WHO'S TAKING CARE OF THEM?

Since I alluded to the birds and flowers in my Spiritual Sundays introduction this week I decided to say a little more about them.

"I tell you not to worry about everyday life ― whether you have enough. Look at the birds. They don't plan or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?" (Matt. 6:325-27 NLT)

God not only provides food for the birds, he has given them instincts that people still have not figured out. How do they know where they are going when they start their migration? This has always amazed me. They seem to know where water is also. There is an open field close to our house that is usually dry as a bone but when it does rain (which isn't very often) water collects there and forms a pond. This happened a few days ago and now when we drive by there we see a lot of ducks on that water. I wonder if they were on their way to somewhere and stopped there for a drink and to rest a bit. The water is only there for a few days, then dries up and no ducks are around.

"Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the kingdom of heaven above all else and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need." (Matt. 6:32-33) NLT  Did He promise to give everybody everything they need? Did you notice the sentence before the promise to give you everything you need? Seek the kingdom of heaven above all else and live righteously. If we do those two things He has promised to give us everything we need. Too many times we seek everything under the sun except the kingdom of heaven and righteousness and then wonder why God is not providing our needs.

Heavenly Father, please help us to get our priorities straight. Help us to seek first your kingdom and your righteousness and we know you will take care of us. Amen

Be sure to visit Spiritual Sundays if you didn't come here from that blog.

HUMMINGBIRD

Hubby was in the front yard planting some flowers when he noticed a hummingbird going over to the fountain by the front door and drinking from it. He told me to bring the camera and if it came back he would take a picture. I grabbed the camera and turned it on and lo and behold, it said the card was locked and it wouldn't allow any more pictures to be taken. I finally found another card that wasn't locked, inserted it in the camera, and went out front to wait for the bird to come back. Sure enough it did so I took a couple of shots. Here they are. I love hummingbirds. I think they are so cute.

P.S. I finally figured out how to unlock the card. It has a little sliding thing on the side of it. It accidentally got locked. Next time I'll know what to do -- if I don't forget. LOL

Watch Your Kids

Every summer the warning is sent out in our area to watch your kids around water. There are so many swimming pools and every year young children drown. I thought about that as this little guy was getting pretty close to the edge of our pool. The rest of the family had moved on, but this one lingered  behind.

There you go. Now he's going away from the water.

Here's the Daddy keeping watch on the fence. I've noticed that he is usually around not far from the family. 

There he goes walking along the fence.

Here they are on the lawn again.

The reason I was concerned about them getting too close to the water is because last year we found a baby quail floating in the pool. It was so sad.

If you didn't see my last post, you can scroll down to see more pictures of this sweet little family.

A NEW FAMILY OF QUAIL

Last year we had a family of quail living in our back yard. I did several posts with pictures at various stages of development of the babies. Well, this morning Hubby looked out in the back yard and exclaimed excitedly, "There are some baby quail in our backyard again." So I grabbed the camera and shot through the window. They move so fast. If I had tried to go outside they would have been gone before I could have opened the door. Here is the new little family. The Daddy quail is always around close by but didn't get him in any of the pictures I took this time.

Here are the babies up close.

You have to look closely to see the babies in this one.

They were already gone when I took this picture but decided to include it because I think the flowers are pretty. No, on second look I think I see them right along the edge of the green. That's right. I remember when I took it the mother had already gone behind the palm tree.

This one is just for the flowers. No birdies.

A TEA AND A TAG

As many of you know who follow my blogs, Saturday was a special day for Arizona bloggers as we gathered at the Front Porch Tea Room in Mesa to meet and enjoy each other's company. I did a post on my Charlotte's Weblog blog this morning about it with photos. If you haven't seen that post, you can click HERE to go there and check it out.

I was tagged by Cheryl at Cherdecor to do this meme.
I am to open my first file of pictures and select the tenth one and post it.

My first photo file is labeled Allen. It contains pictures of our son, Allen. I gathered a bunch of our pictures of him and put them in this file when I was preparing to make a DVD for him for his birthday a couple of years ago. So, when I go to the tenth picture in the file, this is it.

This picture of Allen was taken at a place in Buena Park, CA that is no longer there. I think it was called a Japanese Deer Park or something like that. It has been gone for many years. This was taken in the 1960s.

This photo reminds me of how much Allen loved animals and birds when he was a little kid. I guess he still does, but I remember as a child he always included all the animals and mammals in the world in every prayer he said.

Now I'm supposed to pass this meme on to five other bloggers. I decided instead of choosing five, I would choose all the Arizona bloggers who were at the tea on Saturday to do this meme. Come on, girls, it's fun. I hope you will want to participate.  

fPhoto Friday

I just recently discovered fPhoto Friday and thought I'd join in today. Here are recent photos of the pair of quail that were living in our back yard. I'm sad that they and their 12 little ones have moved out into the big world. I loved it when they were in our yard, but realize they couldn't stay there forever. Sigh. I'll have more to say about this in another post in the future, probably on my Charlotte's Weblog blog.

For more fPhoto Friday pfun click right here.

THE QUAIL FAMILY

I just saw the cutest thing and I just have to share it with you. I looked out in the back yard and saw a mother and father quail along with 8 or 9 tiny baby quail. I grabbed my camera and took a picture through the window with the zoom.  Now you know what? I'm gonna go post this on my Charlotte's Weblog because pictures post larger there. You can't see the babies very well here. They blend in with the rocks. They're about the same size as those rocks in the yard. Go look on the other blog if you haven't already seen them there.

Wow! I just enlarged the picture and counted 13. You can click on these pictures to enlarge.

BLUE MONDAY

Awe - aren't they sweet?

Wouldn't you hate to have to count them?  

Go visit Sally at Smiling Sally for more Blue Monday posts.

QUAIL

A few weeks ago I posted pictures of a couple of quail that were walking along our back fence. This afternoon I looked outside and there were three quail hangin' out by the pool. By the time I got my camera two of them had moved on and the third one was rapidly walking around the pool. I got a couple of shots of him. 

There he goes -- Isn't he cute?

Quail On Our Fence

Sometimes it's nice to have more than one blog. I just posted a "What's On Your Wall Wednesday" post on my Charlotte's Weblog blog. I could have let it go at that, but no, I had these outdoor pictures that I took a couple of days ago and I wanted to share them. 

My camera just happened to be in the kitchen when I looked out the window and saw these three quail walking along our fence. So, I grabbed the camera and took the pictures through the window. I'm glad I could zoom in on them. If I had tried to go outside they would have taken off before I could snap their pictures. I think they are so cute. We see them quite often. 


Yesterday I posted some birds that I found on the internet that live in our area. Today I wanted to show these birds that actually were in our yard.

Be sure to go visit Susan at A Southern Daydreamer for links to more Outdoor Wednesday posts.

BIRDS IN OUR AREA

Is this turning into a "bird blog"? No, I don't think so, but I found some pictures of birds on the internet that are found in our area. We have lots of Hummingbirds too but I didn't get a picture. I have posted pictures of Hummingbirds before though.

You wouldn't think there would be Mallard ducks in the desert, but they do drop by here. I've seen many of them in man made lakes and even after a rain floods a particularly low area.

These quail are some of my favorite birds. They are so cute walking along in single file usually. They don't fly much. Mostly they walk. 

This is a Cactus Wren - state bird of Arizona.

I love these little Roadrunners too. We see them occasionally running along. They don't fly much either. It always makes me think of Wylie Coyote and the Roadrunner.

LOVE FOR SPIRITUAL SUNDAYS

Where There Is Love

(a poem by Helen Steiner Rice)

Where there is love

the heart is light,

Where there is love

the day is bright.

Where there is love

there is a song

To help when things 

are going wrong,

Where there is love

there is a smile

To make things 

seem more worthwhile,

Where there is love

there's quiet peace,

A tranquil place

where turmoils cease--

Love changes darkness

into light

and makes the heart

take "wingless flight"

Oh, blest are they

who walk in love,

They also walk

With God above--

And when man walks 

with God again,

There shall be peace

on earth for men.

Be sure to visit the Spiritual Sundays

blog for spiritual/inspirational posts today.

Click HERE to go to that blog.

Blessings,

Charlotte

DON'T YOU JUST LOVE BIRDS

More Birds

After I did yesterday’s post, I got to looking around at birds in various locations inside the house and decided to feature them today.
I have another bird that I looked high and low for but couldn’t locate. I know it’s around here somewhere. It’s a little snowbird. My husband brought it home to me many years ago from a trip that I didn’t go on. Now where in the world is that bird?

My husband made this little birdhouse several years ago. Isn’t it cute. He made a whole bunch of birdhouses back then. Birdhouses were just getting popular, and he found this was a good hobby for him. This will be the subject of a future post. We have lots of pictures of the birdhouses.