Category: Bow Valley, AB

Remembering Bygone Aprils….

Posted on by lindaskelton

I am flower-hungry.  I’m craving the fresh greens and hopeful blossoms of springtime in other places.  And since I’ve been organizing this new site for my pictures, I thought it a good time to assemble a collection of blooms from April’s past…

So for today my soul is assuaged with these sweet memories, and I share them in hopes yours will be too!

2009–Spring comes to the Arizona dessert…

We took a road trip to reconnect with our old home and friends there.  Nothing quite like a spring morning in the dessert…

2011–Signs of spring on the Coast…

Rhubarb rising.  First Salmonberry blooms.  And if you’re lucky, a sparkling sunny day by the sea.

2012–more signs of spring in Powell River…

An Easter bouquet, huckleberry and salmonberry  hatching, and sunny faces in the lawn!

2013–Just out back, Powell River

Skunk Cabbage is spring’s first bear food. Beware!

2014–Spring beauty and nostalgia

Spent Easter with my sister in Ohio.  The Mayflowers springing up in the woods took me right back to my NJ childhood.  I guess I’ve always loved spring for all its fresh wonder.

Back home in Powell River our apple tree was in full dress…and yes! the lone wild currant bush by the sea was still there, still beautiful!

2015–Leaving our home on the Sunshine Coast for temporary quarters inland…

2016–Making a home in the Canadian Rockies

We were welcomed to the Bow Valley by fuzzy pussies and a chorus of Prairie Crocuses!

 

2017–And one more…

Yesterday this bright beauty arrived at my door,  the thoughtful gift of good neighbors who are moving away.
Did they know how I am craving color?!

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

 Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. 

Psa 90:1-2; II Chron.20;21

April Surprise!

Posted on by lindaskelton

The snow had all gone returning the earth to its drab dead skins awaiting another season of warmth to liven it up. Cautious wisps of green were springing up on protected berms and in those spots where they will soon be unwelcome. And I actually spied a lone daffodil against the warm wall of the old Anglican church in town. Then came yesterday.

The world was obscured in a falling blanket of white.  Despite our having removed our snow tires and stowed our skis away it fell as though expected.  The good news was that it refused to stick.  The warmed damp earth refused to let it rest. There were just great puddles–and a flurry of larger and larger flakes in protest.  And so we went to bed, the landscape still dreary brown but the mountains freshly powdered.

We woke to this:

Now I am well aware that likely noone, including myself, is really hankering for more snow pictures!  I’d rather look at daffodils, crocuses, forsythia blooms or whatever is springing up where you are.  But since this is what I have to take pictures of here, this is what you get!

I had to chuckle at this sign so appropriately obscured.  It is announcing the street sweeping that is to commence this week.  But first for the snowplows!

Despite my preference for green and flowery at this time of year, I had a lovely quiet walk through the fresh powder.

And I was glad I had not yet packed away my snow boots or wool sweaters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wherever you are, I hope these photos will incite you to look more closely at the beauty of spring around you, and maybe even to share a glimpse?!

–LS

Please don’t feel too sorry for me, by day’s end as I’m posting this, all this snow has largely vanished back to brown earth and we are feeling fortunate, as the word around town today is that Banff (just down the road) got a whole foot of snow!

Walking on Water at Lake Minnewanka

Posted on by lindaskelton

Little by little snow ebbs and spring flows, but we were surprised to find people tromping in the slush on Lake Minnewanka in Banff this weekend.  So we joined them and had a picture shoot with our grand young’uns.
Thanks to Jim for the best of this photography!



In fact we got to keep them for two nights and share an early Easter dinner together–

–and a bus ride, and some art galleries, and some watercolor dabbling, and of course the playground..

But I think the best parts were spent around the retelling of the best story ever with the help of our homemade Resurrection Eggs, a Gospel of John video and DeYoung’s colorful The Biggest Story.

I love being a grandmom.

–LS 

One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. –Ps.145:4 NASB