Let the Bells Ring...

Our church actually has a real bell tower.
On Christmas Eve someone pulls on the rope in the entrance to make the bell ring.
I love it!

I've been singing one of my favorite Christmas Carols. I love it because of the second and third verses:

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
their old familiar carols play,
and wild and sweet the words repeat of
peace on earth, goodwill toward men.

Then in despair I bowed my head,
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song of
peace on earth, goodwill toward men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep,
"God is not dead, nor doeth He sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with
peace on earth, goodwill toward men!"

God is not dead...Let the bells ring!
Merry Christmas.

Moon Eclipse

I didn't catch the moon going into eclipse (couldn't stay up until 11 pm -lol), but I did wake up at 2 am and caught it coming out of the eclipse. This first picture was taken at 2:11 am. You sure can tell it's the earth's shadow covering the moon.

This is at 2:22 and half the moon is showing already.

At 2:42 most of the moon is showing, but it's beginning to get cloudy. The clouds covered the moon quickly after that, so I took my frozen body to bed to warm up!

At 7:21 am the moon is back to normal, though still with a light cloud cover.

We've got a thing about clocks...

We bought a mantle clock for our 40th Anniversary. We were looking for a new one but decided this 70-plus-year old chime clock was a better value. It has been totally redone, inside and out.

It's an 8-day wind-up clock. We're always supposed to wind it up the same day of the week.
It's a Junghans, made in the Black Forest of Germany. We compared the chimes of this old clock with a new one, and the difference was incredible! I love these chimes. You can hear them in the posting below.

So what's with us and clocks? For our 10th anniversary we bought a cuckoo clock, which we no longer have. For our 15th we bought this weighted oak clock from Koop's Jewellers in Kelowna and have enjoyed it. It gives the hour, but there's no music.

For our 25th anniversary we were given this clock from friends in Kelowna who had a surprise party for us. That was fun, and we've enjoyed this clock as well.

So how many clocks can you have in a room? I don't know, but in some rooms we have several. And they all have a story.

I guess there is a connection between the passing of time in a marriage, and the purchasing of a clock to celebrate the passing of the years.... Or is that stretching it?

Let's face it, we love clocks!

Don't forget to listen to the chimes below.

I've added this picture because this very bright star has been appearing in the night sky for awhile. I got up early one morning and it was so bright in the eastern sky that I had to take a picture. If you click on it to enlarge it, you'll see the green colours around the edge.

I don't know what it is - it may be a planet.

Christmas is a good time for it to appear!

Clock chime

This is the half-hour chime.
The 15 after chime is 8 notes, the half hour is 16, the quarter to chime is 24 notes, and on the hour it chimes 32 notes and then bongs the hour.
I really enjoy listening to it.

Time to think about summmer...

I've always found herons illusuive and hard to take pictures of. This one was pretty calm. When we stopped to take a picture, I was so cautious about scaring him off, but he posed for a long time, managed to catch a fish and eat it, and when I was finally done I asked Mal to scare him off so I could get a picture of him in flight, but he refused to scare. He wouldn't leave. It was a highlight of the summer!

This grey owl was at the Birds of Prey Center in Coaldale.

My sunflowers opened just before frost, but I did get a few pictures, and obviously the bees had a chance to enjoy them as well!

A real highlight was going to the Butterfly House at the Calgary Zoo. Our first experience there, and we both loved it. You walk in and there's butterflies everywhere, and they brush against you and may even land on you. And so many varieties that we never see! It was awesome for photography.

We're in the middle of a chinook now. We've been at -25 to -30 the last while, and today it's supposed to be plus one. Good thing, because we're getting company from B.C. and we wouldn't want to scare them off!

Prime Forever

Lord, I don't want to be a faded flower -
Brown, tattered edges,
Petals falling
leaving a naked stalk,
Past prime.
I don't want to be a faded flower,
beauty gone,
strength waning,
a mind not quick to grasp,
Usefulness and purpose done.

How eagerly each blossom began as a bud -

impatient to open
and experience life,
straining towards the future
and all its promise.
The bud opened too slowly to suit me.
But petals do open,
unfolding life,
beauty, vibrant color,
awe-inspiring freshness.

Then prime passes, flowers fade,
petals drop,
are blown away.
Winter follows autumn
as surely as summer follows spring.
Life keeps unfolding, the cycle continues.
Sometimes I wish
life would end at prime.
But that's not how
You planned it.

Lord, how can I be a faded flower?
Your original plan
was life forever at prime.
But with sin came death
and faded flowers.
Yet death holds the seeds of a New Spring.
Now our glad hope
is to push through the soil
a second time, and
rise again to prime forever.
Lord, teach me how to be a faded flower,
to wait patiently
for Your new spring,
and to hold on to the hope
of Prime Forever.

Eleanor Braun

Written May, 2004

A day in the Life of a Moose

Yesterday morning I went for a walk along our new paths by our new pond near our new school, all next to our old marsh. As I walked the paths I was shocked to see what could be nothing else than a moose! I rushed home to get my camera and Mal drove me back to take some pictures. As it turned out, the moose spent an interesting day in town.

The moose visited the school,

then crossed the newly planted grass of our baseball diamonds,

passed the community hall,

then jumped over a chain link fence into a yard,
where he spent the day eating their trees!
We saw him there in the early afternoon but by six o'clock he had left -
I assume he went back to the coulees for the night.

I phoned the local newspaper to offer my pictures,
but they said they'd already been given some pictures from a moose
in a backyard last week which they were going to publish next week.

I'll be interested to see if it's the same moose,
or if there's several moose walking the streets of our town!

Luke's Dedication

Tim and Juanita had Luke dedicated last Sunday.

Grandpa Braun was privileged to pray the Prayer of Dedication for him.
Luke was quite interested in the event!

He is 4 1/2 months old now and enjoying life,
especially when Auntie Jess tickles him!

Kaleb enjoyed his frog mask...

and running!

It gave Uncle Darrell a chance to experiment with his new camera.

The good, old days!

This isn't Hallowe'en, but it's the only dress-up picture that includes Tim.

It's tough to be youngest, eh Tim???

Those clown costumes from Doyles really got good use!

Mal's 267 lb. pumpkin hit the newspaper.
Jon's inside and Darrell is on the right.

Okanagan Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in the Okanagan, beginning with Diane and Gordon in Keremeos for one day.

The fruit stands go all out in decorating for fall.
We toured the them just to enjoy it all.

Then we had turkey dinner with Irene and Joe in Kelowna. Yummy!

It was Ron's birthday, plus they sang for Mal and me.
Ryan and the boys were here while Carol was in New York with her mother celebrating significant birthdays.

It was a good family time, and Dad can still beat us at dominoes!
But he took pity on us this time and Leanne passed him.

Fall Camping

We went camping for an overnight on an impulse because the weather was gorgeous and managed to hit it when the fall colours were at their best. Our friends Rob and Linda joined us. It was awesome!

Rob and Linda said I could use this picture as long as I mentioned that it was us who led them into sin! We wanted to show them our church camp but the gate waas closed for the season, so we found our own way in!

We camped at Red Lodge Park, and it was gorgeous no matter where we looked.

There was this old codger enjoying the campfire with us!

Black leaves with yellow veins indicated disease, but it sure looked pretty.

Our Yard

It took until the middle of August before our flowers looked like there was a decent amount of growth. We're still babying them along, protecting them from frost because we don't want to let them go yet!

Mal laid rubber tiles on our walkways in the side and back. They are made of recycled tires, so they should last well, and they are really nice to walk on. We'll put shavings or crushed rock along the sides to finish it off, but maybe not until next spring now.

My Scarlet Runner Beans have finally reached the top of the arbor. I grow them for the flowers and vines, not for the beans. In past years I've tried morning glories and moon flowers, but they are just not tough enough for our weather.

The swing is our favorite place to sit. We often go and sit outside on the swing for a bit after lunch. I've got 6 sunflowers blooming now - only about 10 to go! I have a feeling we're not going to make it this year! This month has been below normal temperatures and time is running out. However, bit by bit we do a little more in our yard each year, and we enjoy it.

Happy Birthday Jon!

We were pretty proud of what a cute baby we had!

Your favorite pillow - later you carried it around, calling it your "pong".

Mal's birthday celebrated with 2 others in our care group.

It looks like it's the old guy who can get the candles blown out first,

even with 2 against 1!

Keiver's Lake

We camped at Keiver's Lake for the first time and enjoyed it.

There were a lot of reeds at the edges which would make for good canoeing. It's a small lake.

We went for a drive and checked out an old abandoned house and found this swarm of bees. Needless to say, we didn't get too close!
The next 2 posts show pictures of our camping experience.

Red-Necked Phalarope

These small birds whirl around continually to feed. Watch the ones in the foreground, and then imagine a group of 20 or 30 all whirling at the same time. They twittered constantly while they twirled, so between the whirling and the twittering and the pecking, it was a very busy scene! The reason for the whirling is described in the last picture below.

I'm So Excited!

I got my first picture of an owl in the wild! We saw an old abandoned farmyard and decided it might be a nice place to take pictures. We drove up, and I saw this Great Horned Owl peeking out of the shed. I was afraid he'd fly away, so I took a couple of pictures before leaving the truck, and then stepped out to take some more.

As we got closer to him, he turned around as if he was going to go inside, and then suddenly swooshed out over our heads and flew away.
We decided to look inside the shed, and suddenly, just as we got right close, a second owl appeared in the opening, stared me right in the eyeball and then swooped low over our heads and took off. I wish I had a picture of that, but we weren't expecting a second owl!

A large dragonfly landed on the arm of my jacket and stayed there until we had taken many pictures, and finally I shooed him off! I learned that he is a Blue-eyed Darner.

I'm always fascinated by the many compartments that make up their head and body. The large blue parts on the side of its head are its eyes. Each bulging compound eye consists of up to 30,000 individual eyes! Eighty percent of its brain is devoted to vision! It sees all the colours we do plus ultraviolet and polarized light. They are the fastest insect in the world, and can fly 35 mph. They are also the most acrobatic.

I saw and photographed a new bird: the Red-necked Phalarope. He only has a red neck during mating season. They are smaller than a robin.

There were dozens of them on the lake, and they demonstrated some fascinating behaviour. They would go around and around in one direction, pecking at the water every round or two. They moved so fast it made you dizzy just watching - especially when dozens were doing it at the same time!
I learned that the reason for this was to stir up the water which brings the planktonic invertebrates up to the surface into pecking range. Quite a sight!