scavenger hunt ii

walking empty streets

I wasn’t literally on a street when I took this picture, but “empty streets” makes me think “deserted,” so this picture seems to fit.

repeating patterns

My just-out-of-ninth-grade sister might be able to tell you the scientific categorization for the pattern of veins in this petal. If I remembered anything from biology in ninth grade, I could too…

floor

This was hard! Floors really aren’t that inspiring, but it makes the scavenger hunt more challenging—and thus, of course, more fun. I decided to use an outdoor floor to get some texture. :)

then and now

Top: taken May 2010 on all auto settings and lightly edited. Bottom: taken May 2011 on mostly manual settings and lightly edited. (Had to take these out of my archives, obviously!)

fingertips

Okay, I have to admit… *cringe*… that this photo is also from my archives. I know, lame! I won’t even start with excuses. I just hope you like it. :)

So in spite of the Return to the Archives, did I do okay?



A few more bright and cheery pictures for you:

Last but not least, I have a request to make of you. As you might be able to tell if you’ve been around my blog long, I’m not really a heavy photo editor. I enhance, but in most cases I don’t do drastic manipulations. If I do, I’m never really sure about the result. So I’m going to post a SOOC shot and two edits (which aren’t exactly drastic, but kind of drastic from my point of view), and if you could tell me your thoughts, I would be ever so obliged!

SOOC

Edit #1

Edit #2

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :)

the harvest

John 4:34-36

Jesus said to them,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me,
and to finish His work.
Do you not say, ‘There are still four months
and then the harvest’?

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes
and look at the fields,
for they are already white for harvest!
And he who reaps receives wages,
and gathers fruit for eternal life,
that both he who sows and he who reaps
may rejoice together.”

Think about that. I’ve lived my whole life in a farming town; the farmers (of whom my dad is one) are constantly measuring the days, the weather, and all the other elements that play into when a field becomes ready for harvest. They plant at just the right time so that the whole field will ripen in the dry days of summer, when the grain can be harvested safely.

The spiritual field Jesus is talking about is a little bit different. It covers the entire world, which God “planted” thousands of years ago with two seeds named Adam and Eve. Uniquely, the whole field does not ripen at the same time; one stalk—one person—may be ready for harvest when the one beside it isn’t. But we, the laborers, need to be ready when our crop is.

Matthew 9:37, 38

Then He said to His disciples,
“The harvest truly is plentiful,
but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into His harvest.”

If a crop is neglected at harvest time, it goes to total waste. Animals and birds pick through the grain heads; wind and rain scatter the chaff and leave the rest to rot back into the ground. I can’t imagine the Lord’s heartbreak when He sees His people ignore a ready field.

Harvest-ready fields are everywhere. I’ve always hoped to spend time “harvesting” in a foreign country where I’d feel truly needed, but in truth, the readiness of a field isn’t measured by how far it is from home. Sometimes the field that’s at its peak is the one you live in.

raspberries

The raspberries are finally coming in after an exceptionally rainy and cold season. Mom uses most of them to make jam, but I love eating them fresh-picked from the plant. :)

{linking the above to this week's Little Somethings challenge}

Mmmm.

i’m back

 

And to be 100% honest, I wish I wasn’t. I love home, but a mere five days at my other favorite place simply isn’t long enough.

The Lake is paradise.

Here, I can let normal life melt away for one seventy-third of the year (0.01369863 is the exact decimal). I don’t have to think about training my horse, getting my lambs up to show level, running three miles a day, moving irrigation sets, or memorizing lines from Twelfth Night. Escaping the grind is wonderful. The Lake is ingrained in the childhoods of myself, my siblings, and my cousins, and I can’t remember a time when this trip wasn’t the highlight of my summer.

We battle to make the biggest splashes. We drink multiple cans of pop every day just for the heck of it. We investigate creepy submerged logs and the three islands. We go canoeing just for the thrill of taking on motorboat waves broadside.



Best of all, so many relatives are together at once! We eat, we laugh, we play, we sleep, we talk, and we marvel that we all survived growing up in such a weird (wonderful!) family.

It’s awesome with the kind of awesomeness that you can see, feel, taste, and breathe.

We maintain a ton of quirky traditions, but it’s never exactly the same from year to year. Sometimes old traditions are broken (like the conspicuous absence of my cousin Aaron) or new ones are born (like eating red licorice by the pound). A few new things made it to the highlights of this year’s trip:

• actually touching the icky crossed logs submerged south of our dock (formerly one of my greatest fears!)
• winning Dominoes :)
• getting rained on for the first time in three years of sleeping under the stars (this was really cool!)
• listening to the three professors (I mean, Dad, Stephen, and Sam) talk Civil War by the fire
• perfecting (or trying to perfect) my diving skills
• taking motorboat waves broadside in the canoe with Ben and Hannah
• playing an insane game of Catan with my brothers.

If you’re lucky enough to be at the Lake, you’re lucky enough.



It’s kinda hard to realize that I won’t go back for another year, but it always surprises me how fast that year passes. Then we’ll be back for more swimming, splashing, eating, laughing, and picture taking.

I can’t wait!