Hiking – Page 11 – Skelton Sketches

Lichen’ it!

Posted on November 29, 2012April 27, 2017 by lindaskelton

Just had to grab a sunny afternoon and turn it into an exercise for body, mind and soul,

A trek up Scout, naturally.

The old gray mare just ain’t what she used to be, but slowly and surely ‘we’ (me, myself, and my Comforter) gained the top for a quiet sit to read, pray and ponder…Nothing conspicuously photo-worthy… but the lichen is bright and fresh.

And the undergrowth is conspiring to put on Christmas cheer, already!

This ‘shroom I espied on my careful-not-to-slip descent begged to be noticed ( :

The pines are healthy and vibrant, bearing abundant little ‘boy’ cones…

But home and fireside beckon far below. It may be bright but it is also cold! Time to head home.

[Our golden willow marks the spot. Do you see it?]

Wind and rain are lashing the house tonight. Glad to have gotten out while I could!

–LS

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Eph.5:15,16

Good to the last drop!

Posted on September 20, 2012April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

Intent on savoring the lingering loveliness of summer’s blue skies, we’ve been out and about this week…Hiked up Scout twice. Didn’t bother taking the camera along. Rats! Because it was the coming down that proved interesting! As we emerged out of the dense trees onto the green soccer field at the base of the mountain I thought I heard a sort of grunting sound followed by a raspy scrabbling effect…

And then there they were within a dozen yards—Mama Bear, and three cuddly toddlers, one of whom was up the fork of a fir tree very near us. Just loitering in the park, startled by our appearance, as much as we were by theirs! But alas, I was without my camera. sigh. I retreated only reluctantly. And from a more distant vantage point realized there was another Mama and her twins dawdling at the lawn’s edge not far beyond the ones we’d startled. Hmm… fine day for a (teddy) bear picnic I guess!

Yesterday we got out with friends to discover the Stillwater Bluffs people here rave about—great rock slabs covered in dry moss and lichen, adorned with arbutus and gnarly old firs towering above the oceans’ glinting expanse…

The cacophony of sea lion babble on a nearby islet wafted over, a humorously accurate but muted imitation of a dirtbike rally!

After a thorough bit of basking in the heat atop the bluff we headed down to tuck our toes in the still waters of a tidal pool

and introduce ourselves to the locals. Meet Hermie.

All under the calm blue sky of this lingering Indian Summer…

–LS

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