{ Day 7 of Quarantine/Day 2 of Shelter in Place - Spending Sunday outside }

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

- Philippians 4:6-7 -

Good afternoon :)

It is another beautiful day here in Texas.  Not as warm as it's been but just the perfect temperature to be outside in the yard.

Curt and I always try to do yard work, either early morning (mid summer), or during cooler days in early Spring.  Without being able to go to the stores or anywhere public, we have turned towards our property and yard work.

My Sunday started much like last week, sitting in bed, with a cup of coffee and attending online church.

Today's sermon was wonderful, as always. and reiterated a lot of what I've been saying from the beginning of this pandemic.

Aware but not Afraid!!!!   Amen!!!!

We are counting our blessings for being able to live surrounded by nature, which means we don't even have to leave our property and still manage to get a good walk in, see pretty things and enjoy the calmness around us.

For that moment in time, nothing matters, there are no fears, no scary news looming in the background and no thought of a virus anywhere around us. 

As we did yard work today, I snapped pictures here and there.  I also used my phone app to identify plants or trees we had not seen before, or didn't know what they were.

What a plethora of beauty we already have on our hands.  Whoever lived here previously, did a lot of work planting and surrounding the property line with a variety of plants, trees and flowers.

We have 2 Juniper trees on our property and I love them so much, but unfortunately it is one of the trees that I'm allergic too, so I try not to be around them for very long.  Still, I can admire their beauty through the camera lens.

I was quite surprised by this one.  Never noticed it before and it wasn't even hidden in an inconspicuous place.  It is in fact right along the front fence line of the house.  What caught my eye were the beautiful blossoms on the young tree.  I used my Plant identifying app and it told me that it is a Japanese Quince Tree.

Oh the joy I felt knowing that.  Although the Japanese Quince Tree is not as popular as the regular Quince tree, you can still eat the fruit and use it in jams and jellies.  Do you know that one of my favorite things on earth is our Portuguese Marmelada which is made from Quince fruit?  I can never find it anywhere, and can only really buy it online, but I'm definitely not doing that anytime soon.

Will be wonderful to see it actually start producing fruit.  We've been here for 5 years and it's never produced any, and research says that it produces the quince fruit between 2 to 5 years of being planted.  We will see!!!

I believe this one is Hawthorn but I'm not entirely sure.  For those of you more familiar with plants and able to identify them, if you recognize any of these, please let me know below in the comments.

We also have a Downy Oak tree which is so pretty when it starts turning green.

There is so much to see outdoors.  I love, just really and I mean really love being out in the fresh air.  We have a specific area in our property that is just surrounded by trees and bushes, and I often tell Curt that I feel like I'm walking through a Secret Garden. 

It is so peaceful, if you can just stand there for a few minutes, listening to the birds, watching the wind rustling through the leaves.  Pure peace!

I forgot to take photos on my camera, but we also found some Irises, about 10 of them in a cluster, growing behind some overgrown brush, right up against the fence line.

We immediately dug up around their roots, carefully removed them and some of their soil, and have moved them to the front of the house.  I can't wait to see them flowering. 

Slowly we will get this house looking the way we want it too.  It is a lot of work, but we both enjoy being outdoors and gardening, and right now, we have a lot of time on our hands, don't we?

I'll keep you all updated and will show you the progress as we go.

I finally managed to get a slot in for a Walmart pick up.  It's been near impossible, but I got a small order in, just a few things that we were running low on.  Milk, bread, potatoes, lettuce and then some chips, drinks, laundry pods and softener. 

As we brought the items in, we placed them directly on the chest freezer and I took every single one out of the bags, and using lysol wipes, wiped them all down, sprayed the bags with disinfecting spray before putting them away and then wiped the freezer down well, washed my hands and used hand sanitizer too.

Just can't be too careful nowadays, but I tell you, it's all so strange to me, this new normal.  I never in my life even thought of doing this, we would just grab the groceries, bring them in and move on with our lives.

Crazy!!!!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy a little visual tour around my yard.  I am now off to make some cheese tortellini for dinner, then grab a good shower, wash my hair and all that fun stuff.

Tomorrow is another day, another week of quarantine and shelter in place.   I am probably going to get all my seedlings in the ground, if the weather is not too hot or raining.  If I do I will definitely show you.

Until then, stay safe friends, blessings to you all.