Cold winter morning sunlight, warm blanket, good

coffee, light around the rafters.

Snow!

Snowflakes, snow skies, snow angels, snowplows, snow boots.

I now own The Snowman dvd. Snow is falling, as per Ray Charles.

Juneau pounces on me/snow angels whenever she can.

Let's merry indeed!

I don't remember what sort of awful made me really tired and ill this time last year, but I do remember you bringing me my first Eggnog Latte of the season, Sar. Thanks again.

A lot of the funny/thoughtful/hilariously awkward has happened over these, now I think of it.

And I'm a little sad I wasn't around for your first Christmas drink of 2011 ... but at least you enjoyed it!

Bread

We can grow good wheat and make good bread when we realize that man does not live by

bread alone.

I'm smitten with making bread. I really appreciate the fact that there's no such thing as over-kneading or too much punching down although I have now realized that one can over-proof.

I'm consistently astonished whenever I look at the dough and see it doing what it's supposed to. Perhaps that's a lack of faith, but it blazes me away each time.

(So I squawk and do a happy dance)

(Especially when I saw the challah!)

And sort of unrelated, but it is, but not ... this is what comes to mind.

Take this bread, take this wine

Now the simple made divine, for any to receive

By Your mercy we come to Your table

By Your strength You are making us faithful

We remember You, and remembrance leads us to worship

And as we worship You, our worship leads to communion

We respond to Your invitation

We remember You.

Fall(ing)

If you are still and quiet you can hear the swoosh of huge maple leaves falling from the tree tops, swishing down like large pieces of paper

life on the coast

marina! boats! sunset! water! LOVE!

Since I pulled in yesterday, she must be at my heels, even when I'm clearing out the planters and garden for winter. I'm even better than her little Disney squeaky chew-toy thing.

Dan Mangan plays a mean live show.

Olympic Plaza, 100.5FM Peak Secret Show.

Please note: random bird statue. nearly finished BC place. robots on stage, leading crowd in dance moves to the song, well, "Robots". Imagine a 400 person surround sound chorus singing "Robots need love tooooo... they want to be loved by you...". 'twas quite fun.

This was a wonderful photo taken the day that I read by Mill Lake in Abbotsford for about 3 hours straight. God talked to me through ducks and small children. It was glorious.

We like Quebec

Goodbye friendly Quebec! We'll miss you!

Hook, Line and....Sinclair?

Dear Sarah Sinclair,
We miss you.
Love,
Alpha and Esther.

Green

Pier

This picture contains 3 of my favorite things:
- Tea, and more specifically Duchess Grey Tea, obtained exclusively from Trader Joe's.
- My red mug, bought for $0.25 at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in Gibsons BC, one of my prized possessions despite the broken handle.
- Barnabas. NBD. just the best place on earth.
It must have taken me 30 tries to get the tea tag right, the wind would inevitably blow it too much and the 25 sec exposure would just capture a blurr, but this one worked out almost perfectly! :)

Good Friends and Funny Faces.

My dear friends Pierre, Laurel and Dan.
Laurel and I inevitably matching again, Dan and Pierre predictably goofing off again.

It would be impossible to choose just one picture from Butchart Gardens. I stumbled upon two somewhat forgotten loves: gardening, and photography. Oh yeah, and these photos are all of my favourite flower variety: dahlias.

More coming up tomorrow: wacky family triumphs.

Phil and Evelyn Erickson are two of the most amazing people I have ever met, the way they live their lives for the Lord is an incredible example to me and I know to hundreds of other people. They loved me like one of their own children during my internship at Barnabas and I am constantly being blown away by their Christ-like example. <3 I'm going to miss them!
P.S. Phil usually smiles but this time he didn't get the memo...:)

An Echo Lake view from Micah and Josh's cabin

(it got more opulent while I was on my way to the next minor tragedy/sliver).

Awe.

Home for the past week!

I spent little time in it, but it was fabulous.

How to make sun tea:

One tall jar or container - if it seals it means I can't spill it quite so easily. This one just looks great.

About 5 (I use black) tea bags per 6 cups boiling water. Whatever amount of honey or sugar you want - I tossed in just over one TBSP of honey. Lemon slices (or if you have it, the lemon juice concentrate could work too) as you like it. This time I threw in raspberries too, since they'd already joined my cake and salad.

Leave it out in the sun for hours or more. It will just get more strong and dark, the way we like our coffee (right Sarah?)

PS Fortunately for you two, Buster has nothing to do with the making of tea. I just love seeing her around after escapading for over 3 weeks.

Graduation Week...

... brought many joyous things.

much time with this lovely friend before we part ways

a whale of a time with a friend at the UBC Beatty Biodiversity Museum

beautiful sunsets accompanying beautiful conversation

Meet Tom (aka 'Big Tom' for apparent reasons).

I always hear Johnny Cash's voice singing Big John when I think of

Tom, even though he's not bad.

We are good friends and he follows me around.

Trout Lake Farmers Market. Findings..

(photo cred: wonderful Robyn!)

Blog post titles are over-rated so I won't be adding any to my posts. That way you will know that it's Alpha posting!
Last weekend we barbequed steaks down on the float, blue rare, with twice baked potatoes, green salad with strawberries, candied pecans and the best poppy seed raspberry vinaigrette I've ever tasted, and wine.
Then we lay on the couches and watched the meteor shower.
The perfect way to spend an evening.

So these are a few from the past days where I haven't really had internet.

#1. Banana walnut oatmeal cookies and jam-jams for Su and 'Scoops ( aka Sasha, Cooper, and Clint), made by Steph and me.

#2. Early morning mist over the water. I wish I could've caught the black bear who swam over to visit a little later.

Words to live by!

August begins!

So I'm not sure if our pictures should have faces in them, but after a day spent at Deep Cove reading, chatting, eating triple creme brie, and wading in the ocean, this gelato was the icing on the cake. So. Good. Beautiful people, beautiful day, first day of August!

An evening in.

Sometimes the simplest things bring the most joy.

(no title needed) (which of course is a title)

Quite possibly Jake Ousley's inspiration for the song 'Times Like These.'

I have spent hours here just being in the past few days.

(Two days ago)

What you can see - beets, buttercrunch lettuce, carrots, and some really gangly broccoli.

What you can't see - raspberries, potatoes, more carrots, snap peas, tomatoes, zucchini (best vegetable name ever?), dill, and a more than generous amount of weeds.

Gardens, friends - outside, dirt/mud, growing things, water:

what better place?

To make up for many missed days I've decided to add 2 pictures. The first one is the view I have at 5.45 every morning during prayer. Barnabas sunrises are incredible! The second is just because I really like grass. And Barnabas has a lot of it.

This is me pretending to be at track practice on my practicum. This is me faking a discus turn, but this photo makes me look like I have bad form. Maybe I do? Anyways, I'm creating my useless education blog portfolio right now, and Christine and I had a laugh about fake pictures that we get to use as "artefacts" for our portfolio - artefacts that we then "reflect" on in terms of educational value etc blah blah blah. Anyways. In the middle of a very long, very dreary day of blahh-ing online, this picture shows me soaking up a few rays of Vitamin D.

Contents of pockets

I just realized that at the time Sarah was loading

her pictures of Lighthouse Park I was probably trying to hook up an ECG on an 8 year old quad accident victim (note Spiderman bandage to far right - pointless for injuries, invaluable for distraction value). Gauze doubling as to-do list. Eye drops! Lotion for hands that are breaking.

Here are bits and pieces of my past few days (or any day really).

It's amazing what I fit into

my pockets.

Such beauty.

A pint for your thoughts

Places I'd like to visit in the near future...

Even if it's raining constantly here ...

... the wood and the grains are stunning in any light.

I like sitting at the top of the stairs looking over the living area

and the street outside.