Surprises of all shapes and sizes…

The sweetest wonders in life are the ones that pop up when we least expect them.  Like our first time out in our sailboat as a family (a few years back).  We’d barely gotten out of harbor when a pair of dolphins swam up to play in the water breaking at our bow and leap and sport at our side.  It was breath-taking and utterly took us by surprise!  In all the times sailing since, such an event has never happened again. Only on that maiden voyage.

So you can imagine our delight and surprise when we took our land-lubbing visitors out this past weekend for a quick run to our favorite islands… and moments out of port, Jim points ahead to starboard at fins approaching.  And soon we are ring-side audience to a trio of Orca whales sporting their dashing black and white suits as they swim toward us rising and submerging rhythmically, to pass at our side, migrating down the inlet.  Never before have we seen them.  Why this moment when we have never-before visitors to our little paradise?!  Could it be that just as we love to surprise our kids with good things,  our Father so delights to surprise His children? 





A purple starfish can be just as wonder-filled if you have never seen one…

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I had a quiet little ‘sit’ surveying my ‘kingdom’ one deflated day after the excitement of company had come and gone…



It was therapeutic to look around me and notice with wonder all the tiny beautiful things with which my world is studded…



As Robert Louis Stevenson said:

“The world is so full of a number of things,
I ’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.”







And though the seasons are ever changing, there is a comfort in the return of familiar flowers, and the reminder of summers past when I have walked on these slopes and heard a still small voice whisper—just at the time of the tiger lilies blooming…

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? Is.43:19

And when God says a sparrow does not fall to the ground without His notice, does that not mean that He notices the moments when I need a reminder of His watchful love?  And the heady perfume of wild roses slows my steps…



… and I see each rose to be an assembly of delicately shaped hearts.



And mine is lifted.

I smile to see this curious little fuzzball—there are surprises everywhere when I slow to notice!



I am grateful.

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” (Heb.12:28)


--LS

Wondrous Works

“…on your wondrous works I will meditate.” (Ps.145:5)


  

Some signs are just too cool to miss…



Another trail, another bridge, another hike with praying friends, but this time, no dog…



And on the home front this harbinger of good things to come!



and my ‘flower corner’ comes to life…



You’ll have to excuse the repeat  iris performance, but I just can’t get enough of these luscious blooms!

 

But that’s enough for this week.  It feels at last as though summer has come.  Wishing you many happy hours of relaxation and sunshine…

“All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you!” (Ps.145:10)


--LS

It’s always a wonder when…

Irises unfold their beauty…




…and buttercups shine as if polished




…and beans find the earth warm enough to venture forth

It's always a wonder when…

…columbine are found dancing at the edge of the woods

…and thimbleberry bloom in purest white with leaf as soft as tissue




…when bumblebees sup at the comfrey




…and dine on the chives.




I wonder at the the colors that array my small world…





…and the artist’s eye so evident in their design




…and never tire of beholding FLOWERS!






“…even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Matt. 6:29)


--LS

Out and about…

A smattering of trips and traipses from the last few weeks.  Funny how you’d think it were always sunny and warm here… In actual fact it’s been mostly rain and unseasonably COLD, but we capitalized on the exceptional days… which I now share with you ( :



A curious relic to find on an island in the sea which doesn’t even have electricity…but somehow picturesque…


Down the sandy bluff to the sea we traipse…




Can’t say for sure whether there will be other warm sunny days, but we captured this one on the sunniest sandiest island around…delightful dose of Vitamin D!



Another ramble, this time on our own shores…with my happy ‘bear dog', before the unfortunate incident that's left him limping and homebound…




Blooms and beauty at our feet…




Home again—our own crab-apple tree at its most beautiful time of year…





And off we go for the first overnight sail of the season!



Serene anchorage in a ‘gracious’ harbor in Desolation Sound.  Where one sees desolation, another finds retreat.  Depends on what you’re looking for. (No Northwest Passage here!)



                           “Bobby” resting




We are being carefully watched by this local resident…

--LS

“O LORD, how manifold are your works! 
In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. 
Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great….These all look to you, to give them their food in due season…” (Ps.104:24-27)