A Day In The Park

Today my school took part in its annual 'Fall Foliage Day' by going to one of the local parks in the city, which is in the picture to the left (that I found online). Every year, a different location is picked where the students, profs, faculty, etc. gather together and going walking and enjoy God's nature. They generally stop for a 15 minute devotion along the way as well.

Until today, I have generally not taken part in this event. Classes are cancelled for the afternoon in order for everyone to take part, or not take part...the choice is yours to make. Usually I would stay home and relax or work on some sort of school work. But today I had to go.

My drawing class went on this outting to learn to draw nature, particularly trees. We did not venture off with the others though, but stayed in our own group to do our drawing. It was fun and interesting and I did learn a lot...now I just need to put it into practice.

The weather had been calling for a somewhat chilly day today, but the sun was out and it was actually warm, so the extra sweater I brought along as a 'just in case' was not needed. It was so beautiful to see the way the sun lit up the colourful foliage. I especially like when there are birch trees among the others, because the white bark on their trunks jump out so brightly against the darker trunks of the evergreens, maples, etc. And of course all the reds, yellows, and oranges of the leaves was simple breathtaking.

Off and on this afternoon, I was reminded of God's creativity in nature. Take for instnace the little squirrels running around, gathering food, and just playing in general. These ones are probably used to humans being around because this park is popular and many people come here, especially with children. I watched as one squirrels dug at the earth that was beneath the root of a tree, and burried his treasure in preparation for winter. It amazes me at how God created these creatures to do this sort of thing...prepare themselves for winter by gathering food and storing it so that they will have something to eat when there is no food left for them on the trees or whatever.

We got back around supper time, and I had observed something I don't think I've seen before. It was still sunny and cloudy, but I noticed that on both sides of the sun there were short little rainbows ( shaped like the bracks () though, and not the 'normal' type of rainbow). I've seen one little rainbow in the sky near the sun before (on sunny days), but it has always been rather faint and didn't last very long before disappearing. However, both of these rainbows were rather bright and lasted quite a long time...I'd venture to say at least half an hour, if not more. Anyway, hope that makes sense...it was really neat, as mostly I have only ever seen rainbows when it's been raining out. There was not a drop of rain today, so I found it odd to see these two rainbows...though maybe they should be called sunbows. It's like God showed me another part of nature today when I saw them.

All in all, today was a real nature day and I enjoyed it. Soon the snow and cold weather will be here so it's nice to take advantage of the day and spend it outside.

Well, it's rather late now, so I'm going to head off. I'm thinking the post didn't make as much sense or explain things as well as I could. Too bad I hadn't had my camera to take some pictures to share...might try to get out over then next day or two and capture some images to share. Won't promise anything though...