Sometimes we look at sights in nature but don't really see. While hiking in the woods the other day, it became a realization that we need to open our heart and eyes to see the beauty of the simple things in nature with each season. There is so much order and purpose in His creation. God has given us awesome beauty in this world to see and enjoy... if we would but stop to see and feel it. Join us as this blog is about stopping to see the real beauty around us...to touch and feel it... "Through the Lens".

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Friday, July 27, 2012

Reflections

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Saturday, July 14, 2012

On the Road to Nashville

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It has certainly been the hottest summer I can remember for a long time. We went several days with the temperatures in triple digits and no rain.  We spent the majority of our time trying to keep the grass and plants alive.  Although we did a pretty good job, we still lost a few nice plants on the patio. 

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We haven’t been very motivated to venture far from the air conditioner so taking a road trip was put on hold until last night.  Mike got a call from his brother that their mom had been hospitalized.  It seems she has a very low platelet count…in fact her number puts her in the critical range.  The doctor classified this as ITP which in simple terms means this might happen to her from time to time and she will either have to have a blood transfusion or a steroid drip to bring her platelet numbers up.  From what we can understand, this is not life threatening but she is 90 so we felt we should go and help her out as well as Mike’s brother.  So bright and early tomorrow morning we will be on the road to Nashville, Tennessee. 

I know we will be helping with Mike’s mom but perhaps we will be able to do a little exploring while we are there.  I must admit it will be nice to be on the road going somewhere!! 

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Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Happy Independence Day

 

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Wishing all our friends a Happy Fourth Of July.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Enrichment

 

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In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. 

~John Muir

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Babies are Here

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Remember when we said we had bluebirds building a nest? Well she never laid her eggs and never returned to that nest. Later this season, she started another nest in a different bluebird house. This time she laid four eggs and all four bluebirds have hatched. They haven’t left the nest yet, but are growing and getting stronger daily. We watch them every so often during the week, she is very kind to let us have a peak.

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We hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Sharing Callaway with a Fellow Blogger

A few days ago we received an email from Judy (Travels with Emma) that she was going to be in the area and wanted to get together and meet each other. We all decided that meeting at Callaway Gardens would make for an exciting day.

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We arrived as the Gardens opened up and the weather was still pleasantly cool. We were in the lobby of The Discovery Center and recognized Judy as she walked toward the building…it was the perfect time for greeting hugs. Conversation flowed easily as it often does with fellow bloggers.

After walking around the Center, we decided it might be easier to take Judy on the driving tour and short walks since her back was giving her some problems. It was a joy for us to share the Gardens with Judy. Our first stop was at Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center (founder of Days Inn of America).

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We walked through the center and saw many different butterflies and even had one light on the shoulder of this young lady (Judy )

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Our next stop was the Callaway Chapel nestled in the woods right in front of a lake. This is such a serene place and always a joy to come experience this each time. On our drive to the Chapel, we passed this coyote browsing around and couldn’t resist getting his picture.

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Ten years before his death, Cason Callaway planned the Chapel and spent many days walking the land looking for the perfect place to build it. He found that special spot and finalized the plans just one week before his death.

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We next toured the Sibley Horticultural Center. This indoor and outdoor garden area flows together in a natural flow from inside to outside covering 5 acres of native and exotic plants.

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On our way to Mr. Cason’s Vegetable Garden, we passed Robin Lake Beach where The Master’s Water Ski Championship tournament will be held this weekend. This garden is the Southern setting for the PBS show, The Victory Garden. Fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers are all grown here.

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After our tour of the Victory Garden, we headed back to our beginning point and decided to go into Pine Mountain and eat at a local restaurant called The Whistling Pig. They make their hamburgers fresh and they also have some good barbecue and other local favorites on the menu from which to choose. When we finished and visited a little more, it was time to go. We enjoyed our time visiting with Judy and really enjoyed the opportunity to share Callaway Gardens with her. We gave our see you later hugs and thought how nice it was to meet and spend time with a blogger with whom we have communicated with over the past couple of years. Thanks for letting us “show you aroundJudy.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Special Friends

 

This week we had special friends stop by for an overnight visit. Randy and Terry Guiler parked at Cracker Barrel and we picked them up to visit and eat supper with us on their travel day. As soon as we arrived, there were big hugs and much laughter. We picked up where we left off a year ago as though we hadn’t missed a day. That’s what good friends do.

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When we got to the house, we visited for a while and then sat down to a good old fashion barbecue dinner. We all filled ourselves and then prematurely celebrated Terry’s birthday with a song and cake. After dinner we sat and talked and laughed until about 10:15pm…time moves fast when you’re with good friends catching up on what’s been going on. So we took them back to their fiver and told them we would meet them the next morning for a Cracker Barrel breakfast…yum!

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When we got their Randy and Terry were already inside sipping coffee. After a long breakfast and more visiting, we did our see you later hugs and shed some tears. It is always grand seeing and visiting friends and even more grand that you can pick up as if you hadn’t missed a beat.

Gerri & I so enjoyed our time visiting with Randy and Terry and thank them for stopping by on their travels.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Look Who’s Coming to Dinner

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We have been so busy lately taking care of Mr. Nick that we have been neglecting our birds.  Well, actually the birds, the flowers, and the housekeeping.  Keeping an energetic Shih Tzu calm and quiet as he begins to feel better is a tough job.  We hate to crate him all the time so we try to give him some “out on the carpet time” and some outdoor time when we are home. 

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Anyway, this morning I noticed that most of our feeders were empty or nearly empty.  We had also noticed recently that we have some visitors at our feeders.  Yep, they are passing through and decided to stop for a good meal and visit.  The beautiful Rose Breasted Grosbeak has taken up a temporary residence in our backyard.  The male Grosbeak is the one with the most color…black/white with the bright red breast.  On our last count we had at least five visiting with us.  The Rose Breasted Grosbeak migrates through this area for their breeding grounds up north.  They are just a traveling through!!  It is so nice to have them stop by.  They are just beautiful and fun to watch, and all these pics were taken within the hour we were out.

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So this morning I decided that I needed to be a better hostess and place some food in the feeders.  I filled the tube feeders, the platform feeder, the dome feeder and the hopper feeders.  I spread the Birdacious Bark Butter on the little feeder for that and then filled up the peanut tube.   DSC_6304

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Mike and I sat back in our recliners and watched the show.  Our friends must have missed us because they all started flying and swooping to the feeders.  We saw the Hairy, Downey and Red-bellied woodpeckers, the Grosbeaks, Titmouse, Cardinals, Brown Thrashers, Mockingbird, Purple Finch, Wrens, Chickadee, Nuthatch and I’m sure there were some others.  We sat and watched this beautiful show for almost an hour. 

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Mr. Nick is improving!!!  Our last Vet visit on Monday had him showing some significant improvement.  In fact, on this visit he only had the chiropractic adjustment and not the laser treatment.  We are beginning to come off the Prednisone.  You have to come off this medicine slowly.  He is still confined to the carpet area in the living room and is crated when we go out and at night.  We actually brought him into the bed with us early yesterday morning and he did fine.  He actually laid down and went back to sleep….not so this morning so we had to take him back to his crate.  Poor baby!!  The Vet told us Monday that it would be another couple of weeks of calm, quiet confinement.  We are so thankful he is improving!!  It has been so sad and stressful to see him in pain and not feeling his self!!   We are beginning to see our little Nick again and it is getting harder and harder to keep him calm and quiet.  A mixed blessing!!

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Wishing all our blogging friends a wonderful weekend!!

He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog.  You are his life, his love, his leader.  He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart.  You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.    -    Unknown

Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Tiny Relapse

 

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A tiny relapse! Just when you think it's safe to say Nick is doing better..... It seems he was feeling so much better yesterday that he walked on the carpet area too much and visited with his girl friend Casey too much, and today is not quite as good.

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Since he was feeling puny this morning wee took him for another "treatment" and he is resting quietly and calmly on his carpet WITHOUT his girlfriend nearby. Poor guy!! He just loves to play and follow her around.

Since I had not heard of chiropractic for dogs nor laser treatments, we talked with the vet and also googled information about it. It seems that “Low Level Laser Therapy stimulates tissue repair through a process of PhotoBioStimulation. Light travels as bundles of energy called Photons. This allows the light to penetrate the surface of the skin without any heating effects or damage to the skin. Photons will only be absorbed by the cells that need help.  They normalize injured tissue by activating enzymes.  The enzymes trigger chemical reactions in the cells, supplying energy for the cells to take in nutrients and dispose of waste products faster.  This promotes natural healing and pain relief.” This above information is from the site http://www.dogrepair.com/low_level_laser.htm and this tells a lot about laser treatments for dogs.

The other treatment Nick gets is chiropractic and I put this you tube link in if you are interested in what it is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2nBvLzWc1M

This treatment is also called VOM and information on that can be found on the site below. http://www.vomtech.com/whatis.htm For me it is easier to link you to the information rather than try to explain it.

Anyway, if Nick continues to improve he won’t see the vet until Monday…hope that is the case.  Technologically improved medicine sure is costly, but little Nick is very much worth it!

Thanks for letting us share with you about our four legged family member.

Monday, April 16, 2012

A Change of Plans

 

If it’s not one thing it’s ten!!  We were planning a trip down to Gulf Shores and the Fairhope, Alabama area leaving on Thursday morning!!  We needed to get away and wanted to see Darrell and Judy Patterson before they left Rainbow Plantation for their summer travels and catch up with Paul and Margery Zeller again.  With the laundry all complete and everything almost packed we woke up Wednesday morning to discover our little Shih Tzu, Nick, not feeling his usual perky self!!  We watched him for a few hours and then decided things were just not right and with us leaving the next morning we wanted to make sure he was ok.  So off to the Vet we headed.

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After checking Nick out, Dr. Whitlow couldn’t really pinpoint exactly anything specific. He asked me if he jumped a lot and I said no thinking of jumping up not down.  I told him he was prone to stomach issues so he gave him some “souped up Pepto Bismal” and so we left.  A few hours later we noticed that whenever we touched him he would wince a little.  Again, we knew something was just not right.  So off we went back to the Vet.  This time I did confess that there are times he might jump off the sofa….he never jumps up, doesn’t know how!  He began to check along his back and that is when the real problem was discovered.  Little Nick had a slipped disc.  He performed a chiropractic adjustment and a laser treatment on him and hoped we might not have to use steroids.  Our Vet is closed on Thursday so we watched him and kept him as calm and quiet as we could.  This was not too hard since he really didn’t feel too good.  We knew Dr. Whitlow wanted to see him on Friday so we immediately halted our plans for heading to Gulf Shores/Fairhope. 

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Friday Nick wasn’t feeling much better so the Vet wanted us to leave him for the morning and he would take X-rays perform a chiropractic adjustment and run a couple of laser treatments.  When we went to pick him up he told us he had given Nick a shot (steroid) and wanted him to take the pills for a few weeks.  He takes two a day for five days, then one a day for five days, then one every other day for five days.  Have to come off slowly.  

By the evening he was feeling soooo much better.  We are watching him carefully, keeping him calm (which isn’t easy now that he feels better) and he has to sleep in his crate.  When we go off we crate him.  I think he remembers the crate because we used to crate him when we went to work….years ago!  We sit on the floor with him to keep him from running after one of the other doggies….do you know how hard a hardwood floor is????  Wow am I sore!!

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So our trip has been postponed until our little guy is better.  We have even entertained heading to Savannah instead of Gulf Shores.  I have become very motivated to explore Savannah after reading Donna’s blog (Adventures with Tassie).  They just left the area and Donna did an outstanding job of giving us a tour of this beautiful, historic city.  I have no doubt there will be many photo opportunities in this gorgeous place!!

So hurry up and get better Mr. Nick…a trip is in the making!!