It's a Beautiful Day

This morning's view outside our back door...

Just a relaxing morning, enjoying my coffee....have lots to do today, but for now, peace and tranquility :)

Hope you have a blessed day as well.

Winter Scenes

Sharing a few photos I captured today...

 Perfect Christmas trees!

Snow-capped  thistles

 This is where I'm taking these photos...

that's our house is at the top of the road

This little weed just looked so sweet decorated with snow...

I had to get into knee-deep snow to get this shot :)

Hope your day is richly blessed!!!

💝

New Friends....and a New Recipe!

A few days ago I was out and about because I had several errands to run. I had passed by this way several times before and have always wanted to capture the horses on photo, but never had the time. This day I had decided to make the time. As I drove up, these guys (or are they gals?) seemed quite curious to meet me.

 

They let me pet their noses and scratch behind their ears. They were quite sweet!

 This was a neighboring farm,

 I liked the silhouetted appearance of this shot

so I just wanted to throw this one on as well...

 

A parting photo.....until we see each other again!!! 

Our visit ended much too soon...

...and now for this recipe....a confession: This was my first attempt at banana bread

I looked online to find a recipe, and found two that seemed good. I combined things from both and came up with this one:

My Banana Bread Recipe 

In a medium sized bowl combine these dry ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl combine the wet ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

The original recipes called for 1/2 cup butter, but I decided to cut back and use a bit of olive oil instead...trying to be "heart healthy"...

So at this point cream the butter/oil with the sugar. Once it is nicely mixed together, add:

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream these into the butter mixture.

In a separate bowl, mush together 

3 bananas and add 

applesauce to make 2 cups

then add to this banana mix(if desired)

1/4 cup walnuts

1/4 cup cooked quinoa 

Add this banana mixture to the butter mixture and mix until well blended. 

Now all the wet ingredients are all mixed together. Add your dry ingredients that you reserved at the beginning into this larger bowl of wet ingredients, and fold it together until the dry ingredients are combined but don't stir it too much. It is ok if it remains a bit lumpy, do not over stir!!! Just stir until the ingredients are barely combined, maybe about 7 or 8 turns.

Have your loaf pan buttered and floured and pour the banana batter into the loaf pan. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of brown sugar over the top of the batter. I like the dark brown sugar best.

Place the loaf pan into the center of the oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees. Bake for 65 minutes.

Enjoy!!!

  

Redirecting....

I am resolving to do a couple of things differently in regards to these two blogs of mine and keep with the original intention of them more consistently (I hope, lol) and make this blog about day to day life and recipes, photos that I take (unless there is a scriptural connection) and keep my Bible Treasures and Pearls blog strictly on the topic of anything scriptural such as things regarding the church and poetry and music and Christian books and authors, sermons etc, as well as any musings that I have on Bible passages.

The summer went by much too quickly, but it was wonderful. My DH and I were able to enjoy it even though it flew by us so fast. One of the highlights was our trip to Florida. I will share with you one photo that leaves me with that feeling of the nostalgia of the trip.

My next blog post I will share a recipe creation of mine. Here's a hint: It was DELICIOUS!

Daytona Beach, Florida

Perversion, Pride, Gardening and other odds and ends

First words in the Bible that spoke out to me

loud and clear

when I was first saved in 1988

 

When I was first born of the Spirit of God, I came out of all kinds of deep darkness, witchcraft, perversions, and horrible things too horrible to go into detail. Suffice it to say God was very merciful and the fact that I am saved is a miracle beyond any "rational explanations".

It is so sad for me to see the idiotic things that are going on that are even worse and out in the open much moreso than in the 1980's when I was first saved. For people to be prideful about sin is sad, not funny. I grieve over it. Pride is the sin that got the devil cast out of heaven, and homosexual acts are called an abomination in the Bible. How could anyone think the combination of pride (I personally believe this is at the top of the list of worst sins) and an abominable act directly in God's face is something "good"? I pray for loved ones that are supportive or caught up in all of this mess, saying that it is loving....it is anything but loving, it truly grieves my spirit.

There are stages in which a sin takes a deeper and deeper hold of an individual.

 First, it is "naughty" with a smile and a wink, and still with feelings of "I know I shouldn't be doing this but I like it so much" together with the possible embarrassment if caught in the act, or unmasked or "outed".

Next the person gets a little bolder, takes it to a few close friends to gain their "moral support" (funny term to use for immoral behaviour, but yeah, oh well). The person caught in this sin trap is still unsure about it so he or she needs to get lots of encouragement to keep going in their sin and not allow their conscience to bother them about it.

As the person gets bolder, now he or she can even lash out at those who would say anything regarding sin being sin in regards to perverse sexual acts. Now it is "good" to turn the tables on those who speak up about the current moral decline, and to even attack them physically. They do not realize the demonic element to what is giving them their "courRAGE" with emphasis on RAGE.

Psalm 2:1-3 

 Why do the heathen rage, 

and the people imagine a vain thing?   

The kings of the earth set themselves,

 and the rulers take counsel together, 

against the LORD, 

and against his anointed, 

saying, 

 Let us break their bands asunder,

 and cast away their cords from us. 

Praying for those caught in sin, even those who are deeply caught, even as I was, and also as the Apostle Paul was. God is a God that can save even to the uttermost....but there is a point of no return, we do not know where that point is, but the Lord does, so let's not mess around with all kinds of false things thinking we have lots of time to turn away from them, ask the Lord now to heal you and strengthen you to the proper ways, His true ways, and battle against the demons that want to take you to hell with them. God will supply you the weapons for your battles....the main one is patience to wait on the Lord to fight and to give victory in that final battle that is to come, the one He can prepare you for now if you do not delay in responding to His tugging at your heart. It does not require a special invocation or prayer with certain words or a particular kind of water baptism to make that miracle happen in your life. It only requires a sincere heartfelt yearning for His saving grace, His redeeming power, His intervention, and that true sincerity is also a gift from Him, but ask Him and seek Him for these things, and He will provide everything that is needed.

Ok, now that I got that bit off my chest, lol, 

I have been extremely busy with gardening. The lawn cutting, the weed pulling, the compost making, the bug trapping....sheesh!!! But I must admit, I love the fruit of my labors.

 Calaliliy...

 seen from the other side...the bugs got to it! Ugh!

 
My favorite calalily is the purple one...so far
the bugs haven't attacked it yet




Ok, well, I have to get back to weeding
and bug trapping, so much to do, so little time!

How Does My Garden Grow...

The weather is beginning to warm up....but the wind has been terrible!!!

Yesterday I repotted a couple of plants...

 

 this picture was taken May 2015

I got this peace plant last year....yesterday I divided it into two plants, it was getting extremely root bound, I should have taken pictures of the befores and during separation, I'll do that next time :)

 

 here is #1

 and #2, I put this one into the original pot

I learned this week

that when the peace lily's flowers are green

it is getting too much fertilizer,

the last 3 flowers have been green...

but there's hope

this new bud is looking the normal white color

I've been planting seeds, and putting them outside in the sun as the weather permits, getting them acclimated to being outside. Soon it will be time to plant my seedlings and cuttings outside! I can hardly wait!

This reminds me of the joy the new things the Lord has planned for us will bring. He is preparing a place for us!

Winter Storm

Outside my window today....

Don't really want to but have a couple of things to do, so I'm going to pray up and layer up and head out....then when I get back I'll snuggle up with another sermon or two :)

Fruit

Today I needed to walk down into town (2 blocks) and decided to walk a bit further...it's a gorgeous day! The sun is out, and there is just enough breeze, not too hot, not too cold, just right!

On the way I decided to see if someone was home, for a nice surprise visit)... I saw....

...an apple tree full of apples!...

...many apples had already fallen to the ground! :(

How can I refuse such a generous offer???

...and they are so delicious too!

I picked them from the tree, not from the ground....I hate waste but not enough to chance picking up bad fruit.

The apple situation got me thinking about Eve in the garden of Eden, and I know, I know, it probably wasn't an apple...(how many other traditions are probably all wrong?)...still...I pondered, the tree, the forbidden fruit, the snake, the beautiful garden, what a tragic loss....and yet, the Lord in His goodness provided a means of recovering what was lost....!!! Yet so many would rather have their forbidden fruit of seeing it their own way, rotten fruit, what a waste!

Genesis 3:8-14 (KJV) And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.   

And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him,

 Where art thou?   

And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.   

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 

 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.  

 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? 

And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.   

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, 

Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life...

 They both knew they had done wrong, their guilt caused them to hide from the Lord, and then pass on their guilt to their companions when confronted with it. We still do the same today, even blaming the Lord for our guilt, saying like Paul said we would: "Why did you make us this way, it isn't our fault because you, God, made us to be this way". 

Romans 9:20 (KJV) Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

 And yet the Lord doesn't argue the point with us, though clearly we are wrong. 

Whether it was an apple, or a banana, or an apricot, is not the point...we often look at things in such a manner that we miss the entire lesson that is there for us. No matter what excuses we may come up with to excuse our sin, it is still sin, and there are consequences, and God by His grace and mercy will save some (many?) forgiving sin by His blood shed on a cross, a most cruel punishment, so that we might live forever with Him.

The Donnellys

Last weekend my husband and I decided to go for a drive, spur of the moment.
It was a beautiful day out, perfect day really.

We drove by Grand Bend, home of Coco's...not familiar? Check out this review of their reality show:
http://www.theobserver.ca/2012/04/27/grand-benders-reality-tv-show-set-in-party-town

I didn't take any pictures there, too many people, too many cars, all we wanted to do was leave. One day we'll stop there and maybe even grab a burger at Coco's :)

As we slowly meandered about here and there, we found ourselves in Lucan. What's special about Lucan, you might ask...? Well it seems pretty ordinary at first glance. There was a little museum that did not look all that interesting from the outside...

My husband asked me "Have you ever heard of the Donnellys?"

My answer simply "No."

He grinned a huge grin and asked "Want to go into the museum?"

....ok...

First thing you see upon entering the museum is a huge replica of a tombstone. the Donnelly family tombstone. I didn't take a photo of the copy of the original, but I found a photo of the original one online:

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/show.asp?id=93887&b=1

This photo only shows the bottom half

It's about 9 or 10 feet tall

The story goes that they had to remove the original because people came from miles around to take chips off of it for souvenirs. Now the graveyard has replaced the original with this one:

Chunks have been taken off this one too (mostly off the back, which I didn't get a picture of, guess you'll have to go visit it yourself if you don't believe me), so changing the tombstone did not discourage the pilferers. There were coins and odd little trinkets on top of the tombstone. And what was with the coins and trinkets on top of the tombstone? I've never seen coins on other tombstones here....another mystery that the Donnelly museum has the answer for! (the answer can also be found at link near the bottom of this post)

This is a photo that was taken of Jenny Donnelly. The Donnelly museum had this photo on display with this information attached; that she was born in 1856 and died just short of her 60th birthday in 1916, and that the tombstone where she is buried has the date of her death incorrect. I'll have to see if I can locate it (now that I'm this deep into their story) and see it for myself.

If you would like to find out what is so interesting about the Donnellys, you can find a bit of info here:
 http://www.donnellys.com/mainpage.html

 Excerpt from the website:
 donnellys.com was created in 1997 for anyone interested in the Donnellys, Canada's notorious family, that was murdered by a vigilante committee near Lucan, Ontario, on February 4th, 1880. 2014 marks the 134th anniversary of the Biddulph Tragedy, as it came to be known.

Find out the answers to some commonly asked questions about the Donnellys!

WHAT is so Official about this web site?
WHY were the Donnellys called the "Black Donnellys"?
WHERE is the original  tombstone today?
WHY do people leave coins on the tombstone?
WHO has made a movie about the Donnellys?

The answers can be found here: http://www.donnellys.com/Questions.htm

After such a nice day out and about, we had a very nice dinner, and the evening was just as lovely as the day was, so we decided to drive some more to our favorite ice cream shop for dessert...

A couple of shots of the evening sky...

There are so many interesting stories to be learned about the world around us, I would love to learn about them all.  Lord knows I won't learn about them all, however He has included the most important ones that we should learn about in His book, the Bible. I hope you enjoyed out little outing, and maybe you learned a little bit more about this interesting world we live in.

Road Trip

Very recently, we went on a road trip....it was a spur of the moment  thing, we were home relaxing and hubby says "What do you want to do....stay home? go to Chicago? go to Niagara Falls?....or how about a road trip?" So we packed up and went....

to Erie Pennsylvania...

the water was calm and beautiful, the sky was amazing

some people fishing off the end of the little pier

memorial to all who fought in the battle of Lake Erie in the war of 1812...it's interesting to me how the story is told so differently on the other side of the border...

this restaurant looked so cute, we considered eating here...

so we walked by for a closer look...
 we casually glanced to see what the customers were being served
and when we walked further
we noticed the kitchen door open...
and decided not to eat here...

 we hoped to take a ride on this boat...
we got here just as it was leaving on final trip of the day...
just missed it,
but we were here to enjoy come what may
that's what happens on spur of the moment trips
sometimes things are better left undone...

After spending the night in Erie,
we continued on to New York...
saw this exit for Mexico (in state of New York)...
so my hubby says
"look, hon, we can go to Mexico"
:)

Most of our trip was on the interstate, we had decided to go around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, therefore I thought we would see much of the lakes from the road...sigh....When we reached Watertown, New York my DH decided to look for a road that went by the water...we drove and drove and drove along a road that according to the map went right along the water's edge...but we saw farms, and huge trees, and houses, and shops, and no water...we were headed east so we decided to give it a try going west...and it went on for several miles, until we found....

 water!
With a name like Sackets Harbour we knew it had to have some!

After spending the night in Watertown, we headed back home...

we took the bridges that connect

New York with Wellesley Island (U.S.)

 and 

the bridge that connects Wellesley Island with Hill Island (Canada)

and the third bridge connects Hill Island with Ontario Canada

something I love about driving along the 401
you get these same kind of rock formations along the side of the road....
it's where the road crew had to blast away part of a hill
to make way for the road,
the effect is beautiful!

on Hill Island

back on Canada's mainland.

If you want to know more about the bridges that connect New York, the two islands, and Canada,

you can find out more about it here

Hope you enjoyed our trip with us :D