MORE PHOTOS FROM FRYING PAN PARK

In my first two photos, and always on the look out for interesting bits of nature, Gregg pointed out the fungi growing on the fence.

Good Morning, I hope you all had a great weekend.  Ours was busy as we had company.  Strangely I took no photos, didn't even think of it as we had such a good time talking until after midnight.  

I fixed one of those cheat meals for dinner but we all enjoyed it. It had been a busy week and I had no time to cook or fix ahead.  We were going to be out all day and this seemed the way to go for dinner that night, to get something on the table fast.  I was serving up half an hour after we arrived home.

For an appetizer I had two types of cheeses with crackers, plus some dates and a few nuts put together on a cheese board.  I know where to get really great chicken noodle soup.  It is the next best thing to homemade.  We have known our friends for many years and they do not expect anything more than good company.  One of them recommended the soup.  I added butter croissant and for dessert individual portions of Tiramisu, the kind that comes in a small glass.  A bottle of wine, great conversation and the evening was perfect. 

Not sure what we will be doing during the upcoming week, not sure if I will be taking any photos but in the meantime here are a few more from Frying Pan Park.

A barn housing an old cider press...

and its history in the photos below.

Tired piggies!

And more tired piggies in the next stall.  They all have access to the outside.

I shared these goats in my previous post.

I found another goat in the field, too busy eating to pose for a portrait.

Far too busy feeding face for posing.  Note: clucking noises are of no help at such times.

If you saw my last post here, you will recognize this little charmer.

His brother was a hundred feet away having a snooze.

Brother looked like he would be following suit very soon.

There were signs asking us not to feed the horses as they were work horses.

This lovely cow was busy licking its trough, expectantly waiting for lunch.  We saw staff making their rounds feeding all the animals.

One expectant face looking through the fence.  Sorry little guy, no food but I can see it coming.

Thankfully these turkeys don't have to worry about making an appearance at the Thanksgiving table.

I read that for many years those turkeys who had been pardoned at the White House ceremony were sent here.

there will be

This post is dedicated to farmers everywhere, including those in our own family.

Thank you for stopping by.

FRYING PAN PARK

Our latest walk took us to Frying Pan Park.  We haven't been here for three years or more.  

One of the attractions of the park is Kidwell Farm, a working demonstration farm.  It recreates farming life that would have taken place in the 1930's and has many animals.  These include cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens and a few more.  As you can see I was particularly taken with the new calf. 

It is free to get in so there are always families, a great place to bring small children.  There is an admission charge for special events. 

As well as the farm there is also the Frying Pan Meetinghouse which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places dating from the 18th century, and the Old Floris Schoolhouse, constructed in 1911.

No one really knows how the name Frying Pan came about, because the already named road was here before predated records, or so the story goes.  I got the following from the article found here.

One story is that when people camped by the water, in haste to leave the next morning they left their frying pan behind.  Depending on the time frame, these people could have been American soldiers from the War of 1812, copper miners from 1728 or native Americans before that.  Another theory comes from its geography. The 'run' (small stream) emptying into a round pool, suggested the name but its not clear which pool this story references.

The name Frying Pan is first seen in Virginia records in a 1728 deed from Lord Fairfax himself, when a man named Robert 'King' Carter bought the land to build a copper mine.

In 1892 the community petitioned the postal service to change its name.  They were sent several names to choose from and they selected "Floris".  I have only ever know this area to be called Frying Pan, and didn't know the name Floris until I read up on its history.

I will have more photos to share from Kidwell Farm another day.

Thank you for looking and also to those who are able to leave a comment, I appreciate it very much.  Wishing you all a great weekend. 

WISE WORDS...

An animal's eyes have the ability to speak a great language.

~Martin Buber~

ALASKA TRIP-MAY 2018 - MAY 19TH AND 20TH, 2018 - ANCHORAGE ON SATURDAY AND DENALI ON SUNDAY

When I can remember to do this, I add a paragraph at the beginning of my vacation posts.  It is for those who don't know that we have been back home since the end of May. I am sharing my daily journals and photographs of our time in Alaska.  Many places we visited I will share more photos in the future.  If you have missed any of the ones I have published and would like to take a look, you can go to the bottom of this post and click on "Alaska Trip-May 2018".

A two-day post today.  I didn't write much on the 19th as it was mostly a travel day.  We had lunch in Anchorage and walked around a market where the bus dropped us off.  

We browsed briefly then it was back on the bus until we reached our hotel for the night, the Talkeetna Lodge.  If you go here and scroll down the page a little, you will see a video on the right.  It is well worth watching just for the scenery.

I was hoping to see a real one of these.  

The fireplace reached all the way to the ceiling, a very impressive construction made of river stone.  Below you can see a close up of the open flames.  

Sunday, May 20th, 2018

Denali National Park and Preserve

We drove an hour-and-a-half from the Alkeetna Lodge to Denali.  The place we stopped at had a cafeteria and a gift store, and it was near the entrance of the park, but I don't remember the exact name.  It may have been the Denali Park Village Resort.  You can see a link here.  Our nephew took most of the photos here today.

 These are my fellow travelers. They are a very special group of ladies I feel privileged to have shared this holiday with, my family. They made traveling all those miles one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever had.

"

This little guy was very cute but we didn't invite him to come along.  Besides, he was too busy scrounging for scraps of food people were eating on the bench opposite ours.  He was happy they weren't doing a very good job of picking up their crumbs.

Due to a mix-up we got two tickets for a four-hour tour and six tickets for the eight-hour tour.  Gregg and my brother-in-law volunteered to go on the shorter, and the rest of us went on the longer, all-day tour.  It suited them fine as they were thinking that four hours was long enough, and truth be told I was wondering about that myself.  As it turned out that eight hour version was the best decision we ever made.  We saw so much wildlife and the bus ride went fast.

We walked down the road to wait for the bus.  There is a link here for you to look at.  

When the drive began the first thing our driver pointed out was the Willow Ptarmigan.  We saw them all throughout the day. You can look at this link to get more information.  It is the state bird of Alaska and they are an arctic grouse.  It changes color from a snowy white in the winter, to a light brown in the summer, which is an effective camouflage from predators.

A first sighting of a grizzly.

The driver said we were very lucky that day.  We ending up seeing several grizzly bears.  It was very cool to see two young bears rooting at the side of the road.  As the bus approached on the other side and stopped, they did not seem that bothered and continued eating.  I thought at first these were a mother and cub, but am not so sure now.  It did seem that the one was a little larger than the other.    

There were also Dall Sheep.  I had never seen them before except for in books and on nature shows, so I was delighted at the sight of them.

and nephew got closer shots than this.

 Caribou in the distance. 

I cropped as far as I could go.  

Do you notice the scar over this one's eye?  He is a scrappy one and when I tell you what happened next, you may agree with me.

A heart-stopping and extraordinary incident happened when a cyclist was chased by this grizzly.  Our nephew spotted the bear's first sighting of our cyclist coming down a steep hill.  The bear was moving in from the left-hand side of the road, still a ways off just ambling along.  And then when he saw the cyclist he picked up his pace, almost to a gallop.

We had already stopped to look at the bears and the driver could immediately see that the cyclist was in a very precarious position.  He opened the door.  I saw the cyclist throw his bike down and  quickly jump onto the bus. The driver closed the doors as fast as he could.  Several of the passengers talked to him, this young man who had just jumped on board.  He was relieved we were there because, as he was making his way down the road, he saw the bear coming. They were basically on a collision course and the cyclist could see what was coming.

Once the cyclist disappeared from the bear's view, he seemed to give up the chase.  

The bear crossed the road at a fast trot, then walked up the hill and eventually disappeared out of sight.  

While all this was going on another bus had stopped on the other side of the road.  Its driver had also witnessed the encounter and was ready to help if needed.  We were just that bit closer.  You can see from the looks on those two ladies faces looking out their windows, that they saw everything that had happened.

Last year I remember looking at a  photo of a similar circumstance, and at the time I said oh that can't be real.  I don't think that way anymore. In the photo below the cyclist retrieved his bike and we wished him well as he disappeared around the corner.

Bears are coming out of hibernation and very hungry.  A fact that Gregg picked up from his driver, was that they have to consume 300,000 berries every day during the month of August, the prime berry month in Denali.  They need this to survive the winter.  

A few more miles down the road we saw the three bears on the hillside.  I have more bear photos that I will share at a later date.  


So, today we saw a lot of grizzlies and experienced a bit of excitement we could have all done without (the cyclist), and so glad it turned out okay.  This incident reminded all of us that we are visiting their territory.  They were here a lot longer before we were and they deserve our respect.  They might look cute and cuddly and I may be preaching to the choir here but they are wild animals, and I love that they are wild.  I want them to be around for a very long time, in their own natural habitat so that our children can see them one day, and our children's children. 

Not only do you see all this breathtaking scenery, but there was the most amazing wildlife all throughout our 8-hour tour.  So, if you have occasion to go to Denali, don't be put off by the length of it.  You just never know what you will see. It was an exciting day for animals, especially for bears.

Gregg passed on one more bit of information. Their driver had already told him they have a name for cyclists, "Meals-on-Wheels".  Insert 'startled face' here. We passed more cyclists on our tour, and several hikers, and a lot more bears in various places along the tour.  It was a busy day for bears.  

To finish up.

We met very nice people on the bus.  A couple from Louisville, Kentucky, a couple from Olympia, Washington and another couple from Miami, Florida.  The people behind us were celebrating their 32nd wedding anniversary. 

When we got back to our hotel and were sitting at a table near the fireplace, a couple asked if they could share as the other tables were taken.  We had another delightful conversation, and I thanked them for giving me permission to put their photo on my blog. I have already sent it to them.  

The husband told us that he was in Alaska in 1964 when they had the 9.2 earthquake.  He told some extremely interesting, first-hand accounts of what it was like. The epicenter was located in the general vicinity of Seward.  If you are interested and would like to learn more, you can find an interesting article here.  

Off to bed now.  Tomorrow we take a train ride from Denali to Anchorage.