Out and about…

A smattering of trips and traipses from the last few weeks.  Funny how you’d think it were always sunny and warm here… In actual fact it’s been mostly rain and unseasonably COLD, but we capitalized on the exceptional days… which I now share with you ( :

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A curious relic to find on an island in the sea which doesn’t even have electricity…but somehow picturesque…

P1010608Down the sandy bluff to the sea we traipse…

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Can’t say for sure whether there will be other warm sunny days, but we captured this one on the sunniest sandiest island around…delightful dose of Vitamin D!

P1010642Another ramble, this time on our own shores…with my happy ‘bear dog’, before the unfortunate incident that’s left him limping and homebound…

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Blooms and beauty at our feet…

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Home again—our own crab-apple tree at its most beautiful time of year…
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And off we go for the first overnight sail of the season!

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Serene anchorage in a ‘gracious’ harbor in Desolation Sound.  Where one sees desolation, another finds retreat.  Depends on what you’re looking for. (No Northwest Passage here!)

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                           “Bobby” resting

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We are being carefully watched by this local resident…

–LS

“O LORD, how manifold are your works! 
In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 
Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great….These all look to you, to give them their food in due season…” (Ps.104:24-27)

Sea Isle Scramble

Had a wild and wavy sail—my first of the season–out to our favorite string of islands. Then like a couple of mountain goats we scrambled and clambered our way around the perimeter, as close to water’s edge as the rising tide allowed… Found out I’m neither as brave nor as agile as I remember being.  Could be I’m getting to be an old goat?!  But it was an adventure and we came away unscathed with a few pictures to show and tell…

Cormorants sunning as we approach…
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Our destination and starting point for the circuit scramble…
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Sunshine arrays  the sea in sparkling diamonds…
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Textured and tinted rocks underfoot—to hop, skip, and jump
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P1010298And surprise! a cactus has made its home in such an unlikely place reminding us of days long gone…

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OK so I’m a chicken.  This wee lighthouse doesn’t look so high from here but I’m remembering the water tower I climbed as a fearless youth and the feeling I got when I looked down and my legs didn’t want to move to descend the ladder…

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A hillside of ‘caribou lichen’…
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P1010318And high on a bluff overlooking a quiet cove we found this remains from some gull’s feast—biggest moon snail shell I’ve ever seen!  And now added to my collection…

Finally we finished the circuit and found ‘Bobby’ now afloat with the rising tide, waiting to return us to our sailboat for a quick sail home in the prevailing Northwest wind…

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THE LORD reigns; Let the earth rejoice; Let the multitude of isles be glad!  Ps. 97:1

===2010 in Review===

We’re having a quiet Christmas time this year.  it’s quietly sneaking up on us anyway!  Haven’t been out in nature much this week, unless the mall counts as it’s a natural place to go in December!  So I offer you our year in very brief review.  Good to take a look back before marching into the new one…

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January—our now annual honeymoon in the big city…lookin’ out the window of our hotel.

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February–The Olympic torch comes to town and our little town has a big celebration!!

 

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March—a miniature microcosm on the mountain

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April–Bumbling about up Scout

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May—Sailing to our favorite haunts in the ‘Ragged Islands’

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June—Summer is come and gardens and flowers

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July—The tree that has now become this year’s Christmas tree.  Homegrown!

IMG_5638…Sailing and beachcombing

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… and Alaska!

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August—Lakes and water and sun and more sailing…

IMG_6374 …and smiling with cycling friends.

 

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September—out and about

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October—the season’s last blooms

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November—last color before winter

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…and wet walks

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and December comes round again with all the glory of the heavens declaring the glory of God.

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to men on whom His favor rests.”

 

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

–LS