Thankful Thursday - The Beauty of Nature

 This quote came across my desk this week:

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, 

places to play in and pray in,

 where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul,”

~ John Muir.

So true for me.  My place to pray in is my back porch, overlooking my little pond.  Hubby did some work on the stones and I think it looks so nice:

Here are some of the beauties I have to enjoy in my yard:

Purple passion flowers and ruby red amaryllis.

My peace plant, with ten brilliant blooms.

 A sweet friend gave me this cyclamen, and it has bloomed profusely for weeks.  

The Confederate jasmine is growing crazy, and the fragrance is absolutely heavenly.  

This creamy white bloom is an elephant ear flower.  They grow to six or eight inches long, and are just glorious to behold.  I'd been around these plants all my life, and never knew they had blooms.  Perhaps they love the damp atmosphere around the pond.  

I'm so thankful for all of this beauty right outside my door, and for my husband who works hard to keep it beautiful.  As the quote above says, they do heal and give strength to my body and soul.  I marvel at the creativity of ADONAI to create so many varied and different flowers.  They bring me JOY every day.  I'm also thankful to live in Florida where flowers bloom all year long.

Here's another JOY-FULL thing I found this week: 

It's a humble flour sack dish towel, but it expresses my outlook on life.  I'm going to just hang it up in my kitchen as a reminder every day.

I re-did another reminder this week:

This is a blackboard sign I made to remind me of my word for 2016.  The other one was too pale, and I think this one is more eye-catching.  I'm using it also as a button for my weekly series on WORDS.  

What are you thankful for this week, Gail-Friends?

Thankful Thursday is my day to focus on and be thankful for 

all the good things in my life.

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 Home and Garden Thursday at Delightsome Life 

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