.

A little woodpecker was hopping around the tree with our neighbor's land in the backdrop.

This is the last picture I was able to take of the little fox pups. They have since left their den... I wonder if they are now out living in the surrounding hedgerows and creeks?

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are having a great week! God bless, Danielle

Hints of Spring...

What a beautiful sunrise we had this morning...

Misty sunshine highlighted the heavy frost this morning. We've had several nights of it the past week... Hopefully some of the foliage that began to appear all over the landscape is still ok.

I love mornings like this... The whole field felt full of heaven's light. God is so good!

Here's a picture of a much warmer misty summer morning captured on my cell phone's camera a few years ago... It's one of my old favorites.

Wildflowers blooming in our woods the last couple of weeks...

More wildflowers...

Chocolate mint unfurling it's leaves. You might be able to see the chocolate colored stem...

And a patch of lemon balm nearby...

New growth on the top of a golden Euonymus shrub. It's so hardy! It grows for us with such little fuss in our dry, windy spot. It adds yellow color to the landscape all year, and is even prettier in the fall with shades of orange-y pink on it's leaves as well. I had to look this one up online... What a fancy name.

Lovely violets! When we lived in the village, the leaves would grow 1 or 2 feet tall in a beautiful, deep green color every summer. Here in the country, they don't seem to like the drying wind since the leaves stay small... But they still grow in beautiful waves of soft green, with blueish violet flowers in early spring.

One of the Phlox plants almost ready to open up it's little cluster of pretty purple flowers... They smell so nice! We have tried to cover most of these at night the past week. I have a feeling these particular flowers were harmed by frost... Hopefully they will grow back in the next few weeks. :)

I hope you are enjoying Spring! Or maybe it's Autumn, depending on where you live. What a beautiful time of year Springtime is... As we breath in the sweet scents of growing plants, & see the colors emerging all around us, our senses are filled with a hope of new life. It's part of God's eternal plan - new life. Since God's creation is a picture of who He is, we find illustrations of His eternal plan for us & all of creation throughout nature. Thankfully, God has made a way (since before the creation of the world Ephesians 1:4) for us to become brand new in Christ. By receiving the gift of savlation in Jesus Christ, He brings light into our souls where darkness once prevailed. He brings us healing and the sure hope of eternal life with Him. He washes our sins away and makes us like new again, in a spiritual way. He sends us His Spirit to help us live and love like He did. He sent His Son Jesus to pay the price for our imperfection, and all we have to do is believe - receive the truth... And this brings about a thankful heart for all God has done for us, rather than for what we have done.

Romans 5:3-5, 8,9 ... But we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us... But God commendeth his own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Wildlife Pictures

A blue jay in the woods...

This Spring we've had a mother fox with 9 pups (at least that's what I counted once) near our woods behind the barn. Since they are wild animals, I took these close up pictures with the zoom on my Canon camera... I was standing a good distance away from the den. The picture above is from a couple weeks ago. Oh, the babies are so cute!

The mama sitting in the field, watching all that's going on around her...

From earlier this week... Don't the nursing pups look like furry little bunnies?

One of the fox pups sitting on the top of their den... They had been scurrying around, jumping and pouncing on one another. I think this one was getting a little sleepy.

A little pup sitting quietly, at least for a moment or two... 

I've been singing this song along with my guitar all month - What A Friend We Have In Jesus. I love that one. It's message reminds us to take all our troubles to the Lord in prayer. It's message never grows old for me. God wants us to keep praying to Him, and seek His strength and help every moment of the day. Sometimes I pray, Lord please help me to pray more! I know He hears me and will help me.

Philippians 4:6-7,13 Be anxious for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus...I can do all things through Christ which strenghteneth me.

I hope you have been having a great week! Thanks for stopping by today. God bless, Danielle

Evening Winter Sunset

As the sun set in the west yesterday evening, our sky filled with awe inspiring beauty. The weather changed so rapidly in a way we weren't expecting... Thankfully we were home to take it all in. What an amazing witness to God's power and design it was. He truly is the Great Architect of all creation.

Fluffy cumulus clouds in the distance to the east.

The sunset began with a glowing white and hues of yellow and purple... 

A few minutes later the sky turned all golden...

A beautiful rainbow to the east! We were so surprised, we never heard it rain outdoors.

Our western sky changed so dramatically... The clouds became stormy and rusty colored where only minutes before bright yellow sunlight was filtering through the clouds.

Beautiful pink cloud formations behind a tall hickory tree... This one still bears the marks of the ice storm of 1991, when it must have been a very young tree.

The intense fury of pink, stormy clouds were carried away by the wind in time for us to see the peaceful calm of a quiet, gentle blue sky. What a way to end a rainy late winter day!

Close up of the moon... So far away yet from a camera lens it seems so near to us. And to think the God of all creation loves us and wants us to have a walk with Him, now and for all eternity through His Son Jesus Christ. What a wonderful Father we have! Did you ever stop to think how He created the moon to hang up there in the heavens just to light our nights and help us keep track of time? How loved and how blessed we are! :) I was just reading this in Genesis the other day and it all dawned on me...

And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth. Genesis 1:14-16

Thanks for stopping by... Have a great week and God bless! Danielle