A week in review-

OK, Moses isn't in the week. He wanted to be!! He does enjoy sitting on bags which people are trying to pack..or IN them! I think this was from when Steve was headed to a retreat. Moses is such a cutie! 

Steve was the chauffeur this week. I've had the privilege of experiencing this off and on while here these last months. It is a wonderful feeling! Especially if I get to sit in the front passenger seat!So, Steve took Mum to her preop appointment and then her surgery appointment. She may not have been knocked out for it and she may have two lines of vertical stitches to Steve's single horizontal one, but Mum got a fire drill!!! Thankfully, it was before the surgery started and was an alarm triggered by a drop in water pressure in the building. 

Steve did a LOT of chores around the house. Alas, we had talked about him changing the light above the stairs and didn't actually get it done because it was still working. The night of the day he left, it went out. 

 He also tidied up Mum's grill and cooked pork chops for lunch. We made burger dogs for dinner (next post!).

 He washed Mum's rig and wished I had told him about the mirror being gone. He'd have ordered one down there and fixed it for her.

 It rained much of the week, so tidying dad's shop and resting were pretty much the thing to do. He was sore from his surgery and so we got lots of time to sleep. Often Mum's was a House of Naps! (does anyone remember that story? Audrey Wood's, The Napping House) On Saturday, we went to see 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2' and then visited Dad.

 Later, Mum went to bed early and Steve and I rushed to watch the sunset. We almost missed it, we should have left just before 1030 and decided where we were going. We got to see it nestle into the mountains from Capt Cook State Park.

 The next morning, Steve finished up packing and a couple of other things. I didn't get my hair brushed, but he didn't notice.

And then, he drove thru the rain to Anchorage and finally got back to WW, where Jon picked him up late in the night. I hope he enjoyed himself. I know I did! 

Steve Up North-

Steve arrived late in the afternoon on Mother's Day. He had to take a nap on the way down. (he's holding his wrapped hand behind his back!!!)

Janet made chocolate shortbread/scones and we used those as a base for strawberry shortcake with ice chocolate chip ice cream and whipped topping. YUMMY!

Steve showed up and had his without strawberries~

Family photo of Janet and Lee and JaLeen with Mum. 

Steve's bag got searched. It must be a Hansell thing. I wonder if you put this tag in your bag before you left, would they think it was already searched? Usually they 'stamp' the tag, this one is blank!

Stunning day on Monday. This is down by the Tesoro docks. There were a LOT of people out halibut fishing. Most of them were using basic salmon poles with hooks sllightly smaller than the BIG ones you use out in the inlet for halibut fishing.

Picking up rocks-

After 8, we went down to the beach at Arness Dock. Steve wanted to take photos of the jack up drilling platform. (the link takes you to that post from Hansell notes) I found this GREAT piece of driftwood. Unfortunately, Steve said I couldn't bring it home. He said it wouldn't fit in the car.

Photo of rig by Steve- as good as one of Jon's!!!! While we were on this beach we met another family fishing for halibut. The 3 small girls had made cute houses from rocks and driftwood, they had made a kind of six plus foot tall tripod of wood (am thinking the 12 year old boy helped with that one!), and had two poles drifting with the tide. We got to watch the dad bring in a small chicken (halibut) and the girls were so much fun to watch! Squealing and jumping around! I wasn't sure if they were visitors or Alaskans, I'm thinking they were the latter.

On the way back to the house, we found this guy on the side of the road! He was absolutely focused on food and completely ignored all the cars stopped/passing!

We got home and were telling mum about the creatures when Steve suddenly said something like, 'there's another one!' We had a young cow by our house. Most of my photos didn't turn out very well, she was stately and moving quite purposefully around the edge of lake.

It was a very good Alaskan day. I want to get Steve a fishing license and tag for halibut, but I am afraid he'd forget and use the hand he isn't supposed to use! BAD idea~ He's pretty tired and doing quite a bit of resting in between sights and tidying up dad's shop a bit. It is good to have him here.

Water!

Chilly breeze, lots of sunshine--at first! It was a super pretty day and while walking on the drive, I found this gem sparkling in the dirt. Cleaned it off and WOW! You can't see too much in this first photo, the second one has 'agate' lines! 

 I was trying to sneak up on the pair of mallards  near the bird feeder. There were 3 and one got spooked...which startled the other two and off they flew. I had no idea I captured flight on the cell phone!

Since it was so nice and the breeze was light enough to make tiny waves on the lake, I opted to pull the kayak out from where I stashed it 6 months ago.

 After I got it out and hauled it to the lake, it got COLD and cloudy and super breezy. I prefer a bath pond to kayak on. Thankfully, it grew calm after 8pm. The mossy bits in the lake are still frozen and there was a very slight 'edge' of ice on a bank or two. It is all gone this morning.  The earth is still stiff.

 This is neat, am not sure  you can tell, but the ice is reflected in the water like a shelf.

 I was a little miffed. As the kayak glided over the water, I noticed the lily pads starting to grow down below. I tried to get photos of them, they were super creepy looking!!!! The dead stalks arrayed around the center where new crinkled growth was reaching out to the surface. But, the camera only captured clouds!

 New growth in the water weeds, too.

 The mallard pair from a different point of view! The lake- I am a bit concerned. The other day, the neighbors had taken a drive around the lake on their 4 wheeler. I noticed a spot with some disturbed down and not a single sighting of the golden eyes. I hope they didn't leave for a less disturbed lake and I really hope their nest didn't get bothered.

 About 830 pm I was floating around and heard the craziest noise. I sounded like monkeys!!!!!! I paddled over to the darker side of the lake and took some really blurry photos of a bird paddling as well. I focused on the noise and managed to get another bad photo of a bird  high on top of a tree. When I got back to shore, I looked it up on the Cornell University Birding site. Yup, it was the Bonaparte Gulls! They are back. I hope they stay! They nest in the trees, so it should be out of the danger zone.

 840 pm shot of the sunset. Well, not exactly, but it was getting pretty chilly on the water and I didn't want to wait another hour or more! Sunset today should be just after 10 pm. One of those wonderful Alaskan things!!!

Winged Ones

Birds are flocking in like crazy! It is fun to sit outside and watch them, most of them are super skittish and zip away at the sound of a shutter, but some are braver than others. Like the nuthatch. I love those guys!!! 

 I wasn't aware there were so many kinds of chickadees! This is either a Boreal Chickadee or a Chestnutbacked one. I think it is the former.

 There are also different kinds of juncos. This little one below is slate colored.

 Today, May 3, all the ice is practically gone on the lake. These photos were taken on the 2nd.

 This is a much better photo of the male Goldeneye. You can see the gold eye better. The female didn't turn out very well. She was doing a lot of diving. There are frogs out and life is exploding all over the place. Hoping the neighbor's didn't disturb any nests when they rode around on the edges of the lake today on their 4wheeler.

I went to town on Monday, I think it was. This gull was at the Erik Hansen Scout Park. He was following me all over the place!!!!