A Day in Magnolia

Today was absolutely beautiful here in Magnolia, MA (Gloucester). It was still a little on the cool side, but the sun was out and it was a glorious day. As promised, I have pictures to share with you.

I mentioned that Matthew and I are staying at an inn up the street from Tiffany and Michael's apartment. When you open our door to the walkway to head down the stairs, this is part of the very tall section of rhododendron that greets you. I watched squirrels, a rabbit, and a chipmunk run back and forth across the driveway this morning as they played among the leaves.





If you turn left out of the inn, right down the street was this fir tree growing in somebody's yard. It stays cool enough year round, that this is a very common site in the area. I don't think I would ever get tired of seeing a "Christmas" tree growing outside my window!



If you go straight out of the driveway of the inn, you head toward the house where Tiffany and Michael's apartment is. These are some of the sites that greet you as you approach the main steps to the house.









If you pass the house and keep going down toward the end of the street, this is what you see.





When you get to the end of their street, you can cross over to the rocks and climb down to either sit, fish, or explore a bit. It's absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite places in the world to just "be". It's really nice to sit after the sun has warmed the rocks and let the warmth just soak into your soul.



And here's what you see in front of you.





Depending on the time of year, there might be sailboats out in the water, larger ships on the horizon, and you can see the skyline of Boston across the water on a clear day. One thing you can count on seeing no matter when you're on the rocks are the sea gulls. They're not as skittish as you think they would be because enough people fish from the rocks that they hang around for potential food possibilites.





There's a loop that circles around the area and it's a great place to walk. There are either rose bushes or a different kind of rhododendron bush still blooming and when you pass by, the air smells like floral saltwater. It sounds nasty, but was wonderful! The view was pretty amazing too.









The last pictures I took were from the rocks toward the west as the sun was beginning to lower in the sky a little. The water sparkled from the reflection of the light and a picture probably can't do it justice, but I thought I'd try.





The tide was beginning to come in as I was finishing my time on the rocks and I felt very small as the surf pounded the shore and crept closer to where I was standing. I kept thinking about the verse in Job 38 when God is chatting with Job about His greatness as it relates to His creation of the sea. He says in verse 11, "And I said, 'This far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop'".







So there you have it - a great day in God's creation with a little packing and errand running thrown in too. Tomorrow, Lydia is coming to visit us since she has a couple of days off from her summer job in Boston. It's been funny how many friends from home we've seen in various places this summer as we've come and gone from our various homes. We have another beautiful day in store before the clouds move in again and we're excited to share some favorite sites with her. And by the way, it's more than a little humbling how fast God can reset our focus if we'll give Him the chance to do so. While it probably helps to have great visual reminders like I did today, He will be found whenever we look for Him - He promised.