TRAVELS – Page 18 – Skelton Sketches

Recalling 2012…

Posted on January 3, 2013April 28, 2017 by lindaskelton

Lindy in stroller - 63 Well the year rolled in with this little chickadee turning fifty…and it ended with all but one of her fledglings having flown, one at year’s beginning:

The other at its end:

Still there is the ‘baby’… P1050105

…who is counting days till she can move away to warmer climes and be done with math and science and all such things…

Meanwhile the emptying nesters are pulling together…

Our tandem was shiny new and untried last January. It has now carried us along safely for 1,100 miles. Lots of them were routine rides in 20 mile increments, but there was one longer stint–our now annual bike trip to tour the Gulf Islands we missed last time around!

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Summer had its usual share of leisure in water and sun, of sailing and cycling and swimming… [P1060368%255B4%255D.jpg] P1060708

P1070275 Manson's Landing

and of tending the garden and smelling the flowers…

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P1080231 P1070050 Rachel's sunflower

Meanwhile prayer hikes ceased with the passing of our fearless and persistent leader, Maureen

The crowning event of the summer came in late August with a text message received while we sat and sunned at the top of Scout Mountain: “He looks like a fish!” Another grandson had been born and we hit the road to welcome him.

P1070975 P1080102 [He bore no resemblance to a fish, as far as I could see!]

The summer extended itself into an especially beautiful fall…allowing us to get out sailing and cycling some more…

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October finished with the passing of Jim’s mom to glory and a trip to the prairies to commemorate with family a life well lived.

50th

And of course we caught up with the growing progeny:

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Then came a month of ordinary days dappled with light and shadow…

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till the Advent season came round again… and with it our 29th anniversary

P1090042 P1090172 and the coming together of the whole family under one roof to share all our fondest traditions of Christmas. Wonderful!

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And then they were gone. The decorations came down. The fridge emptied. And quiet returned.

And at last, today, I got out for a walk….

And that has been our year in a nutshell!

Wishing you all God’s best for you and yours in this new year!

–LS

“Home again. Home again.”

Posted on November 8, 2012April 28, 2017 by lindaskelton

That’s what we’ve always said as we’ve pulled up with relief to our ‘home sweet home’ at the end of a trip. It is good to travel and very good to be home.

We take for granted the easy travels we make these days, from Pacific rainforest in the golden fling of autumn to snow swept prairies hunkering down for the winter, all in a day’s drive. Our greatest hardship is the price of gas at $1.33/liter (that’s $4.43/US gallon) in the west and $1.12/liter on the prairies. Oh, and the potholes and occasional road debris that beget flat tires. And the having to lose precious hours waiting to get a tire fixed… Then there is the hardship of getting sleepy while driving all this way and the weariness of sitting still so long. Ahhh the hardships of travel in our times.

But storytelling made the miles slip away as we traveled vicarioiusly by horseback and stagecoach with Spanish vaqueros and settlers moving west, establishing wild little cowtowns like Los Angelos. Louis L’amour weaves a fine tale.* We are caught in so many gun fights we lose count. We imagine the austere grandeur of the California deserts, and their unrelenting heat. We assuage our imagined thirst with our handy Gatorade bottles. And the miles pass as the Lexus rolls on…

…till we are safely home once again to our home sweet home at Willow’s End.

I slip out back after breakfast to see the morning mists rising as the sun strikes the chill wetness…

New catkins hang from the hazelnut tree. Had they been there all along? I hadn’t noticed.

Love notes have fallen again.

Long shadows mark the rising sun as misty corners give way to light

Shaggy ‘Ink Caps’ rise from nowhere.

Maple leaves fall in profusion on our acre now, thanks to this little sapling we rescued years back from a clear cut forest. He has grown to make quite a display and what a lot of fine compost these will yield…But the raking will be for another day. My fingers and toes are freezing. The fireside beckons. I have seen the morning.

It is good to be home. All is well under God’s blue heaven

“For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.” Ps.135:5,6

–LS

*Need a cozy read for the long evenings? I commend to you the audio version of: The Lonesome Gods by Louis L’Amour. Read by David Strathairn.

Grace for the journey…

Posted on November 1, 2012April 29, 2017 by lindaskelton

All packed up and on her way—our sunbeam, fourth of five children to fly the nest…

And within hours we are more lightly packed and heading in the opposite direction…

Accompanied by two daughters, torrential rain, a rainbow spanning the horizon, dense fog and much beauty…we journeyed the 700 miles to memorialize a Mom who has forever changed our worlds…

…and to catch up with eight weeks of growth that has taken place without us…

The memorial service was precious, and memorable. The much family gathered—all five children, four spouses, 12 of the nineteen grandchildren and 10 of the fourteen great grandchildren–a tribute to God’s incredible and continuing faithfulness …

Even in the stark chill of winter there is beauty, because of grace.

Thank God for the love of mothers, so like His own.

–LS

Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Prov.31:28