Starting off ... Fruits of the Season & Spirit: Day 1

Nature is telling me that the seasons are changing. The summer was long - but short. Not too many days of 90+ temperatures, but too many over 80 for my Danish constitution.

Temperatures of 75 and below are my cup of tea. I weather the cold with no problem.

I don't like having to be closed up in the house, and find myself hibernating in the summer, so for me, the weather change brings a sense of freedom to get outside without feeling "faintish".

As I was outside today, I saw some "fruits of this season" and decided to share them with you ... just little tell-tale signs of how things are in Northern Indiana.

This is my Burning Bush, producing little red berries ... and you can see that its normal green foliage is beginning to turn red. I'll take a full photo of this bush tomorrow. It must love the soil because its really gotten huge!

Next, in my yard, I find these curious hard apple-like fruits. I have never known the name of this bush. Its older, and has only grown to about 4 feet tall, and has a spread of about 8 feet. As you can see, its lost most of its leaves already.

I've never opened on of the "apples", so maybe we'll see what's inside of them tomorrow!

The bush has some thorns, so many there's a rose inside!

These bushes will drop their apples and then they'll just disappear. We never have any detectable off-spring, so who knows? Maybe the deer are coming in at night and sneeking away with them.

We have a field that we've let go natural for the past two years. It separates the neighbors from us, and it takes about 2 hours to mow on a riding mower, so with gas being high, we just decided to save our time and money.

The neighbor wasn't happy . . . He says we have "tumble weeds" that get in his pool . . .

I keep telling him "We're in INDIANA! We don't HAVE tumbleweeds!"

But in this pretty field, these little flowers are still blooming. These little girls just aren't ready to give in to the season yet, and the bees were taking complete advantage of them! Aren't they pretty? I bravely picked a bunch and brought them in to dry. I'm just curious if they'll stay white . . .

I don't know their name either, but I love wild flowers. Luckily, the bees were willing to share with me.

In the front of our house, we have the "Two Sisters" - or so I call them. They're two HUGE pine trees, of some sort, and they're just ladened and burdened with their long pine cones.

These two trees have got to be about 40 years old or more. I'll take a full shot of it tomorrow, if I remember, and you'll see what majestic trees these are.

I'd be just sick if lighting hit them.

So far so good. The Lord must be protecting them, and maybe they're acting as a lightening rod for our house.

When they were smaller, they were great for decorating, but now, you'd need a mechanical lift to put the star on top!

They're a real focal point of our property and probably spread 25 feet or more.

Wish I could think of something to do with this wealth of pine cones! Funny, but I never see baby pine trees growing ... There must be several hundred cones, but never a baby pine.

Sounds like a very sad story, doesn't it?

Well, if they're not going to have children, at least the girls have each other ... their long arms intertwining ... and finding strength in each! Makes me wish I had a sister to rely on. But, all things considered, I do have a lot of "sisters" that I share my joys and woes with.

Every woman needs other women to share personal things with. Croning is a good thing.

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Galatians 5:22:
22But the fruit of the Holy Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness,
23Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence).