NEVER WORRY....

"Never worry about the size of your Christmas Tree.  In the eyes of children they are all 30 feet tall."

~Larry Wilde~

WEEKEND WISE WORDS - TRAIN RIDE TO NOWHERE

If you catch the train to nowhere,

You'll find the strangest man I've met,

Who claimed his ears were always ringing

With the sound of his regret,

Back then time had not yet taught me

Regret was not a sound I knew,

So I thought nothing more than silence

Was left by things you didn't do.

He said he hoped the sound of nothing

Was the worst I ever heard,

Because regret drives you as crazy

As the taste of swallowed words.

"It's a stone thrown in a well," he mused

And this I've not forgotten:

"it's listening all your life

And never hearing it hit the bottom."

~Erin Hanson~


(The photo is of a passing train when we were on holiday last May.)

DUCKS AND GULLS

Sharing a few duck photos from our holiday in May.  I don't think I have shared these particular ones before.  

Margaret at Birding For Pleasure

gave me an ID on these pretties.  They are Gadwall ducks.  Thank you Margaret, much appreciated.

A Red-neck Grebe

Mew Gull

Our weather has turned colder.  For the first time today I felt the need to wear a coat.  I have been in sweaters for the last few days.  A lovely day but breezy.

We had company from out of town this week, one was family and the other old friends, and happily our son dropped by.  Great to see them all.

I have caught up on housework and letter writing, errand runs.  Nothing too exciting but it has been a pleasant week.  I am going to catch up on my blogging, but first I am putting the kettle on for a cup of tea.  I made banana bread earlier on and a slice will pair nicely.

Have a great week everyone.

A FEW TEA QUOTES AND PHOTOS FROM OUR HOLIDAY LAST MAY

These were in two glass cases on Deck 10 in the buffet area (when on the Alaskan Cruise last May).  The artist who created them was Pavlos Dionyssopoulas from Greece.  The date on the card in front of the case was 1999.

You can find out about the artist at this link.

Today I'd like to sit and sip,

Forget the world a little bit,

Ignore the things I have to do,

And just enjoy a cup or two.

When your day is topsy-turvy,

And as busy as can be,

There's nothing quite as calming

As a nice hot cup of tea.

Teapot is on, the cups are waiting,

Favorite chair anticipating.

No matter what I have to do

My friend, there's always time for you.

It's Tea O'clock somewhere!

Tea, a hug in a mug.

The telling of a story, 

Like virtually everything in this life,

Was always made all the easier 

By a cup of tea.  

~Alexander McCall Smith~.

I expect I shall feel better after a cup of tea.

~P.G. Wodhouse~

The tea is calling and I must go!

Have a great day everyone!

PATSY ANN, OFFICIAL DOG GREETER OF JUNEAU, ALASKA

This is Patsy Ann. The collar that lies across her foot is symbolic.  The one time I read of Patsy Anne being given a collar, she got rid of it as soon as she was out of sight. Even though someone had put a collar on in a few of her photos, I smiled at those photo ops knowing that they would soon disappear.  And here she is, still watching the ships come in, as she did all those years ago. 

(all my old photos I found online)

I was drawn to the statue immediately, as my father's mother had a Bull Terrier in the 1940s, and I have many old photos of my grandmother and my dad with Tony. Even though Tony was long gone before I came along, my dad told me stories of him.  He became part of me through those stories and photos, and so Patsy Ann is now part of me too, in heart at least.  I felt quite moved by her story.

Her statue wasn't erected until 50 years after her passing. 

Patsy Ann was a purebred white Bull Terrier born in Portland, Oregon in 1929 and sent to Juneau - by ship - to be the companion of two little girls.  Patsy Ann proved to be too challenging for this family, on top of the fact that she was deaf.  Her owners gave her to another family and I was sad to read that this family abandoned her.

She began roaming the streets living on handouts and sleeping where she could, often with sailors.  She became well known in Juneau, especially when dock workers noticed her special talent.  Despite being deaf Patsy Ann had an uncanny ability to know not only when a ship was due, but on which dock it was going to berth.  Townspeople would follow behind her when they saw her heading to the docks, where she would stroll and begin pacing.  Sure enough a ship would come into view.  She was never wrong and some people speculated that she sensed the vibrations of the ships' motors.  

One of the stories that really amused me, was that one morning the townspeople were given information and stood at the dock a ship was expected.  Patsy Ann strolled up, took one look at the crowd, and trotted off to another dock.  It was at that dock the ship arrived.  She became the most famous dog west of the Mississippi, and kindhearted travelers began to look forward to seeing her, throwing treats out of portholes for her to gobble up.  She dined very well.

Patsy Ann was named the town's official greeter by the mayor.  When Juneau passed a law requiring dogs to be registered and tagged, townspeople collected funds to buy her a tag and collar.  Patsy Ann thumbed her nose at that, figuratively speaking, and got rid of it as soon as she was able to.  Wisely Patsy Ann was given an official exemption to the new law. This sweet little dog was celebrated on t-shirts, post cards and in time there was a book about her life.  Her photo also appeared on postcards, and she was soon more photographed than Rin Tin Tin.  

 She passed over the Rainbow Bridge in 1942 and was buried at sea.  Half a century later, her life was celebrated with a statue sculpted by Anna Burke Harris, honoring her memory.  I was directed to this short video about her on YouTube.  If you can't see it you can click on this link.

Patsy Ann touched many lives and became a legend in Juneau.   Even though she belonged to no one, the whole of Juneau seemed to look out for her.  As well as greeting those ships she could be found in the lobby of one of the fine hotels, or the dark corner of a saloon, or hanging out at the Longshoreman's Hall, but she really preferred to be outside and was said to enjoy life on the docks.

She would probably be wagging her tail that so many people love her to this day.

You can read more of her story here.

WISE WORDS...

Said the river: imagine everything 

you can imagine, then keep on going.

~Mary Oliver~

GRIZZLY BEARS AT DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE

A few more photos my nephew took when we were in Denali last month.  

This was our bicycle chaser.  If you missed it you can read that story by scrolling down at this link. And over the hill he went.  

The following photos are of a mother and cub digging at the side of the road, either for roots or grubs?  I forgot to ask as there were lots of excited people on that bus.  They hadn't long awakened from their winter hibernation - the bears too - and must have been very hungry. Sorry, I could not resist that little joke.  

I could not believe that the bears were only a hop, skip and a jump away from us.  No one asked to get off the bus!  I doubt the driver would have allowed us anyhow, or at any time for that matter, this having taken place after the bicyclist incident.

The smaller bear didn't seem that much smaller than his mother and I wondered how old he was.  I read that cubs stay with their mothers for two to three years.  You can read more information here.

These videos are not that great, especially in the third one as I took a very good minute or two with the bar on the window but I wanted to show the cub making its way down the hill as he sank into the snow.   These videos were all taken with my cell phone.

RANDOM PHOTO OF...

a bee on St. John's Wort

THE IGLOO HOUSE

Every now and again I will be sharing photos we took on our Alaska trip back in May.  We saw a lot of interesting sights that intrigued me and I am sharing one of those today, The Igloo House, a four-story concrete structure built in the 1970's. 

It was pointed out to us on the tour bus as we were making our way from Seward to Alkeetna, on the George Parks Highway.  It is so large it can be seen by airplanes at 30,000 feet.  The igloo-shaped building was going to be a hotel, a premier Alaskan-style accommodation but it was never finished.  They ran into all kinds of building code violations, and it has sat abandoned for nearly half a century.  

The interior was never finished either, was once padlocked but no longer is as it was impossible to keep the curious from wandering in to explore. It passed through several owners but none of them were able to get it back to par.  How strange it is now a tourist attraction, as no guests have ever stayed there.  You can see more here. It also shows what it looks like inside.

You will find it 200 miles out of Anchorage, at the halfway point between Fairbanks and Anchorage (Alaska's two largest cities) on the south side of the Parks Highway at mile 214.5. 

IDYLLIC PLACES

"Discovering this idyllic place, we find ourselves filled with a yearning to linger here, where time stands still and beauty overwhelms."

~Author Unknown~

ALASKA TRIP - MAY 2018 - SEA OTTERS IN SEWARD AND OTHER THINGS - MONDAY, MAY 28TH, 2018

Alaska Trip - May 2018 

A trip to see the Sea Otters in Seward

Monday, May 28th, 2018

We are on the road to Seward in this video.  If you can't see it,  you can go here.  

4.56 p.m. We are back in our hotel room after driving to Seward today.  It is a hundred miles away.  Anchorage is in one direction and Seward is in the other.  As Anchorage Airport is where we are heading tomorrow, we thought it would be nice to drive to Seward, for one last chance to look for the Sea Otters we saw a few days ago.  The weather was a whole lot better than when we were there with our niece and nephew, and also from the first time we were with our bus tour group. 

We stopped in Girdwood first and had breakfast at another local restaurant. The Girdwood Fire Department was having their breakfast in there too, so we figured we had chosen a good place. 

We ordered eggs and sausage patties, home fries  with toast.  It was very good.

 There was a large map of the United States on the wall where people had put colored pins to show where they were from.  

It was interesting to look, people were from every state it seemed like.  We checked Virginia out first.

There were no pins available so we didn't add ours.  I suppose I could have asked but this was on our way out and I was focused on those sea otters.

We checked a couple of other states out where we have family.  I always enjoy looking at maps.

Enjoyable to see where people from Alaska had come from also.

Several from the UK and Europe.

The back of the restaurant was painted in a very cute, kitschy way.

There were three faces painted in the center of the flowers.

The owners and their dog perhaps?

I really enjoyed it here.  Gregg and I love nothing better than to find out-of-the way places.  This one wasn't really out of the way though as it is easy to find.  All you have to do is make your way to the Girdwood Picnic Club in Girdwood, Alaska.

It is a great drive to Seward, along a very picturesque highway.  We traveled this road a lot and this became a familiar sight.

And the signs were always interesting.

Notice the avalanche sign?

There is still a lot of snow up there.

At around the half-way point we stopped at a pull off to take photos of a mountain lake.  There were a couple of men fishing and we watched out of curiosity to see if they caught anything.  Not two minutes later one of them did and he saw us watching. He gave us a broad smile and said it was a trout, holding it up and inviting us to take a photo.  We did!

In the meantime we are getting closer to Seward.

We headed straight to the marina where we had seen the sea otters before.  They were still there.  It must be their favorite hang-out spot.  

They were even closer this time.  We spent over an hour with them.  We noticed a boat heading towards them,  but it slowed down and gently went by without disturbing them.  The otters stared but didn't stop what they were doing, which was floating and eating...

and preening...

and smiling...

I fell in love with them all over again.

Gregg got into a conversation with a man in his small fishing boat, who threw a few of his catch back into the water to try to entice the otters to come even closer.  

These were called Hooligans and are a small and oily fish. You can read a description and about the best time to catch them in this article.  

It was the first time I had heard this name used for a fish.  The only other term I had ever heard of was when someone was talking about a young troublemaker.  No, not you buddy!

The sea otters didn't want anything to do with the fish. They were very happy eating what they could find for themselves, which in the long run is better for them. It was very kind of the fisherman to try though, and we thanked him. He had several, much larger fish in his ice chest. A nice dinner for his family tonight? And probably a few for the freezer. By this time his wife had joined us and they left.

As for the sea otters they were as entertaining as ever.  

One pulled itself out of the water to sniff around the edge of one of the docks...

looking for scraps of fish maybe. 

One last shot with a promise that I will share another post sometime, of them alone.  I took so many photos!

After keeping the sea otters company for quite a while, and not really wanting to leave when we did, we walked around the marina.  There were interesting sights there too, always love the dogs.

Her head was looking in all directions.

Here she is patiently looking at the funny lady with the camera.  She poses so nicely.

And then there are the bears who had also had a good catch that day.

The map below shows you the route we took to get to Seward.  When we got back to the hotel we stopped at the coffee shop for a latte, and we decided to have a bite there also. We chose a turkey and ham panini to share, and we each had a yogurt with wildberries and granola for dessert.  I stopped at the gift shop one last time and bought a few souvenirs.  

It is 11.22 p.m. and we are both wide awake.  It is going to be hard to get to sleep knowing that we are traveling in the morning, and also I am thinking of those delightful sea otters.

He seems to be trying to go to sleep.  I guess I will too.