It beats going to the Gym!

To look at the pictures, you would wonder why I balk at the thought of getting out and getting some exercise…

 

But I do, often. A wall of inertia must be overcome to drag this comfort loving home-body out into the elements. There are so many factors to consider:

The COLD. The bundling up just right but not too much. The fear that this will be the time I fall and hurt something, or suffer some cataclysmic life-changing event. Then there is the sheer work of it.  (X-country skiing may be about g-l-i-d-i-n-g but first there is the push, and it is most definitely WORK. Ditto that for snowshoeing, only there is no glide!)  All these factors rise up in protest at the prospect of getting out in the wild white outdoors.  Oh how grateful I am for Jim’s sanctifying leadership!  He sees to it that my objections do not win out and I am almost 100% of the time grateful to have gotten out and gotten some scenery-laden exercise!

The Highline Trail, Canmore:

 

Sundance Canyon, Banff

 (*I have loved a wonky picture since my first roll of film with my Brownie camera)

Upper Bankhead, Banff:   

Lake Minnewanka…

Home–the place I love best.  The fire-pit out front vanished (almost!) this week:

–LS

Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living. Ps.116:7-9 ESV

 

All this beauty right under our noses…

Well it’s just a little crazy that summer 2017 is history! But it has been a fabulously warm one here for us with deliciously record-breaking heat just perfect for somebodies that find themselves a little too far north for real comfort.

This morning drizzle turned to snow for a bit, so I think we can safely suppose that any brave flowers still out there won’t last long.  The elk have yet to come for the ones on my porch but this year I’m hoping they’ll come by and turn their fading remains into elk-fuel to spare me having to uproot them myself.

But before I lose the chance I wanted to post some pics from the Cascade Gardens in Banff.  We pedal to and from Banff quite often but have not slowed enough to notice all this beauty right under our noses. These gorgeous gardens are tucked around the Parks Canada Administrative Building, which is itself an impressive sight!  They made for a delightful end-of-day stroll.

And with these I bid summer 2017 farewell!

–LS

The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. Is.40:8

Walking on Water at Lake Minnewanka

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