Makin' Baby Icebergs

Back from Alaska!

One morning we got up early, braved the chill, and watched from the ship's deck as enormous chunks of ice calved from the Hubbard Glacier.....

The blue wall of ice stretched and towered, squeaking and creaking and rumbling constantly, sending little mini avalanches trickling into a sea already bobbing with ice. It sounds like a rifle shot mixed with thunder when something the size of a house breaks off and crashes into the ocean.

This is also my first YouTube video. :)

First Geocaches for "Spideyjen"

Ah, the great outdoors....

Nothing like getting outside on a beautiful day, venturing through forest and meadow and creekside, discovering hidden trails...and, er, turning in circles while muttering darkly until your GPS unit decides to start picking up the signal correctly.

Yes, we are venturing into the hidden world of geo-caching.


There is probably more than fifty hidden caches within a few miles of our house, so today we set out for the nearby ones.

The first cache we found while ostensibly wandering (quite incorrectly) toward another cache. Once we realized we were in spitting distance (well, 500 feet or so) of it, we changed our target and soon had discovered a hidden trove of fishing lures (it's the hunt, not the prize, right?) tucked away in a little tupperware container in the hollow of some tree roots.

We went back to our first target, got on track, and found ourselves in a little park. The GPS swore up and down we were practically standing on top of a cache, but there were people about and we didn't feel like crawling through the leaves while other folks hovered. Also, it was too darn hot out to concentrate. Later this evening, we returned and found the little log book and pencil after some pondering on the subject of where, oh where could it be.

Third hunt took us through deer trails and serious brambles . Serious bush-whacking. This was the geocache that my dedicated geocacher friend, Kim, suffered many long scratches on her legs to find. Well, we didn't find it, although we stared at and prodded a long series of fallen tree trunks in the hope that something man-made might appear. Alas, not.

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

Birdsong and Massage

I'm feeling blissed out and serene right now, freshly back from a massage at my friend/co-worker's little studio.

The little cottage backs onto the forest, and as I lay there, so relaxed I was practically in liquid form, two deer walked right by the open window. Birdsong poured in, a duet with the soft Asian music playing.

I've been meaning to treat myself to this for a while now. It's funny how you can vow to make time for yourself, just yourself, and then somehow the months go by and making time to luxuriate is forgetfully pushed to the bottom of the list.

Mmmmm. Do not forget again.

Magee and Colby

The kitties are settling in...

Magee is the one on the right. They're a little hard to tell apart in this photo. :)

Magee is very, very affectionate and while she's not a replacement for Lestat, she is already making herself a very loved part of the household. She will sit on your lap for hours and rumble away in a very quiet purr.

Magee

Is Magee the cat for us, a companion for Colby and a new little creature to take into our hearts?

We don't know yet, but we've made an appointment to go see her tomorrow at the house she's being fostered at.

She's just over a year old and was a stray picked up as a dirty thin kitten from Hornby Island. She'd been living rough for a while the shelter people think. Her torn little ear speaks to that. Lestat had an ear like that-- he wasn't living rough but he was a bit of a scrapper in his youth.

She's apparently a bit handshy at first, but with a sweet personality. I hope there's a bond.

This is how we picked Colby---looking at pictures of local adoptable animals and making a list of possibles. When we met Colby there was an instant bond and we barely glanced at the other cats I'd selected on paper. She sort of threw herself at us, and from Magee's description it's doubtful we'll be greeted in the same way at first.

It's a big decision and I thought I'd wait much longer after Lestat was gone to go searching, but I am missing having a second cat in our household more than I thought. Not missing Lestat more than I thought (I miss him sure enough), but missing two cats in general as well. Two hopeful faces at breakfast time, two furry bodies warming the end of the bed, twice the trouble, twice the purring.

If Magee is not a match, as may happen, there will be others I know, but we both think she has an appealing little face and I'm a sucker for a hard luck story.

Mosaic Path Idea...or what to Do With All Your Weird Junk

What to do with all those miscellaneous things in our lives? Rusty tools and broken teacups and bits of pretty rock sitting on your windowsill and things you somehow can't part with....well, you COULD line the pathway to your house with them like this home on Denman Island.

The crazed lamphrey eel tile below is what first drew my eye of course....

But there were Mexican clay pots, runestones, marbles, and plastic insects set into the concrete, slivers of stone and glass glittering in the sunshine: the effect was enormously appealing and I found myself mentally evaluating the contents of my own personal odds and ends for a reincarnation in something similar. Recycled debris as art at the entranceway to one's home: your neighbours will know you're not boring.

Bluebell Garden

We visited this garden towards the end of the Mother's Day garden tour last weekend. It had the feeling of a hidden parkland as scrubby trees and fencing was the only view from the street. Best things here were an ornate fountain spouting water from lions heads--exactly what I want for the courtyard for my villa in Rome or for er, somewhere in my present garden.

Gave me great ideas for using bricks to floor my patio and the artful use of screens and lattice work and climbing vines to create the feel of outdoor rooms. Also liked the use of mosses and woolly thymes among stones.

This garden made me envision mass plantings of bluebells under my own trees. Thousands of bluebells. I loved its nut-tree orchard and blossoming trees.

I was happily gifted at this stop with a hankie full of white Star of Bethlehem flowers and bulbs. I was assured that they would soon explode in my garden everywhere and I may yet regret taking them, but they looked lovely here.