Birds and Flowers and Trees

This is one of my sister's roosters. He is a really pretty creature-and it appears songbirds are not the only ones who love sunflower seeds! 

 This is Janet's oldest chicken, Cecilia. She has ridden on bicycles, gone down the slide, swung on swings, and is a rockin' hen!

 Janet has an apple tree and this year there are blossoms!

 I caught this little guy on the feeder at Mum's, isn't he adorable!?!

 On a walk with Janet, we found a spiderweb covered in water drops that needed to be recorded.

 Lupine!

 Mum's lake-Spring has come to the Kenai!

Fire and Fish

This was on Tuesday night. At the time of this blog, it is now 44 thousand acres... and it is really smoky everywhere except in North Kenai, where I am writing from (the Sr Center). 

 Fishing was the most incredible adventure. I know, it seems odd to find an Alaskan kid who hasn't gone halibut fishing, but there you are. As you can see, the very first thing I encountered was stairs. BUT, I navigated them with my eyes closed both ways and I was very proud of myself.

 It took a long time to get out to the area where our captain wanted to fish, but it was great fun. Halibut do NOT act like a fish shaped fish. I caught one early on and it was dropped back, I lost several, and then finally at the end got my two.  The fish were caught with herring bits and even squid!

 We had about 14 people fishing and the two young people in the crew were everywhere. Max is going to start captaining his own boat and Maureen is going to be joined by another young lady. It was fun to watch them as they cleaned all these fish in record time. The gulls loved it, too.

 On the way home, we stopped in Clam Gulch to take some pictures. The sky was scary and exciting and ash was dropping on the truck.

The sky was really dark as we headed toward Soldotna. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as it looked in the city. Most of the darkness was over Tustumena lake. 

Sun Fun~

On Friday, I got to meet with the Caraway's again. Tim took me out in his kayak (Titus gave me his spot) and we watched a plane take off (pictured are Kelly and Kayla).

 Saturday, I took a hike with Janet and JaLeen (it was part of the Birding Festival) and we saw several little songbirds and their habitat. (I believe the flower below is a Marsh Marigold).

 Janet (above) and JaLeen (below).

 After we got back, I  met up with Kelly, Tim and crew again and we ate hamburgers on the beach. EVERYONE was on the Kenai beach today and in the mud, cuz the tide was way out!!

 I had toyed with attending a seminar on rain gardens and since I was still in town, decided to go. A rain garden is a fancy name for a low spot that collects water and has plants in it. Portland, Oregon has LOTS of them on the curb sides. They are very pretty.

But, the very best part of the program were the desserts. Yup, these adorable amazing incredible decorations are cookies!!!!!

Along the Seward Highway

Traveling along the Seward highway with a friend, you are able to see many a splendid things. Mountains, trees, water, moose, and as you get closer to ANC, trains!!!!! Alaska Trains!

Mountains and the Inlet. FYI- Capt Cook had either no imagination or too much. Anchor Point, Alaska was called that because Capt Cook lost an anchor at that point. Turnigan Arm got its name because Capt Cook (who was looking for that NW passage) had to turn around again when he ran out of water to sail on.

Near Portage glacier, I almost cried. Where have all the glaciers gone? Receding into the mountains like the hairline on Bruce Willis. Sigh.

This little 'chalet' houses the entrance or exit (depending on which way you travel) into Whittier, Alaska. It is a little over 4 miles long and is a little bit creepy--and totally amazing!

Here are some photos on 'information' about this passage. Or you can visit this link here to learn more about Whittier. Where would we be without Wikipedia????

I particularly liked this trio of trains.

And since I miss cabooses so much, I was very glad to see one. It looked like it was a storage facility, but I'd love to have one in my yard! 

I am always surprised by what one can shoot with a fairly  normal camera!!! The harbor at Whittier. 

 This is just one photo of the old building mentioned in the article about Whittier. It is really rather eerie!

Mom's Kayak

I had a wonderful adventure on the lake at mum's on Thursday. I was able to take the kayak out and glide across the waters I once played on. I think this squirrel was laughing at me during parts of it, but I didn't care!

 As you can see, there was still ice on mum's side of the lake. The rest of it is clear and COLD. I managed to kayak over the ice into the open water and on my way back, I broke it up so I'd have a path--which is sort of a moot point now. It's all clear today!

 I always wanted to have a house on this knoll. Mum's is around the bend and the house across the lake is almost even with this bend. We didn't have neighbor's when we were kids.

 I found a note in a bottle seeking help--mum said it was one of the kids across the lake. I am going to go back and put a note in it from me!

 Mum's house from the lake.

 I was very excited to see lily pads growing. I love spring!

 Here the kayak and I are moving through some broken ice. It made the neatest noise as I glided past the chunks.

 And the chunks were large! You can see how rotten the ice was, even if it was thick.

 The most difficult part of being in a kayak is exiting it. Yup, I stepped out carefully and then filled my rubber boot with ice cold melt water. Definitely not one of my finer moments--but I laughed! I can't wait to go out again.