He has arrived!!!

The timing was perfect. I’d booked my flight before the announcement came, but just just two days after baby arrived so did my flight!

Then happy surprise–at the ferry dock, for the sailing across to Powell River, the brand-new Salish Orca pulled up for her maiden passenger voyage!  I couldn’t have timed that better.  And so a once-mundane crossing became a time of exploration and picture-taking to capture all the newness…

But the real bit of eagerness and wonder lay just ahead… my daughter’s first baby–a strapping 8 1/2 + pound boy with a toddler’s head-full of dark hair,
just waiting to be whisked home from the hospital ( ;

And oh how captivating…

What an expressive little tot at just over a week old!

For eight days I got to hang around watching JAXON take in his new world,

and finding great delight myself in the world all a-bloom there…

 

 

 

It was SO good to be back ‘home’–for visits and walks with friends and quiet sits in the sun by the sea…

 

The crossing back to the airport was a melancholy one as I sat watching the shoreline diminish… where now three daughters and one precious grandbaby reside…

But the Lord worked it out that there would be friends on the other side too who would host me for the afternoon and see me off at day’s end…

And I needn’t even have dreaded my return to the bleak-slow-to-waken-after-winter prairies.  For in my absence spring had come here too!

 

We serve a glorious King who lavishes us all our days with grace upon grace!

–LS

 

God has made everything beautiful in its time!

 Eccl. 3:11 ESV

 

 

 

Our Princess in Prince George

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We were on our way with the first blush of sunrise on our mountains…

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The roads were not as clear as we’d hoped (considering our last eventful drive to Prince George two years back), and were in fact clear ice for whole stretches of shady highway….

But traction was good nonetheless.  At least we were not riding bikes like this brave couple!P1220731

And the views were fabulous!

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Eight hours later, there was Prince George.

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But better yet, there was the little princess!

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Now five months old, this is only the second time we’ve seen her but she seemed glad to make our acquaintance and we had a delightful visit!

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And then home again, home again,  through wintery wasteland…but this time on clear roads…P1220826P1220828P1220840

We’re grateful for family a little nearer than they used to be, and for safe travels!

–LS

You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways…

The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Ps. 139:3; 121:8

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even Solomon in all his glory…

The wedding was beautiful. My niece was lovely. Her bridesmaids were radiant…

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Then everyone went home and I was left with time to browse through the rose garden at Colonial Park with my aunt…

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……and the next day to wander alone down the historic Delaware/Raritan Canal tow path in the land of my childhood.

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It was splendid!P1210064

P1210070Ginormous snapping turtles lounged on logs all along the way defying my efforts to capture their likeness…Lush growth of poison ivy kept me from getting too close….

P1210042P1210027All the while the heady sweet scent of honeysuckle accompanied me.

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When I reached Bound Brook I found the grand building that was once my grade school,P1210087

and the old library where I sat in the Children’s Department one Saturday forty-some years ago and learned to crochet!  P1210093

For lunch I found an old sub shop on Main Street, that’s been there forever, and got myself an authentic Italian SubIMG_20160615_142508706 before having a quiet meander through the ancient cemetery beside the library…P1210091…reading old gravestones with their stately fonts and quaint orthography…

”The Church We Say hath Suffurd IMG_20160615_150413856
Dere Frind By your Deceace.
The Crown is Won theres no more …
For you But Endless Peace.
As you are now So once was I…
Helth and Strenth though here [I lie]…
and as I am now So you must Be.
Prepare for Death and Follow me.”

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“Here lies what is mortal of James Harris who died Aug.1,1813 in the 59 year of his age.
Confined by death to shade of night,
He lies conceal’d from mortal sight.
Till Jesus from the lofty skies,
Shall bid his slumb’ring dust arise
.”

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“To the memory of John Runyon son of Peter and Phebe Runyon who died Sept.11th 1822 aged 6 years and 2 months.  His fond parents has erected this humble monument.”

Earlier in the week I walked with my mom through the graveyard where my own kin and those of my friends are buried—all these saints who have gone before us to what is truly glory.Grandparents Gravestones It sits beside the old church building we called ‘The Assembly Hall’ where I prayed at the altar to ask Jesus to be my Saviour when I was just 10 or so…P1200783

Lindy Lake lies just beyond. P1200935 Here I skated in winter and counted goslings in summer, had school picnics, picked strawberries and passed by endlessly walking home from  school or just taking a lovely walk…But alas, not a decentIMG_20160613_202338188 picture have I.  It’s best in the mind’s eye I suppose.

Well… it was a wonderful and nostalgic trip ‘home’ to Zarephath, NJ, the perfect occasion to see cousins I haven’t seen in a dozen years—seems to take a wedding (or a funeral) to gather us from hither and yon! I will spare you all the pictures of kith and kin, except for these three…

of siblings (and Mom!),

Siblings

of COUSINS!

Weaver Cousins

and of my favorite sister!!

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I end on this curious note—I love this little vent sitting quietly and unnoticed over the decades looking like a mushroom.  I wonder if anyone has thought to take a picture of it before now…IMG_20160612_133129773

‘Tis all for now–

–LS

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