By Steve – tonight’s sunset, through an extremely dirty windshield just as we were parking at Yellowstone River Campground in Billings, MT.
The day started cloudy, ended with sunshine. The roads started dry, ended with snow and ice. A few more things broke. Some things worked wonderfully. We stopped way short of our goal because of ice and snow from a Friday night storm. We’ll see what things look like in the morning, but we are in a beautiful spot.
We both took a lot of “out the window” photos as we shared the driving. I’ll share some of today in tomorrow’s post – time for light’s out.
The wildlife activity during the recent full moon included several nights of coyotes working close to the casa as well as seeing a coyote on the game trail behind the house in broad daylight 2 days ago. Karl let us know about the nighttime activity and it was close enough and loud enough one night that I heard it also. Karl also alerted me to the coyote on the game trail. His bark is unique for different critters and it was definitely an agressive, “Move on!” kind of bark. I looked out to see the coyote on the move with Karl behind. Karl “herds” critters off the property versus a chasing off. It is his inate behavior – nothing I trained. I am very happy with it as it discourages visitors but does not threaten them to the point of forcing them to attack.
Over the weekend, Steve and I searched the property for tracks and evidence of a coyote kill as from the noise, I thought they were on the property when they finally got whatever they got. We found one set of coyote tracks but that was it.
Steve was out on the mountain loop on Monday and came back telling of finding some tracks he thought were cat, as in big cat…as in mountain lion. They are a little old and a bit hard to pick up the definition in the photos that we could see with our eyes, but…
The tracks are definitely not canine, they are feline. They are too big for a bobcat.
Who goes there?
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things. Isaiah 40:26
Photo taken 2/4/2010: more from the evening walk. This photo is very similar to the one posted previously, but the verse from Isaiah was part of my morning reflection and it led me to look at the group of photos from that evening.
In this morning’s entry, Oswald Chambers in “My Utmost for His Highest” writes:
“If we are children of God, we have a tremendous treasure in Nature. In every wind that blows, in every night and day of the year, in every sign of the sky, in every blossoming and in every withering of the earth, there is a real coming of God to us if we will simply use our starved imagination to realize it.”
My next reading from Andrew Murray’s “Mighty is His Hand” had a similar theme of God in everything:
Accept with gratitude everything that God allows to come into your life. I mean all things – whether from the world without, or attacks from within; whether from friend or enemy; in nature or in grace.
Hmmm
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things. Isaiah 40:26
Amen!
Karl and I walked the mountain loop in the crunchy slush just before sunset. It had been mostly gray and overcast all day, but cleared late afternoon. Temperatures in the 30’s felt mild in the late sunshine and we dawdled on our way.
Not quite alpenglow but the setting sun lit the mountain tops showing them off against the dark clouds.
Photo taken 2/4/2010.
From this morning. That bit of blue at Karl’s chin is his lighted collar.
After a short spurt of Winter, we are back to slush and a dreary mess. But the gray and the mist have their own beauty. And it is both the wonder of “what will it be today” and the mix of things that weave the tapestry of life…and I’m not speaking of only the weather :).
Happy Wednesday!
Still water, so still that without the perspective of the shoreline there was that illusion that it was possible to fall into the sky.
Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10
I can’t help but think of that verse when standing at this point on the lake on a day like this day.
Be peaceful, be quiet, be still.
Lake McDonald in Glacier National Park, January 29, 2010.
photos taken 1/27/2010, first 2 about 15 minutes before sunset at 5:15, the moon an hour later.
This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
If you pay attention to my commands, your peace will be like a river.
Isaiah 48:17,18*
Peace like a river.
photos taken on January 24, 2010, McDonald Creek in Glacier National Park, Montana
*my edit of verse 18
