I Will Lift Up My eyes

 I will lift up my eyes to the hills-

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

the maker of heaven and earth.

 He will not let your foot slip-

he who watches over you will not slumber;

indeed,he who watches over Isreal

will neither slumber nor sleep.

 The Lord watches over you-

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all harm-

he will watch over your life;

the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

Psalm 121

All pictures are by Jake and taken from old slides.

Peace in the Storm

My life has been turned upside down and shaken,BUT,

I know that God is still in control.

He who has created the beautiful flowers knows what I can handle.

As Jake and I travel this uncharted path before us I will trust my Father to lead the way.

I want to thank each one of you who have prayed and are praying for us.

Tears are many but we feel a deep underlying peace.

There are so many things to talk about and so much to to do.

A verse I lean on is found in Philippians 4:13,

I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

Update on Jake

Jake has been in Boundary Trails Health Center since Saturday morning.

 A CT scan revealed a mass on the pancreas.

Today we were told by two doctors that there are multiple tumors affecting different organs in his body.

They both said that surgery was not an option and Chemo was not likely to be very effective.

Our personal doctor also told us to not expect years but rather months.

This has been a very painful day,and likely the start of many more painful times.

Jake and I thank each one of you for your continued prayers and support.

Without God on our side we could not go on.

Health Update

Bear with me folks,I will get back to posting pictures again,but right now that is not a priority.

Jake is still in hospital.Some good news,the stomach is clear of cancer.

He has had 6 liters of fluid removed since Monday,and that is worrisome.

He still has no pain,for which I praise the Lord.

I do believe he is handling this much better than I am.

It is so painful to see the love of my life and my best friend 

going through this trial.

I do know that God is in control,and we both feel the prayers of others bearing us up.

Thank-you to each one who is praying,we love you.

It's off to bed to get some rest and then back to Jake's bedside tomorrow.

  Ruth

Update

Today the doctor will be draining some fluid from Jake's belly,for two reasons.One is to give him some relief from the pressure and the other is to see if there are cancer cells in the fluid.
I will not be commenting on many blogs for the next little while,but I will try to read them.
Thank-you so much for all your prayers,I can feel God's arms carrying me at this time.

Things Are Not Well

This is a quick note to request prayer for my dear husband,Jake.
He is in hospital with a mass on his pancreas.
I will update when I can.

Trying Something New

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Originally uploaded by Jake and Ruth's Captures

This is a trial post.I am doing this directly from Flickr.

More Fall Scenes of 2009

Days are slipping by on me and my posting is not as regular as it should be.

Once again,I take you back to another year.

All the pictures on today's post were taken in 2009.

A few Oak leaves,backlit by the sun,make a good picture.

These wild grapes are quite sour,so we took only pictures and left them for the birds to enjoy.

This is one of my attempts at creativity.

Just one lone head of grass.

The next two pictures were taken at one of our favorite parks in Winnipeg,St.Vital.

I just liked the evergreen boughs against that clear blue sky.

Thought for today:

Time is a very precious gift of God;

so precious that it is only given to us moment by moment.

Fall Color in 2008

It is that time of year when nature puts on a spectacular display of color.

We are in the early stages of the fall color and I have not taken any pictures of it so far this year.

Going through our pictures and uploading them to Flickr has been good,as I see some pictures of previous years.

Today I take you back to 2008,this was the year of gorgeous color everywhere.

This was taken just west of the town of Morden,our home place.We have the Trans-Canada trail passing through there.

This is along that trail,or part of it.

While we were down in this little valley,the color was so spectacular,it didn't matter which way I pointed the camera,each sight was lovely.

The following is taken at just a different angle than the first.

Fall has such a rich color palette,combine that with the late day sun and the colors are warm.

I took this one north of Morden.

A Western Meadowlark who was still hanging around.

Again this picture was taken looking the opposite direction from the first one.

A creek flows through here,actually his creek helps to give us some of our water for the town.

The beavers had constructed a dam along the creek.

Come springtime,I am sure it got washed away,as we can have a lot of water passing through here and running into our lake.

My last picture for today was taken just outside our back door.No,I did not place the red leaf there for a picture.

We have Amur Maples growing right along the fence line and they turn the most beautiful red in fall.

Thought for today:

May this Fall's blessings remind you of our Father's boundless love.

Apple Pie!

Awhile ago I posted this picture of the apples on our tree.

Here are some of the apples,freshly picked

I mentioned at that time that these Goodland apples give a wonderful pie.

Now I ask you to get a cup of your favorite beverage,and a fork.

Here is a piece of pie for each of you.

I made the pie in a 9x13 pan instead of in a pie plate.

Of course no apple pie is complete without some ice-cream.

The little roll beside the pie is leftover dough,sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon,then rolled up and cut to lengths.

These are very tasty rolls when fresh from the oven.

I have been very busy recently,uploading our pictures to Flickr.

For anyone interested you may see them by clicking here.
It will take quite some time to get all our 14,000+ photos uploaded.

I have to share one more picture.
Kai was showing off her gymnastics skills to me.
She is making a bridge,at least that is what she calls it.

Oh to be that flexible again.
OK,I probably never was that flexible,but I can wish.

Thought for today:
This is the day to be content in the knowledge that God knows best.

Bath Time

Words are not needed to enjoy the following photos.

I make no excuses for the algae growth,

because the birds don't seem to mind,so why should I fret.

Pull up a chair and let's watch a few moments of activity at our little pool.

Thought for today:

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs.  When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.  ~Ansel Adams

Corn and Apple Festival Part 2

As promised,here are a few more pictures from our annual festival.

What would a Corn and Apple Festival be if there were no corn   or apples.

I will not be showing the free apple cider,but they back a big truck into the street and serve small sealed cups of apple cider to all who want it.

The free corn is a bit more of a production,so I will try to show some of that.

This old tractor sits on a side lot and it is used to power the cooker for the corn as well as the husker.

Unfortunately,when I was there they were not husking the corn,so I have no pictures of that.

Here are the bins of corn,ready for the cooker,which you can also see.

Several men oversee this operation.

To the left you can see the volunteers who are handing out the corn as people walk by.

This picture shows some of the line-up,waiting for their one free cob of sweet corn.

The town has got this down to a science and the line flows very smoothly,and quite quickly.

On the long planks are bottles of pourable butter and salt shakers.

The town also makes sure that everyone gets their corn,even the people in the booths.

One fellow takes a shopping cart,with a cooler,filled with freshly cooked corn and a load of apple cider and makes his way down the street,handing out corn and cider to the vendors.

This fella enjoys his free corn.I might add that this is a very common sight on the street over the days of the festival.

I have mentioned A Rocha in previous posts,and they also had a booth.They were giving out samples of a fruit smoothie.

This was not just any smoothie.

Look carefully at the back of that bike and notice the base of a blender on it.

Someone got on the bike and pedaled away to generate the power to drive the blender and make a smoothie.

I cannot do a post on the festival without showing my favorite booth.

This is our son Steve and Jake,at Steve's display.

No,he doesn't sell anything right there,but hopes to generate interest in people who want to get their pictures taken by a pro.He had a good weekend,inspite of the fact that the weather was not ideal.

Thought for today:

Happiness isn't the easiest thing to find,

but one place you're guaranteed to find it is in a friend's smile.

44th Annual Corn and Apple Festival

The 44th annual Corn and Apple Festival in our hometown of Morden has come to an end.

This event takes place during the last full weekend in August.

The activities start on Friday at noon and end Sunday at about 6PM.

There are activities for all ages and tastes.

Of course face painting is a big one,especially for our Granddaughter,Kai.I think she is the cutest butterfly around.

After the face painting it was on to the rides.

All the rest of my pictures were taken on Sunday,

therefore the rides were not in operation.

They are only allowed to start until noon,so as not to interfere with the downtown worship service.

As you can see the sky was grey this morning,but all events went on as planned.

The Ferris Wheel looks pretty,but I prefer to watch it from on the street.

This slide is very popular with the kids.

Depending on the weight,a person can travel quite fast on the way down,again,not for me.

This fellow has been at the festival for many years.He takes his spot at the center of the street,and before long has children lining up to get their balloon creation.

I must say that he makes some very intricate designs.

I bet he gets real tired standing on those tall 'legs'.

When he walks he actually is really good,looking almost natural.

For Jake and me the big event is the Sunday morning church service.People from all the different churches attend.

Most of the local churches don't have a service on this day,but encourage the people to come here.

This year we had some local talent,like this quartet.

These are the Glencross Quartet.

We have known most of these fellows for many years.

They sing well and give a good gospel message in song.

Our special guests this year were Mike and Lynda Randle.

Mike gave the morning message and blessed our hearts

with God's Word.

Lynda has sung on the Gaither Homecoming shows.

She has a powerful voice and a great testimony.

These pictures are not great for quality,but they do give you a glimpse into our festival.

I will be doing another post about this,in a day or two.