Just chillin'

Just chillin' with the grandkids this week and away from my computer...

More pics next week.
--LS
"One generation will commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts." Ps. 145:4

Carefree Bees…

My overgrown oregano patch has been just alive with bees this summer!

Their drone is the sound of summer.

“Busy as a bee” seems an apt idiom in view of their incessant buzzing about, so I had to chuckle at a poem that I discovered one morning this week.

Ignoring breakfast dishes I had plunked down on the couch to check out my new library acquisition—a collection of Ogden Nash poems titled I Wouldn’t Have Missed It.  Actually, before I even decided to sit down with this book, I had burst out laughing in the middle of the kitchen just sampling Ogden’s word play.  Oh my.  I rarely get my elusive funny bone tickled like that.   Laughter, the perfect  gift for a serious soul; I felt like God had hand-picked the book for me!  So I postponed dishes and read poems for the next happy while!

In this particular poem Nash wryly suggests that only man was created to live by the sweat of his brow. 

“So far as I know, mankind is the only section of creation
That is doomed to either pers- or ex-piration.”

He goes on to playfully debunk  bees’ apparent industriousness--

“And bees don’t do anything either, bees just have a reputation for industry because they are sharp enough to buzz,

And people hear a bee buzzing and don’t realize that buzzing isn’t any trouble for a bee so they think that it is doing more than it actually does.”

--and then he proposes the comical idea of a bee laughing.  I love it!

“So next time you are about to expend some enthusiasm on the bee’s wonderful industrial powers.

Just remember that that wonderful bee would die laughing if you asked it to change places with you and get its brow moist while you went around spending the day smelling flowers.”

Ha! Now I  must go smell some flowers and watch some laughing bees!  ( :

 

Take time to smile today--and find something that makes you laugh.  With God in control of the world, and watching out for our well-being we can afford the luxury!

--LS 

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Rom.8:31-32

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The poem cited is: “Grasshoppers are very Intelligent” p.51 of I Wouldn’t Have Missed It—selected poems by Ogden Nash, 1972   (Thank God for libraries that don’t toss all their old books!!)

To read the poem in its entirety go here. 
Or to find a chuckle of your own, check out this website:  http://www.poemhunter.com/ogden-nash/poems/

Making Seeds…

Maybe it’s only after we have bloomed awhile…

and died to all that fresh-flung beauty,

that we hold seeds of wisdom to scatter for the next generation…

Macro-photos by Jim

Maybe the wisdom and fruitfulness of maturity-- 

 

--aren’t such a bad trade-off for the fresh beauty of youth…

That’s what I’m thinking this week as I collect seeds to sow and enjoy the season’s fruitfulness.

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The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair. Pr.20:29

A gray head is a crown of glory;
It is found in the way of righteousness. Pr.16:31

  --LS

And for you, my reader, watching over the shoulder of my days, I pray  “that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” Col.1:9,10

The Pender Islands Tandem Tour

Every summer, in the recent history  of our tandem, we like to go for a little Gulf Island tour.  The Pender Islands were this year’s destination for a day…

Scenic beaches are the reward for endless steep hills--a feature all the Gulf Islands have in common. (Pender’s hills were the steepest yet; in 32 miles of riding we did 3,847ft of climbing!)

It’s always good to find a beach and sack out for a bit on hot pebbles just above the water’s edge…

    And in the resting to find a few souvenirs…

No cycling trip is complete for me without a little walk-about as well…

Islands have such beautiful vistas… Pender’s were no exception.

 

Essential to every island tour is finding a place to swim… We took a little hike off-road and found Roe Lake—a quiet little gem, though a little murkier than our ideal. 

It was just the place for napping (Jim) or sitting and staring into space under dragonfly surveillance…while lily pads, like slow-motion bumper cars, jostled in the light breeze and a fisher bird dived with a splash onto the lake’s placid surface. 

And of course, eventually we overlooked the possibility of leaches and slime and scary ‘what if’s’ and took a refreshing and rejuvenating dip!

Then upward and onward to complete our island circuit…

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A 40-minute ferry ride carried us back at day’s end to Vancouver Island…where we grabbed a bite to eat, and drove nearly downtown to park and  pedal to the 25th annual Symphony Splash in Victoria’s inner harbor…

It is a sight to see, as daylight wanes and thousands merge to fill the streets and plaza around the water, in which a barge hosts the Victoria symphony for an evening of music. 

The 1812 Overture is the grand finale, complete with canon fire and climaxing in fireworks.  It is a spectacular event. 

The final thrill is to make our way through the dispersing crowds and pedal off into the night at high speeds to our parked van.  It is a great thing to have a strong and brave Captain to take me on such adventures! 

And because I trust his judgment, I am talked into climbing the Malahat the following day!

Up and over we go!  The high-speed ride down doesn’t last nearly long enough to make up for the sweat and muscle power required for the way up!  But I can say I’ve done it!

We take the loop by way of the Mill Bay ferry back around and into Victoria the ‘easy’ way…with of course stops for lunch and snacks and water… and even a murky swim!  It is a long day. 

But because I have a great Captain committed to my well-being,  I remain…

A happy stoker,
LS

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. I John 3:1

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Rom.8:32