blue

Pacific Blue - BC Ferry trip from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: OUTDOORS (Park, Beach, Campground, Picnic, Mountains,...)

promptings 1000 gifts (#23-33)

 #32 - Victoria's Inner Harbor on a sunny day

It's been a sweet week of getting ready for holidays, some holidays, and more to look forward to. Having the laptop along is fabulous (as I knew it would be... no catching up needed when I get home; I'm writing this on Sunday night in a hotel room in Victoria!). Here with no further delay, are some of the gifts I've enjoyed up this week:

23. A loaded veggie burger.

24. A DQ hot fudge sundae — I had forgotten how good that is.

25. Hanging out for the evening with our son on Main Street in his Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.

26. Oldies 650. Love working with the old songs playing in the background.

27. Oldies Christian songs. Caught some of those tunes at my hairdresser's. Remember the Maranatha singers? Here they are singing "Make Me a Servant":



28. Hearing my lovely Persian hairdresser talking to the man whose hair she's cutting about her faith in God.

29. The smell of rich black soil. The city workers dumped a load of it then raked it into spots in the park as we walked by. The smell caught in my throat and made my heart do a little ta-dum (all it takes to get the peasant in me all excited).

30. Ice-cream in presentation in the Quay Market at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal: Okay, maybe I don't get out a lot, but I've never seen ice-cream dolled up like this before. 

31. The quirky prose of Donald Miller's Through Painted Deserts.

32. Victoria's Inner Harbor on a sunny day.

33. Soft ice-cream in a fresh waffle cone (that tasted like it was just baked it was that good).

If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

hot

"On the Beach"

Delightful bronze sunbather statues by Gert Maas catch some rays on the beach of Waterfront Park, Okanagan Lake, Kelowna. B.C.

Thursday Challenge

Next Week: BLUE (Sky, Water, Clothing, Flowers, Blue Berries, Drinks, Cars,...)

promptings 1000 gifts (#13-22)

Finding these gifts is like being on a treasure hunt. It's amazing what you find when you thinking of looking behind doors, under leaves and into quiet moments. Here are the gifts I gathered this week.

13. The fresh-laundry smell of this wildflower that grows thick along the path we walk (I'm not sure of the name -- but it has a square stem so is probably a member of the mint family).

14. A good night's sleep that makes my body strong again and gives my thoughts and emotions the courage to stare down the discouragements of yesterday.

15. Family visitors — so easy, so relaxing, so filling.

16. The fragrance and beauty of lavender.

17. The optimism of a sunny morning and a cloudless sky.

18. Applications like Read it, Tweetdeck and Bloglines which help me sync my life across two computers.

19. The handsome look of our strata's freshly painted fences.

20. How Christians of different denominations can feel like family.

21. Immanuel - God with us.

22. The beautiful, outdated-but-mostly-unused Taschen Diary where I am collecting my gifts. 

If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

another side of Bambi's mom

Cranbrook B.C. has a problem with exceedingly tame mule deer. Here's what happens when a doe senses Rover (actually the dog's name is Star) may have less than pure motives. (Funny how she didn't go after River the cat.)

Cranbrook Deer




The deer in Cranbrook have even started going after people. There's something wrong with this picture...

weather

Breathless Morning

(a lake between Gibson's and Earl's Cove on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast)

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: HOT (High Temperature, Campfire, Stove, Oven, Sun, Hot Air Balloon,...)

promtpings 1000 gifts (#5-12)

I thought the hanging basket looked a little droopy one evening last week in the middle of our heat wave. I left it till the next morning when, in the full light of day I saw my glorious impatiens was definitely in distress.  All it took, though, was water and a little time to get it back to normal. Which got me thinking about water. What an amazing substance!

- Not only does it revive plants, but it revives us — in its pure form or as part of another beverage. (Gift 5: water the sustainer of life)

- We can add it to food during cooking to make things the right consistency, blend flavours, keep the food tender and from getting too dry. (Gift 6: Water: to the cook's rescue!)

- It's a versatile cleanser. (Gift 7: Water: to clean up the mess).

- Large bodies of it are a necessary part of our planet's weather. (Gift 8: Water: in the form of clouds, rain, the genesis of wind, storms)

- We can have a lot of fun in and with it: swimming, boating, skating, in a sauna (if you're a steam bath kind of person) etc. (Gift 9: Water: great for recreation)

- The sound of running water adds to the ambience of a park or home (I'd like a 'water feature' in my back yard-- wouldn't you?). (Gift 10: Water: the aesthetic of its music)

That just begins to touch on the importance of water, which, in my home I can get from eight locations at the touch of a lever or knob. It's clean water that's safe, healthy,  and tasty. On top of that, it's soft — not the kind that leaves a rusty stain in the toilet or sink. (Gift 11: Water: so readily available to me).

Today I'm counting water as my gifts 5 to 11. Oh yes, and there's one more that just occurred to me. Without water, we wouldn't have rainbows! (Gift 12)

If you'd like to climb on the One Thousand Gifts wagon, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

12-week online photography course

How cool is this - a 12-week online photography course. Each lesson is a pdf file.

The Mom Creative: Blog of Jessica Turner: Photography Resources

HT: Ann Voskamp (Holy Experience via del.icio.us update)

sports

Cyclists in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, Canada (May 8/10)

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: WEATHER (Sunny, Calm, Rainy, Snowy, Icy, Fog, Clouds, Thunderstorm, Lightening, Hail, Windy,...)

a dose of thankfulness (#1-4)

I have detected in myself lately a snakiness about small stuff. I've been complaining about the weather, of all things! This is not good.

As a result, I've decided to take my mind off the negative by training it to look for the positive. One way is by practicing thankfulness.

There are many online initiatives to help us focus on thankfulness. I've decided to join the Gratitude Community begun some time ago by Anne Voskamp at her Holy Experience blog. She explains how it began here.

The object of the exercise: to, over time, make a list of One Thousand Gifts for which she is grateful. (I believe she is well on her way to 2000, however, and is now calling them "endless gifts".)

I will collect my items and post a few every week.

And I begin...

1. It is a gift that my family is intact. I helped out at a funeral tea yesterday, for a 27-year-old man. When I saw the year of his birth on the memorial bulletin, my stomach lurched: 1983. That's the year my daughter was born. He died, suddenly and they don't know the cause. My family is still intact. I hug them close for I know there are no assurances.

2. Summer has arrived! (I am allowed to be thankful for the weather, right?) It's 23C as I write this at 6:45 p.m. Yummm!

3. Today I got a laptop. I'm going to love it — no longer chained to my office!

4. And I'm thankful for hubby, who said why didn't I get the new machine instead of the reconditioned one that would have saved some hundreds (but was several years old, didn't qualify for Apple Care and had about half the numbers in the specifications department). Of course I'm sharing it with him; he's browsing on it right now.

If you'd like to climb on the Thousand Gifts wagon, please do. Some post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here.

fleuvog - shoe artist extraordinaire

Not being a shoe person (yes, I do wear shoes, but don't have a closet-full and am not particularly fond of collecting them) I had never heard of John Fleuvog until I read the latest edition of B. C. Christian News. If you are a shoe person, you probably know that Mr. Fleuvog is a shoe artist -- a shoe designer and entrepreneur whose footwear creations are worn by Madonna, Whoopi Goldberg and Robin Williams.

A few other interesting things about John Fleuvog:

• He opened his business in Gastown (Vancouver) in 1970. It's still going strong.

• His website welcomes visitors with this little rap:

"Shoes to vie for, shoes to die for,
Go on, buy one, buy two, buy four!
Cool shoes, cool boots, drool shoes, fool boots,
Men's shoes, Women's shoes, zen shoes, swimmin' shoes,
Sexy shoes, flexy shoes, shoe spray to protec' ze shoes,
Funky shoes, funky boots, spunky shoes for hunky fruits,
Platform shoes to tower above 'em, platform boot
(we know you love 'em),
Crazy boots, crazy shoes, blacks, reds, greens, blues,
Women's boots and men's boots, too
and, babe, those sexy boots are YOU!
Fluevogers, man, they're everywhere -
they're over here, they're under there!
John Fluevog knows his flock is vast,
a truly original cast,
For Womens footwear, lo, they flock;
for Mens footwear, they're into hock."

....and it goes on

• He is an outspoken Christian.

• His shoes carry spiritual messages. His Angels shoes read "Resists alkali, water, acid, fatigue, Satan. Walk in peace." Another message is: "Miracles are the surprise of the soul."

His philosophy about this (from his website):

"Moses used tablets, Picasso used paints, God used Moses, Alex G Bell used the telephone and John Fluevog uses shoes. Great minds of the past have used a variety of mediums to communicate their messages – since the beginning of time (or at least John) John has been using the soles and foot socks of his shoes to communicate with the world."

Also at this page, click on the hubcap and you can read shoe messages from the past.

• A memorable quote of his comes from an interviewer he did with Glenn Boettger, for The Christian Entrepreneur (reported in the CC article).

CE: How do you integrate your business expertise with your Christian calling?

JF: I don't see a difference . . . I've listened to a few lectures about Christians in the marketplace, and I don't understand the fundamental idea of why you'd need to have a course on being a Christian in the marketplace. I just think it's a funny concept.

As Christians, we need to integrate our lives with our faith -- and we are called to do that. It isn't like, "Okay, now I'm a Christian entrepreneur and I need to behave in a Christian way -- so let me check and see what that is."

No matter who you are, we are all called to integrate our faith. And the cool thing about our society and the century we're in right now is that a small person can have influence. Basically, an entrepreneur, for me, means having influence

(Read the entire Canadian Christianity article about John Fleuvog)

On his website you'll find pages women's shoes, men's shoes, enviro shoes, vegan shoes, speciality shoes, replacement parts, shoe families and much much more.

But I'd better stop browsing because if I don't, I just might become a shoe person. Already I find myself lusting after some Bellevues ("Keep pushing west and beyond your imagination") or  Adrians which bear the message:

Don't you just love it!

Happy Canada Day!

Today we celebrate Canada and her 143rd birthday. There will be festivities in cities and towns around the country. Our town has an all-day event at McLeod Park with ongoing entertainment, monster truck rides, a Lego demonstration and of course it will end with a bang (fireworks). Check it out.

We're relatively new to the community of Langley (moved here only three years ago). A couple of weeks ago (June 19th), we took in our first Langley City parade. The many colourful floats are an indication of what a vibrant community this is… one of the many that make up this great country of ours!

However you celebrate it, Happy Canada Day to you too!

(Hover mouse over the bottom of photos to see captions.)

home

Our back deck - one of my favorite spots on a hot day. 

(Unfortunately, I haven't spent much time there yet this summer)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: SPORTS (Chess, Baseball, Cycling, Golf, Football, Soccer, Mountain Climbing, Skiing,...)