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!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset and the morning,
That brightens up the sky;

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one;

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows for our play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day;

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.










This is our Chicken Hawk--Even he is amazing!

One of Granddaddy's cows, and her calf










Our lovely, almost ripe bananas!

Banana blossoms are so neat!



We found him crawling across our property

Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.
Psalm 148:5





Brand new Redbud leaves

Spider webs are unbelievable! It's absolutely amazing how God created that little spider with absolutely zero intelligence to form such an intricate, delicate, perfectly symmetrical web! (Oh, it was all just an accident, ya know!)

I love this pink sky :)

The sun on a very foggy morning



Even the weeds are creatively and intricately designed!



Seedlings ready to go into the ground



I love rhinoceros beetles!
They're so slow and methodical. They take their time and just get where they need to go!

Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these [things], that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that [he is] strong in power; not one faileth.
Isaiah 40:26


Morning Glory trees are soooo pretty in the morning,
before the sun wilts all the flowers

Aren't they beautiful??

And they smell SO good!



Green bean blossoms



This year's tomatoes :)







Little cucumber plants just getting established



Just grabbing hold of the trellis

Good night! I hope y'all enjoyed!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.
Psalm 7:17

12 comments:

Lynnae said...

Wow!! those are beautiful pictures. God has truly created a beautiful world for us to enjoy.
In Christ,
Lynnae

Michele said...

Hello,
What wonderful pictures of our God's creation. I see your starting another wonderful garden! Will you all be going to the conference in December? Our family is. Hope that we get to see you all there. Thanks for the great posts.
Blessings,
Mrs. Hope

The Miller Family said...

Those were great pictures, especially the two cloud ones!

Love,
Aunt Katie

Kelly said...

Beautiful!! :o)

Bonnie said...

Mary, once again your photography is beautiful! It is hard to capture the beauty and wonder of God's creation (as you can tell when you see MY photography!), but you do it so well.

As your grandmama, I will surely be looking forward to enjoying some of that wonderful garden this winter! When hard times hit, I think I'll go live with Molly!

Oh, BTW, whose brave arm is that beetle sitting on???

Love,
Grandmother

Anonymous said...

Grandmama,
The beetle is sitting on Mary's (very) brave arm.
I assure you, it would not be sitting on mine!

Love,
Abigail

The Graves Family said...

Awesome post, girls!!! Thank you for sharing the beauty and wonder of God's creation with us. Your garden looks awesome!!
Much Love,
The Graves

Whiddon Family said...

All such good pictures! The one's of your Grandaddy's cows our adorable! One of our cows calved this morning.
Wow! Y'all's banannas look like they're growing good. Grandaddy's didn't do so good. :(
Was that turtle really that big or is that just how it looks in the picture? That aligator looks like the one we found in our goat pen.
Ummm.. Mary, you love rhinoceros beetles????
Y'all's garden always looks so nice! I know it takes alot of hard work.
Thank you for posting, and I hope we can see y'all real soon!!!

Laney

A Still Small Voice said...

Beautiful photos!! So pretty . . . . .
Erica

PS: I was also wondering who's arm that was (the one the bug was on)! Yucky, yuck.

Mrs. Stokesies said...

Great photography!! I have been capturing some real beauties sippin pollen out of my zinnias. How wonderful to slow down and enjoy God's glorious creation. Thanks for sharing. One of these days I too shall blog:}
Love, Mrs. Stokesies

Anonymous said...

beautiful pictures

The Dischers said...

What wonderful photography, Mary! (I assume you took all those pictures) The colors and subjects were so nice.

Love you!
Aunt Beth
--who thinks the legs on that beetle resembled too closely those of the dreaded Palmetto Bug.