THE JOY OF ORDINARY DAYS

 

Skies are blue, the sun is shining, and my cold is gone!  

 

 

Sky view from our front yard Sunday morning.

 A bit of "off" time is a good reminder to be grateful for  the joys of every-day life.   

 

 

 Lots of Vitamin C at the local Farm Market.  No wonder I feel better!    All of these crops are growing here right now.  Hard to remember sometimes that  it is still Winter.   

 

 

Bill's about a week behind me in getting over that summer Winter cold, so we didn't go far from home at all last week.   I stopped by Butterfly Garden on my way to the Farm Market.  Lots of butterflies, but it was too late in the day (too warm) to get good photographs. They were too flitty — you have to go before it warms up to get them when they're sitting still.  

 

 

All of these flowers are good food for the butterflies.    Most are native plants for this area.  

 

 

Dune Sunflower

 

The demonstration garden is meant to encourage people to plant to provide habitat for butterflies and bees.  It's a part of Manatee Park on the Orange River.  Manatees gather here when the weather is cooler, because the river water here is warmed by output from the nearby power plant.

 

 

 

Blanket Flower

This time of year, the Manatees are out in the Rivers at least during the day.   The water there is warm enough for them now.   

 

 

Blue Mist Flower

I try  to learn the names of  wildflowers, but I have a long ways to go.

 

Orange River at Manatee Park

Our River water is coffee or tea colored.  This is from the mangroves, which are an important part of the ecological system.

 

 

February's snow moon — certainly mis-named for this part of the country.  The pictures are from our porch.  I was still under-the-weather the week the moon was full and that was about as far as I got.   I was happy to have the view and the warmth then, but am even more grateful to be well for it!  

 

 

Linking this week to the following:

THANK YOU to all of the hosts!!  

MOSAIC MONDAY;   ALL SEASONS; MACRO MONDAY ;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; and FRIDAY  BLISS