Where The Orange Blossoms Grow....

Hello! Welcome to the Stricklen's blog. We hope to keep our family and friends up to date with what is going on with our family. You will find a variety of experiences posted here -- you may find pictures of the never ending project of building our house, Callie helping William with his first steps, Mary studying a rare insect species, or perhaps you may be terribly bored with Molly's numerous fruit trees, berries, vegetables and rare plant pictures! Who knows what we may find Chris and CJ doing -- probably something having to do with a tractor or machine of sorts. Abby and Margaret will keep us entertained with costumes from other lands or a fairy story. Whatever we post, we trust it will lift your spirits and bring honor and glory to our Lord!

Friday, September 4, 2009

Here are some random pictures of what has been going on around here. Hope y'all enjoy!!!
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 Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart: for consider
how great [things] he hath done for you.
I Samuel 12:24
 
Everyone loves fresh bread (especially me:):)




And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, [it was] very good.......
Genesis 1:31 



 My little friend:):)

 "CJ Smell-Good"
(He objects strongly to being called "Stinky," thus this name given to him by his loving cousin Grace)


Summer showers.......or thunderstorms:):)
:):)
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that [is] upon the earth.
Genesis 9:16
Sunflowers make perfect pictures, don't you agree???
A lovely young lady:)
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~ICE CREAM~
(Mmmm...)
Ingredients....
Separating the eggs.......
........
...........
Sweetness:)
Milk
Cream
The flavors today will be Chocolate and Mint-Chocolate Chip
Ahhh, fresh mint:)
:):):)


 Ice--Essential for Ice Cream making........
........As is an Ice Cream maker
Ready for the freezer!
Have some Ice Cream:)
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Mama takes us girls out to a tea room and antique shopping on our birthdays. Deeda and Mama went to
"The Barn Antiques" and the "Back Porch" Restaurant.
 Feeding the fish, turtles and alligators
Deeda got a beginner's sewing machine from Mama:) She LOVES sewing!
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Due to an over-abundance of hungry, chicken-eating hawks, for a while, while the chickens were still relatively small, we had to be on our guard.............
.......So, CJ served as "chicken shepherd"
The poor, stupid potential victims of a cruel death by hawk-eating:)
After a long day of chicken-shepherding! Haha;)
Caption, anyone???
Cleaning blinds and windows is always fun;)
I think this one speaks for itself!:):)
Mama's Morning Glory trees bloom every day. They're SO pretty:)

 The Garden:D
Our pear trees are finally starting to consistently bear fruit:)

We had alot more Okra than this--But who can have too much Okra??? Right, Grandmama?
Okrahenge??? :-D
We have lots of homegrown Sweet Potatoes
Will offers his pitiful amount of green beans....
Hey, I worked hard picking all these!!! 
Two very long green beans!
It's the latest style, you know?
Homegrown Tomatoes!!!!


 What's this I see?? Black helicopters, Amanda!!!! It must be them......



  Water is a wonderful thing

Cotton Blossom.....

........Cotton Blossom.......
 Cotton!
 A lovely sky





Yes, I like sunflowers........
Well, I hope y'all enjoyed! God Bless!
Mary Noelle

12 comments:

Amanda McAuley said...

Great pics Mary! :D I see you have a new turtle friend....is Edward G jealous??
Awesome looking sunflowers! Ours died...
William with his bike in the pool is too funny!! I'm afraid I don't have a caption for it though. :)

I've seen a lot of "them" lately. Be careful! "They" are watching us!!!

Love,
Mandy

The Stricklen Family said...

I hope Ed isn't jelous:):) This particular turtle happens to have MANY friends, though. All of whom live in the orange grove and wander up ocasionally:)

Shorty

Bonnie said...

Oh, Mary, what a wonderful post! Hmmm . . . where to start?? You must have posted all this just before we got to your house this evening! The sourdough bread y'all were baking with Gracie smelled soooo good!

And Willie in the pool . . . "Some day, just you wait and see! I'll get to drive my pontoon hydrotrike in the big pool -- with real WATER and everything! Just you wait!"

The nature pictures were lovely and show your born-in picture-taking talent! And I love your family chicken shepherd!

And, everyone, Mary is the best, I mean best ice cream maker ever in the whole world. And believe me, I have sampled some gooood ice cream. Mary's is the best!

Love,
Grandmother,
who agrees that there
cannot be too much home-
grown okra! Oh, and all those
other home-grown veggies are
absolutely wonderful, too!

Berean Families United said...

We are absolutely in awe of your gardening!!! What a blessing it must be for your family. We are awaiting an invite ( ;) ) for some of that Ice cream!!! Yummmmmm....
Loved all the wonderful pictures, especially the one of Willie and the t.v. set.
Much Love to All!!
Tracy for the Graves

Mrs. Stokesies said...

Happy Birthday Margaret, I'm glad we got to enjoy one of your celebrations with you. The garden is definitely a blessing, Wow!!! I love the little Willie Rogers, he is sooooo cute. Enjoying your blog, the Stokesies

The Miller Family said...

Well, Willie the Kid and the TV was just too cute!!

Love the garden pics but especially enjoyed the saga of the chicken shepherd; it was so silly!

Mary, please make us some ice cream when you come up here...dabble around with coffee flavor for your poor Aunt Katie who can't get Starbucks ice cream around here.

Love,
Aunt Katie

Whiddon Family said...

Hey Mary!

As always, great post! William has grown up SO MUCH since we've seen y'all. It's been way too long!

Your ice cream looks like the best ever!! You'll have to teach us girls your secret. :)

And I loved the garden pictures as always. :) Excellent work!

Love,
~M~

Tina said...

Wonderful post and pics.

Loved the one of CJ watching for the hawks with the weed in his mouth. He looks like such a natural.

Every time I see that garden it gets better and better!! I'm still jealous.

The pic of wills as Roy is precious.

The spider is GROSS!!

The chocolate chip mint ice cream is my fave, but I'm with Aunt Katie, coffee ice cream with dark chocolate would be devine!!

The storm pic is great!! I love when those storms come through. Just don't like drivin in them.

Well, that's all for now.

Love y'all,
Mrs. P

Another Beautiful Day said...

Loved all the pictures. Really liked the Ice cream. Thanks for sharing. Hope you are all doing well.

Cristal

Jason and Ashley said...

Oh, that Ice cream looked soooooooo good! Pregnant lady wants some. Can you ship me some, I don't think I have ever had homemade Ice cream before! I just love sunflowers, they are beautiful! Miss you all!

Love,
Aunt Ashley

Liv said...

Just wanted to say how much i like your new picture at the top of your blog. I know theres a name for it but ... i dont know what it is:0

oh And i'm VERY jealous of your sweet potatoes:)

keep up the good work

Liv:)

blog said...

There's nothing like getting soaked in the Florida rain every once in a while! :)

Thanks for sharing these! It looks like you all have been keeping quite busy!

Hope to see you soon! :D