Tag Archives: Northern Lights

Northern Lights in October

We got a prompt from our son who was working nights that there were Northern Lights on view in our area. We walked out on our deck and I started taking photos on my phone to see what we could see. Later I walked out front of our home to capture some different views.

It was fun to capture these colors in the night sky outside our home.

These photos were taken on Monday night October 7th. We are supposed to have more views on Thursday the 10th of October.

My laser eye surgery went well yesterday and was so quick and easy, so surprising. Here’s hoping my eyesight will be improved and the glare issues will diminish.

We are still following the aftermath of Milton and Helene hoping for good response and help for all who were affected.

Walk Boldly Hodgepodge

Jo has a new set of questions for us to park on and answer for Wednesday Hodgepodge! Thank you, Jo!

1. Thursday is National Walk To A Park Day. I know these celebratory days are mostly made up, but some are fun to think about. Do you live close enough to a park to walk to one on Thursday? Will you? The most famous park in the world is Central Park located in NYC. Have you ever been to Central Park? What did you think? If you haven’t been is this a place you’d like to see? 

The closest park to us is Douglas Falls Park and it is 3.3 miles away so it would take over an hour to walk to on roads that frankly aren’t safe to walk on. We will not walk to this park. We’ve been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art which sits on the edges of Central Park but I do not remember walking in the park. I’m not interested in traveling to New York at this stage of my life.

2. Something you’ve done recently that turned out to be a ‘walk in the park’? 

We were able to walk in parks recently while in Scotland and the ‘walk in the park’ part is that because Greg and I pushed ourselves to condition our bodies for stairs by climbing the stairs at the high school football stadium every day for a few weeks before we flew to Scotland we were able to walk and climb easier than normal for us. The photo at the top of this post is from one of the Castle parks we walked in and this was our bonus sighting… below!

A baby Coo!

3. Can you parallel park? Do you have to do this often where you live? 

I can parallel park but I do not have to where we live and even though I can, I avoid it.

4. The colors of fall…red, brown, russet, golden bronze, golden yellow, purplish red, light tan, crimson, orange red, and scarlet. Are these colors you like to wear? Is this your season in terms of color? What about your home? Would we see these tones in your home decorating? 

I do put out fall decor in all these colors for a few months in fall and wear some of those colors but they are not my go to colors.

5. What part of history do you find most interesting? Elaborate. 

Because of our recent trip to Scotland I found the history of the Scottish Reformation most interesting. It made our whole trip so much more meaningful to watch for and follow in the steps of the Reformers and Covenantors like Knox, Wishart, the two Margarets and Jenny Geddes and others.  To hear of their interactions with Kings and Queens in history and how they boldly stood up for Christ was inspiring. We saw evidences of their remarkable legacy in Museums, Libraries, Graveyards, Cathedrals, castles, and on the streets.

Knox: “As touching nature I am a worm on this earth, and yet a subject of this commonwealth; but as touching the office wherein it has pleased God to place me, I am a watchman…For that reason I am bound in conscience to blow the trumpet publicly.”

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We had a great show again of the Northern lights on Monday night here in Colville. Here is one of many shots I took.

 

Night and Day

I’ll share one more photo of the Northern Light show we had on Monday night.

This past Monday we also started a new routine for getting in shape. We are going up and down the stairs at our high school in town. We were pleased with all the hand rails so that we could do the workout more safely.

We don’t have any stairs in our current home so this is a good alternative for us. It takes a lot less time for us to get our heart rate up doing this than it does walking on the trail.

Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo are visiting so our days and evenings and mealtimes have been full and good. I’m sure I’ll be sharing some of the fun soon.

Have a good Friday everyone!

Lemony Hodgepodge

Addy’s first lemonade stand in August of 2020.

It’s time again for Wednesday Hodgepodge with thanks to Jo From This Side of the Pond.

1.What was the best (or one of the best) summers of your life? Tell us why. 

The best summer of my life was in 1963. The summer of that year I responded to God’s call on my life. I repented of my sins and believed and put my faith on the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for my sins and began following my LORD and Savior. Why is this the best? Jesus is my guarantor of a future with the Triune God in heaven. I have been saved from the wrath of God, saved from Hell. Now I am a child of God and His love is over me. I was given eternal life and everything I need on this earth to grow in obedience and the knowledge of the one who saved me. Jesus is way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him.

Repentance is agreeing with God that you are sinful, confessing your sins to Him, and making a conscious choice to turn from sin and pursue Christ and obedience to Him. It isn’t enough to believe facts about Christ. Even Satan and his demons believe in the true God, but they don’t love and obey Him. True saving faith always responds in obedience.

2. When you have a trip coming up do you make a list and check it twice to ensure you don’t forget anything? Or are you a ‘throw whatever you can think of into the suitcase at the last minute’ kind of packer?nd 

Lists, lists, and more lists. Sometimes I do throw in some last minute items!

When returning from a trip do you unpack immediately or leave the suitcase right where it lands? 

It depends. If I’m suffering from jet-lag it could take a day or two for the unpacking and laundering.

3. What’s your favorite food or beverage made with lemons? Is that a flavor you enjoy? 

Lemon curd is a favorite on a scone or in a pastry.

A Kensington Dream for a drink. It has a half a lemon squeezed in it.

I do enjoy lemon flavor.

4. When was the last time you had to make lemonade out of lemons, figuratively speaking I mean? 

This was a tough one for my memory bank. When we were in the condo for a couple years in Southern California, I wanted to make a calzone for the first time. I did not have a rolling pin as they were both back in our home in Washington State. We did have a muddler and I ended up being able to use that to roll out the dough!

5. Did you like school growing up? Why or why not? 

I did like school growing up. I remember that ‘feeling’ in September when school was just about to start. I can remember holding a book early on and loving the fact that I could read the words on the page. I had some wonderful teachers who encouraged me in their kindness to enjoy school. Mrs. Nicklaus, Mr. Demar, Mrs. Sawyer, My senior American Government teachers, Henke, Simon and Sciandra. Mr. Sciandra signed my annual with this sentiment; “I certainly have enjoyed having a swell Christian in class. Best wishes for your future. “

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I captured a few shots of the northern light show on Monday night but it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as this one I captured back in May of 2024. The cool thing I saw on Monday night was a shooting star! It’s been ages since I’ve seen one of those.

Have a good end of the week everyone!

God’s Amazing Handiwork

On May 10th I stayed up late to see if I could see the Northern Lights which were predicted to be visible in our area and many other areas around the world. I looked up and could tell there was something different happening but no color was visible to the naked eye. When I saw other people posting on Facebook the pinks and greens in color I was confused as to why I couldn’t see the same thing. When I looked at the image of the sky I just had snapped on my phone I could see the colors in the sky. How odd that was. I just kept snapping away and here is what my phone captured.

 

At the end of my time on our deck taking photos, these lights below which were more on the horizon and not looking straight up, were visible to my naked eye.

It was amazing to witness and a bucket list item that I could check off my list.

In the stars His handiwork I see…

“The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to Day pours forth speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.”

Psalm 19:1,2

We are running out of May days. Over the weekend some of our kids and nieces and nephews were together in Arizona for their annual ‘Cousins Memorial Day Weekend’. On Monday our flag pole was taken out of it’s Winter storage and back in it’s worthy spot in our front acres. Long may the Red, White and Blue wave!

We have lots of pretty color popping up along with so many weeds that we have not kept at bay. I’ll share some of those colors, soon. What’s popping up at your place?

If the Shoe Fits Hodgepodge

On the Kirkland waterfront at Carillon Point for dinner on Friday night the 17th of May.

Another Wednesday has rolled around and Joyce has a new set of questions for Hodgepodge.

1. What are you currently juggling in your life? 

I’m juggling exercise, eating, yard care, trip planning, garage sale preparations and understanding apps and catching up with events on my blog now that I have a way to post photos again.

2. How often do you buy new clothes?

When I see something that I know will work on my current body size and is a reasonably priced item I purchase it.

What was the last piece of clothing you purchased? 

This past weekend was all about shoes! We were visiting our kids on the Westside of the mountains. There is a Brooks Shoe outlet that is convenient to where our kids live. I like a particular Brooks brand that works well on my feet. I bought a pair, Dear bought a pair, and a pair was purchased for each of our Colville kids. They gave Laura their sizes and pictures were sent back and forth and purchases made. I found a pair of Merrill waterproof shoes in my size at REI on the clearance table so those were purchased, too. Dear found a pair of dressier/casual Clark shoes at Nordstrom Rack. We had lots of shoe boxes to juggle! 🙂

I’m defaulting to shoes as a form of clothing. 🙂

3. What food festival would you most like to attend? If you need help here are links to some of the bigger and more popular food events around the world-

For many reasons food festivals do not call out to me.

4. May is the 5th month of the year. Tell us something you remember about your 5th grade year. 

Oh boy…fifth grade was a can of worms for me. There are only two teachers in my schooling experience that I had reasons to believe did not like me. One of those was my Junior High Geometry teacher (he’s the one that gave me a D even though my tests, etc. were a solid C) When I questioned him and tried to show him my test results, etc., he blew up in front of the whole class and said quote, “Are you calling me a liar?”. Then he sent me to the girls vice principal. She was sympathetic but I still received the D.

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Helm, was the other teacher that gave me the impression that she did not like me. I was an avid reader in my elementary years and beyond and a quote that came into my head one day in her class when she told me to sit down was, “I might be sitting down on the outside but I’m standing up on the inside.” 

In 5th grade running out to the playground the girl right in front of me stopped and bent down to tie her shoe abruptly. I fell over her and ended up chipping a bone in my wrist. The office called my mother and they had to order a cab to take us to our doctor who x-rayed and put my wrist in a cast. Our mother never learned to drive. Our father was unreachable when he worked on different sites around the Los Angeles area.

The good thing I remember about 5th grade is that a girl from Scotland moved to our school and came to our class later in the year. I was fascinated by her and struck a friendship with her and enjoyed her friendship.

5. What are your favorite five words right now? 

Jesus ~ Truth ~ Lovingkindness ~ Rescued ~ Maranatha

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We enjoyed a long weekend on the Westside of the mountains with our ‘Coast Kids’. I’ll be posting about that and the other events I couldn’t add photos for in the month of May. Blog catch-up including this event…