Hiking in Waterton National Park

In this family, we really enjoy the great outdoors and hiking up in the mountains is one of our favorite things to do. This past Canada Day it was a free pass to get into the Waterton National Park and so we packed a lunch and took the hour and a half drive out of the prairies to the Rocky Mountains.

Despite a day of very mixed weather; cloudy... windy... rainy... sunny... we still had a wonderful time hiking up to Bertha Falls. It took us about 3 hours because of all the times I wanted to stop and take photos!

The scenery was breathtaking... so much more so since it is so rare that we get to enjoy the mountains, lakes, trees and wild flowers.

Not to mention the fresh and woodsy scent of lush forest!

We are so glad we took the time to go... even if I am 30 weeks pregnant and a little slower in my walking than usual!

Such a beautiful way to spend our Canada's birthday... I love this country.

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For more photo's of captured beauty, visit here!

Gazing on Beautiful Things...

Is there anything more lovely than the scent of lilacs?

They are such pretty and feminine looking flowers, don't you think?

There is something so old world about them... unlike a petunia or a rhododendron, for example.

Do you know what I mean? ... or have I become intoxicated with the beauty and you find me rambling nonsensically?

Anyway, with all the rain we've been having, I am missing them due to my lack of time outdoors and have decided that I will bring them in to enjoy instead.

Aren't they stunning in the vase on my counter top?
Simply delightful, I think.

What about you? What's your favorite flower at this time of year?



Are you tired of all this floral photography yet?

If not... here are some more... and even some more over at my Capturing the Beauty!



And if you are, well... I'm sorry, but...I just can't help myself!

As Michelangelo once said, and I repeat,

"Gazing on beautiful things acts on my soul, which thirsts for heavenly light."

I just get such joy from it.

Elusive Spring

I'm beginning to wonder... if just maybe:

"To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind
than to be hopelessly in love with spring."
~George Santayana

Sending out a bit of early last weeks sunshine to those of us who looked out the window this morning at yet another layer of snow.

Just when the buds where beginning to unfurl, winter has come upon us again.

Twice already this morning, one or another of the boys have gazed out the window at the white and wistfully asked, "Will Spring ever come?"

I know how they feel.

What's it like where you are?

Reaching for the Light.

Just as it's natural for these, so it is natural for us. I am reaching for light, not just the bright that streams through the open shades but for His Light as well. His Light that brings joy, peace, contentment, love. For in His Light is Life. There my soul finds rest.

I experience such joy in watching things grow. These little calendula seedlings are not even a week old and they are already this big! Each morning I turn them so that they are facing away from the light of the window and just a few hours later they are all reaching for it again, just bursting with new life.

On my Sunday Walk.

"Every tear is answered by a blossom, Every sigh with songs and laughter bent,
April-blooms upon the breezes toss them.
April knows her own, and is content."

Susan Coolidge (pseudonym of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey)

*****

Oh, that I would be content, as well, with these cold, blustery days. Warmth will come. In the mean time, I refuse to stay indoors for long and so venture out in winter gear in search of color, light, and life. This is what I found today in my garden and while walking along the pond.

Drip, drip, dripping

Old Autumn drop your leaves, for new green is soon to appear in their place.
Old seeds, still clinging, we've no more need, for ones dropped in months past are soon to burst
forth with fresh beauty and splendor.
Old Winter, be gone, make way for Spring. Snow melt, ice break, for you can't hang on forever.
There is a time for every season and soon your time will pass.

*****
Yes, Spring is not for at least another 3 weeks yet. But the weather here has been amazing the last few days and I am smiling.
Out here on the prairies we take any hope of Spring we can get!

Where my Soul is Found...

I found my soul

amongst a carpet of purple
violets down in the little glen

off the side
of that lonely gravel road
where moss and ferns mingled
with dancing rays
drifting through green above.
I plucked a single bloom then
and inhaling scent of wild outdoors
brought it home and placed it
between crisp pages of
life giving words.

It was there is the shadows
amongst the quiet stillness
that I remember feeling
the first faint stirrings
from deep within.
Thoughts of who I was
and who I was created to be
permeated my childlike mind.

There in the solitude
I lay back
and slowly began to appreciate
my surroundings... myself
and all that my loving Creator
had fashioned just for me.

It was from that experience
that I first began to write
childish words strung together
trying to capture
in my own small way
that single moment in time.
I still have those words
tucked away between pages
beside faded bloom.

Reaching back to that day
pulling it out from
recesses of memory
I realize that
this is who I am.
This is where I find my soul.
In the beauty of creation
the joy of creating,
in the beauty of my children
and the love of my beloved,
for me, his bride.

I am created by Beauty,
with beauty and for beauty.
This is who I am.
Here is where my
soul is found.

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Related posts:
Seedlings in Stone... L.L's ...Unfolding Imagination
1Adventure... Ben's Find Yourself
This poem was written by me. Please do not copy.

I'm Seeing... Noticing...

The sun shone brightly that whole Sunday afternoon, so

bundled up against cold wind, camera in hand, I headed out unto the prairie to see what I could see...


...to find beauty in nature and to praise God in the beauty.

As I walked... and looked... and listened, I kept sensing His Word from within,

"The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of his hands" Ps. 19:1

From the icy patches of frozen crystals hovering upon golden strands...

...to the skies of blue where the winds stretch clouds across the expanse like lengths of white cotton candy.

I see.

When I close my eyes and face the wind,
ice cold against rosy cheeks,
and I lift my head to catch rays of light...

I feel...

He is here... the whole earth is filled with his glory.

Wandering over drifts of snow, hardened into icy mounds six ... even 8 feet, at times... above the ground, I am amazed and in awe of the way the wind has sculpted these flakes into different waves of beauty white.

I stop often and gaze far out into the open...

across the fields to the horizon, marveling

at the freedom these wide spaces allow me to feel...


... then down at my feet where goose down feather is captured amongst the tangle of matted grass.

I peer close, upon my knees, to see in detail the soft white... the movement

as it struggles to escape.


I freeze the moment within my lens, then pick it up and let it fly on wings of wind

for seconds in time before it drifts again to ground below.

That little burst of flight causes my breath to catch...

so much like I feel right now.

Outside, alone...

in the silence, wind and sunlight.

I love this...

...this seeing which adds so much depth to my days.

I'm seeing things along this walk that I have passed many times...

but for the first time I am noticing.

Two perfect rows of trees.

The round of barbed wire, forgotten under grasses grown tall.

A weathered barn, framed by branches stark against the winter sky.

The rusted red chipped paint of bygone days.

And I thank my God for this opportunity to open my eyes and take in the wonder that surrounds in simple every day things.

I need not go far... to places unknown, for he has provided in every place, in every adult and child, in every sense...

beauty.

:::::

Related posts:

Laure's "The 9 o'clock evening hour"
L.L. Barkat "writer must see"