A few glimpses....

These are just a few of the gifts given us as we vacation.

Bright sun.

Sparkling water.

New stuff appears every hour or minute. Kind of hard to keep up.

Wild flowers.

Dragonflies.

Birds.

And my man (showing off his great legs!!! for Val:-)

More vacation scenery to come......

Prayer fest....

I do believe my vacation this year should turn out to be a "Prayer Fest" of sorts.

So many people in need.....it's overwhelming.......

Physically.

Mentally.

Spiritually.

Emotionally.

People I know. People I don't know. People I love. People who are in great need.

Ya, I think this vacation will be known as, "Praying While Fishing....How to Get the UTMOST Out of Your Vacation".

I may think of a different catchy phrase later.....

Now, I'll go and pray for myself.....I'm in the beginning stages of the dreaded
R O O T C A N A L!!! May the Lord have mercy on my mouth!!!

Weeks ahead....

I'd like to sit for just a bit

And watch the clouds roll by

And then I'd like to sit some more

And gaze up high

Imagining I'm an eagle....or a fly.

That doesn't rhyme much, I know. But it gives you an indication of what my life will consist of for the next 5-6 weeks. Ya. Ambitionless. Tired out. Exhausted.

Trailer packed.

Suitcase packed.

Truck packed.

I'm sure we'll be back and forth many times but we shall take advantage of these upcoming weeks of sun and water and bugs and being outside.

And I've got this blasted toothache....we'll see about it tomorrow.

Of moths and butterflies....

As you can see by the pictures, both are beautiful!

The moth in the top picture was brought into our office by a fellow who wanted to know what species it was. Robert told me, but my mouth finds it difficult pronouncing those Latin names. When he took it out of the bag, it began to quiver and shake. It may have been afraid, not sure. I couldn't get a conversation going with it at any rate, so I really don't know what it was feeling. But with all of it's quivering, it was difficult to get a good shot. Robert showed me how it eluded its prey. See those large "eyes" on its lower wings? When a predator sees those, they think it's an animal and won't try to eat it. God had his creativeness certainly going when he designed that moth!!

The bottom picture shows a beauty of a butterfly.... the "Olivia-tis".....pretty, isn't she? Her eyes are the loveliest of blue and her hair the color of golden wheat. Like the moth, it was quite difficult to capture her on camera because she moved a great deal but when she stopped I could get in quite close. She has changed into this phase of flitting here and there but very soon will go further south with her family. God will continue to show his creativeness in this little butterfly too, as she grows and matures.

Moths. Butterflies. Both are beautiful.....and I thank God for each of them.

Flying dragons....

Click on that dragonfly. Look at those lovely wings, how transparent and beautiful. The eyes are huge.....I thought mine were big for my face......

Funny how warm weather brings out insects of all kinds. It's like we've been transferred into another realm of crawling, flapping, creeping, buzzing and biting. Quite a difference between winter with NO bugs to summer with ALL bugs. Perhaps their existence is much more pronounced here because the season is so short and in that short time-frame they have to mate, lay eggs, do their pupae thing and hatch.....then make life totally miserable for we humans before fall comes.

Anyway, there is a beauty about them......sort of.......a beauty in the way they're made to survive.

I do enjoy the dragonflies and butterflies but that's about all the beauty I can handle!

Flying the coop....

Just watched a bit of zaplive.tv

Breeze flew the coop today for a little while. She's #1 eaglet. Quite the sight.

Now mom and dad eagle come and sit on a branch looking in on the three of them WITHOUT bringing any food. Tiny had a hissy fit. Looked like he was mad, hungry and thoroughly cussing out his ole' lady.

But mother knows best. She knows that they need to loose a bit of "baby fat" before they can take off flying without too much effort. Right now if they decided to leave the nest, they may get to the forest floor a bit too fast, with a nose dive to boot. So, mom and dad come and sit and observe the three kids doing their aerobics and wingersizes. The kids are catching on to some important things too. Breeze at one point, picked up some nestovers and began feeding Tiny. As they learn how to fly, they are also learning how to parent. They fluff up the grass in the nest, rearrange sticks around the outside of the nest and eat by themselves now.

It has been a great experience watching them hatch and grow and now, almost ready to fly the coop. They've had great examples to follow. Mom and dad eagle have done a great job parenting!!!

The daughter of a friend of ours flew the coop today too....off to England....with the help of some artificial wings, of course. Like the eagles, her parents have done a good job too, and now it's "bon voyage.....Char!!!!"

What now?

Mr. Chernysh
Mr. Frey

( L->R) Joe ,Helen (wife), Patrick (son)

& Lisa (daughter)

(L->R) Kevin (son), Maureen (wife), Gord,

& Rachael (daughter)

I think these two handsome fellows were sent off in fine style last evening with, between the two of them, over 70 years of experience going with them. They had their wives by their sides and most of their children and it was a grand celebration.

And how do you wrap up 70 years of experiences in a few hours. You can't.

I thought it similar to a funeral. We try to express the essence of a person in one short service but it really can't be done.

What we leave behind in either our lives when we die, or when we leave a long career is not simply a desk for the next guy to fill. Oh, no. That part of it doesn't even get into the equation.

We leave behind our work ethics, our morals, our compassion and our mannerisms....all of those things that have an effect on those we work with. So, if we're crabby and complain all the time, spiteful, lack morals, only do what is required of us and not willing to go the extra mile, well, that is how we shall be remembered and those are the negative things that made others a bit like you.

I spoke with a fellow in the office this morning about how he heard a lot about one of the retirees at the celebration which he hadn't known before. It made him feel a bit uncomfortable that he hadn't known this person very well, while he was working. He wished that he had.

We don't get second chances to live life over. I see people every day living miserable existances because they choose not to involve themselves in any way with other people. How very sad.......because in the end, it will be ALL about other people, how we cared about them, how we showed compassion and loved them and took time to be with them and to get to know their hearts and what made them the way they were. It won't be about the position they left!

Because, as I'm slowly finding out, life is not about ME.....it's all about others.

Promise.....

While we ate a delicious meal of Northern Pike with our special guests, the lightning flashed and the thunder roared and growled and rumbled. There were moments when I had to do a bit of lip reading, it was that loud.....and then the rain. Oh that sweet, delicious rain. As brief as it was, it will nourish and give life to needy plants that have been parched after a week or more of +30C temperatures....not that I'm complaining.

But the best part came afterwards. Yes, we did have Saskatoon pie with ice cream, following the main course but that still wasn't the best part.

It was the R A I N B O W.

That curvature of light, that spectrum of color, that colossal arch in the eastern sky, proclaimed once more, the promise of God to his creation. His promise of refreshment to the earth not destruction as it once had been. We have a God that cares about his creations....that's us, by the way, and that care comes in the form of provision. He provides water and Northern Pike and lilacs and Saskatoon berries and sweet smelling grass..........and rainbows.

So, today I want to encourage you that no matter what problems you're experiencing, no matter how dark the storm of your life may be and you feel there is no hope....be assured that after the darkness of that storm will come your very own rainbow. If you don't believe it, I will believe it for you.

And when that rainbow does come to you, remember it long after it has disappeared and thank God for it.

hot...hot...hot....

Great booming thunder, Batman!!!

And I'm not going to complain for one second....even though it's hotter than bushel of chili peppers in our bed............................room.....heh...heh...heh

I was so spoiled living most of my life in an air conditioned home. Now it's aux naturelle sans air conditioner.

It's one of those "experiences" I'm finding, where husband and wife tackle the "how to's" of keeping the house cool. We have come together as a team to achieve our goal and now keep all windows closed during the day with one fan going in the bedroom and the ceiling fan going in the kitchen. At night the windows are opened......and ready for any and all burglars, but at least they'll find a cooler house than if they'd come in the heat of the day. I suppose I could leave them some iced tea as a refreshment........should they decide to come, that is. I always say that if anyone did decide to break in, we'd never hear anything anyway with husband's breathing machine purring away all night. Not only that, I never get a chance to hear the pitter-patter of rain falling on the roof nor booming thunder nor the blaring of sirens and squealing and screeching of tires. There are pros and cons to everything.

So, we'll see what tonight brings. Perhaps an ice pack on the head will do the trick. It's pretty rough when one's internal air conditioner has also bit the dust.....but I digress........

Keep cool and enjoy this heat.

June shades.......

Well, that top picture has nothing to do with the shades of the month of June but it is a very funny shot. I happened upon a whole crowd/gathering/herd of loons and when they saw me come over the rise of the shore they all started flying up and away. The only shot I captured was the water splashes each of the birds left behind. I'm thinking each "puddle" represents one bird flying UP, because there is no way one bird can go fast enough to leave that many "puddles"of water in action.....if you get what I mean. If you don't, well, I can see that it's a very funny picture....which could have been a really great picture had I been able to focus on the birds AND the water they each left behind.

But ya, those shades of pale green with the new flush of leaves is so picturesque, especially intermingled with the dark greens of the coniferous trees. It is good to live in the boreal forest even though these colors last for such a short time.

I like the things God does to please me......and seeing varying shades of green is one of those things.

Growing up....

Just watching the 3 eaglets in their nest via Webcam at zaplive.tv

They should fledge in 3 weeks or so. Their wings are constantly flapping, whacking their nest mates over the head. They're learning to eat live prey that is brought into the nest by a parent and they teeter on the edge of the nest precariously jumping from one branch to another, giving all who watch the same feeling as when our own children began to climb and walk and.......fall.

The parents have done well. So far, they have managed to feed all three, an unusual feat I should think. Usually at least one succumbs to one type of fatality or another by the time they've reached this stage.

But cheers to Breeze, Hero and Tiny and of course their untiring, determined parents. The real test of survival of the fittest is yet to come....living in the wild.

I look forward to seeing some eagles up at Waskesiu when we go. It's fun to watch them fish and soar and screech and own the skies.

Blessed.....

Yes, we are blessed. Just hop in your ole' jalopy and drive for 45 minutes.

You shall have scenery fit for a king.....or a pauper.

Sail boats.

Dandelion pods.

Boreal forest colors.

Bright skies.

Poetry.

Water.

....and sitting there, all views free of charge........

It was nourishment to my soul today to have 4 hours of sun and sky and sand and water....and time with husband.

I am blessed to live in Canada!!!

Hear the thunder???

Ya, me too and it scared the socks off me.

My geraniums (posing above) got drenched with some nice rain water after it was all over with.

Now for some much-needed sunshine in the morning.....and a hot steaming cup of coffee on the patio..........or at Humpty's.

Sleep well, my friends.

Bloomin' tree......

The yard where we live has this apple tree. Last year it produced several very large apples and we made pie from them for Thanksgiving. Here, we once again have blossoms. Lovely, eh? I caught them while they were sunning themselves after a rain shower. They enjoy posing.

Funny how these delicate little blooms give way to produce one large apple....and after picking and pealing and making crust, we get to eat pie.

You may just have a revolution of thought if you but think on that little miracle for a few moments (and I don't mean the "eating pie" miracle....however, around our house, it actually is a miracle to have pie, since I only bake them for Relay for Life...husband gets cranky when that happens!!).

Hope you all have blossoms in your yard to enjoy...if you don't, you can come and enjoy ours.

Nature...

To me, nature is synonymous with lakes and coniferous trees, grasses, birds and flowers.

I like those things.

They illustrate the creativity of the Creator.

To me, there is never a simple, plain red-winged black bird or crow. They are creatures with beautiful plumage which allows them to take flight........ but they also have eye sight far beyond our own (I haven't seen any of them having to wear bifocals!) and their beaks....shiny, rock-hard and used for their very survival.

The various greens of the forest trees, resplendent in their new spring leaves, keeping watch on their charges who make nests in their branches........giving off oxygen to sustain life for all of us on earth.

Of course there is the water. Lakes. Rivers. Sloughs. (oops, I mean Ponds - how gauche of me!). Feeding all of creation, swelling up from deep beneath the earth and in turn, falling as droplets which hover above it.

God provides for creation....his creation....that's me and you....... and a dog named boo!

Let's enjoy our gifts and be thankful for them.

Well, I'll be a dog bit by a flea......

Somehow this afternoon, I lost a whole hour.

I still can't figure out where the darned thing went.

I was busy doing various things......ordering, changing toner cartridges, cleaning up the mess that everyone else leaves in the storage cabinets, looking for various emails I needed, checking calendars, answering emails, typing and registering letters, answering phones.

But be danged when I looked at my watch I thought for sure it said 4:00 p.m.

And at 4:01 the phone rang. It was husband.

"Hello?", says I, as I see his name displayed on the tele.

"Hi", says he. "I'm just leaving now." I was just about to ask, "Why are you telling me you're going somewhere....I really don't need to know you're about to leave the house for unknown parts".....but before I could make that statement he followed his sentence with...."I'll be a few minutes before I pick you up!"

"Pick me up!???" I exclaim and question as my eyes fall upon my wrist watch. I looked twice.

Yessireeee Bob....it surely did say 5:01 p.m.

So I have come to the conclusion that I either slept for an hour in the storage room at work or some aliens came and messed with my mind for an hour without me knowing about it.

Either way.....I'm in deep doo-doo...........wouldn't you say?????

Roads...

For some of us, the roads that lead us forward in life are safe, soft, picturesque, narrow and quite non-threatening. We travel this road with confidence, believing that not much will change and we are quite comfortable with that. We can view the scenery well without having to venture anywhere off the road as the scenery is close up and we don't have to move much to the left or right. It's all right there, not too far away. Easy, peasy....safe.

Others of us have huge roads of life, big 'four laners', with twists and turns, ups and downs, with a great many obstacles darting out at every intersection and we're never really sure where it will take us....but we get on it and go. We go hard and fast with nothing to stop us. We see great amounts of scenery on either side as well as up ahead as far as the horizon. There is a great vastness to our view. It's exciting, thrilling and breath-taking. We have a few accidents because of our recklessness but we seem to recover and get back on that road and go. It's a hard road...a road of unknowns and setbacks. But it's the road we have chosen...so we continue on, fast and hard.

I wonder, when we finish this road of life and look back over it in the rear-view mirror, whether we will be able to say we traveled the road well. Will we be able to say, that even with setbacks and accidents on that "four-laner", we were able to get back on that road and go.

Or maybe we'll be saying that we didn't see much or even do much, but at least we were safe and comfortable. No mishaps on that sweet country road.

I think it's a question that all of us will ask one day.

I guess my thought is that if I have traveled either of these two roads and be able to say that God led me on which ever one I traveled, then I have traveled well.

Just some thoughts I had today......

Enjoy the journey.....we have only one.

Enunciate....enunciate....

Should God not have read my last post from yesterday...... he possibly thought he heard all of us shouting together:

WE WANT SLEET!!!

WE WANT SLEET!!!

WE WANT SLEET!!!

WE WANT SLEET!!!

I'm thinking in our zealousness to ask for HEAT we may have made it sound like SLEET.

It's possible.

Anyway, it's what we're getting tonight. Thanks God.

At least it's moisture and not 30 cm. of snow like Cypress Hills received today:-(

We'll have to enunciate next time.

All together now.....

WE WANT HEAT!!!

WE WANT HEAT!!!

WE WANT HEAT!!!

WE WANT HEAT!!!

.......please.............

......and if I'm not too bold in asking.....could you make it at least over +25C while you're at it?

Not that I'm complaining God....just cold.

Consistent???....

If there was one thing I could leave people for when I'm not here anymore, I wonder what it would be?

We've had a rash of folks passing away...relatives of co-workers....parents mostly and a few who have retired and have died suddenly (not known to me, but nonetheless.......).

What will we leave as our legacy? How will we be remembered. Elvis Presley....by his singing. Rembrandt....by his paintings. Winston Churchill....by his stalwartness. Jesus Christ....by his love. Sharon Kent......by her inconsistencies and failures in life.

Perhaps people would say "Remember her....the one who......(fill in the blank) - 'messed up her life pretty badly at one point' OR 'was a totally rotten mother most of the time' OR 'didn't think of anyone but herself' OR 'didn't really do much in life that was very memorable' OR 'she didn't really have much going for her'...etc. etc. etc."........

Or would they say things like "Remember her...the one who (fill in the blank) - 'even though she messed up her her life pretty badly at one point, by the grace of God, went on to be a better person' OR "Ya, sometimes she messed up as a mother alright but on the whole, taught quite a bit about love and forgiveness to her kids' OR 'No, she didn't really do much that was memorable but I remember how she cared about others' OR 'No, she didn't have much going for her but that wasn't important to her because what she did have was God in her life'....etc. etc........

At this point in my life, I'm trying, with God's help, to end up like the comments in the preceding paragraph. I'm trying. But you know, I just fail so badly some days at being a human being. I get arrogant; I become pitiful and loathsome; I get grudge matches going which I lose every time; self-righteousness becomes my second name..maybe even my first name:-( I don't think of others before myself; I say nasty things about people I care about......and I'm 61 years old!! I sound some days like an adolescent who is only beginning to learn lessons in life and here I am 61 and learning the same lessons I learned when I was 16!!!

I never cease to amaze myself at my inconsistencies.

By God's grace, I shall be a somewhat more likable human being tomorrow, and learn how to live a more consistent grace-filled life.

May God help me.......

Weary....

Yes. Weary.

As I type, I look up at that picture........ and my inner being would love to be a cow. Ya, I know. Quite the plan for my life.

They are always so peaceful looking....when the bulls aren't around. But they just sit there, watching the clouds roll by, the grass growing and bugs landing on their hind quarters.

They chew cud too, but even that looks peaceful.

Times come in our lives when we need to just sit. Sit. Get rejuvenated. Think about life.

It must be gettin' close to vacation time 'cause I'm runnin' out of steam.

And it's an extremely busy week next week as we get to meet a couple who will be "candidating" as co-pastors in our church. A husband and wife team. A young couple. He's the same age as our son!

It will be a time of "discerning"....asking the questions of God that will give us peace as to whether these are the people He wants to lead us at Gateway and to involve themselves in ministry in this city. It's a good place to be...in the will of God. Things seem to go much more smoothly when that happens as opposed to attempting to do things on our own.

Interesting times.......we're looking forward to them.....

I still wouldn't mind being a cow....... for a day or two at least.........

The sky....

Yes, Saskatchewan licence plates are aptly named: "Land of Living Skies".

And the sky is so very huge.

You get several kazillion water droplets in there and it makes for interesting visual fare.

I think so, anyway.