Some of the Bella Coola wildlife: can you tell which ones are the REAL bears?

Chilicotin - Coast Range Mountains - Beautiful! We hiked out through a fire-ravaged burnt-out forest towards Rainbow Range; still snow so didn't get so close, but still saw the brilliant colours!

Just spent the week camping out with Larry + the mosquitoes in Beautiful Bella Coola Valley... where the mountains and the glaciers rise up right out of the ocean... + there's lots of waterfalls!

Spring-break?... more like Winter Snow-shoeing! @ beautiful Manning Park; got away for few days of fun with my upstairs family + another new friend who just materialized -must have thought he was posing for a worldwide magazine - maybe he was!?

Everly's 1st birthday yesterday: 1 year old already! and Grandpa didn't want to just give her money, but something special for this special girl on her special day: I wanted to buy her a dress, a pretty dress, one she'd remember as just for her! So I asked where I might buy such a dress... + Sophie reminded me of what we'd found while going through storage bins a while ago: this white dress with colourful embroideries from Guatemala! Erica had personally picked it out over 8 years ago... don't know if she knew she was buying it for her future granddaughter so many years later... but it fits her perfectly, right at this tiime! Erica Grace always had a gift for picking out the right gift for the right person + this time she definitely had supernatural help! Happy Birthday Everly Grace!

#24: Thank you for joining me on this Pilgrim’s Progress! but there’s more… Pt II! Christian’s overcoming story reached his wife + family, still back in the City of Destruction. Christiana now regretted her former refusal to accompany him: ‘I have sinned away your father; I have also hindered you of life. I am now as he was then; nothing will serve me but going on pilgrimage.’ And so she + their 4 boys, joined by Mercy, retrace Christian’s steps, encountering many of his same trials, but also new difficulties + victories of their own. Great-heart guides them through, slaying Giants Grim +Maul +Slay-good +Despair+Diffidence, destroying Doubting Castle once for all. A host of memorable characters join them along their journey: Mr. Humble-mind, Honest + Fearing + Feeble-mind + Ready-to-halt+ Valiant- for-truth + Stand-fast. Each grows in their resolve: ‘to run when I can, to go when I cannot run, and to creep when I cannot go.’ Each fights the good fight + finishes his course, finds his identity + fulfills his destiny in Word + Spirit. The sons even find wives at inns along the way and a new generation takes hold of the promises. Finally the pilgrims cross the River one by one + reach their destination. Each is personally summoned with a word + a token, escorted by Shining Ones + welcomed to the glorious Celestial City, their true + eternal home. Stand-fast’s record rings true: ‘Thy wheel broken at the cistern… please send my 5 children here also to come after me!... The river has been a terror, but now I stand easy, my foot is fixed; the waters are to the palate bitter + to the stomach cold, yet what awaits me on the other side is as a glowing coal in my heart. I have formerly lived by hearsay, and faith, but now I go where I shall live by sight, and shall be with Him in whose company I delight myself.’ … and so all pilgrims progress … and so, good readers, I pray will you find it also.

#23: Christian + Hopeful finally enter Beulah -sweetness, pleasure, light, safety, covenant grace, abundance + saw their glorious goal + destination before them: the Celestial City! 2 golden Shining Ones advised: only 2 more difficulties + they had to obtain them by their own faith: 1st: a deep river with no bridge over it = death. ‘You shall find it deeper or shallower, as you believe in the King of the place;’ Christian entered + began to sink, but Hopeful felt bottom + encouraged him. 2nd: apparitions of hobgoblins/evil spirits so frightened Christian he felt he’d never obtain entrance, but Hopeful kept his head above water + comforted him: Remember the Scripture: ‘wicked are not troubled,’ so if he was troubled, then he must be righteous! The enemy was stilled and both came through to the other side. They left their mortal garments in the river + went up the hill with ease to Mt Zion. Comfort + joy + heavenly host trumpeters welcomed them at the Gate. Enoch+Moses+Elijah looked down from the wall; the pilgrims handed over their certificates, the King called them in, the Gate opened, their bodies were transfigured… bells rang out! The dreamer looked in + ‘wished myself among them’. But he also looked back + saw Ignorance ferrying over the river by Vain-hope by boat. He'd come alone, knocked, supposing… without a certificate + was refused entry. 2 Shining Ones conducted him to the door in the side of the hill. Then I saw that there was a way to hell even from the gates of heaven, as well as from the City of Destruction. So I awoke + behold, it was a dream. Take heed + don’t be of either extreme: In playing with the outside of my Dream: What of my dross.. be bold to throw away, but yet preserve the gold; What if my gold be wrapped up in ore? None throws away the apple for the core: But if you shall cast all away as vain, I know not but ‘twill make me dream again. … that is, if you miss his central message, Bunyan lovingly threatens he will write another book … + he does!