best of 2012

The Thursday Challenge prompt this week is to share a photo or event we liked best in  2012.

I thought immediately of our holiday to Salt Spring and Vancouver Islands in August. That was an exciting time for my camera. Here are some shots that help me relive those magical two weeks.

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

Ganges Harbor - Salt Spring Island, B.C. 

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

Tasty bread- Salt Spring Island Bread Co.

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

 Goat Cheese - Salt Spring Island Cheese Co.

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

 Beachcombing.

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

Inner Harbor walk - Victoria, B.C.

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

 View from the Cow Bay pier, in Cowichan Bay, B.C.

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

Rock face at low tide - China Beach, Vancouver Island (between Port Renfrew and Sooke)

© 2012 by Violet Nesdoly

Kinsol Trestle

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Check out this week's Thursday Challenge to see other favorites of 2012

Next Week: ROUND (Moon, Building, Wheels, Fruit,...)

aircraft

Harbour Air float plane - Victoria, B.C. 

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: FRUIT (Apples, Oranges, Pears, Fruit Drinks,...)

memories

September 11th, 2001 is one of those days that will be forever engraved in my memory. Eleven years ago today after spending hours transfixed in front of the TV, I remember how strange it felt to go outside and find everything was normal. However the next morning the spooky quiet in the air—there wasn't a plane to be heard—told me that the long fingers of the unthinkable thing that had happened the day before in New York had indeed reached thousands of miles across the continent to me.

But as significant as the day was and is, it is also fading from my memory and our collective memories. Just think, there is a whole generation of kids eleven years and younger who have no memory of this day whatever because they weren't around when it happened.

Other important days are fading too. This year we lost Neil Armstrong—the first man who walked on the moon. His passing sparked a storm of nostalgia and prompted me to think back to the momentous day when a human first touched the moon. To tell you the truth, I could recall very little of it.

How well do you remember:

- the death of J. F. Kennedy?
- the fall of the Soviet Union?
- the kafuffle around Y2K?
- the beginning of the Iraq war?
- the tsunami of December 26, 2004?
- Hurricane Katrina?

Chances are if you remember a national or international event, it is because there is a part of your personal story that connects with that event.

Is remembering the past important? I think it is because:

•  it helps us understand the present.

• as we think back of heroic actions and reactions it revives our faith in human strength and resilience.

• if we're people of faith, it certainly strengthens our faith in God as we reflect on His faithfulness through hard times and in bringing us to this point.

• it is interesting.

• it's part of the legacy we can leave our kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids.

What significant days from history do you remember? What about your personal history? Have you or are you preserving your memories in any way?

I love the bronze sculpture "The Veteran Sailor" (by Nathan Scott, on display at Ship Point Plaza on the Victoria B.C. waterfront) of a sailor, holding a  copy of The Daily Colonist with the headline "Peace in Europe: Germany Surrenders!"

He looks happily onto another scene, "The Homecoming" (also by Nathan Scott) on this memorable day—a day of which I have no memory because I wasn't born yet. Probably most of you weren't either. Fortunately lots has been written about that day so we can live it vicariously.

Addendum:

After posting this piece on memories, I ran across an example of how important it is to hand down memories. Kitty Werthmann is a woman who grew up in Austria (she now lives in the U.S.A.) and remembers how Hitler came to power there. If you listen to her story,  you'll pick up on some of the shocking parallels between western society today and Austrian and German society in the 1930s (She tells her story on three videos).



Kitty Werthmann's story - Part 2

Kitty Werthmann's story - Part 3

garden

(click on any photo to enlarge)

Scenes from the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, B.C.

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I first visited the Butchart Gardens many years ago when I was a little girl. I remember they were pretty and that my mom, a consummate gardener, enjoyed them a lot. We returned two years ago, in the summer of 2009 at about this time of year. My memories had not done these beautiful gardens justice. This time I took away visual proof in my own digital camera -- which got a proper workout!

Thursday challenge

Next week: EMPTY (House, Room, Playground, Glass, Container, Chair,...)

trees

A layering of trees - Butchart Garden, Victoria, B.C.

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THURSDAY CHELLENGE

Next Week: MOVEMENT (Shaking, Falling, Bouncing, Jumping, Curling, Sagging,...)

best of 2010 photo

 Houseboats at Fisherman's Wharf - Victoria, BC 

I chose this photo as my 2010 favorite for the colors, the water reflection but mostly for the memories of a beautiful evening in Victoria.

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: WINDOW (Reflections, A View Through a Window, House Windows, Car Windows, Glass,...)

peaceful

Houseboats at Fisherman's Wharf, Victoria, B.C.

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: GOLDEN (Jewelry, Coins, Sun, Leaves, Fields, Hair,...)

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. 

green

Japanese Garden (part of Butchart Gardens - Victoria, BC)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FOOD (Meals, Restaurants, Eating, Vegetables, Unusual Foods, Cooking, BBQs,...)

golden

 (Click on photo to enlarge)

Marigolds - Butchart Garden

On our visit to Butchart Garden in July, I was impressed with the multitude of interesting flowerbed color combinations. Wouldn't the above make a beautiful design for wrapping paper?

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: BEAUTY (Sunset, Nature, People, Houses, Eyes,...)

art

(Click on photos to enlarge)

 "West Coast Roots" by Lynn Kingham

Part of the Eagles in the City project. 

This eagle stands on the walk that circles the Victoria, BC Inner Harbor.

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: GOLDEN (Gold-colored, Gold Plated, Yellow, Sun Flowers, Jewellery, Blonde, First-rate, Special,...)

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More eagles from the "Eagles in the City" project:

• Vancouver Island Gallery

• Vancouver Area Gallery

Eagles In the City is a Lions Club project (similar to the previous Orcas in the City and Spirit Bears in the City projects). In the spring of 2010 all the fiberglass eagles will be auctioned off to raise funds for kids with disabilities. 

fresh

Rose (Butchart Garden, Victoria, BC)
(Click on photo to enlarge)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: BOTTLES (Containers, Cup, Mug, Vase, Beverage, Cosmetic, Ornamental,...)

tranquil

Victoria, BC - outer harbor

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FLIGHT (Birds, Insects, Kites, Helicopters, Jets, Boomerang,...)

on usefulness

Photo: planters on a dock - Victoria B.C.

"If I say -- I wonder if I am of any use -- I instantly lose the bloom of the touch of the Lord. 'He that believeth in me, out of him shall flow rivers of living water.' If I examine the outflow, I lose the touch of the Lord.

Which are the people who have influenced us most? Not the ones who thought they did, but those who had not the remotest notion that they were influencing us. In the Christian life, the implicit is never conscious; if it is conscious it ceases to have this unaffected loveliness which is the characteristic of the touch of Jesus. We always know when Jesus is at work because He produces in the commonplace something that is inspiring."

- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

rare

Nature's Frame

A few weeks ago we visited Butchart Gardens just outside Victoria BC. A cedar hedge rings the perimeter of this amazing garden. In one spot there is a hole in the hedge. It frames this (surprise!) ocean view.

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: CURVED (Roads, Buildings, Shapes, Bowed, Arch, Bubbles,...)

Langford & Victoria

September 23 - 25

The last three days of our vacation the weather threw a tantrum. Happily for us, we'd planned to spend the time with friends in Victoria.

We did get a little reprieve from the rain now and again, when we drove and walked around Langford and Victoria.

These deer were grazing very close to where our friends live. They are not a favorite with the locals, especially not the gardeners, though they are pretty.




One day we went to Ogden Point for lunch and a walk around the outer harbour.



I caught this river animal (rat? or otter?), climbing around on the flotsam,



and the big west coast sky.



And then vacation time was over (sigh) and it was time to take the ferry back home to the mainland and all things ordinary.