I don’t know about you, but I am weary of all the post-election strife and vitriol in this country. So I’m offering a little peace and quiet with this autumn image taken in the D.C. area.
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Approaching Glacier Bay
I had been looking forward to Glacier Bay the whole trip and was not disappointed. The approach was quite beautiful too….
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Happy November
“The wind that makes music in November corn is in a hurry. The stalks hum, loose husks whisk skyward in half-playing swirls, and the wind hurries on. . . . A tree tries to argue, bare limbs waving, but there is no detaining the wind.” ~Aldo Leopold
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Hubbard Glacier
Hubbard Glacier is located in eastern Alaska and part of Yukon, Canada. This was taken from a distance, but our ship took us closer. What’s really nice about cruise ships is that they turn the ship from side to side so everyone gets a good look. That doesn’t always happen, so we pretty much ran around the decks taking photos. 🙂
The glacier was named for Gardiner Hubbard, an American lawyer, financier, and philanthropist who was the first president of the National Geographic Society. He was also one of the founders of, and the first president of, the Bell Telephone Company (now AT&T).
Did you know that Alexander Graham Bell taught deaf children? Hubbard’s daughter Mabel was one of his students and later became Bell’s wife.
It takes about 400 years for ice to traverse the length of the glacier.
What was crazy to me was that one on side you had the glacier, and on the other side, this:
and this:
I was reminded of the Na’Pali Coast in Hawaii. Only it was a lot colder outside. We needed sweaters, jackets and jeans in the sunshine. In July.
The water was glassy like this the whole time we were there.
Hubbard Glacier is next to a body of water called Disenchantment Bay. Alessandro Malaspina called it “Puerto del Desengano” in 1792 when he realized it wasn’t the entrance to the Northwest Passage. Talk about misnomer.
Later that night we saw a lot of scenes like these:
Nothing but mountains, sea and sky. Occasionally another ship in the far distance. I loved every minute.
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Travel Scan: Parthenon
A little different angle for the Parthenon. It was awesome to see the Acropolis, but if you go to Athens, be sure to see the lighting show at night. Unbelievable.
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Clouding Up in Alaska
I’ve gotten a little off track with the blog, but am getting back in the swing of things now. I’ll be continuing the posts on Alaska and then will tackle the Norway trip with other stuff mixed in.
After our land tour, we boarded the ship near Whittier, Alaska, and sailed through water that looked like this:
Sometimes the water looked blue-green and other times it looked like this:
Soon we were looking at mountains and inlets and beautiful cloud formations….
This went on for hours. I’ve been to a few places, and have never seen anything like this. If you can, visit Alaska. You won’t be sorry.
Great weekend, everyone. And a shout-out to all the new followers! I really appreciate your taking the time to visit to this blog.
{carole}
Warts and All
It’s that time of year again…Halloween is just around the corner. Can you believe it? I feel like summer just started. We’re supposed to get a Santa Ana wind this weekend, so it will be hot and dry around here. Makes it very hard to keep pumpkins from decaying before Halloween.
This isn’t a jack-o-lantern, but it’s one of my favorite pumpkins:
French Heirloom Wart Lace Pumpkin. A truly fitting name.
I’ve had to cut back on blogging for a while as I had to have surgery. I’m fine now, but am trying to catch up on everything else. Thanks for your patience!
Great weekend, everyone….
{carole}
Catching up with Yuri
It’s been about four months since I posted any pics of our cat Yuri, so thought I’d bring you up to date. Yuri has settled down a lot and seems to be truly at home now. He still flies up and down the stairs (scarily fast) but he patiently and quietly waits outside our bedroom door every morning. The only time he “whines” is when he’s ready to eat. I’ve heard of cats who meow all day long, basically driving their owners insane. 😉
Here’s what he’s been up to…
My stepdaughter moved into a place of her own this summer, and now Yuri loves to hang out on her bed. I love his pink nose.
I bought Yuri some really cool toys (“Cats love them!”) from Amazon and he ignored them completely. Like a toddler, he prefers the box they came in. Yuri is two after all. He pretends there’s some kind of prey in there and jumps on top of the box. Luckily, a friend who has a cat was able to use the toys. Yuri only wants to chase a mouse on a fishing pole, or a laser pointer. He has the mouse in his mouth here.
Bought Yuri a collar with his name and our phone number on it and he was not happy. It took him two weeks, but he got it off. Luckily, Yuri doesn’t try to escape when we open doors. I’ll be trying the collar again soon.
I also love Yuri’s giant paws. Siberians have them for better running and jumping in the snow. He’s incredibly agile and can easily jump from a crouched position to high places in the house. No snow in the forecast here, but he’s very surefooted.
The light was hitting Yuri just right one day. I think he looks a little, well, demonic here. 🙂
I’m still getting used to the way he stares at me. So different from dogs!
While doing laundry one day I put two jackets on a chair in the foyer temporarily. There was just enough time for Yuri to slip between them. I’m so glad he stayed still for this shot. These were all taken with the iPhone or the iPad…haven’t gotten around to introducing the big camera yet.
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Queen Califia’s Magical Circle, Part III
Queen Califia’s Magical Circle is the only American sculpture garden, and the last major international project created by Niki de Saint Phalle.
In part II, I told you I’d be focusing on de Saint Phalle’s shades of blue. Under the giant eagle that supports Queen Califia, there’s a domed temple adorned with celestial symbols in gorgeous blue tiles….
I almost had to tone these photos down, the blues were so vivid.
In addition, there are these plaques from another sculpture garden by de Saint Phalle, the Tarot Garden in Tuscany.
A mosaic bench outside the dome.
The artist worked on this creation right up until her death in 2002, at age 71. She developed severe lung problems after years of inhaling fumes from the polystyrene that she used. De Saint Phalle also had rheumatoid arthritis, which made it hard for her to walk. A move to San Diego helped with the lung problems, but de Saint Phalle died of emphysema on May 21.
On our way out, we walked outside the garden where I took one last shot of Califia. De Saint Phalle began work on Queen Califia in 2000. After her death, completion was supervised by Niki’s granddaughter, Bloum Cardenas, and her assistants.
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Eidfjord
Even though the weather was a bit foggy and damp, the water in the Eidfjord was so calm we could see this nice reflection:
Great weekend, everyone!
{carole}
Pearls & Prose 