August 2012 – Skelton Sketches

What is Summer Made of…

Posted on August 30, 2012April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails
That’s what little boys are made of !”

What are little girls made of?
“Sugar and spice and all things nice
That’s what little girls are made of!”

And what’s a lovely summer made of?

Well for starters…

But a summer’s not complete without a trip to visit the best product of old age…the grandbabies…

First the early morning ferry ride as sun comes up…

And by day’s end the sun is settling to its rest, and we are nearly there…

…to meet the latest arrival to the family!

And now our summer is complete!

–LS

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Ps.127:3

Going, going, g-o-n-e?

Posted on August 22, 2012April 27, 2017 by lindaskelton

It’s that time of year…where there’s no certainty that summer won’t up and leave any given day. There seem to be spiders everywhere spinning webs to catch the last prey of the season, basking in the sun’s gold rays as the days are already getting shorter…

Creatures appear in the garden munching out their life cycles…

A round of wonderfully hot days (do you call 78 degrees hot?!) have now abruptly ended. We too have tried to take our fill of them. What better time to hike to a quiet gem of a lake for an afternoon in our own little Eden…

Times like these we wonder why we would ever want to live anyplace else…

An old canoe sits by the dock for the use of hikers-by…

Lily pads and dragon flies are the only company to share the day…

And we make another idyllic memory to hold us steady when the sun is gone for good and the rains return… Is summer gone? We shall see…

…and shall console ourselves in its return, someday…

–LS

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Gen.8:22

Splash!

Posted on August 15, 2012April 28, 2017 by lindaskelton

It was magical (as in surprisingly wonderful and unexpected!)–What better way to end a day of pedaling up and down hill and vale than with a refreshing dip into a warm lake to freshen up, followed by an easy ride down a fine bike path in the cool of the day…into the heart of Victoria, the inner harbor. We rolled into place, our tandem bars making a handy roost in a standing room only crowd, just minutes before the stirring anthem began…O CANADA, of course.

We were about to be treated to our first experience of Victoria Symphony SPLASH!, an annual event put on for the people of Victoria, and hapless cyclists passing through!

The custom-composed “Inner Harbor Overture” opened the concert utilizing horns of boats big and small throughout the inner harbor. Delightful!

Day faded slowly into night as the symphony wound its way through classical and popular works—Dvorak, Mendelssohn, Liszt, a John Williams tribute, and Star Wars music—to the grand finale, the 1812 Overture complete with a real live cannon and concluding with spectacular fireworks!

What could be more magical than that? How about walking back through the throng to an open space, mounting our tandem and pedaling off at high speed into the inky darkness, down a smooth windy trail, (finding ourselves following another tandem stoked by ‘old people’. How likely is that!) back over the little wood harbor bridge…and back to our waiting vehicle (after a little detour, a little getting lost trying to find the right street, a little of the less ‘magical’ nitty-gritty of real life)…

And what sweet summer’s night would be complete without a soft-serve cone at McDonald’s?!

The day was a splashing success and lives on in our memories to buoy up the ones where you wake with a stiff neck, devoid of enthusiasm even for having fun…(like today?) Thanks for joining me for this re-lived memory of last week’s adventures.

–LS