Jacksonville Skyline

I didn't take this picture but it is one of my favorites.  This is one Seth took at http://photosbyseth.xeran.com/index1024.htm   It's such a beautiful shot of Jacksonville at night.  I do love our city of JACKSONVILLE.

Blowing in the wind

This little girl is happy.  She's all smiles, and she makes me all happy inside too!

Sky at Sunset today

As I drove home today from spending the day with my family, I was swept away with this wondeful feeling, I was driving home on A1A, right on the Ocean, about an 40 minute drive from my place to where they were staying.  I look out and see the sun as it's setting behind the clouds.  I picked up my faithful camera and as I drove I said, God show me a little bit of Heaven.  When I got home and put it on my computer I felt a lit bit of Heaven.

Autumn in the old tree

Well tomorrow I get to see Autumn again, Lance, Sherry, Autumn, and Mark rented a little place on the beach about 30 mintues away, so I took the day off tommorrow so I can go see them.  Here's a picture I took of Autumn in the old tree at Mema and Papa's,   Sherry, Dena, Lance, and I played in this tree many times when were were kids, can't believe how old this tree looks now.  It's still beautiful to me.

Love that Monkey

Here I am eating while I take a bath.  Man I really need a shave.  Don't you just love the monkey's.  I always stay a little longer watching the monkey's.  I always have.  They are so fun, and they almost seem like they are talking to me just by looking me in the eye.

Angel

When I was a boy I kept this picture in my room of a beautiful angel watching out for two little children crossing a bridge.  My mother told me it was their guardian angel.  I often wondered about my angel and how they watched over me.  I believe we have spirits that watch over us, and are with us.  I took this picture in the park, the birds love this angel as much as I do. 

Guardian Angel from heaven so bright,
Watching beside me to lead me aright,
Fold thy wings round me, and guard me with love,
Softly sing songs to me of heaven above. Amen.

Butter

She is so graceful as she drinks from the flower, a little lady having tea.  I love Butterflies.

Peaceful River

I sit here today thinking of yesterday and my visit down the river, river's like this have to stay preserved and protected.  Looking at this picture I can hear all the sounds, smell the freshness of it all, and feel the coolness of the water soothing my spirit.

Imagination

Today I took this going down the river, the water was so crystal clear.  Cool crystal clear spring wter, eel grass, little and not so little fish swim beneath you as you see them clearly.  Tiny minnows gently nipping you as you let your feet dangle into the water.  A family of red-eared sliders (turtles) sunning themself on a moss draped cypress log.  Distant sound of nature, peaceful as it was in the beginning.  My thoughts fade back to my teenage years going down this same river and what it meant for me then, and what it means for me today.  The river is still as beautiful as it was then.  I remember imagining going under water and swimming through a cave and coming up on another side with a whole new world on the other side.  On the othe side people lived as peaceful as the foilage. Ferns amond lillies, trees among bushes.   I dove in a couple of caves today looking for the cave that would bring me to the peaceful other side. 

Three Beauties

When I see this picture it just makes me smile.  These are three of the most beautiful women I know.  My mom and my two sisters.  How lucky I am to have so much beauty in my family, their beauty radiates from the inside out.

I want to go back to the Mountain

What do you feel when you see this picture.  I feel the fresh air, i feel the cold wind blowing across my face making me feel alive.  This place was truly one of the most spectacular sites I saw in Washington State, it's summertime and there's still snow up there.  I'd love to go back back.  I feel color in my face, I feel alive.  I think I lived here years ago hunting the earth, loving the land almost as much as I did the day I went here.

Eli and Me

This is one of my favorite pictures of Eli and me.  I didn't take the picture but it was my camera.  I love looking at it because I can see the pure joy I was having when my sister Dena and her husband Andy had come down to visit me.  It is a happy memory.  I can't wait to go see him soon, and see how much he has grown.  My sister said she told him last week that Nana, Rere, and Autumn had gone to see Uncle Derek, she said he started crying because he wanted to go too. 

Alone at the Ocean With My Thoughts and Memories

Here I visit my favorite spot, in search of peace of mind.  This vast Ocean understands me and doesn't dismiss me with impatience or refuse to listen.  This is the spot when I was 5 or 6 that my first thought of happiness began, with Papa, he took us here, and would get out in the Ocean and turn flips in the passing waves.  At that time there was a big pier here.  This place has been my thinking place since I've been in Jacksonville.  Papa said "All your answers Lie here" as he said with outstretched arms.  So many days I walked here trying to figure out what he meant.  I came here years ago after the end of a relationship and said I give up, I won't ever know what he meant.  I told myself I'd never come again.  Then I made a friend that lived right by the spot where the pier was.  This was almost two years ago.  When he moved there we took a walk on the beach and the next thing I knew I was by the pier again, feeling very much at home.  Thinking once again maybe I would find out.  They tore the pier down a month later, but I still go to this spot.  It wasn't the pier Papa was talking about it was something much bigger.  I remember touching what was left of the pier before they tore it down.  I touched it as if it were my only friend and possessed the answers to all my problems.  I stayed there  for a long while waiting for answers.  The pier is gone now, just these little markers left.  I still go here for answers, how ironic that I live right here in the place where Papa said all the answers would be found here.

 

The first picture I took of Autumn

My niece who is four now came and stayed with me last weekend.  I was going through some of my older pictures and found the first picture I ever took of her.  When I first saw her I had this surge of thanksgiving for life.  As I gazed into her face of pure innocence, I realized what a creation of God's love she really is.  There's no one else like our little Autumn Skye

Red Heart

I had to jump a fence to get this picture.  I'm looking in people's yard now all the time to see what they are growing, when I saw this one my heart jumped, I can't think what it's called but I know it has the word heart in it.  I'm not sure if it is fading or in full bloom, but something about it talked to me.  I felt my own heart beating.

Butterfly

A friend of mine took this picture I got from his website.  http://www.deanseye.com/   Looking at this picture, my childhood flased before me.  I loved insects when I was growing up.  Entomology was my passion.  I was always following these guys around with a butterfly net.  Funny how something I was so passionate about has changed to an appreciation.  I sitll love watching butterflies about as much as I did when I was a boy.  They are so beautiful and so delicate.

Sunflowers

Today I had to take another walk by these beautiful sunflowes one of my neighbors has growing in her yard.  I saw this is a beautiful journal.  So had to add it to my entry also.  Thanks Judi!  http://journals.aol.com/judithheartsong/newbeginning/
Come with me into the field of sunflowers. Their faces are burnished disks, their dry spines creak like ship masts, their green leaves, so heavy and many, fill all day with the sticky sugars of the sun. Come with me to visit the sunflowers, they are shy but want to be friends; they have wonderful stories of when they were young - the important weather, the wandering crows. Don't be afraid to ask them questions! Their bright faces, which follow the sun, will listen, and all those rows of seeds - each one a new life! Hope for a deeper acquaintance; each of them, though it stands in a crowd of many, like a separate universe, is lonely, the long work of turning their lives into a celebration is not easy. Come and let us talk with those modest faces, the simple garments of leaves, the coarse roots in the earth so uprightly burning.

                    Mary Oliver