I was updating our GPS and getting ready to drive a thousand kilometres ...

I was updating our GPS and getting ready to drive a thousand kilometres, 

when GOD tapped me on the shoulder, and said ... 

"you ain't going there just now, 

book a flight to a place thirteen thousand kilometres away instead!"

HIS plans have always been bigger, and better than mine.

Truth in life is - 

"We make our own plans, but the LORD decides where we will go" - Proverbs 16:9

Happy New Year to you all!

Better than light and safer than a known way

When I don't know what will happen next year, and the future is uncertain, 
this is what I do to tread safely into the unknown 
☺ 

King George VI mentioned these words in his 1939 Christmas broadcast.


Not only have these words meant a lot to me whenever I took a leap of faith,
but my journey has been better than light, and safer than a known way!
☺


"Go out into the darkness,

And put your hand into the hand of GOD.

That shall be to you better than light

And safer than a known way" 

- Minnie Louise Haskins 
(The Gate of The Year published in 1908)


Have a blessed New Year, friends!

Siberian Tigers relaxing

Learn more about the Siberian Tiger or Amur Tiger

"If you have a spice, use it! Don't sprinkle it. Spoon it in" - Papa

Produced by Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey, The Hundred-Foot Journey is a delightfully emotional film that blends #family, #food & #culture to bring people together.

Love it!

What an amazing performance by Helen Mirren, Om Puri and the entire cast!


One of my favourite quotes:


"If you have a spice, use it!
Don't sprinkle it.
Spoon it in"
- Papa

Get The Hundred-Foot Journey on Amazon

Squirrel jumping from one bird house to another in search of sunflower seeds

The calabashes are safe!

Wandrin

♫ "Mud can make you prisoner, and the plains can bake you dry

Snow can burn your eyes, but only people make you cry

Home is made for comin' from, for dreams of goin' to ..."

Lyrics - Alan J. Lerner

Sung by Lee Marvin

Get the movie Paint Your Wagon from Amazon

Officially it maybe winter, but there are still flowers in our garden!

☺

December 21st was the official start date of winter 

"There is only one wish on my mind, When this day is through I hope that I will find" - Karen & Richard Carpenter

♫ "There is only one wish on my mind

When this day is through I hope that I will find

That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me

All I need will be mine if you are here ..." 

-  Karen & Richard Carpenter 

Get Top of The World by The Carpenters on iTunes

Polar Bear at St. Anthony, Newfoundland

A few years ago, we did an amazing road trip on The Viking Trail

 to a little town called St. Anthony in Newfoundland

I'm painting this part with the canvas upside down

Using a palette knife for the snow and ice

Polar Bear at St. Anthony, Newfoundland

16"x20" oil painting on canvas

Spirits

"There is no political solution

To our troubled evolution

Our so-called leaders speak

With words they try to jail you

They subjugate the meek

But it's the rhetoric of failure"

- Sting, 

The Police (1981)

Get Spirits in The Material World by The Police from iTunes

Listening to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald while painting A Little Boy Jumping Rocks at Lake Superior

Many years ago, I celebrated a birthday hiking with my family on the North shores of  Lake Superior.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald was written and performed by Gordon Lightfoot to commemorate the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald 

on Lake Superior (also known as Gitche Gumee) 

on November 10th, 1975

A Little Boy Jumping Rocks at Lake Superior
7"x10" oil painting on rock

Shepherds

♫ "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night,

All Seated on the Ground ..."

"Fear not, said he for mighty dread had seized their troubled mind,

Glad tidings of great joy I bring, to you and all mankind"

- Nahum Tate