Everybody's mad...

at me!

I knew this day would have to come.

But they weren't happy.
Lot's of griping and pouting.

Yes, the bird feeder on the deck had to go back to the tree,

so I could be ready to put out the hummingbird feeder.

These little guys kept me hopping last year until late October.
I didn't get a feeder up until probably July, but then they mobbed me.

(Google Images)

They come back to the feeder they summer at, and I want to be ready,

'cause I'm hoping to see a little of this...

(Google Images)

This afternoon was glorious!
Sunny and warm and fabulous...

So I took a little time to straighten up the deck.

(OK, I cleaned it, it was a mess)

and potted the daffodils and tulips that had been on the sunporch.

Yes, the ones that now have bite marks and chunks out of them.

wonder who...?

Just in case you missed the post with all the nasty grunge

that critter feeding can cause.

Earlier in February and March...

just downright gross...

but the kitties and I loved watching them.

So now things are looking more like Spring...

and a little tidier.

Still too early to bring out the geraniums that I winter,

but soon.

I have so much outdoor clean-up, but that will wait.

Today I did something I thoroughly enjoyed...

joining in with these parties this week:

Met Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House
The Scoop at Cedar Hill Ranch
A Stroll Thru Life

xoxo,

The "Perfect" Easter

Amid all the rabbits, colored eggs, budding flowers, and fun that Easter brings to mind, I didn't want to let this time pass without celebrating the real meaning of Easter, also referred to as Resurrection Sunday. I have a few vintage pieces that bring that true celebration not only to mind, but fully to our hearts.

This glass image and mirror piece is one of a few that I have collected that have a religious theme. It was manufactured by The Vernon Company from around the early 1900's and may have been a "promotional" item. I have others that I think were parts of calenders, funeral home advertisements, thermometers, and insurance company ads...but this is my favorite; Jesus as a young boy holding the Passover Lamb.

I've had a soft spot for lambs and sheep for many years. Their innocent and trusting faces can melt my heart and bring me to tears. It always distressed me to think about the sacrificing of lambs in the Old Testament scriptures. I know that in the Hebrew traditions and scripturally there is reason and symbolism for the choice of the lamb. It had to be perfect, without spot or blemish; innocent. Our sin has been paid for by the only One who is without sin, spot or blemish. Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, otherwise we could not hope to have relationship with God.

One of my sweet sheep

I remade this cross two years ago, after retrieving it from the gravesite of my father-in-law. We went back a few days after the funeral, when all the flowers were wilting, and I couldn't leave it behind. I removed the spent blooms and saved it till Easter, when I covered it in moss and added the faux lilies and ivy. When I brought it back out this Easter Season, I was again so glad that I will have the opportunity for that remembrance each year.

On the Dining Room buffet I have another of the glass images,

 this time of the Last Supper. 

This is a header that I commissioned a year or so ago and have never used. When I started this blog my headers were of sheep for the first six months or so. Not just because I love sheep, but that God gave me the title to my blog many years ago in a dream. (long before I even knew what a blog was) Do you have dreams that you know in your heart were God's way of communicating with you? He said "come into the Common Ground".
In New Testament times each village had a piece of communal property that was the "sheep pen". It says that each sheep knew his master's voice and would not leave with another person. So in naming this blog Common Ground, God impressed upon me that it should be a place of gathering, common interests, sharing, and interaction with a mutual purpose.

I hope that if you are reading this that you will be blessed this Resurrection Sunday with gratitude, humility, peace, and a renewed spirit...and that you might know the great Love that is ours through a relationship with Jesus Christ...the perfect sacrifice.