Summer is coming!!!

I went on my first birding bike ride today on Boundary Bay wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. It was sunny and clear, and mostly, there were lots of birds! Seeing how much I love lists, I made a list of all of the birds that I saw on Boundary Bay today. Boundary Bay is Canada's top bird area, with over 333 different species of birds (including 16 species of gull, for anyone who cares about gulls) , more than 10,000 wintering waterfowl and 22 different species of raptors (one of Canada's largest winter populations). I was starting to get pretty excited by the time we pulled up in the parking lot, and there were two bald eagles sitting in the tree next to our parked truck. Things only got better from there, and on the return trip alone we saw:

45 bald eagles
10 great blue herons
3 northern harriers
1 barn owl
4 unidentified hawks (2 small greyish birds, about the size of a Cooper's hawk, and 2 birds about the same size as a kestrel)
2 kestrels
many ducks- mallards, goldeneye and another kind I'd never seen before
thousands of gulls
thousands of snow geese
hundreds of thousands of shorebirds (mostly dowitchers I think)
and, the one bird that I waited more than an hour to find and was most excited to see, 5 snowy owls!!!!!

I couldn't believe it. I actually saw wild snowy owls! It was the kind of thrill that makes me understand the peculiarities of birders a little better. We could not get close enough to take good pictures, but I'll post some the eagles up as soon as I get my new camera plugged in!!

The Ragamuffin Gospel

I started reading a book the other day called "The Ragamuffin Gospel" by Brennan Manning. I haven't gotten very far through it, but it seems like the kind of life-changing book that Andy, Brielle and I were talking about at church this past Sunday. The reason I mention this is because of the "word before", or introduction, to the book. It is refering to the book itself, but I found it extremely applicable to the book that this book describes (the Bible- number one on my list of top influential books) and I wanted to share a bit of it with you.

"This book is not for the superspiritual.
It is not for muscular Christians who have made John Wayne and not Jesus their hero.
It is not for academicians who would imprison Jesus in the ivory tower of exegesis.
It is not for the noisy, feel-good folks who manipulate Christianity into a naked appeal to emotion.
It is not for hooded mystics who want magic in their religion.
It is not for Aleluia Christians who live only on the mountaintop and have never visited the valley of desolation.
It is not for the fearless and tearless.
It is not for red-hot zealots who boast with the rich young ruler of the gospels: "All these commandments I have kept from my youth".
It is not for the complacent, hoisting over their shoulder a tote-bag of honors, diplomas, and good works actually believing they have made it.
It is not for legalists who would rather surrender control of their souls than run the risk of living in uinion with Jesus.

It is for the sorely bedraggled, beat-up and burnt-out.
It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don't have it all together and are too proud to accept the hand-out of grace.
It is for the inconsistent , unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker.
It is for poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents.
It is for earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay.
It is for the bent and the bruised who feel that their lives are a grave disappointment to God.
It is for smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags."

Except that the Bible is written for all of the above. While humans can write books that apply to a broad range of people, God creates a book for everyone, that probably makes us feel like we should belong in that group of people described in the last line. We have no clue what to do with ourselves. Unless we ask God. I'm excited to read more about what Brennan Manning has to say about a gospel written for people who don't have it all figured out. More to follow.

Please also feel free to post your top 5 most life-changing and influential books... yes, children's books count.

Less than 2 weeks after the wind storm that knocked out power for 200,000 homes in the Lower Mainland for up to 7 days and put 2 million people on a boil water advisory (leaving us unable to drink or use the murky water coming out of our taps), we have been hit with a snow storm that has taken out power for 120,000 homes, dumped half a metre of snow and left people stranded all over the place. Including me. In Calgary.

Not that I have anything wrong with Calgary.

I like Calgary. It's clean, it's pretty in some places, and generally I don't mind spending a few hours in their airport on my way to somewhere else. But I spent an uncomfortable night "sleeping" on the arrivals room chairs while holding onto my belongings (being too poor to pay for a shuttle and hotel room) while construction workers drilled tile 30 feet from my head from 1:30-4:00am. On the plus side, thanks everyone for the awesome gifts at the engagement party- they entertained me and my newest 8 friends on their way to Winnepeg. All in all, I don't really have anything to complain about; I'm home, I had a great time with some of the best people in the world, and my family was there to pick me up on the other side. So, 24 hours after leaving Ontario, I am now back at home, enjoying the snowfall that cancelled my flight. Water sampling tomorrow should be an adventure!

The website for Shared Waters!

This is Hannah, my niece-to-be:

Weeee! is right!

I'M COMING TO ONTARIO!!!!

It's official- I'm arriving on Nov. 22 and staying until Nov. 26! I know it's not long, but I'd love to see you all there! See you soon!

ERin