Friends – Page 2 – Skelton Sketches

Well, I am a few hikes behind in posting pictures here. There are a world of hikes to be had here and scenery everywhere!

I have joined up with a little group of regular hikers for a couple weeks in a row now. They are older than I but still hitting the trails every week. They’ve been doing it for 11 years faithfully so I have lots of places to discover.

We strolled to Middle Lake in Bow Valley Park one Thursday…

And I learned all about Scotland on the way thanks to this gal’s great story telling…

(She’s also quite a photographer!)

There are hot springs active here…

And less active one-legged geese (lol)

And migrating swans…

And the first wildflowers are just making their appearance… The “Prairie Crocus”, also known as the Pasque flower, is the first harbinger of spring, though it’s not a crocus at all, but an Anemone. We are now officially acquainted ( ;

———-
———-

The next of “Ruthie’s Hikes” took us into Banff on a cool day with weather brewing! We walked the circuits surrounding Johnson Lake…

This was once mining country…all traces of the town that lay below this overlook are now gone.

We stopped by an old hermit’s cabin along the way—seems he lived here for 27 years avoiding society.
I’m sure there have been many more visitors to his cabin since his passing than in his lifetime!

A few of us oldies tried out a trailside swing over the bluff. Eeks!

Despite the day’s chill spring is making headway here…

I for one will be glad to see it warm up a bit. I have not yet learned to dress just right for the fickle weather. I ended up borrowing a coat!

–LS

The earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Ps.24:1

It was a year ago this week that we made our initial move away from the coast to limboland. It was the day after my 53rd birthday. We left house and home with just a little trailer full of home-making essentials…

[IMG_20150126_082846760_HDR%255B4%255D.jpg] [P1160942%255B3%255D.jpg]

…to set up housekeeping with Jim’s Dad in the Kootenays for a bit and see where God might lead us all.

It’s been a year of discovering seasons and nature’s bounty in a new place,

of connecting more often with our grandkids,

of making a few new friends and

of learning a few new skills. It’s been a good year.

Discovering Seasons and Nature’s Bounty…

The snow receded early in the Kootenays…

P2250116

and we began to discover the world at our new doorstep.

P5060561 P3060166

By early April we were out on our tandem–

IMG_20150330_141258137

This is quite the place to cycle—lots of hills, and mountains!

With the coming of spring, I realized that flowers I thought I’d left behind, bloom here too…

[IMG_20150529_195943675%255B3%255D.jpg]

IMG_20150529_200200103

And there were new ones coming up in profusion among the pine needles…

P5060550 crop

Out my window a young oak replaced my beloved willow… P5060558

With the coming of spring a buyer was found for our left-behind- house. So April found us back in Powell River boxing up 12 years of family life.

We had moved in as a family…

2003 leaving Arizona 001

We left as a two-some…

[P11702863.jpg]

The day we moved, our last fledgling flew, off to Alaska to join her Grandma. P1170307

Good-bye Powell River… [IMG_20150418_200559630_HDR%255B4%255D.jpg]

Our nest here has been lined with boxes every since, as we wait to see what will be our next home…

P1170364

Summer here was hotter and drier, which we didn’t mind a bit!

Familiar faces bloomed in my wee bit of garden

[P1180268%255B3%255D.jpg]

[P1180766%255B1%255D.jpg]

And we went to our second Tandem Rally—back to the coast, Bellingham, Washington.

[IMG_20150704_075332129%255B3%255D.jpg]

IMG_20150705_090100404

In all, we pedalled 2,000 miles together in 2015!

One perk of pedalling down the highway was catching sight of all the wayside fruit! Free for the picking—Cherries, Saskatooon berries and delicious apples! [IMG_20150625_1113018584.jpg]

P1180792

[P1180795%255B2%255D.jpg]

And then summer had passed…

[P1180836%255B3%255D.jpg]

But fall was so beautiful we coudn’t begrudge its coming P1180820

IMG_20151026_111851223_HDR IMG_20151030_155016195

The glory of yellowing larches was new to us…They extended the fall color.

[P1180993%255B7%255D.jpg]

It has been good to be nearer extended family too. Thanksgiving was a great feast shared with siblings, nieces and a host of progeny…

[P1180956%255B4%255D.jpg]

[P1190154%255B4%255D.jpg]

[leaves%2520falling%255B7%255D.jpg]

The visitors to the yard have been different here. The black bears have brown noses and are very clever…

And the turkeys come gobbling just in time for Thanksgiving…

[P1190016%255B7%255D.jpg]

and Elk come looking for winter grub…

P1190514

Enjoying the Grandkids

We now live ever so much closer to our favorite little people—a mere 8- hour drive away through some of the most beautiful Parks in the world…

P1170832

P1190715

We have been back and forth to Calgary more than half a dozen times this year trying to keep up with birthdays and such.

IMG_20150616_164110842

[IMG_20150728_173154875_HDR%255B3%255D.jpg] [P1180968%255B3%255D.jpg]

six

IMG_20150213_103942945

P1170641 IMG_20150404_173648052

[IMG_20151121_102107404_HDR%255B8%255D.jpg]

We even got in our first camping trip all together! And our first family bike ride too!

Spray Lake panorama

[P11803283.jpg]
P1180634 P1180417

P1180591

[P1180639.jpg]

Discovering New places with New friends…

IMG_20150819_112251407_HDR

Despite the want of ocean views, the Kootenays have some pretty spectacular scenery and we’ve made a start at discovering trails and the people that walk them…

P1180084 P1180082

[P1190243%255B3%255D.jpg]

[P1190250a%255B3%255D.jpg]

IMG_20151024_125012869

P1180868 P1180881

A new friend introduced me to a new hobby– birdwatching!

[P1170413%255B3%255D.jpg]

Learning New Skills

Pine trees rise all around us here, and some of them have foot-long needles!

[P1180721%255B3%255D.jpg] [IMG_20150824_173245682_HDR%255B3%255D.jpg] So… I tackled something I never imagined I could learn…

IMG_20150916_204904808 And now I suppose just about everyone in the family owns a hand-made pine needle creation! If you don’t and you’d like to… you know who to ask ( :

********

Living in snow country, we figured it would be better to enjoy winter than to languish indoors wishing it away, so within a week of arriving last winter, we had purchased cross-country skiis and commenced to learn how to use them!

IMG_20150204_112235753_HDR The season ended early last year but this year we’ve put in many miles (135 miles for me at last count!). It’s been terrific for morale to get outside and glide along through pristine wilderness. And for me it has been a personal triumph over unwarranted fears.

IMG_20150219_134053

[IMG_20160120_154526934%255B3%255D.jpg] IMG_20151123_094157657_HDR

That pretty much brings us to the present. I expect we’ll be out skiing again tomorrow…This re-cap of the year has been too long but there is just one note to add…

FERRIES.

When we left the coast we thought we were done with ferries—but no, there are three of them in our vicinity. They have short runs, crossing rivers rather than ocean straits. But the best part is, they’re free!

[IMG_20150605_075641790_HDR%255B4%255D.jpg]

P1190235 [P1190227%255B5%255D.jpg]

And that concludes my year of being 53 without a home to call my own. I expect we’ll look back on it fondly, though now it seems like a perplexing bit of limbo for us. We are in Good Hands.

–LS

“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever!” Ps.23:6