Skelton Sketches

Sure signs of fall’s approach…

Posted on August 27, 2018August 27, 2018 by lindaskelton

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!

Posted on July 12, 2018 by lindaskelton

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

June is bustin’ out all over!

Posted on June 22, 2018 by lindaskelton

June is bustin’ out all over
All over the meadow and the hill
Buds’re bustin’ outa bushes
And the rompin’ river pushes
Ev’ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill

June is bustin’ out all over
The feelin’ is gettin’ so intense
That the young Virginia creepers
Have been huggin’ the bejeepers
Outta all the mornin’ glories on the fence!
Because it’s June!

(Richard Rodgers)

We sang this song in Grade School at the end-of-year program and it still pops into my head come June, though having done a little research just now I see that we were never taught the rest of the lyrics. Hmmm. But birds and bees and FLOWERS! there are a’plenty these days and it is a delight to welcome summer weather!

I’ve been more intentional this year in introducing myself to wildflowers, with the help of guidebooks and a watercolor pad to collect their images in a rough sort of way… It’s been a happy discipline that has supplanted writing time. I can’t seem to carry on too many other things when there are flowers to be seen!