Leo Lion and the Mango

Life is pretty busy but, in spite of that,

the pretties on the homestead never fail to give delightful moments along the way

the doves have been lounging around as always, 

perpetually stealing shares of the chicken feed and looking ever so nice among the fruit trees

climbing along the kitchen garden fence,

the bean vines have been putting out lots of full pods that never seem to wane...

and really, it seems I must make an appointment once a week to harvest all those legumes

beans of all kinds are a great storage food and these will be shelled,

and put away in tight lidded jars

my husband picked the coffee beans that were too high up for me to reach...

and it looks like each time we harvest the coffee trees,

we get just a little more beans than the last pick

we found a few coconut trees just coming out of their pods...

growing under the tall trees of the forest

we picked up a couple and have them in water till we can get them into the ground

we are hoping they will take to the dirt on our homestead grounds

one cannot have too many coconut trees around, after all

my forever sleeping Leo the Lion is cradling one of our first mangoes of the season

and although the mango looks rather pretty under Leo's nose...

I think perhaps I will eat it instead

my little lizard friend, who I call "Dragon",

is looking on above Leo and his mango 

this lizard is only about 4 inches long and has been with us for about 2 years

he's been doing a great job of keeping the bugs down in the veranda...

and he especially likes any fly that may slip in through the door

I score the mango in sections

pull down the peel

and cut away bite size chunks, eating them as I go along

once down to the seed, I suck on anything that's left

this mango had a subtle coconut undertone to it

not sure if our coconut trees and mango trees being to close to each other...

have something to do with that;

but, I do wonder when they are both flowering at the same time...

and the insects and birds are feeding off the nectar and pollinating around the grounds...

if perhaps something nice happens in the natural realm of things

something maybe to research 

in any case, this is my breakfast after walking the dogs...

a mango, a banana and some raw goat milk

meanwhile, as the lion sleeps tonight with the fragrance of mango in his dreams...

May your day or night find sweet fragrance in the grace of the Lord.