Breaking...

Taking...

 a short blogging break to enjoy the coming attraction of

sun, warmth and blue skies.

Wishing you all a good weekend:)

Aimee

Photo:

A beach on the Quimper peninsula, Washington

The WORD on Wednesday: Reflections on Brick Walls + Prayers

A brief departure from the tour of the Olympic Peninsula (even though this photo is from there)...

I've been troubled about my praying lately, feeling like there was a brick wall between me and God. My prayers seemed empty, hollow, repetitious, without passion or love.

Yet the needs kept coming into my 'inbox'; needs that were real and great; personal, family and other needs.

I know that the challenges in our life right now are big, and yet, are they larger then what others are going through? Are they larger then the early Christians faced? Different, yes, but not larger.

And then it occurred to me (and a friend also confirmed this) to pray the WORD of God...by this I mean to take scripture from the Bible, personalize it to that person that has the need and then voice this to the Almighty. It does make sense...praying the Words of God, who inspired men of God to pen them. Words of love, Words of power, Words of instruction; the Words of the ONE who knows each individuals REAL needs far more than I can.

So this is what I am determined to do and I have already tried it. Sometimes the right Scriptures pop into my mind at just the right time; other times I have to seek the out the right Words for a particular need (of course I have to be in the WORD to do that).

During my life I have prayed sentence prayers (Lord, help me through this-- said on the twisty and rainy Highway 20 high above Discovery Bay one day when a driver was crowding our vehicle). I have prayed from prayer books during some church services. I have prayed in other ways...and now I am praying the Word.

What are your experiences with prayer? Do you ever hit 'brick walls' in your prayer life? The Bible says to combine 'thanksgiving' with our prayers...do you do that?
Blessings, Aimee

The WORD on Wednesday

Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness:

Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.

 Psalm 4: 1

Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry;

hold not Thy peace at my tears:

for I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.

Psalm 39:12

Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.

Psalm 54:2

Be careful for nothing;

but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving

let your requests be made known unto God.

Philippians 4: 6

and finally a personalized prayer...

good for a twisty Highway 20, above Discovery Bay, on a rainy day

 or any other scary situation you find yourself in.

Original:

(Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death),

I will fear no evil for Thou art with me...

  Psalm 23:4a

Personalized:

Dear God,

(As we travel this twisty road, I feel anxious because of the rain, the darkness 

and the fast drivers behind us that are crowding us)

Help me to fear no evil for YOU are with me.

Amen.

Note:

All verses are taken from the King James Version.

A good Internet source for different versions of the Bible can be found at:



http://www.biblegateway.com.

If you are searching for a specific topic, such as prayer, you can use the keyword search feature.

Another Day; Another Bay: Discovery Bay

Yesterday's post saw us along Sequim Bay;

today's will see us along Discovery Bay.

Now you may already have seen this bay--

if you have taken Highway 20 into or out of Port Townsend.

(sorry--it's very hard to get a good photo of the bay from Highway 20

which is quite twisty and has a lot of beautiful trees along the road)

Of course if you have taken that route,

you know you are seeing the bay from quite a ways UP.

Today's visit will have some views that are UP a little,

but most of it will be from one of my favorite beaches--

a beach my mom first showed me many years ago.

Well here we are..

On this day, we left the very rainy Highway 20

(the first photo taken there was from another, sunnier day)

and arrived to THIS--

and we have the place to ourselves:)

Well mostly.

 Can you see the little cabins near the end of Discovery Bay?

Yes, I know, they would be much bigger had I used my zoom lens.

Still it is a nice photo of the bay...

For the longest time I confused this area with another one my mom took me to--Beckett's Point;

but this is not Beckett's Point (which is close to Cape George);

this is Diamond Point on the Miller Peninsula.

A photo from over to our right, but still looking out towards the entrance to the bay:

we are now looking (I hope) towards the Cape George area on the Quimper peninsula.

A close up of the water...be still my heart! BLUE water.

TY oh wonderful rain shadow:) 

TY God for creating the wonderful Olympic Mountains

which make the wonderful rain shadow possible!

 The bay--from up a ways.

Build me a log cabin please...

And to end our little journey...

the only thing that would make this gorgeous bay even prettier...

gorgeous horses with a bay background of course!

Yes, two of my loves together!

Back to the gorgeous Christian music on TV,

maybe a 0245 snack (or two)

and then some more sleep...

Blessings,

Aimee

Link that may be of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Bay,_Washington

Sequim: Continued Travels

Got rain? Move under the rain shadow:)
Let's be truthful. The western portion of the PNW gets a lot of precipitation from about October to whenever it decides to stop. Old PNW saying: summer doesn't start until AFTER July 1.
Today as it is showering here so I am reliving sunnier
times under the rain shadow.
Sequim is known for several things, besides its climate--
(the area receives about the same amount of rain as Los Angeles, CA but--of course--is cooler)
the cultivation of lavender
 (blog here: http://www.lavenderfestival.com/lavender-festival-blog.html  and
main site here: http://lavenderfestival.com/ )
the Olympic Game Farm
(which used to work with Disney on nature oriented films),
the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, lighthouse and spit.

On our trip there we drove the route known as the Dungeness Scenic Loop,
starting on Kitchen Dick Road...(you can pick up a brochure and information on this area at many of the visitor centers on the Olympic Peninsula)
We did a short drive to the Dungeness Spit but opted not to take a hike because we weren't sure how far we'd have to go before we could get a good look at the famous lighthouse there (the Dungeness Spit is over 5 miles in length)...next time I would love to hike there; one trail in particular caught my eye and I am still 'kicking' myself for NOT getting a photo of the start of it.
We did go to a sand spit though--Cline Spit, just off Marine Drive.
Now for years I didn't know this spit even existed;
and I would still not know about it unless
 our driver had not, all of a sudden, taken a left off the bluff road we were on and headed DOWN....
after I recovered from my shock,
I was VERY grateful there was a spit there--for more reasons then one.

Now this spit is much smaller then its nearby, and more famous, neighbor--
but it is very pretty never-the-less.

There, can you see it?
That is the famous New Dungeness Lighthouse...
I did tell the driver to get me to a beach with a view:)
Now if I had been thinking, I would have changed to my zoom lens right about here...
but I didn't:(

Another view of the more famous Dungness Spit...

On our drive there we passed this...reminded me, a bit, of the photos I have seen of Norwegian stabburs. I think it would make one AWESOME kid's fort...perhaps that is what it is!
One day I would love to build a stabbur.

A view towards the Olympics.

Well I was going to post some photos from Blyn and Gardiner here,

but I have taken much to long of time already so...

more later!

Coming: Beware of Trolls...

Blessings,

Aimee

 

Links of Possible Interest

Sequim:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequim

Sequim Visitor Information:

 http://www.visitsunnysequim.com/

Cline Spit (in Sequim):

 http://www.clallam.net/CountyParks/html/parks_clinespit.htm

Dungeness NWR (Sequim):

http://www.fws.gov/washingtonmaritime/dungeness/

Please see above post to find links to information on the many lavender farms and

 Dungeness Spit area.

 

Disclaimer: I have provided a few links that might interest you about the Sequim area. I am not associated with any of these organizations/government entities but found them to be helpful sources of information. :)

 

 

Happy May Day

However other people choose to remember May Day,

 I choose to associate it with May Baskets filled with fragrant flowers.

 But since I don't have time to make one for each of you,

 I hope you will enjoy these photos of current blossoms in our gardens.

And if one or two catches your eye,

or makes you smile

please feel free to 'pick' and keep them.  

 Finally, thank YOU for being the flowers in my cyber garden...

your presence and comments are sweet indeed!

 Wishing you a May filled with many blossoms and heavenly blessings!

Love,

Aimee

Photos:

trillium

lilac

columbine

strawberry (alpine variety)

dogwood

mauve bowles wallflower

lilac

Note:

Please feel free to copy one or two of these photos (this post only please)

and use them for any personal, non commercial use. Enjoy! To pick (copy) one to paste to your hard drive, right click on the photo and click on 'save picture as...'.

Port Angeles: The Journey Continues

About an hour from Port Townsend is another port city, Port Angeles.

Many people know this city for one of two reasons: its where you can catch a ferry to Vancouver Island, BC, Canada (specifically to Victoria) and just UP a winding road from the city is Hurricane Ridge, one of the most amazing areas of the Olympic National Park -

a viewpoint I am particularly fond of.

But the city itself has many interesting attractions...

among them public art

 loved this!

Ediz Hook -- a sand spit that extends out from the city into the Juan de Fuca strait
(and is a great place to shoot photos of the Olympic Mts that tower over the city, the strait and the bay. It's also a great place to find little rock sculptures like this,  

watch sailboats come and go
(SO wish it had been a clearer day over the mountains--sigh),
kids play,
seagulls,
ducks swim
and more!
I LOVE the spit and always go there when I am in Port Angeles.  

More public art...
don't you love art?
Of course you're just seeing half of 'him'...

Definitely NOT public art.
Nope! More like a resident of the city.
The person I was with asked me to get a photo of this beautiful parrot--
being a parrot lover, I complied:)

And last
(because I DO need some sleep before Monday chores begin...)
a photo I shall call
"history and yellow duck".

Have a great Monday...

more later.

Blessings,

Aimee