Water, Water, Everywhere, March 6

Jez reminds us of the beauty and fun of the WWE challenge, and water usually has boats. There is something magical in watching a sailboat and when you have colorful sails, it draws you in even more.

I think the birds even enjoy watching them. Around San Francisco, birds were a staple around the boats and the marinas.

We were fortunate as those menacing clouds held they water until later in the evening after we got back in side. Remember water is like life. It can be a gentle flow or a menacing storm. When we see others going through a storm, let us be kind to show them a smoother stream. Kindness has a way of making hard times survivable.

Always find ways to be kind.

All photos at top of post are my own. ©Anita’s Hope
No usage allowed in any form without my written consent.

Photos at end of post concerning being kind are downloads from Google

Water, Water, Everywhere #137

Water can be restful or scary when out of control. Below is a peaceful shot of the Mississippi River between Iowa and Illinois.

Remember to let a river of kindness flow through you to refresh others who may be in a drought.

Water Water Everywhere Challenge

Since Granny Shot It challenged us to focus on the water around us, I have been finding fountains that I never really paid attention to. I think as a whole, blogging has made be be more aware of life around me so that I can enjoy each others photographs and share the ones I take.

The fountain in today’s post has historical significance as well as the beauty it has and the soothing sounds it makes which makes us stop and pause in the peace creates for us.

As a well respected physician and judge, he saw the need to beautify the riverfront and create a place for the towns people to come and enjoy the river. A small park was also created with a bandstand which gets much use during the summer. I will create a post later showing the fun and beauty of a summer dance night.

As you enjoy your areas summer fun places, remember the value of kindness, like John Dillon did, and how it can draw people together in friendships to promote the general good for all.

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A Fun Morning, Garden & Challenges

After an exceptionally busy week, I am glad to have today to myself. I need to cut grass but it will still be there tomorrow. So I decided to go the Vander Veer Botanical Park and walk around. Besides the play area for the children, there are winding sidewalks through the flowers, several fountains and the pond that the ducks and geese love. With all that I saw I actually got neat shots for several challenges so this is a 5 in 1 post tying several wonderful bloggers and their challenges in one post. With Nancy Merrill’s weekly challenge of Yellow, Cee’s Fun Photo Challenge of Tree, Granny Shot It’s 2 challenges of Bird of the Day and Water Water Everywhere and finishing off with Cee’s Flower of the Day, almost forgot about that one.

The fun we can have experiencing each others challenges only helps us to grow more and sometimes experience life with a little different view.

Starting at the top with Nancy’s challenge of yellow, evidently that is the theme for this season. Much beautiful yellow was spread in this particular section of the park. With star shaped beds, raised beds, flower shaped beds all nestled around a historical fountain to bring in Granny’s Water challenge.

The fountain shots are in sequence of the water flow timers.

On the other side of the park is the duck pond with many ducks and geese who know that people will feed them from the corn dispenser provided. And the geese are funny chasing off others of their clan showing who is boss. I thought BOTD fit well here, they all wanted to be picked as top bird of the day.

At the edge of the park is a very old tree that is beginning to look rough but still holding its own. Said to be the largest of it specie growing in the US. This is placed in with Cee’s CFFC for tree.

And last but not at all least is Cee’s FOTD, a closeup of one of the yellow mum like daisy beauties. I love it when there are flowers inside a flower. So cool. Things I would never have noticed before taking close up pictures of flowers. You learn every day if you allow it.

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With all this fun you can’t help but smile at the beauty surrounding you. So lets reflect this beauty with kindness and make the world a happier place.

kind smiles

More yellow flowers.

Fun Night Out

Sometimes you need a real distraction of fun to help rejuvenate your mindset. Last night was on of those. I was asked to come participate and face paint in the annual family night out at a small community south of where I live. It just so happened that the event was the same night that the local fire and rescue did their training so they combined the two to the children’s utter delight. And I even got caught in the spray accidentally(??) hmmm?? But it was a lot of fun. It was setup on a playground with a large pavilion where mountains of food were brought out by everyone. They played kickball on the ball field with other games, chalk drawings on the tennis court, me face painting and of course the highlight was the fire & rescue guys.

The camaraderie of small town life was very evident and it reminded me of the love we should always share with our fellow man. Everyone was kind, nurturing of all the little ones there. I had to laugh at one dad as he handled his daughter’s teasing whine. After the water “fight” some of the parents had remembered to bring towels and one dad wrapped his shivering 5 year old daughter in a towel as she stood in my line for face painting. Her older sister told him “I am cold too”. He didn’t miss a beat and remarked “Yea, and your 11 and know where they are.” Awesome. I just laughed at him. The loving banter in families is such a gift that does not get used as much as it should. It shows caring and nurturing while also showing training of responsibility and self sufficiency.

As this country, even this entire world, is in a defined battle of good versus evil, this family closeness needs to be strong. There needs to be the strong family bond around a central theme – love. May we all pray for that in all of our families. Enjoy the photos I have enclosed and remember to always be kind. There are over 40 versus in the bible that speak of God showing the importance of kindness and how kindness ripples our through the world spreading goodness as it goes.

kind ripples