Opening Doors ~ Day 1

Good Morning and Happy Labor Day to those of you in the U.S.A. Busy holiday today watching and praying Gustav will lighten her load and that our far away neighbors will be spared another huge disastor!

Day One of Opening Doors Photo Challenge

For Day One of the Open Doors Photo Challenge I chose this gate and front door combination on a house I walked by in Ventura, California.

Make sure and visit Jientje at Heaven in Belgium to see more doors from around the world.

 

New Photo Challenge this Week!

Jientje from Heaven in Belgium is hosting a new Photo Challenge starting tomorrow. I’ve really enjoyed seeing her photographs in other weekly challenges. She has a great eye for beauty. Here’s her explanation of this new 6 day challenge…

Speaking of opening doors …
I’ll be here tomorrow with a new photo challenge, called “Opening Doors”
The idea is to post pictures of doors, or details of doors.
It has to be your own picture, no stealing from Mr Google!
that’s the only rule!
You can dig in your archives of course, it doesn’t have to be a new one.
Be creative, and show me your doors!
Of course, I’ll show you mine as well! 😉
It will start tomorrow up until Saturday, Saturday included!
So if you want to join in, please do!
I’ll have a new Mr Linky up every day, so you can sign in whenever you want!

Ellen b. is going to dig around for some doors and I hope you consider joining in this week for a day or two or six.

What God Hath Promised ~ Hymn

What God Hath Promised

God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

Refrain

But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

God hath not promised we shall not know
Toil and temptation, trouble and woe;
He hath not told us we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.

Refrain

God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift, easy travel, needing no guide;
Never a mountain rocky and steep,
Never a river turbid and deep.

But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

Words by Annie J. Flint 1919

Pink Saturday ~ Disneyland

Note!! I’ve had a lot of trouble getting into blogger comment windows today. I don’t know what the problem is (if it’s on my end or blogger’s end) I’ve tried to comment on several Pink Saturdays and haven’t been able to. Quite Frustrating. Have a great weekend y’all!

Welcome to my Pink Saturday Post from Disneyland in Anaheim, California!

Pink on the Castle

Pink blossoming trees, Pink flowers, Pink on the Fairy Godmother, and Pink umbrellas at the Plaza Inn.

Pink inside one of the rides

The Pink striped Cheshire Cat at Alice in Wonderland Ride

And my favorite splashes of Pink the Tea Cups and the Lanterns.

For more Pink Saturday visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.

Fave Five for Friday…

Susanne at Living to Tell the Story is hosting Fave Five for Friday. Here’s what she says…

“Hope you play along. It’s very simple. Just list your favorite five things from the week. It can be anything from jokes to music to food. It’s a fun way to get to know more about each other and maybe make new friends, find new blogs or new things to try. Expand our world’s a bit. Make it as detailed as you like, but the more detail the more fun! Don’t forget to link to this site and sign the Mr. Linky so I can come and read your favorites.”

So here are ellen b.’s 5 for this last week.

1. Things have gotten really out of hand this summer in my eating and staying in shape! One of my favorites from this week is getting back into walking with my bloggy friend Willow. During our walks this has been my favorite sighting this week.

2. I have just come off a whirlwind of travel and entertaining and having a week of rest and relaxation makes my top 5, too. Here’s a photo of my clean organized condo that helps in the rest and relaxation.

3. True Confessions! I really enjoy some of the reality t.v. shows. I get a big kick out of Project Runway and it’s always a highlight of my week to watch it on Wednesday evenings.

4. One of the best times in the day is when Dear comes home from work. Besides coming home which is a good thing, he barbecued some steaks for us on Monday night and that was a favorite meal this week.

5. Hearing that John McCain chose Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate just makes me smile. I’m not that into politics but I love it when things get shaken up.

So if you want to see more Fave Fives and join in head over to Susanne’s.

Walking Again

Both Willow and I are back in town at the same time again and we started getting serious about walking this week. We had 3 good days of walking getting in over 9000 steps each day.

Thursday morning we were blessed with several glimpses of wildlife. We saw this deer which was a first for me in Willow’s neighborhood. We saw a Hawk sparring with some crows. We saw a great group of Quail, too.

I was in Seattle for 6 weeks and Willow was in England during part of that time. She brought me this fun Tea Towel from The Twinings in London.

She also gave me this Sweet Bavarian Plate. Thanks again Willow!

It feels so good to be walking regularly again.

Skywatch ~

This is what the sky has looked like the mornings this week on my walks with Willow. You can barely see the Santa Monica Mountains through the marine haze. It usually burns off by the middle of the afternoon. This looks like a great scene for a science fiction story or horror movie with a title like “Out of the Mist” or  “Out of the Marine Layer” How about the first sentence to the thriller… “He appeared one morning out of the mist, off the mountain. Nobody had ever seen him before but one thing was certain, he was not of this world.”

Thanks for your indulgence. Have a great Friday and weekend. It’s a long weekend here in the U.S. since we’re observing Labor Day on Monday.

For more Skywatch photos click here.

 

Bridging the Gap ~ Day 5

The following bridges that I’m posting today are all taken while canoeing on Lake Washington in Seattle, Washington with my daughter Katie in July of this year.

This big bridge is part of the 520 Floating Bridge that spans Lake Washington from Seattle to Bellevue. We ended up canoeing under the bridge to get to smaller waterways off the lake. The floating part of the bridge is closer to the middle of the bridges span.

This smaller wooden footbridge is another bridge we had to canoe under. We ducked for this one :0)

For more Bridging the Gap visit Alice at Iwasborn2cree8

WFW ~ Jonah 2:1-2

Jonah 2: 1-2 ~ “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry.”

For more Word Filled Wednesday visit Amydeanne.

Update: To answer several of your inquiries this photo was taken at Disneyland, Anaheim. It is part of the Pinocchio Ride in Fantasyland.