Brilliant, Just Brilliant!

Please go to the following link and read this.

That's my kinda scientist!!

:D

Preparation!!

Well, it's 16 days till my interview for the Manager's job at work, and I pleasantly discovered yesterday that I had two days off this week!! I completely forgot that I had planned in to the rota a lieu day that was I owed next to my day off. So, I have had today off, and tommorow. I've strategically planned that today and tommorrow, I shall be working on notes for myself for the upcoming interview, as the last interview I had, about two years ago, as part of the feedback I was told I gave a very good interview, but because I hadn't mentioned certain things they knew I'd achieved and had exoperience in, they didn't give me the job at the time.

Obviously I'm glad now that that didn't work out, but I want to make sure I don't do the same thing again, so am producing myself some notesto refer to during the interview. i think last time I forgot to say or bring up certain things because I was nervous, so I want to make sure I don't do that again.

I don't plan on reading from it, as that would give a very bad impression from an interviewers point of view, but I intend to use the notes as a kick start to my memory, and in case I lose my train of thought through nervousness. I'm actually looking forward to the interview, as strange as it sounds, because I'm preparing fully for it and I get to tell them what I've learned and about my vision for the future of the shop. It's not often you get the chance to give your vision on your place of work, and such a direct input on where you feel things are going, and so I think it's a good opportunity to shopw them that I think they've underestimated me so far.

I am rfeady for Management and have been for a while, but for some reason they've never seen that potential before, maybe because I hadn't learnt to express myself properly and my ideas.

yesterday I had an informal interview for a new part-time role within the company I'm also being considered for, and it went very very well. the person interviewing me asked me to explain the role that they were considering giving me to her, and in the end she took two pages of notes based on my knowledge of the subject, which I was very pleased about, not because I have an enormous ego, but because she obviously thought my ideas had merit, otherwise she wouldnt have written them down. It showed she was taking me seriously, and that gave me more confidence in putting my ideas forward.

In thinking of the title for this blog "preparation", I've been pondering whether or not God has been working all the things in my life out over the last couple of years to prepare me for this moment in my life. I know that sounds dramatic, and I don't mean it to, but I'm at the point currently were it feels that my life is about to undergo a massive change for the better in terms of personally and work-wise. I'm getting married in August, deep down something that I never thought would happen to me, and I've got the opportunity (if selected) to start a new job, encompassing also two new roles within the shop and within the company, both of which full utilise my gifts and my passions. It seems almost too perfect to be true, and I'm excited to wait and see what God is gonna do in the next few months, both with my life and with Megans.

It's exciting to look back and see all the times I've struggled about being alone, and about feeling powerless in my job, not utilising the gifts I believe I've been given, and then to have this opportunity in work come up with two roles and the chance to stretch myself and realise my potential, and to finally find someone I can be myself with, who accepts me as I am and loves me. It makes me wonder whether all the times I've struggled were to prepare me for this point?

I realise that sounds a bit dramatic, and you're thinking "come on, you haven't got the job yet, and it's only getting married!", but both of these things are going to be life-changing for me, in the sense that they're opportunites for me to grow and develop as a person, and in my relationship with God. I'm amazed God's even given me the opportunity to apply for these roles, even if I don't get them! (obviously I do want them though!)

It's almost as if, for a long time I've believed that my life was just stagnant, not going anywhere, I was doing the same job I always had, feeling the same lonliness and lack of purpose, etc. It feels as if God has turned me round, patted me on the shoulder, pointed to a seemingly beautiful but far-away horizon, and said "...go on, go for it! I know you can!..."

Please pray for me at the moment those of you that do, I feel that I'm on the verge of becoming a different person, and it's an exciting, fretful, worrying, brilliant time!! :D

Thankful.

So it's Thanksgiving, a day that i don't normally celebrate, but I find myself sitting here pondering lot's of things to be thankful for this year, and one of them is that from this year on, I will be celebrating it because of one of those things!! (if you understood that last sentence, email me and I'll send you a smartie!)

Before I give you my list of things to be thankful for, go here, for some thanksgiving fun!! Click on the acorns, it's hillarious!! :D

This year, i am thankful for:

1. Megan - who's stolen my heart and who I've found my soul-mate in, a love I've found that will be truly life-changing
2. A new future filled with possibilities
3. A God who has done amazing things for me, and created circumstances that have given me endless joy
4. A new depth of understanding about God and what He's like and lots of other things that I've reached through various writers
5. A new appreciation that God is good and for me
6. My health - no major incidents or setbacks
7. My friends - people who have stood by me, and got excited with me this year as good things started to happen
8. My Church - for leaders who have vision and are taking us all forward to know more and more of Jesus and how we can impact the world on His behalf
9. For the beauty I find all around me, in relationships, in nature, and in God
10. For knowing that however my life changes this next year, I will always be secure in Jesus and His love for me
11. For custard cream biscuits
12. For sheets of rain
13. For the smile of a loved one
14. For knowing I'm growing as a person, and am not the same person I was last year
15. For infused tea
16. For filter coffee on cold nights
17. For touch and the warmth of a hug
18. For seeing opportunity for love
19. For purpose and direction
20. For Love, divine and human

that's my list, what's yours?

Wednesday...

Yes readers, you'll be forgiven for thinking "isn't that obvious?!", but I'm afraid I have no more entertaining ideas for Blog titles at the moment, and that's the best i can do! Incidentally, I have had some deep profound thoughts today, but mostly inspired by this person.

I've been reading the first book he ever wrote, now called "Through Painted Deserts", a winding, conversational part biography, telling of the time he went on a road trip from Austin Texas to Portland Oregon with a friend in a rickety old Volkswagen van.

He's more famous (he would laugh at the use of that word I guess!) for his second book, Blue Like Jazz, which again slightly biographical, tells of his faith journey from his young teens to late twenties, and how his views and experience of God have evolved and broadened and become less and less religious, and more and more personal. The sub-title to the book is "non-religious thoughts on Christianity" and it is very apt, as the topics and discussions he recalls are anything but religious, bordering on the insanely funny and sarcastic and silly at times, and yet always deeply profound.

Anyway, here is what got me thinking today. Don and his friend Paul (who is far more laid back than him) have finally reached the Grand Canyon during part of their road trip, and decide to hike down to the bottom to camp overnight. The evening before they are due to leave, he ponders his life, sitting on a bench, and writes:

"...I was raised to believe that the wuality of a man's life would greatly increase, not with the gain of status or sucess, not by his heart's knowing romance, or by prosperity in industry or academia, but by his nearness to God. It confuses me that Christian living is not simpler. The gospel, the very good news, is simple, but this is the gate, the trailhead. Ironing out faithless creases is toilsome labour. God bestows three blessings on man: to feed him like birds, dress him like flowers, and befriend him as a confidant. Too many take the first two and neglect the last. Sooner or later you figure out life is constructed specifically and brilliantly to squeeze a man into association with the Owner of heaven..."

He writes again:

"...Life is a dance toward God, I begin to think. And the dance is not so grateful as we might want. While we glide and swing our practiced sway, God crowds our feet, bumps our toes, and scuffs our shoes. So we learn to dance with the One who made us. And it is a difficult dance to learn, because it's steps are foreign..."

Reading this really made me think today about my life and the way God has been working in it, and the idea that God delibertaely puts things "in our way", so to speak really grated on me at first. Then, I thought again about the times that I've known God the closest, and they've been the times that I've had to work out where he's going, because I hadn't a clue, I couldn't work it out myself, and I just had to follow.

So much of what Jesus said about the way we should live our daily lives, putting everything in his hands and just trusting Him to work it all out, is so foreign to me. I like to be forewarned, foreplanned and in control. I like to know what's going to happen before it does, and surprises generally aren't a good thing, no matter how well motivated. I need to learn to just sit back, and trust, and stop stressing and plotting and toiling, and just rest in God's plans for me. He will work His will for my life out, as I live it, and it's in the living of it that He will reveal Himself to me.

Just a thought that occured to me today, go and read his books, they're really good for making you ponder and think, and just slow down mentally and take things in, drink Truth up like it was a cool lemonade on a hot day, no fuss no hurry, just enjoying the moment. That's what I need to be doing every day when I spend time meditating on God and His Word, just try to dwell in each moment and stop striving to be something, when God wants me to be a someone.

Ok I'll admit it... I'm rubbish!!

Ok, so I haven't blogged for a while, and even when I have they've been sporadic.

I have lots of thoughts about many things tumbling through my head, and lately it's been difficult to just pin one down to write about, so tell you what...

I'll tell you what I've been thinking about today!!

(Read at your own risk: the owner of these thoughts does not take liability for any mental illness that may result.)

JM's Thought List For 19/11/07:

1. Bother!! I've run out of shaving gel! (7:03am)
2. Where are my socks? (7:35am)
3. Have I got time for a cup of tea?! (8:10am)
4. Bother! I'm late for work!!! (8:15am)
5. Should I be worried that I'm thinking about money all the time now?
6. Does God know how stressed I am?
7. Will I cry at my wedding?
8. Does God know what it feels like to be lazy?
9. Is fire in the context of talking about Hell, more of a picture of refining, or is it a picture of punishment?
10. Will God enjoy torturing people? If so, do I want to worship a God like that?
11. Am I being blasphemous thinking this?
12. Am I going mad?
13. Is God laughing at me with all these questions, or am I making Him mad?
14. Will I ever stop this incessant talking to myself in my head, or will I drive myself terminally insane and just murder someone with a large rubber axe someday?
15. Why does my sister have (sometimes) bad taste in music?
16. Why does my Boss get all het up about stuff that really isn't important?
17. What does it feel like to have no hope?
18. Can I get away with eating four twixes without anybody noticing they're gone from the biscuit tin?
19. Will my bladder ever work properly?
20. Howq come I prefer tea over coffee now? Is it just because of megan's influence, or is it my mothers?
21. How can I lose more weight?
22. Could I ever take the plunge and move to the states?
23. What will my wedding be like?
24. Will the weather be good?
25. Will I be boiling hot in a suit?
26. Can we get it all organised and ready before Aug 16th?
27. Will I get this job?
28. Am I insecure?
29. When will I have kids of my own?
30. Is my life ordinary?

These are some of the crazy random thoughts I had today...

Deck The Halls...?! - More Like Deck The Customers!!!

Phew.

The weather is getting colder, the nights are drawing in, old ladies are hardly seen after 5 pm out on the streets, and a horrible dehumanising illness has gripped the general public, turning every man, woman, and child into a zombified, grasping, egotistical version of themselves...

That's right, it's nearly Christmas.

Speaking as a person who works in retail, I utterly utterly detest this time of year. It marks the greatest event this world has ever seen, the height and culmination of all of human history and longing, and it brings out the worst in us; the worst kind of selfishness and greed. I just don't get it. How can something so good be turned into something so bad?!

Before some of you say "ah he's talking about the blind unbelievers", actually I'm not.

The longer I work in a Christian Bookshop, the more I have to rely on God's strength and goodness to help me escape cynicism. Every year I see people who claim they follow God, and who I'm sure earlier in the week have been praising God, and yet using that same breath, use it to moan because somethings not exactly the way they want it to be, or the wrong colour, or not enough choice. In the same minute that a child is orphaned by Aids, or a single mother struggles to find food to feed her children, or a Pastor prays to God for the money to come from somewhere, anywhere so his village can have clean water for once; in that same moment, these people moan, and consume, consume, endlessly consuming.

Yeh I know I'm part of the problem, because I create the market and the demand for some of this stuff, part of which is, if I'm brutally honest, just kitsch disguised as Christian product.

And yet...

What i think of kitsch can be used to encourage someone, I know that, I've seen it happen. But something satill niggles at the back of my mind amidst all our back-slapping and egotistical self-encouragement. Are we missing something? Are we so comfortable with our lives that we've forgotten what it is to suffer? Are we so wrapped up in having "stuff" that we've forgotten who gave it us in the first place, and where it came from?!

The good news of the coming of Jesus I celebrate, I dance with joy at in my heart. My eyes well up when I realise that the Kingdom is now finally here, on earth, in Him. This festival of consumerism, this excuse to forget others, this small reason for hedonism doesn't match what i read in the Bible. This "christmas" I don't recognize at all anymore.

I know, I know I'm being harsh. But am I?

What does it mean for me, here and now in November 2007 that Jesus came? Does it change me, invigorate me, cause me to feel others pain, long to meet their needs, long to show them a God who loves them who lives in my flesh and bones?

I don't know, I just don't know.

Me and My Meg :-D

This picture was taken in Ireland, when we went on our coach trip around the Antrim Coast.

I'm so grateful to God for letting me meet and propose to this beautiful, intelligent, fun joy-filled woman.

She's everything I want and I'm still amazed she said yes!

I can't wait to see her on Boxing Day, and to marry her in August.

:D

Those of you who pray, do it!!

I've just found out:

The interviews for the job Im applying for are on 13th december...

Eeeeeek!!

Changes!!

Well, life is speeding along at an incredible pace at the moment, and I don't just mean because it's approaching Christmas!

I've just got engaged in the last month to a stunningly beautiful girl who's also my best friend, (yeh, yeh I know get the sick bags out!!) and I'm also applying for a new role in work...

My boss has given in his notice for New years eve as his last day, and so I've just applied for the Managers job at the shop. I reckon the interviews will be early December, so I should know by Christmas whether I've got it or not hopefully. I think I've got a good chance, having been with the company for ten years, and having worked as Senior Sales, Branch Supervisor and then Deputy Manager. We'll have to wait and see, I'll keep you posted! Obviously because I'm getting married, it would be great to get a new job and to have a rise in wages...

The other change is that at some point next year BEFORE the wedding, I'm gonna have to move out, and get a flat that both me and Meg are happy with, which is gonna be interesting since she's 4,000 miles away at the moment!! I'll have to have had my own adress for about two months I reckon, so that I have utility bills and a rental agreement to use as document evidence that I intend to travel back to the UK and not stay in the states after the wedding. Also, I'll need them so that Meg can apply for a Spouse Visa after we're married.

The good news is that apparently because I'm not applying to reside in the states after the wedding, I don't need to have a Fiance visa, but can simply go to the States on a normal tourist one I usually use, e.g. the Visa Waiver Program. So that's a big relief out of the way!

The biggest change for me obviously will be to get married and end my days as a single man. This is a huge thing for me, not just for the obvious sharing my life with meg, but also the fact that I have to knuckle down and start being responsible now, as I have to think of someone other than myself from then on. It's a huge commitment to make, proising to share your whole life until death with someone, but I'm confident that as long as we keep God at the centre we'll be fine. Besides, I've a feeling that marriage is going to be a very exciting adventure for both of us!! ;) :p

Anyway, off to work!!.....

Well, here it is...

It's not a very good picture 'cos it's a bit blurry... but that's it!!

Oh and the date I quoted previously was a Sunday in 2008... D'oh! So the actual date will be the 16th August lol

The Date Of Doom!!!!!!

It's been set.

No more excuses, no more days of spending money without thinking, no more hours of day-dreaming and wishing my life away....

The Date Of Doom has been set....

17th August 2008.

(I'm overjoyed really, viewers!! :p)

:D

*Sigh*

Meg has gone home.

I kissed her goodbye at the airport very early this morning, and felt that a part of me just crumpled up right there on the floor.

I'm having a bad day in work and I know it's partly because I'm missing her already.

I know that we're getting married, and we both love each other, but this is the hardest thing I've had to face, being this far apart, that a webcam is the only option.

It'll be a long journey for her today; she left manchester at 9:30 and will be flying for 6 and a half hours till 4-40pm our time, and then an eight hour layover for her flight to Bangor tonight. it means she'll have been travelling for nearly 24 hours, so I guess she'll be sleeping for a while when she gets home!!

Off to work...

Anglo-American Relations!!

No, I'm not going to start a lengthy discourse on the subtleties of the American Right, or the nuances of Brownite Britain...

This is just a short note from me to say that Meg and I got engaged on Tuesday night!!!!!

A photo of the ring will be posted as soon as we get back from Northern Ireland, which is where we are at the moment, visiting family. For those who are interested, a brief description follows:

The ring is a nine carat white gold ring, with a dazzling blue topaz stone in the middle (9mm diameter apparently!) It has small diamonds all around the band.

We're both very happy, and we hope to get married next summer, though the exact date is unknown as yet, as we have the nasty and long drawn out process of visa applications, etc!!

Anyway, I'm off for a coach tour of the Antrim Coast now, I'll blog soon!!

Thursday: Penobscot Narrows Bridge & Observatory

Ok, on the Thursday, (30th August) which also happenned to be my birthday, Meg took me to the Penobscot Narrows Bridge & Observatory, and one of her favourite places just next to it, Fort Knox. (not THE Fort Knox with all the gold unfortunately, that's somewhere else in the States!!)

The Penobscot refers to the River it crosses, and is a Native American name meaning "where the river widens" or "where the white rocks are". The word "Penobscot" is actually a mis-pronunciation of their original tribal name which was "Penawapskewi". Even though this was a mistake by the English colonialists in pronunciation, they have adopted the name as the name of their Native American nation, or tribal group. Apparently there are 2400 Penobscot native americans in the States today officially registered.

If you want to know more, please go here, it's very interesting, and it gives you an idea of the original culture and history of this part of Maine!

Anyway, here are some pictures from The penobscot Narrows Observatory, 442 feet above the River! The picture below was taken from the Penobscot Bay side. In the distance you can see the Bay, and parts of Belfast I think. I think that might be Mount Kahatdin in the background, but I'm not sure!!

Below you can see just how high we were!! I took this picture looking straight down when we were in the Observation Tower. It's so high that you have to get a lift up to the top that would rival any Evil Genius's Secret Headquarters, as it whooshed up very fast and we were there in no time!! I think I made a comment that I was a little claustrophobic at one point, but the left wasn't actually that small, I think there were about 6-8 people in it with us, and it didn't feel too crushed. The guide at the bottom of the Lift gave me a funny look, I think because he heard my accent, or maybe he overheard the claustrophobia comment!! lol

If you look carefully, the bright blue car parked just to the right of the Waldo-Hancock Bridge, (which was built in the 1930's and was the original Bridge spanning the River) is actually Meg's car!! Fort Knox which I'll post about next, was just around the corner of the coast on the top left of the picture...

Here below you can see the green of the coast around Belfast and Penobscot Bay. This was taken looking to the right of the mouth of the river.

This next photo below I took next, and is slightly to the left of the earlier photo. You can see the wideness of the mouth of the River, and why a Fort was built a little further down the Coast to defend Maine against a seaward attack of the English!!!

Below, you can see the coast before you reach the Bay and Belfast, taken again from the opposite side to the mouth of the river. Look at all the forested areas!!

Taken again turning round to the Mouth of the River where it opens into the Atlantic. I think the Interstate you can see winding it's way along the coast is the one we came on.

Below is the same area but taken using the zoom, so you can see a little bit more of the detail of that house I really liked in the bottom slightly off centre!! It seemed to be on it's own and I liked that lol

Another photo more to the left of the head of Penobscot River, and you can see where it joins the Atlantic...

I tried to take a picture of Meg standing against the windows of the Observation Tower, but because it was very sunny that day it didn't turn out so well, as it's mainly a sillhouette. I still like the picture obviously though!! ;) :p

For those of you who are interested in Engineering, it's a fascinating Bridge, and the way it was built is amazing!! the white housings that surround the bacle stays of the bridge are filled with nitrogen gas to prevent corrosion and the bridge is made of cast cement which was poured in place by specially made equipment. It's built on the head of the Penobscot River, where it enters Penobscot Bay, and then flows into the Atlantic. The river's original source is in Mount Kahatdin.

Ok, so we'd done the Narrows Observatory, next was Fort Knox....

Thankful

I am going to blog more photos and stories about my visit to Meg, but have not found enough time to do it with being back at work and then chatting to Meg in the evenings...

I am off tommorrow, so after a hearty unhealthy fry up breakfast tomorrow, I'm going to blog alot!

I'd just like to say that I'm very happy at the moment. Not in a sugar-coated sickly way, but genuinely happy and grateful to God for what He's done in my life lately, and the ways He's proved His love to me. So many little ways that I could go on all night.

But I won't!!

There's lot's of things materially that I want and I could have eventually, but most of all I want to know Jesus more, and know more the depth of His love, for me and others. I've been increasingly aware of how much he paid for me lately, and how the ways in which I live life in an almost blinded defeatist way, waking up and waiting for "fate" or something. But God isn't like that.

Really, when you look at the heart of the message of the Bible, God is Good, and he loves.

he loves me, and He loves you and wants us to know that great love.

That's worth living for!!

Moose-Sighting Adventure Part IV!!!

We finally drove a bit further from Misery Pond, and looked for places to stop that would be good for a sighting. Meg's Dad told me that Moose come out at dusk, and they come near bodies of water so they can drink.

They're notoriously shy of human contact and are rumoured to be very hard to see, so Jim didn't promise anything!! We found a place that looked promising, as it was near a large-ish lake/pond, and it was a little off the beaten track, in fact the van we were in barely had enough space to get down as it was a single track road.

We found a place that was part marsh part pond and pulled in to the side of the road, and climbed out of the van and each chose a perch near the bank to sit still and be quiet. Nat & Phoebe being the adventurers that they are, climbed into a nearby tree whose branches were overhanging the lake, and wound together into a cool almost tree house naturally.

I wasn't as confident as Meg on my tree climbing or balancing skills, so I let her climb in beside Nat and took a picture!! After that, Meg climbed down again and we sat on a stray limb that was near the ground, watching the other side of the pond for any sign of moose...

Here you can see through the trees to the other side of the pond that we were watching in total silence, all you could hear was the angry buzz of insects flying about and the crickets and grasshoppers chirping. It was so silent there that I got a fit of the gigles, and meg had to poke me to be quiet! lol!

It was at about this point that I felt a strange sensation on my forearms and then realized that a Mosquito army had come in force to place it's claim on Brit flesh!! I was covered with the things, both large and small, and for the next two weeks I kept noticing new and bigger itchy bumps that appeared randomly all over my body! I'm not sure if they just got everywhere, or whether it was the case that I just reacted to the bites, but from that night on (the Tuesday!) I kept applying myself with generous amounts of moisturising cream in the evenings, which is when it seemed to be at it's burning and irritating worst!

This again was a really beautiful and unspoilt quiet place, and I didn't see any other people around at all, and it was nice to sit there in the undisturbed silence, even though I was bitten to death by midges and mozzies!!

Moose-Sighting Adventure Part III!!!

These are all photos of a place called "Misery Pond", although I've no idea why it's called that. It was so beautiful, and I got carried away taking lots of pictures.

Above and below, you can see the sillhouettes of Jim (Meg's Dad), Meg, and her sister Page.

It wasn't actually sunset, though it looks that way. What happenned was I didn't realise I was looking towards the sunlight, so the lens was over-exposed!!

Here you can see how sunny it was, with Page's head accidentally in the corner of the shot!

The water was like glass in this lake... It was amazing.

In the far centre of the picture, you can barely mnake out Nat & Phoebe, who both decided to go climbing... (apparently they did that last time!)

They're next to the big boulder in roughly the centre of the picture...

Here they are coming back to us...

My favourite picture in this set. I love the way the sunlight is reflecting off the water and off my lens. :)

Another almost identical one... I love the cloudy sky in this one as well.

You can see the pines growing on the edge of the lake here... I'd love to go back and spend more time here, possibly with my tripod so I could use the digital zoom more...

Sorry... another one lol

and yet another corner shot...

You can see the sun has moved since I took the last few shots, as it's higher up in the sky!!

I don't know what to say. I love the peacefulness and serenity of this scene. There were no other people there except a guy further up the bank who was waiting for three of his hunting buddies to come back with their catch, which they hoped would be a bear!! Meg's Dad chatted to him for a while while we looked round and I took lot's of photos!! these are my favourite scenery ones of the whole trip I think.

Moose Sighting Adventure part II!!

This was our first "photo stop-off point". I'm a bit annoyed because I can't remeber the name of the place or the lake, perhaps Meg will leave a comment to tell us.

I just kept taking pictures of it because it was so beautiful and the colours were so vibrant; all the blues and greens...

The water also had this serene peacefulness about it that I just fell in love with. (ok now I'm sounding like an emotional american lol)

Maybe someone can answer this?! What type of trees are they? I was told but I can't remember now.

I think we must have stopped here for about ten minutes and I'd been told it was just a quick stop as we had a ways to go, so I just snapped and snapped and snapped pictures nineteen to the dozen!! i wish I could remember the name of this place...

As you can see, it was a lake surrounded ny Forest, like most of Maine seemed to be, or certainly the area of Maine I was in anyway...

Do you recognise the islands in the middle Meg? can you remember where this is?! it was definitely on the way up to "Misery Pond" which is anything but miserable and which I'll show you in my next post tomorrow...

I love trees next to water. It makes me think of the verse in revelation that talks about various trees (including the Tree Of Life) being next to a grand River that sweeps through the Heavenly City where God dwells with His people. I hope it'll be like this, I imagine it will be...

last picture. I zoomed into the islands to see what they were like close up. they were still a distance away though! And the best photo of my whole holiday was to come next at Misery pond, little did I know...

Tuesday: Car Photos On A Moose-Hunting Adventure!!

All of the following pictures were taken from inside the car while travelling, which explains the streaks/reflections/general messiness of them!! On Tuesday, Meg's dad got all excited and decided that because he was off work, he should take his family and the "british person" to go see if we could find a Moose...

These were some of the views along the interstate as we drove past... Notice the very fashionable streaks...

Nearly sall of the interstates were like this as we drove... mile after mile of forest...

And this view I loved!! Coming down a big mountain and seeing the other side of the canyon... :p

I even took one out of the front of the car, it at least gives you an idea of how green maine tends to be! All the way there, meg's Dad was telling me where I could expect to find a Moose, and how it would react if we met one...

And here was me thinbking that a moose lived in the fridge!! D'oh!!

In the photo above you can see the typical mode of transport of the average Mainer... A pickup.

Again, by the side of the road... more forest, apparently this particular bit we drove past looked ideal to see a Moose, apart from the fact there was no way into it...

More forests and rivers pass us by as I start to get more and more excited as the landscape seems to be getting wilder and wilder... I wonder if we're going to end up in the middle of nowhere pushing the van...

Again, I can't resist taking more pictures out of the window as we speed past...

A valley of trees separates to reveal another river...

And then I go and wreck it all by mis-timing pressing the button and get a picture of a fence!! A fence I tell you!!! D'oh!!