Oakland Nature Preserve

Yesterday was one of those "it's so beautiful you can't stay inside" kind of days. So. . .mom and I got ourselves a lunch from Subway and made our way to Oakland Nature Preserve. 

 Here's some pics I took along our trip down the boardwalk through the wetlands. 

 

There's a bird feeder area before you get to the boardwalk, and this is where the Painted Buntings and Cardinals like to hang out. It's almost a guarantee during the winter months to be able to spot something interesting here.

 

Mom taught me a long time ago how to make the "psh psh shhh" noise that always seems to intrigue birds. Little guys like this warbler/vireo fly in closer to get a look to see what type of bird is making the noise.

 

The Maple Trees have been all confused this winter, so in the midst of dropping their fall leaves they're now blooming and dropping their seed winglets as well.

Little Carolina Anoles could be seen along the boardwalk peeping over the rails or hanging out on the fencing.

 

Mom's wheelchair includes the "tilt" feature which allows her to lean back and relieve pressure. We've sort of started a new tradition of taking "tilting" pictures in different locations. 

 These shots come from down at the lake pavilion. 

The park is located on the wetland and shore area 

of Lake Apopka. 

We were on our way back to the van when I heard this Red Tail Hawk screaming in annoyance. 

Watching as he took off from his perch I realized that he/she was annoyed by the Bald Eagle that was sitting in a nearby tree. As I began taking pictures of said Eagle, some people walked down the boardwalk. 

I pointed out the Eagle and the fact that the hawk was trying to scare off the larger bird. That was when they informed me that the Eagle was very likely the same bird that they had just released in the parking lot. And. . .the guy I was actually talking to turned out to be the director of the Florida Audubon Society. Pretty cool. 

Especially since neither him nor the lady who was with him managed to capture a photo of the bird. So, I emailed them mine. Anyways, here's the article on the Eagle. She was injured back in October, and became the 439th bird to be rehabilitated and released by the 

Audubon Birds of Prey Center.

Snapshots of an early spring

Figured I'd post a few pictures here. 

As we all know, it's been unseasonably warm here. 

So all the plants think that it's the right time 

for them to start bursting forth. 

Azaleas are confused

The azaleas in one part of the yard are blooming. 

The azaleas in my yard however, they're still waiting.

 

The peach trees in the side of the yard have been blooming on an off all winter. Mom says most likely they're going to die. Oh well, I'll still enjoy the blooms while I can.  

The Peach tree is all out of whack

Then there's the plethora of birds that make their way through my yard and the field across the street.

Bluebird (from a great distance)

I wish I had clearer shots.

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

 I was excited about getting the pic of the bluebird. I'd been telling my mom that they were down at my house, drawn there by the huge open field across the street. She wasn't inclined to believe me, so I had to get photographic proof. The Sharp-Shinned Hawk photo was captured because I was trying to get a clearer/better lit pic of a bluebird. 

The disturbing thing is, the hawk is most likely hanging out there in order to catch either a bluebird 

or other small bird for his lunch.

Think you're hot stuff huh?

I'll have to work on getting some shots of the woodpeckers, warblers, squirrels, and rabbits that make their home in my yard. For now, enjoy this pic of one of my yard dwelling green anoles.

The owl is a painting I did on a patio stone, and it's sitting on the "tongue" of my trailer. Brave, brave little lizard!

 

Ashes

Ash Wednesday graphic by ME

Well, it's February 1st. That means that Ash Wednesday is not that far away.
That's right folks, Christmas may have only been a few weeks ago, but for those of us who work for the church it's full speed ahead into LENT!

Which means I, as the only person brave enough (you can come up with your own additional adjectives) have to get on with making more ashes for Ash Wednesday.

Palm Ashes

Now usually a church will just purchase ashes from a reputable source like Cokesbury or the Christian Bookstore. These ashes were supposedly made by burning the palm fronds from last years Palm Sunday celebrations. It's supposed to represent the circle that we make each year and to remind us of our own human frailties. Which is all fine and good.

But we don't purchase our ashes each year. Instead I take it upon myself to acquire them the old fashioned way. By burning things!

I wanted to show you a picture here of the actual fire, but I thought it might be better to keep my mind occupied with making sure the flames didn't get out of hand. So instead picture in your mind me sitting outside in front of an aluminum foil pan filled with. . .dried palm fronds? Nope.

I found this out a couple of years ago.  You have to think way ahead of the game in order to have palm fronds that are dried out enough to burn. That's part of the wonder of most palms. They don't burn really well. Unless they are extremely dead. Plus, when it comes to grinding them up and making them into ash, you have to have A LOT of burnt up palm fronds. You might be asking yourself, "why doesn't she just use the palm fronds from worship each year? Or the palm crosses that everyone seems to have?"

This is because
 1. We only use a few palm fronds in worship each year.
 2. The palm crosses don't burn.
       They must coat them with something.

So last year I was desperate because I'd forgotten that I needed to make more ash. I searched in vain for dead palm trees around my house.

Nothing.

However, there was plenty of dead grass.

Well, there it is. The big secret is out.
I use grass for ashes each year.
Laugh all you want. It serves the purpose just fine.

Anyways, here's a few pics of the process after the fire.

Details of process
After burning the grass (very carefully, and do not leave fire unattended) in the foil pan, I let the ashes cool. Then I scoop them with a plastic spoon into my mortar bowl. We had these in the church resource room left over from one of our Vacation Bible Schools. With the pestle (quartz rock) I grind the burnt grass down into a fine powder. However, because the grass doesn't burn evenly (nothing really does unless you can burn it REALLY FAST) I still have to sift it. Scooping the ash into the sifter, I then move it around with the plastic spoon, trying to get as much of the fine ash into my specialized plastic ziploc bag. Fancy, right?

That's pretty much it. Well, I mean besides going and washing all the ash off my hands (and face, if my nose itched!)

On Ash Wednesday at our worship service, this ash will be mixed with oil (sometimes scented with Frankincense) until it forms a black gritty gel.

Well, now you know how much fun I get to have working at a church. Is any of this part of my job description?
No. I do it because I know how and because it is for the Glory of the Lord.

Painting projects

My palette

I’ve mentioned at least once that I’ve been working on a project for a friend. I’ve actually been working on two projects, both of them paintings. One is for my neighbor down the road, Carol, whom I dog-sit for. The other is for two of my best friends, Danny and Richard.

The first project came about because I found a couple of choice pieces of slate at the thrift store about a month ago. They were already prepped for hanging, with holes drilled and a leather thong strung through. The only problem was that they were already painted on. In fact I probably wouldn’t have even noticed them if it wasn’t for the fact that they were painted. I was digging through the shelves of junk when I came across these truly awful flamingo and palm tree things! Yeesh. They were that bad. Of course, in noticing just how bad they were it came to me that with a little sanding I could paint right over the top of those horrendous images.

Now, I am over exaggerating a bit. Somebody loved them enough to buy them from Pier One Imports and pay $25 a piece for them. I’m not kidding, that’s what it said on the price tag that was on the back.

However, I felt like they truly weren’t worth much more than the $3 price that the thrift store was asking for them. The greatest part of this is that my mom is a haggling genius and managed to get the store to sell them to us for $2 a piece. AWESOMENESS! 

 

 

Anyways, I took them home, sanded them down, and began my first painting for Carol. I decided to do a Screech Owl for her. We have a visiting Screech Owl who nests at my parents house and hunts at Carol’s house.

The second project for Danny and Richard was something I have been wanting to do for about a year. They love Beagles, and had three up until last March-Copper, Skipper, and Buddy. Buddy was their most recently adopted dog, and also the youngest and largest of the three. I felt pretty close to Buddy because I helped name him. He was this tall, lanky dog with the most solemn face. Because he was the newest member of the Beagle clan, he was also the lowest on the totem pole. So his demeanor always seemed a little cowed by the other two. I just loved him.

Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been using the past tense in reference to Buddy. He got hit by a truck back in March of 2011, and Richard saw it happen. It was awful. They had just come back from a fishing trip and were trying to put the dogs back inside the house, when Buddy got loose and ran down to the street with Richard chasing after him. The truck driver didn’t stop. Danny drove his truck down to where Richard sat on the side of the road holding Buddy in his arms. Even though they rushed him to the vet, praying over him the whole time, Buddy didn’t make it.

Now you know the back story behind why I wanted to do this project for Danny and Richard. 

Sketch

 Buddy is buried in their back yard, but currently has no marker.  I have just recently begun painting on sidewalk stones as a possible means of side income. So I had a large concrete brick that was perfect for my idea. I asked Richard for some pictures of Buddy and used them to sketch out my design. 

Under colors 1 and 2

It’s almost done. I just need to add his name in the corner and then polyurethane it for added protection. 

Finished colors

The finished stone

I know you’re having fun in heaven, Buddy, chasing all those possums and raccoons!

 Love you and miss you. 

It's Thursday!

You ever have one of those days where you want to accomplish so much? Then at the end of the day realize that really, you accomplished hardly anything?

Well, today wasn’t quite that bad. I mean, I did accomplish a few things. I signed up for a “in addition to” insurance plan through my work. I went to the bank. I shipped a package to Lana, my sister-in-law (which ended up costing me an arm and a leg!). I ate a relatively healthy lunch. I started working on an art project for a friend. I did some clean-up work on my blog. 

But, I’m sitting here at my desk and feeling like, blah, I’m being unproductive.

Probably because yesterday was SO productive. I say that with only a slight tone of sarcasm.

I was called in for jury duty yesterday. HA! More like please drive to downtown Orlando, spend the money on expressway tolls, and then sit in our extremely uncomfortable chairs, and then we won’t call you to actually sit for a jury. Huh! Waste of time. 

I did at least get a fair bit of the way into the new Mercedes Lackey book "Changes" that I just got from the library. If you like fantasy novels at all, I suggest her as an author. I got hooked on her back in middle school, and haven’t been able to appreciate really any other fantasy novelists since.

Anyways. 

Oh, after I finally got released from jury duty, I came back to church to work on my Bible study lesson that I was presenting that evening for the youth. Pretty good topic about “righteous anger and community”. We looked over some different types of news articles, talked about bad things that happen in this world, and then watched this video:

Change For A Dollar Movie

Pretty impactful, huh?

So, today I’m nearing the end of my work day, looking forward to Praise Team practice. Felt like I needed to go outside and get in some much needed God and nature time. It’s gorgeous outside right now. Thought I’d share a few pics.

Happy January 26th! Can't wait for January 27th!

Leviticus 19:9

As found in the Message version of the Bible:

 ^9-10 "When you harvest your land, don't harvest right up to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings from the harvest. Don't strip your vineyard bare or go back and pick up the fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am God, your God.

Julie clipping Poncans

Have you ever heard of the Society of St. Andrew? 

Neither had I until about five years ago. That was when our youth director decided to sign up our group,
Teens N Touch, for a gleaning slot.

Gleaning is defined as the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest.  In Florida this applies to many types of fruits and vegetables. 

Emily and Richard with their haul.

Our group gleans citrus from local area trees. These trees are normally neighborhood or backyard trees. Occasionally we get the opportunity to glean whole groves, but that can be a daunting task for a youth group. 

The group at House #1

This year we were assigned three different locations. Our first stop had only one grapefruit tree.  For a group of seventeen mainly inexperienced fruit pickers, that one tree was thoroughly harvested. We ended up with twenty-one bags from it.

At House #2

The second stop was at my best friend Julie’s in-law’s house.  They had about eight trees of several different varieties, including blood orange and grapefruit.  From here we picked about seventy-five bags.

House #3

The third stop had about twelve trees, all of which were pretty scraggily. There were even two trees, an orange and lemon, that had begun cross pollinating and creating what we called “omens”. Not sure how those will taste. Other fruits included Honeybells and grapefruit. We picked fifty-one bags here.

Delivering the goods!

We took the fruit to St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, where the Society of St. Andrew had set up a drop off location. All in all we gleaned about 

1,300 lbs. of citrus. 

Great day of service in His name!

The voice of truth. . .

I went to the University of Central Florida for a very long time.

I mean that. Not that the years seemed long, or that my degree felt like it was never ending. 

No, I mean that I went to UCF for a long time. I graduated from high school in 2000. I went from there to Valencia Community College and acquired my AA degree within the usual two year time period.

And then, I went on to UCF. With the idea being that I would get a degree in teaching art. Seemed simple enough. I loved art. I loved teaching art. However, I did not love teaching art in what can only be called the crazy institution that is Florida Public Schools. I’m not calling out any particular county. They’ve all got their different ways of doing things. But. . .when I began my years in college working towards my teaching degree, I began in the midst of the state figuring out FCAT (the standardized test for all students in Florida). That in particular turned me right off wanting to go any further with teaching on a professional basis. 

However, I stayed in the program for about two years before I finally made the decision to switch my major. You say, how is this possible. By the end of two years you should have graduated. Yup. . .I should have. Let this be a lesson to anyone who is on their way into a big college institution. Find out who your guidance counselor is and keep in contact with them. Let them help you each semester. Do not assume you know what you are doing. I can’t say that more plainly. 

Because I didn’t know what I was doing…lol

So, I switched majors, going from teaching art to just . . .art. Why? 

I knew God was calling me to something else and it was not teaching. 

I know that sounds convenient. That it seems more likely that the idea of teaching art based on FCAT was actually too scary to me and so I switched majors so I didn’t have to deal with it.

Think what you want. I knew God was calling me elsewhere, and I had gotten to the point where I couldn’t fight him anymore. This was in September 2005. 

The evening of the day when I dropped my classes and switched my major, I found myself at a Casting Crowns concert (this was during Rock the Universe). I was feeling all kinds of emotions, terrified that I had made the wrong decision. I knew that I couldn’t continue on the way I had been going, but I had no idea where I was going now. What lay ahead of me on this new path that God had directed me to?

Then they started playing this song.

 

And though I knew that it didn’t solve anything, it did tell me one thing. God is with me. No matter what. No matter where I go, or what I do, He is with me.

I have to live my life for Him. The core of my being is for Him. If I don’t live my life for Him, through Him, in Him, then I am nothing.