Looking through pictures is usually a good way of finding just what we have been doing, but this time there were remarkably few revelatory photos. After all, who goes about shooting a dripping bathroom drain, a leaking faucet, another leaking faucet, broken stove tops, a non-functional oven, water coming into the basement due to to much ice outdoors, and a river flowing through the barn for the same reason? Yes, we really had all of those in the past month or two! But the Lord is providing solutions for which we are grateful.

But the photos didn’t reveal that angle of life. Primarily what I find here are the joys of little ones! They are so special!

Keziah smiles so much!

Elizabeth loves her little sister

Reading to several little ones

Evelyn and I recently embarked on some large projects: Making quilts! It is slow work, but I’m sure it will be rewarding in the end!

Figuring out colours

Consulting the expert

This winter has been an odd one with little snow and many thaws. The driveway literally became an ice rink. William got out his skates!

As always, the outdoors draws cameras like a magnet. Numerous birds gather at our feeders… Can anyone tell I like chickadees? 🙂

And a few excursions draw out the beauties of our northern winter – despite the pathetically small amount of snow!

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

Back in Quebec, the leaves turned brilliant shortly after Jonathan and I returned from Vermont. Thanksgiving Day was gorgeous. Jonathan, Evelyn, and I went out both in the morning and the afternoon to shoot a few photos. The northern tip of Lake Stukley is beautiful in the early morning.

We also went to the Eustis covered bridge. It looked quite different from the last time we were there!

The sunset on Lake Massawippi was beautiful too.

The changing weather motivated us to get some work around home done: cleaning up the yard, moving wood, etc.

Is that a dog on the balcony? 🙂

Our cute little “pet” was also brought to the GCH to bring some smiles to the residents. She certainly did that!

And finally, what shouldn’t be a surprise this time of year, the first snow arrived! It was beautiful while it lasted.

“He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” Ecclesiastes 3:11

Fall arrived late this year. Usually the leaves are almost gone by Thanksgiving, but this year Thanksgiving Day was probably one of the most colourful days of the year.

At the beginning of the month, Jonathan and I drove down to Vermont to attend a CAPTURE workshop. The colours weren’t what everyone had hoped, but it was beautiful none the less. The predicted rain for all week evaporated leaving us with a gorgeous sunset the first night. Pictures don’t do it justice… or I haven’t figured out how to make my camera do it!The second morning was cloudy but without any rain. A few trees were colourful.

Since the overcast skies didn’t allow for a beautiful sunrise or dynamic early morning light, we were instead given the challenge of taking 10 photos of an apple tree. It was interesting to see what creative ideas were exploited.

That evening it was also cloudy, but since waterfalls are easier to photograph under such conditions, the lack of sun was no problem.

The following morning only a few of us headed outside to capture the sunrise in a field nearby. The dog came along and even posed for me!

And I can tell you were not to walk around there! I removed 893 burrs from my clothing…

Since the sun was out, we headed out before brunch to get some shots of a pretty little church not far away. Here we were given the assignment of taking a photo at our longest focal length and another at the shortest.

After fulfilling my assignment, I quickly ran to the back of the church where there was a…

Cemetery! I really can’t explain it, but cemeteries draw me. Something about the sadness, stillness, waiting… for coming glory!

That afternoon the sun was again out and we went to a little barn to shoot. None of my pictures there turned out, but we did get a group photo that you can see here.

On the way home another beautiful sunset compelled us to stop in Shelburne…

It seemed a fitting ending to a beautiful weekend. And as Jonathan pointed out, what made it so beautiful was that we were looking not only on God’s creation that is visible, but also on that which is invisible.

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

It so happened last Sunday that the entire Frazer family showed up in the morning dressed on a black, white, and blue theme. Immediately the suggestion was made that we venture some family photos. (Thank you, Erica!)

Getting a good picture with little ones takes enthusiastic persuasion and nimble fingers on the shutter release! The resulting pictures surpassed our expectations.

Look Daddy and Mommy!

Yeah!

Caleb is already learning about cellphones…

Oops… Everyone was distracted!

And the final photo (after some tweaking in the photo editing program):

Mommy, words can’t express what you are to us! We are so grateful to have a Godly mother who motivates us to press on in our walk with the Lord and who leads by her own example. Thank you for who you are in our lives!

Spring is making a valiant effort to arrive, but Winter seems determined to stick around as long as possible. The crocuses emerged earlier this month, but snowfalls on the 24th and 25th reminded us that summer has not yet arrived. It was beautiful, though.

“He hath made all things beautiful in his time.” Ecc. 3:11

Winter has been long here in Quebec. Usually by this time in April, the snow is mostly gone, or at least its disappearance is well underway. But spring seems reluctant to arrive this time. The two inches of snow received Tuesday night created a quiet, peaceful atmosphere as I headed the cows outside this morning.

Then this morning we awoke to yet another few inches.

But spring really is on its way. The birds are returning from their winter escapes. Redpolls don’t always come this far south in winter, but apparently they went further than usual and now are migrating back north in huge numbers. There were somewhere in the vicinity of one hundred birds flocking around our feeder last week. Talk about crowded!

I have loved the exquisite beauty of winter, and will be a little sad to see the snow go, but I’m also looking forward to the beauties of the warmer months.

“Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?” Job 38:22

It appears that spring has truly arrived.  We listen with joy to the bird songs that fill the air, watch with delight the crocuses that withstood the long winter to put out their splendid array of colours, and wish a temporary good-bye to the rapidly diminishing piles of snow.  It seems strange, almost, to think that our most recent snowfall was just last week!

And for the interested readers, here is the answer to the “deep snowdrifts” picture in the last post…  A simple tire track drew my attention that day as I sought a unique perspective.  My getting down as low as possible gave the resulting picture the illusion of a much greater depth of snow than was really there.

“Creativity ~ Approaching a need, a task, an idea from a new perspective.” Institute in Basic Life Principles

For a while, it looked like we might really have seen the end of winter. Monday, the temperature soared to 24 C – practically summer! A few of us, however, still kept on cheerfully predicting an April snowfall. And sure enough it arrived! A picture taken late Tuesday afternoon portrays it well…

Traces of spring… and winter again!

The following morning, some of us went out to take pictures…

OK, it wasn’t really that deep… 🙂 Can anyone figure out how I took those photos, though? I’ll post a picture later of how it was done.

The spring songbirds seemed to be enjoying the lovely day and the snowy background made the birdfeeder a perfect photoshooting spot.

Getting close enough to shoot a good picture was tricky, but cropping afterward “fixed” the problem to a certain extent.

Encouraged by my results from yesterday, I went out again this morning determined not to allow my 55mm lens stop me from getting close. At first, even the friendly chickadees were a little uncertain about approaching the feeder with someone so close by, but eventually they began to ignore me and even the slightly shyer juncos joined them, though they preferred the area on the ground 2 feet from my boots to the feeder 5 feet from my camera lens!

And a few that were cropped…

And my personal favourite:

Meanwhile, Stephen with a 70-300mm took on the challenge of shooting action photos.

Yet, despite the late snow, spring is in the air. We are looking forward to seeing how God will order, not only natural events, but also our way as we follow him.