Week 48

Beauty in November

     

     This past week I did a little photoshoot around one of my favourite corners in Waterloo.  The building you see in several of the pictures is a replica of Abraham Erb's Gristmill.  Abraham Erb was one of the the first Mennonite settlers in Waterloo Region. 

     November can be a sort of dull, dreary, bare, cool, damp, dark, windy month!  However, if you look closely, you can still find beauty, even in the month of November; it sometimes is just a little more subtle.  I need to remember to focus on the positive!

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things."

Philippians 4:8 NIV

             A replica (built in 1998) of the original Abraham Erb's gristmill (built in 1816)                  Nov 19, 2013

                                         Silver Lake and Waterloo Park in the distance                                 Nov 19, 2013

                                              Ornamental Grasses waving in the wind                                   Nov 19, 2013

                                                            Some type of thistle                                                  Nov 19, 2013

                                  A colourful old train to brighten up this corner of Waterloo                        Nov 19, 2013

Week 47

Dramatic Clouds

     About a week ago there were several days in a row when I looked out and saw very dramatic clouds in the sky.  When there are dark clouds with sun shining on them from the other direction, it makes for some interesting photos.  

     We love having open space behind our house, but we do have some large hydro towers that can be a bit of an eyesore if you just focus on them.  Once in a while though, they actually look quite spectacular when they are lit up by the setting sun against a dark background.  

    The other couple of photos were taken on a very windy morning at the lake.  This time the dramatic clouds were in the western sky.

"The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.

His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet."

Nahum 1:3 NIV

"God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
II Corinthians 5:21 NIV

                                                  Hydro tower behind our house                                            Nov 11, 2013                 

                                                                                                                                         Nov 11, 2013

                                                         Lake Huron at Point Clark                                              Nov 10, 2013

                                                                                                                                         Nov 10, 2013

Week 46

Remembrance Day

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace."

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV

(written by King Solomon, late in his life - probably around 935 B.C.)

     Is there ever a time for hate or war?  We are commanded  to "love our enemies,"  but we certainly are to "hate" injustice, mistreatment and worse evils.  Today is a day to remember the sacrifice of many young soldiers and to celebrate the freedom and peace that we enjoy today in Canada because of them.  We need to pray for areas in the world where that peace still does not exist and do our best to make this world a better place.  

     My father was a Canadian soldier during WWII.  The following is an excerpt from one of the letters he wrote home to his mother from England on Sept 15, 1943, when he was not quite 21 years old.  "Somehow or other, I haven't much desire to get in to action, whether cowardice on my part, or not, I don't know.  More, I think that I don't want to hurt anyone, and war certainly hurts.  I have no fear, however, for I am in good hands - thank God for that."  In this same letter he mentions that things were "shaping up nicely for the end of the war."  Well, he didn't return home to his family until Jan of 1946...Thankfully, he did return home, which was not the case for many soldiers.

     My dad passed away in January 2009 at the age of 86, and I remember him with love today.

     

 

                  A cenotaph in front the beautifully maintained old Town Hall in Paisley, Ontario            Aug 2013

My father (23 years old) in Holland in 1945

My father, 50 years later, visiting Groesbeek Cemetery in Holland during "Thank You Canada" celebrations
 in 1995

My father (84) and my oldest son (21), who was then in the Canadian Military, leading the Remembrance Day parade, in the rain, out to the cenotaph in my home town in 2006
(my youngest son, then almost 11, is carrying the Canadian flag)

                                                      So proud to be Canadian!                                                Nov 3, 2013

Week 45

Gales of November

     This week marks 100 years since the Great Lakes experienced a powerful storm that claimed over 250 lives, destroyed 19 ships and stranded 19 others, most of these on Lake Huron.  November is known for its storms, but this one from November 7-10, 1913, was the most devastating that the Great Lakes has experienced in recorded history.  
     Those in Canada may remember the song by Gordon Lightfoot called, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" which memorialized a shipwreck of this large lake freighter in November of 1975 on Lake Superior, in which all 29 crew members perished.

     The following are pictures of a couple of the remains of shipwrecks around the Kincardine area.  Neither of these were from the great storm of 1913, but were the results of storms in the fall on Lake Huron.  The Anna Maria was laden with coal and had left from a port in Cleveland, Ohio.  She ran aground just south of the pier in Kincardine on Oct 7, 1902.  Five lives were lost in the rescue.  Depending on the water level you can see a little or quite a length of the hull of the ship right along the shore.

      The other shipwreck landmark in Kincardine is the remains of a boiler.  The Erie Belle was trying to pull out another ship, the "Carter" which had been blown to shore in a November storm a few days earlier. Unfortunately, during the attempted rescue the boiler of the Erie Belle exploded, killing 4 men and injuring several others.  The remains of the boiler sits on the shore along the beach which is now called "Boiler Beach," just south of the main beach in Kincardine. 

"Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the "northeaster," swept down from the island.  The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along...the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground.  The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf...the centurion ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.  The rest were to get there on planks or on pieces of the ship.  In this way everyone reached land in safety."

                                                                             Acts 27: 14, 15, 41, 43, 44 NIV 

                                     (read the whole story about the storm and shipwreck of the ship that the Apostle Paul was on in Acts chapter 27)

                        A portion of the hull of the Anna Maria which was shipwrecked in Kincardine in 1902               Aug 2013

                            The location of the shipwrecked Anna Maria on Station Beach at sunset                                    Aug  2013

                                                      The remains of the boiler from the Erie Belle which blew up in 1883                   Fall 2013

                       The boiler from the Erie Belle rests as a memorial on Boiler Beach just south of Kincardine       Fall 2013