Around the Neighborhood

We moved to our current home 13 months ago, leaving a busy, loud road for a quiet, tucked-away dead end. This is an old neighborhood with fairly new folks. It's a pleasant place to be quarantined.

The kids have made a campsite in the woods between our house and the neighbors'. It's a spot to roast marshmallows, lounge in a hammock, and hear the hooting owl at night. We've had dinner parties outside with our friends next door, once with hamburgers, another time with Cuban food, and tonight with pizza. This has been the perfect excuse to enjoy fresh air and get to know these folks. What a blessing to live beside these kind, trustworthy people. 

I've come to enjoy everyday walks. I attempted this before the quarantine, realizing that I needed to move around in fresh air at least a little every day. Lately, God has invited me to think during my walks at my own pace. No ideas are forced; I'm free to stare up at the trees the whole time if I want. Some days it takes me at least once around the neighborhood to come down from the jumbled thoughts firing through my brain. The Lord always gets me to a place of refreshment.

This is one of my favorite places in the neighborhood: 

a fun gravel path to travel.

While I was on my walk one day, I was astounded at the burst of spring color. It was so beautiful; a gift from God in the midst of a strange time. He never changes; Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). I'm grateful for the predictability of spring's blooming flowers, as certain as the sun's rising every new morning. In the quiet early afternoon, as I stopped to gaze at the markers of new life, I wanted to share them with you.

Here's what it has looked like around the neighborhood: 

I love this arbor behind our house, where very sour grapes will grow in summer. The red of the maple and azalea add a warm burst of color when I pass by.

The white azaleas and tree on the right are in our front yard, near the street.

A neighbor's tree. Behind it is a bog, a wildlife preserve that remains untouched.

A friend stops me in my tracks!

How many pictures of azaleas can one person take? Around here, not enough. 

I never tire of looking at them.

Case in point:

They are in every yard, some big, some small, some one color, others multicolored. 

Look at this one!

At our friends' next door. 

Blue Moon Phlox beside our house

I love these two maple sisters!

And this tree...the bark pieces are huge!

I had a chuckle as I passed it the other day, remembering.

My friend Jennie and I would pull bark off trees in her yard, and

Mr. Braswell whose yard backed up to hers would rebuke us.

"Girls, why are you pulling the bark off the trees?" he said,

more than once. Now I know the answer:

"Because we're little girls, doing kid things!"

Remember the gravel path? This is what I found there today.

I don't think these flowers had bloomed yet yesterday!

And wonderful, fun Dave and Lynette. As another neighbor put it, their yard is an arboretum! 

Their daffodils, and then...

...this is beside those daffodils!

The people in this neighborhood are as life-giving as the creation. Here is someone who is sure to brighten my walk. If I don't see him on the street with his mom Karen, he's lounging on his front steps when I pass. Again, there's that predictability! 

It's Toby! He's such a sweet ole boy.

And today, when I returned home, I noticed this, the first

iris of the year! Just in time for Easter.

Thank You, Lord, for sending Christ to complete every jot and tittle.

Let us rest in his declaration, "Tetelestai!"

It is finished!