Gleanings from an elusive summer so far…

Summer as I think of it–hot with sunny skies–has been extremely spotty in its appearances this year which makes looking back on June and July’s gleanings somewhat deceptive.  In this mountain valley summer is unpredictable and moments must be intentionally captured. It seems we’ve done that!

With the stormy cold have come rainbows aplenty, even double ones.  And there have been flowers, outside and in (while the freezing nights abated).  There have been grandkid outings, and a few bike rides, and hikes and lots of opportunity to stay indoors and get some creative tasks done, for which there can be no big reveal yet, as the wedding hasn’t arrived quite yet!

So yes, I guess summer has come….

From small beginnings, pesto too comes… Two harvests, going on three, make pesto for months to come when the sun no longer shines in my window…

Yay!!! for formal gardens…

and wild ones…

for butterflies and granddaughter’s awe…

for hikes shared..

and rainbows that give solace after rain….

Yay!!! for bumblebee bottoms…

and the wild world they inhabit!

for picturesque vistas and the crazy pedalling home to beat the coming storm…

 

And for a wee harvest of edible wildness!

This has been our June and July.

But summer is in full force today so let me not linger here looking back!

Blessings on your days!

–Linda

“I will keep watch for You, my strength, because God is my stronghold.  My faithful God will come to meet me…” Ps.59:9,10a

Sure signs of fall’s approach…

The first snowfall is visible on top of the Grotto range this morning–when I can get a glimpse of it through the blankets of cloud cover!  And… the elk have mustered the courage to graze on my doorstep by night, eliminating all my violas and pansies, leaving me with my bedraggled snapdragons and hardy marigolds.  T-shirt temperatures have plunged to necessitate extra layers for the send-off of summer.  And I am plucking from this month’s archives some of its finer moments…

 

We live in old Coal Mining Territory and every once in a while you run across a reminder…

 

The skies have one glory, the flowers another…

Grotto Canyon…

I’ve been taking a closer look at all manner of flowers (and weeds!) this month…

   

This little love-ly is the sweet smelling, evening-bloomer, white cockle. Bane to farmers, and banned from our yards, but not from my sketchbook ( :

Another banned blessing to bumblebees…

The old goat has lost his beard…

Late summer’s bounty–wild raspberries!

And some strange insipid white ones…

And in the city, wildly brilliant crabapples!

We’ve endured a LOT of smoke this month which lends a certain mystique to the mountains but other than that has been an unwelcome result of lightning-lit fires throughout BC.

This too shall pass with the approach of fall and its close kin, winter.

I am happy to have preserved some flowers from summer’s bounty!

–LS

For the beauty of the earth, 
for the glory of the skies, 
for the love which from our birth 
over and around us lies. 

For the wonder of each hour 
of the day and of the night, 
hill and vale and tree and flower, 
sun and moon and stars of light… 

Refrain: 
Christ, our Lord, to you we raise 
this, our hymn of grateful praise. 

–Folliott Sandford Pierpoint (1864)

 

 

 

 

This remarkable footstool we live on!

Heaven is God’s Throne and earth is said to be His Footstool.  Wow! What heaven must be!

How precious is your steadfast love, O God!…

The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

They feast on the abundance of your house,

and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

For with you is the fountain of life;

In your light do we see light.
(Psalm 36:7-9)

God’s creation in this place is simply awesome, especially after the long, long black and white of winter.  These are my latest gleanings from out and about, including strolls on the ‘old golf-course’ out back that never came to fruition, and the discovery of Sundance Canyon in Banff! 

Such a delight!!

Here’s hoping you are relishing these color-rich months of summer wherever you are!

Thanks for coming by!

Linda

Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Is.66:1-2 ESV