Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Yellows and Golds, Oranges and Even some Red





After a long and rather cold rainy day at the funeral for Ruth the lost elderly lady neighbour today seems so slow.
The morning started out dark as now the sun doesn't come up anymore at 4 a.m. it is more like 7ish although it is getting lighter before that. The sun shining on this splendor that God has blessed us with is beyond my word capabilities to describe. The intensiveness of the colours and e
ven the contrasting shadows with their deep dark depth is something to behold. I did try to capture it on camera to share with you and praying it will look at least halfways as wonderful as it did in reality. Now the clouds are moving in again and their is a different kind of beauty to behold.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
Psalm 19:1
Praying you are enjoying your Fall
Love Roxanne

Friday, September 10, 2010

Summer So Strange



It is a quiet evening at Blackwater River Ranch. There are no cows near the house for a change Only a Screech Owl makes its funny noise. I thought I could hear the sound of a wolf but it is far away.I am soaking my cookie sheets that I had cinnamon buns on and the big bread bowl thinking back over our so-called summer~~
I believe the weather got very hot for this part of the world. I am told the sun shone day in and day out and the sky was clear blue. I do not know for myself though it is all heresay. June was a cold month. The grasses did not grow well as the nights would freeze them and the days would grow hot and be dry. By July we were still getting frosts and dry weather. Our mornings would start out sunny and clear and still, very still. Not even a leaf would whisper. By nine in the morning, a breeze would come ,by ten or eleven it was a full fledged wind. Drying everything out ~~ One of those hot dry summer evenings we got an incredible electric storm. Shocking blue streaks zapped their way across the heavens. Winds blew. The display of crackling, snapping lightning was really quite awesome. The problem was evident the next day when we had the pastor's wife (a pastor herself) show up as she needed to use the phone. There was a fire just up the road from our place. That, my dears, was the beginning of a very long,long summer ~~I think it was summer as not long after that we could no longer see our sky. The sun disappeared in a strange amber clouded light.Choppers making their bwaap bwaap bwaap sound filled our quiet world turning it into a war zone. The sound of the fire roaring on the other side of the ridge from our house was heightened by the sound of six to eight of these whirling, water- bucket carrying,man -made humming birds. Non-stop for hours. We danced our fire hose dance under their bwaaaaping, the beat throbbing within our very bones. The days went on and on. We watched our ribbons tied on the stick. Wind is blowing north to northwest~ wind is blowing east (hooray away from us) wind is blowing north west again wind is blowing south west to us depending on which side of the ranch the fire was burning the heaviest. We attempted to create an envelope of humidity around the buildings. And we did succeed at that too. With help from a fire structural protection crew and their handy dandy sprinklers and hoses added to our already existing fire hoses. The fire-fighters were happy to have us here even though this was an under evacuation order area. We had chosen to stay and fight for our home and the hundred or so head of cattle that had come in off the range. Some came down with the smoke licking at their heels. Some more came in after the fire was mostly over. We were allowed to go out if we so wished but once out we would not be allowed back in so we did not go out. They did lift the road ban for a few hours one day thinking it was safe to do so. We went out to get hog grower for the ten piggies who needed grub very soon. We got back (good thing we didn't stay for supper with our daughter in law and the family) and they had it back up.They were gracious enough to let us back in. The fire really got going. I can tell you all about summer if you like thick amber coloured smoke or grey smoke or fresh rich smelling smoke or that is green smoke(meaning burning very green trees) or its raining pine needles on us. Convoys of forestry workers going up our poor old dirt road. A road that has not seen that many vehicles in its whole existence all put together. Heavy equipment. Big shots riding around being important in the bush country that they don't even know where they are! But they are important people so it doesn't matter. Local folks sneaking through on back roads some of which are more like trails,to get to their ranch that they have been denied access to by said important peoples. I guess I could tell alot of stories but really it was a very strange summer. Now it has been raining and raining. Cows are everywhere. Fording the river, walking on the trails, coming up to the house, anywhere they please to go. Back on one very hot and tiring afternoon I gave up for a few moments on all this noise and action and sat shoes, clothes and all in the river and started singing praises to God and what did I get for an audience??~~CROWS!! a whole flock of crows squawking at me and bouncing their way up and down the other side of the river shore. (I was in a back eddy) so they were very close to me. Any ways I guess all one can say about my singing abilities is it is fit for the crows . Now I am recovering from walking pneumonia probably from all the smoke I breathed for a month. I can not sing at all not even for the crows as my voice is shot but I am happy and health is back on its way to me.

Evening and morning and at noon I will pray,
and cry aloud,
and He shall hear my voice.
Psalm 55:17
God Bless your week-end,
Roxanne