November 2008 – Skelton Sketches

Sloggin’ up Scout…

Posted on November 25, 2008April 27, 2017 by lindaskelton

Well, the sun was shining this afternoon. No excuse not to get out. So I tromped off up Scout Mountain–

This is salal. Its stiff, waxy leaves make it a good ‘keeper’ for using in flower boquets. My old Italian neighbor and her friends used to make money on the side cutting bunches of it to sell to the florist shops in town. I’m told it is even shipped as far as Japan. Here, it is commonplace. The bush is thick with it and it can grow up to shoulder high…

This gnarly, moss encrusted fir bark caught my eye… what texture.

Louie, of course, beat me to the top. But he’s nice. He keeps checking up on me to make sure I’m following… I love this little toadstool, glowing with the afternoon sun from its spot all nestled in moss…

And here is our neighborhood. Excuse the haze… we really have very clean air…If you want to see our house, just look for the biggest willow (the yellow trees) and beside it you’ll see a blue house…. The red roof is our neighbor’s…

And of course the walk, no matter how tiring, is always worth the while for the refreshing view of things…….Here we are looking out across Malaspina Strait.

And that’s the latest news and views from my neighborhood…. No philosophizing tonight.

“How clearly the sky reveals God’s glory! How plainly it shows what He has done!
Each day anounces it to the following day… No speech or words are used, no sound is heard; yet their voice goes out to all the world!” Ps.19:1-3TEV

Waiting in Hope

Posted on November 14, 2008April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

All the leaves are gone now. The stark skeletons stand with arms outstretched bracing for winter. I like to think of them living in hope of the spring to come–much as we do on those days when our bodies give notice that they are subject to decay… Reminds me of those verses in Romans about all creation groaning waiting for God’s children to be revealed ‘and even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us.’

Mind you I can be a little melodramatic. An ache or pain here or there sets me thinking I must have cancer or some permanent disability. Then it passes. Oh. But when all is not well in my physical world it does give opportunity to reflect on our true home and the temporary-ness of this one. And that’s a sweet hope.

I noticed this sweet little tree as if for the first time now that it’s reduced to its skeleton. What a shapely beauty. There’s substance there beneath all the frill of foliage. May that be true of me too. Under the surface of appearances, may there be substance to weather the winter and burst out in beautiful foliage come ‘spring’ ( :

“For our present troubles are quite small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever. So we don’t look at the troubles we can see right now; rather we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over but the joys to come will last forever!”

Wow. That perspective just makes me smile inside. Hope it does the same for you!
–Linda

Romans 8:23; 2 Cor.4:17(NLT)

Blessings at my feet…

Posted on November 11, 2008 by lindaskelton

… is whispered in the blessings laid at my feet on even life’s grayest days…

“Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends…”

“Herein is love, not that we loved Him but that He loved us…”

(John 15:13; I John 4:10)

You are likely asking yourself at this point what has a yellow leaf to do with love?! In short, it is a symbolism that has been special to me ever since one dripping autumn afternoon some years ago when I went for an introspective stroll in the woods contemplating my lack of passion for the Lord… I came away reassured that it’s not about my love so much as His. The brilliant yellow leaves carpeting the dark woods became a token of His love. When the leaves fall each year I am reminded of His extravagant love that showers my life with beauty….