Thunderstorms !

It's Saturday early evening,and once again we have a weather watch.

To the west of us the skies are dark and threatening.

With this in mind I take your back to Monday of this week to show you what the sky looked like then.

Looking to the north east,this was what we saw.

That one had passed us.

Is that not an impressive sight?

I zoomed in for a closer shot,and this is what I got.

The awesome power in a storm cloud like this makes me feel so small.

As the sun set the scene became one of fiery beauty.
This was looking to the south.
Each cloud was alive with color.

Turning the camera west,this was the scene.
It makes me think of fire in the sky.
The distant clouds outlined with bright orange and yellow.

One last look west,to see incoming thunderheads,all highlighted by the setting sun.

The thought for today is a longer one,but I urge you to take the time to read through the words of this song.

O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, Thy power hath founded of old;
Established it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

Flowers and Such

I think it is time to head back to the A Rocha Canada Field Station,
located at the edge of the scenic Pembina Valley.
A Rocha is a Christian conservation organization,
working to show God's love for all creation.
I invite you to click on the name to visit their site.
Jake and I love to visit this place,so we are excited to share a few more pictures.

As one drives onto the yard this is part of the scene which greets you.
The directors live in a very lovely home,perched at the edge of the valley.

Here is a look into the valley.All around the wrap around deck are beds of beautiful flowers,and as you can see bird feeders of all kinds.

Walking around to the back or valley side of the house,this is the view.All flower beds look very natural and relaxed,yet so colorful.

I was impressed that even a few volunteer plants beside the driveway were left to grow.

Just another look into the valley.I could easily spend all day sitting on that deck,enjoying the view.

Part of conservation is to use water wisely.

We all know that flush toilets use a lot of water with each flush.

A Rocha has gotten around this by the use of an Outhouse.

I remember the old outhouse from years ago,but not with fond memories.

It was smelly,and not a pleasant place to be any longer than one had to.

A visit to the Outhouse at A Rocha is a pleasant experience indeed.

Here is the overall view.

Take note of all the little details,that make this place look great.

Upon opening the door,which I might add has a plexiglass frosted panel in it,

this is the inside view.

I think they were in the process of repainting this place.

 two seater no less,one white and one pink.Hmmm,was one for boys and one for girls.

To the side is this assortment of useful items.

Of course we need the toilet paper,but we never had  hand sanitizer in ours back home,

or incense sticks,candles and matches.

Previously when I visited this room,there was a picture on the other wall,but it was being redecorated and hence no picture this time.

I hope you have enjoyed this little tour.

I am quite certain that I will be featuring more pictures from this are.

Thought for today:
Contentment is not getting what we want,
but being satisfied with what we have.

Scenic Manitoba

On July 22,Jake and I went to Treherne,Manitoba to visit friends of ours at the campground.This is about an hour drive from our place,but it took us much longer,

as there were things to photograph.

The day was overcast with some drizzle and later also rain.

We stopped at a small lake called Swan Lake.

This was one vantage point to the lake.

Below is another view of the lake.

Even with the cloudy conditions,I thought this gave a good picture.

This is a popular place to go fishing,for those who enjoy that sport.

As we were leaving the lake area,we saw this meadow filled with yellow flowers.

No,these are not Dandelions,I think they are something called Birdsfoot Trefoil.

While taking pictures of the flowery meadow,this pair of White-tailed deer ran across the meadow.They were too far away for a good picture,but I had to try.

The campground is in the small town of Treherne.

I thought that this old brush pile,covered with weeds,looked pretty

The few bright red Poppies among the weeds really stood out.

ON our trip home we stopped to shoot a few pictures of the countryside.

The area is very rolling,and quite scenic.

The yellow in the distance is a field of Canola.

Thought for today:

All seasons are beautiful for the person

who carries happiness within.

Flower or Weed?

The humble Dandelion is often hated.

Most people do their best to rid their lawns of this plant.

A fellow blogger,Karin,at Yesterday,Today and Forever,

recently did a post about the  Dandelion and that caused me to look at some of our Dandelion pictures.

Jake and I too, do not want a yellow lawn,but I do think this is a pretty flower.

Instead of just posting the plain pictures,I had some Photoshop fun.

I found this quote on the internet.

A weed is but an unloved flower.Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Everyone who has received that bouquet of yellow flowers from a chubby little hand,

must admit that these flowers were beautiful,and given from the heart.

This bee is busy gathering nectar from a Dandelion.

Another quote from the internet.

Roses are red

Violets are blue;

But they don't get around

Like the dandelions do.

 Who among us has not picked one of these and blown those seeds away.

It is fun to watch those little parachutes fly away.

I  think this is a lovely flower,now if only we could get it to just stay at one or two plants.

I hope all of you are taking the time to really look at the beauty all around you.

It may even be that you will enjoy the humble Dandelion.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

On Saturday,July17,Jake and I attended a Hummingbird banding demonstration.
This was held at A Rocha in the Pembina Valley.
This place is about a half hour drive south-west of Morden.
The bander was from South Carolina,Doreen Cubie
leads a rich life and bird banding is only one of her interests.
I have put my pictures into collages,because I have quite a few.
This first collage shows in NO. 1 The cage set-up,in order to catch the hummingbirds.
Doreens' husband sat at the far end of the deck,ready to lower the cage door when a bird came in.This was done with a fishing line attached to the door.
N0.2 Shows Doreen gently retrieving the bird.
No.3 You can see a hummer in the mesh bag,waiting to be banded.
No.4 Gives you a close-up view of the pliers used to attach the tiny band.

The second collage shows the actual banding.

Picture No.1 She is gently attaching the band.I was impressed at how almost tenderly she handled these birds.

Notice that a ladies nylon anklet was used to hold the bird and protect it.

No.2 A gentle stretch of this tiny leg,now shows the band and numbers on it.

No.3Another important step is to measure the bird,wing length,bill length and also weight.

The birds which were caught weighed in at a whopping 2.5-3 grams.

No.4 As a thank-you for putting up with this human intervention,each bird was given the opportunity to get a sweet sip of nectar.

The final collage shows a few different views.
No.1 Doreen is showing us the tail of a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
Note the white on the outer tail feathers.
No.2 Here the bird is put upside down,and through a drinking straw the bander gently blows on the feathers.
This gives her a chance to see if this bird has any fat reserves or maybe even an egg.
No.3 This one is a male bird.Note the all black tail.
No.4 Here is the male Ruby-throated Hummingbird,in all its' beauty.
No.5 Doreen took this bird into better light so we could see the beauty of its feathers.
I have to say it again,she was as tender as could be with these birds.
When all the details had been recorded,one of the children there had the chance to stretch out their hand and hold the bird until it flew away.
No.6 Here is a look at the people intently watching all the details of bird banding.

Doreen was a wealth of information,not only about Hummingbirds,but other birds as well.
This was an exciting day for me,as I had never observed bird banding before.
Looking at these flying jewels I can fully understand the quote of the day:
Nature is the art of God.

The Heavens Declare...

While looking through our collection of pictures,wondering what to share today,

I found the following shots.

As I looked at these and thought about them,the following verse came to mind.

The heavens declare the glory of God,

the skies proclaim the work of His hands.

Psalm 19:1

The towering clouds of a thunderstorm,are massive,reaching high into the sky.

These show the awesome power of God at work.

I have to wonder just how high this cloud formation is.

I love to see these storms and marvel at the beauty of them.

Just look at the details of this cloud.

I end this post with a recent sunset picture.

Those clouds are on fire,at least that is what it looks like.

                                            All photos by Ruth Hiebert
Thought for today:
All the beautiful sentiments in the world
weigh less than a single lovely action.
James Russell Lowell

Refreshing and Clear

The pictures I have for you today are a little different.

These are all taken by me,Ruth,and aside from the frames have not been altered.
The difference in color is due to the light conditions.
I will show the pictures and give you a chance to guess what this is.

Take a close look at the center of the picture.

This is the same as the above photo,but without the frame.

Crystal clear.

Silver ripples.

Crinkled Tinfoil?

On a recent trip to Oak Hammock Marsh,about a 2 hour drive from our place,

we drove to the far north end of this marsh.

About a t the half-way point ,there is an Artesian Well.

All of these pictures were taken at this well.

In the second and third picture you can see the water coming up through the rocks.

It was most interesting to see this water bubble up like this.

The water was was as clear as any tap water,but they ask you not to drink from it.

I was fascinated by all the patterns in the waters surface.

I also enjoyed adding the frames,just because.

Thought for today:

How strange that nature does not knock,

and yet does not intrude.

A Look at Some Recent Images

Another week has come and gone.

With very high temperatures and humidity,we have not been able to get as many pictures as we would have liked.

Today I am showing you a variety of images taken by Jake over the last week or two.

The Marbled Godwit must be nesting in our area.

We have seen them around a few times,just a couple of miles south of town.

AS the sun was in the western sky,this bird made several passes.

I love the pattern on the wings.

Here is a side view,so you can see the belly.

This is also richly patterned.

On Thursday,we took a trip to Oak Hammock Marsh.

This is a large marsh area just north of Winnipeg.

We were somewhat disappointed with the lack of birds,but one sighting made up for this.

As we walked along a pair of Killdeer were putting on a dramatic display.

Jake finally noticed why.Huddled in among the stones were four of the smallest Killdeer We had ever seen.They can not have been very old,and of course they never moved.

We got several pictures and walked away,allowing the parents to tend to them.

The other day on yet another drive in the country,we came upon this scene.

THis is a typical scene in southern Manitoba.

A field of gold,which will at the right time be harvested and turned into cash.

It seems that the summer is speeding along and before we know it the combines will be out in full force.

 We usually don't see owls during daylight hours,so this one was a treat.

A Great Horned Owl sitting on  a fence post.

It was too far away for a good picture,but worth taking anyway.

 Finally,a look to the east,where storm clouds are gathering.

The immensity of these clouds amazes me.

The water towers you see just right of the center of the picture,are where we get our water from in Morden.They stand alongside of Lake Minniwasta,and draw water from there.

Right now our lake is full and we are thankful for that.

A lot of people depend on this water source.

Thought for today:

Stop every now and then.

Just stop and enjoy.

Take a deep breath.

Relax and take in the abundance of life.

Flowers From My Garden

Any words I can say are not equal to what the flowers themselves say.

Today I will let the images speak for themselves.

The power of God is present at all places,

even in the tiniest leaf …

God is entirely and personally present in the wilderness,

in the garden,and in the field.