Nature – Page 5 – Skelton Sketches

The Sound of Fall

Posted on October 25, 2012 by lindaskelton

Fingers stiff with the damp cold of morning, I’ve just returned from roving about gumbooted in the yard taking pictures of morning…

…the sun lazily rising through cloud making all the cool wetness shimmer…

There seems not much to be seen this morning, not much worth leaving my hot cup of tea for and wandering about in this damp coldness…

The early risers among the crows are back to their nut fest. All day long while the walnuts last they will be about their aerial stunts, flying high, nut in beak, only to drop it and spiral down in swift pursuit to snatch it as it hits the pavement and extract the nut meats. These early birds are lucky, very little competition. But they decline having their stunts photographed…They work for live only audiences. And such was I one lazy afternoon this week.

Meanwhile the last crab apples hang onto their cheery hue…

Out back, the willow tree is busy laying down leaves to ensure we stay active as fall settles in…

The lilac lingers golden…ho, hum.

But the clothespins are transfixed with morning dew, every drop a lens!

These last hardy blooms bedecked with dew brighten a forgotten corner of the garden, but is there nothing else of note?

Then I hear it overhead, the migrating squadron of what I at first take to be geese… But listen:

Trumpet call overhead…

Now that was worth braving the morning chill for ( ;

And as I type I hear the real mcCoy—passing geese, making a ruckus as they get into formation for the day’s flight…This, and the croak of crows, is the sound of Fall…

The sound of Fall

Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power….
Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

–LS

Tulips in October

Posted on October 17, 2012 by lindaskelton

The steady greens are fading now, what lies beneath is showing through…

Don’t you find it to be so with life as you age?

A friend puts it this way:
“…we are in a new season of life. We’re in Autumn, when youth, like chlorophyll pulls back, drains out, revealing the profound pigments of wisdom and experience.”

The yellows and oranges rise to prominence as the energy-making greens are put to rest.

But there’s something more going on when it comes to the brilliant reds and purples. These are actually created in the fall. Trapped glucose responds to colder nights and shorter days to produce red pigment. The drier and brighter the fall, the deeper the reds.

Let me be such a brilliant display of His glory in the fall season of my life!

“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” II Cor 4:17

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Rom.8:19

And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit,

even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Rom.8:23-25

–LS

Unexpected Joys

Posted on May 19, 2012 by lindaskelton

Life is full of unexpected joys when I slow to notice.

How many times have I looked out our front window to see this grand old house—a patriarch of our neighborhood only just changing hands for the first time now that its family has grown up and old and moved on to the old folks’ home…

There’s something permanent and friendly about its demeanor with the old apple trees all ‘round in bloom…an unexpected joy.

…as is living in this, ‘our town’ beside the sea…Nothing earth shaking happens here. We’re a sleepy place, I suppose, but it is an unexpected joy to look down and see spring coming to our town and know that this is home, for now…

The wild strawberries are in bloom again…masterpieces that yield a quiet joy when one stoops to see their simple faces…

Mother’s Day has come ‘round again to remind me of this unexpected joy of being a mother to a brood that rises up to bless my heart –and fill my mouth with good things they’ve in turn created…

And then there is the sea so close at hand…the meandering ride along the seawalk on Mother’s Day for the joy of a shared afternoon, the dipping of the feet in the ocean for the first time of the season—shiver—in anticipation of warmer days to come… and nearly treading on this disguised anemone…

And while we lean down to study the kelp underfoot, an eagle cries from his perch in the sky…

Days later in the garden, I look up spade in hand, from digging earth to bury potatoes and spy my raving beauty of a rhododendron putting on a show in her shady knoll where yard meets woods…I hadn’t seen it coming. Unexpected joy!

And today, climbing reluctant from warm covers to meet a new and unknown day, I peer through my sheer drapes to see Miss Crabapple in her best dress, with primly crossed ankles, morning sun brightening her blush… Just when all the other blossoms begin to fade she is at her brightest. Unexpected joy. This too a gift to us…

How good to be ‘the sheep of His pasture, the flock under His care.’ Ps.95:7NIV— An Unexpected Joy

–LS

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is His also.

The sea is His, and he made it: and His hands formed the dry land.

O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Ps.95:2-7