Polar Bears

These photos were taken in 2003 by crew members of the USS Honolulu. They've been making the email rounds - so I looked up some original sources, so the photographers could be credited.

I found some interesting sites. One is Undersea Warfare, the official magazine of the US Submarine Force. It contains an account of the submarine's trip to the arctic in 2003, by Commander Harris, the Commanding Officer of the USS Honolulu (SSN-718). His account included the picture below. These polar bears, a mother and her 2 cubs, were well outside of their known range.

Three polar bears investigate an unusual visitor to their habitat. Sighted by a lookout from the sail of the submarine, the bears investigated Honolulu for two hours before leaving.

The two photos below are on NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive, which also contains other great photos.

U. S. Navy photo by Chief Yeoman Alphonso Braggs, courtesy of news.navy.mil.

U. S. Navy photo by Chief Yeoman Alphonso Braggs, courtesy of news.navy.mil.

Seen and Unseen

Clouds hiding against the darkened sky

Found out by the moonlight

That slides around the edges

Making fluffy patterns

Against the dark blue gray

Light pointing out darkness

Highlighting space and not space

The Moon and Venus

And behind it all

Bright but unseen

A multitude of stars

Favorite Paintings

These two paintings are by James Parsons of Seattle. These are not high quality photos, but the paintings are quite stunning. Jim and I were friends through the 80s, until I left Seattle, and I'm privileged to own a few of his works.

This was done in 1980. It is of one of my macaws and two of her babies.

This painting, completed in 1981, is of two eclectus babies I raised. I love the tropical lushness of it. These paintings bring me joy daily.

All Roads Lead To...

Well, I was headed to Olympia. I'm not certain where the clouds were heading, but they were making roads there and seemed in a hurry.

Saffron Sunrise

The sun rises through a pool of saffron light that flows across the sky, filling cracks and niches between sparse clouds with golden glory. As I watch it washes away to expose multiple shades of blue. I turn away, and the room fills with eerie saffron light, not unlike the light that precedes thunderstorms. Delighted and surprised, I again look out the windows and then up. The light has caught in a bank of clouds and from there slid down again and inside, lighting up my morning a second time with the gift of gold.

The sun can be excused for rising ever later when it brings with it such a glorious saffron sunrise.

Then and Now

My mother was a war bride. She and my father met when he was training in Australia, preparing to go to New Guinea, and she had just joined the Australian Air Force. They married a year before the war ended. Their story contains one of my very favorite catch 22's: the war in the Pacific had ramped down, and my dad was sent home. Thousands of war brides followed after the troops were returned. My mother wasn't among them. She was in the service; she couldn't get a visa to the USA until she got a discharge from the Australian Air Force. She couldn't get a discharge from the Air Force until she obtained a visa. She had to wait for the war to end, and then joined thousands more war brides on a ship to a far off land. These were the women I grew up around - women brave enough to travel alone 7,000 miles by ship to a foreign land, to begin a new life, no guarantees they would ever return home.

In 1965 the Seattle Times ran an article about my mother's cooking. It's a fun piece to have. And I remember with great affection all the lovely treats we had at parties.

And here she is now, at a family gathering at the house I grew up in. Still full of life and fun and adventure.

Roadside Guardians

These whimsical beasts guard and protect the rows of flowers behind them.

Well, I suppose the flower isn't a beast, but it is announcing and sheltering the cut flowers in the kiosk.

Roadside Attraction

Along my route west is a small farm that grows beautiful flowers and sells them at roadside.

An attractive kiosk holds the flower bunches in water, waiting for customers to pull in.

Don't these flowers brighten your day just looking at them? And they are only $5 a bunch! The selection is always varied, the flowers fresh picked.

My very favorite part of this stand is that is sells on the honor system. This white box asks for cash or checks. Pick your favorites, pay here.

My next favorite thing are the whimsical creatures welcoming us in. More pics of them coming up.

Clouds Over Seattle

My nephew's wedding was Sunday at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. After a rainy, blustery morning that included a thunderstorm, a strong wind blew the clouds around then settled down to provide a beautiful background for their wonderful ceremony.

Lunar Lover

The moon followed me home tonight.

Can I keep it?

It's hanging around just outside

Lighting up the clouds.

Look at it, making patterns in the sky

Sharing light beams with Venus.

In the misty clouds it's twice normal size

Surrounded by a golden halo

It's full face shining with reflected glory.

The coyotes like it there

Hear them singing their songs of praise?

The owl hoots in harmony

While dogs bark the beat.

The moon followed me home tonight

Let me watch it

Following it's solitary path across the sky

Lighting up my heart.

Magical Moments

The sky is like a beach at low tide, where the wet sand holds the image of wave ripples and glows damply in the moonlight, with channels of receding water adding a bright horizontal pattern. The moon is lighting from behind, not above, and the cloud-sand is bright translucent white. The channels alternate deep blue and white, leading south past the moon. Come play with the waves, they are just out of sight. Wet your toes in the sand, splash in the channels. You too can turn translucent glowing white, and disappear towards the moon.

Ambition

This web extended all the way across the road, with the spider dead center. Small spider, too. I sadly had to break it to drive up to the house. Wonder if it will be back tomorrow?

Blackberry Takeover

Aren't they beautiful? Mouth watering? It's a bumper year for blackberries. Fruit and plants.

Those berries are from this patch, which is trying to take over the woods.

These are trying to take over the pond. You can see the fence in the depth. This growth has all taken place this summer.

A little further on the berries have almost totally covered the fence...

and are heading towards the house. Intervening field? No problem.

The four-hooved stock has been in this field a week, and these vines are now leafless (and, of course, berryless. Goats love berries.) I need to get down there and cut the bare vines back. First step in keeping the temperate jungle under control.

Survivor!

Last spring I bought 6 feeder goldfish to put in my pond, testing to see if it was habitable by fish. Sadly, the fish got Ich and all disappeared by fall. After our exceptionally long and cold winter I was sure there were no fish left.

But the last few days I've caught glimpses of red in the pond. A red in the shape of a rather large goldfish! I've only seen one, but he looks in good health.

While I was there this creature of the (not so) deep rose, stared at me for a few minutes, then sunk back down when the camera got too close.

Now that I know the pond really is fish-habitable I'm going to get some koi.

Unhappy Millie

Millie's Big Day

This morning when I went to feed Millie, she didn't come running. That's not totally unheard of, but I started down to find her anyway, and saw her limping out of the woods. As she got closer I realized she looked like the Porcupine entry at the Halloween ball. Millie had quills stuck in the roof of her mouth, through her tongue, all around her lower face, and completely covering her right foot. As she nudged me I realized that quills have points on both ends. This was not something I could deal with. I needed to find an vet office open Saturdays.

It turns out there's one less than 4 miles from my house. Millie is now back and in a newly-shaving-filled kennel, eating ground lamb and albacore tuna. I have an empty wallet and bottles of drugs for her. She is not a happy dog, although she likes the extra attention.

I went looking for the porcupine, or evidence of a fight. Charlie of course came with me, but it wasn't long before I heard other rustling. My little flock of peafowl were following along behind us. I went from the field into the woods, followed by the peas. I am totally flattered that they consider me part of the flock, and want to be where I am. One of the things I love about the peas is that wherever I am it seems I turn to see at least one gorgeous bird. Maybe that isn't all coincidence.

There was no sign of a fight, no blood, no dead porcupine. I think he or she got away unscathed, Millie being the only injured party. There is just no winning in a fight with a porcupine.

It's interesting what you see when in investigation mode that you miss normally. Millie has marked the entire field. There are small piles of dog scat at even intervals all around the edges of the fenced area. Beware, all who enter here, this land is taken.

Another amazing thing I found on my circuit is that in the past few months a large stretch of fence has disappeared. In its place are blackberries. They have sucked up the fence, and are stretching out into the field. Given a year they'd cover the field and my house. I, however, have a secret weapon that I unleashed on them tonight. I let the sheep, goats and donkey back into that field.

What Season Is It?

Morning Alarms or a Dog With a Job

Trey is a smallish Border Collie cross. A quiet dog with few demands. He decided some time ago that his primary job in life is waking me up in the mornings. He waits until the alarm has gone off a few times, then sticks his nose in my face, licks my arms, generally acts very annoying until I truly wake up and assure him I'm getting up. If I don't, he'll return in another 10 minutes to repeat the annoyances. On mornings when the alarm fails to do it's job, Trey waits until the appropriate time 20 minutes or so after the first alarm would have gone off, and starts prodding and poking. So much for sleeping in :).

I am not a clever enough trainer to teach a dog to be my alarm clock. It's a good thing I have such smart, intuitive dogs who see a need and fill it.

The Saffron Moon

I just can't get the color right, the moon was a gorgeous yellow gold. It was too beautiful to not attempt pictures. Someday I'll actually read my camera manual and figure out how to maintain color at night.

Fast Friends

One of my favorite people is a woman who used to live down the road from me. She spent the night a few days ago, on her way back to her new home in Oregon. Over the years we've been as good of friends with each others dogs as with each other. Jesse was thrilled to see her again. His friend, come to see him after years of absence.

In the morning Danie commented that people think of the country as quiet, when it's anything but. She had thought that the hourly sentinel bark (that sounded like it was just under her window) was Charlie the Pyr doing nightly rounds. However, in the morning she looked out the window to see Jesse laying right under it, looking up at her and smiling. "See, I took care of you all night. Aren't you glad we're friends?"