Life: Through the Lens

I am a list maker.  Relyin Lawson of Come Sit By My Fire does a wonderful job of crafting a creative blog post in the form of a list.  It is awesome and I recommend you visit her site.   I always think I would like to try it, but can't wrap my mind about what my own spin might be. Original native Alaskan art - I could write a post on the preservation of native culture so easily. Items on my list include:  making some sort of photo book, or two, from our travel photos and adventures this summer. writing more about our travels, through blog posts that have been promised but not written. cleaning up my work space in the basement so I have my writing spot back, and my sewing area. (There will be no photos to illustrate why this is critical.) beginning the process of downsizing by taking a room-by-room inventory, and then multiple trips to Goodwill.  getting back on Ebay.  We did this once, but don't remember how to get back on it!  This ...

Greeting a new group of University students. We are finally establishing our new routine, one which includes my teaching part time and being WAY busier than I want to be!  Our 10-week summer adventure was wonderful...now what?! Hanging out with grandchildren at the airport. One of the things that happened which has been a mixed blessing, was the invitation to do a presentation about our trip.  However, that invitation was for last night, and we have not even been home a full month. Making it up to Meesha for being gone so long this summer. We took on the challenge, partly because it pushed us to do that preliminary sort - the one where you have to delete some images which are duplicates, or triplicates, and you just don't need to save them! The beauty of switching to digital photography is that ability to push the "delete" button.  The nightmare of digital photography is that you can take so many photos that you can get overloaded with images.  Th...

We have been home one week, and sometimes this trip seems like a distant memory already.   Schedules, events and the rest of our daily routine are infiltrating the interlude we had this summer. Did we really drive 13,000+ miles?!  The yellow highlighted area is the route we took West, and the green indicates our route home. From Alma, across I-80 and north via Vancouver. North from Vancouver to Dawson Creek, where the Alaska Highway begins.  Then NW across BC and Yukon Territory, and into Alaska. South to Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. We are looking at photographs and remembering the early part of our trip, when we visited relatives and friends along the way. Vancouver, BC, and my nephew at his favorite coffee shop. The adventure grew from there, as we traveled North. There were times we questioned what we were getting into.....like when we encountered some insane road work.  Lots of roadwork.  This is actually a "good" stretch ...

Mackinac Bridge...last leg of our journey. Home.  Mail sorted.  Laundry about done.  Photos....those will take a little longer to count and organize.  Here are some statistics: He was just looking for a way to cross the road. Animal sitings Moose - 8 Elk - 2 Deer - 7 Free range cows - no count, too busy dodging! Black Bear - 11 Brown/Grizzly - 1 Bison - 93ish, in herds and individually, strolling down the road side Bald Eagles - approximately a dozen Antelope - 5 Wild Horses - in the neighborhood of 100 Stone Sheep - 3 Mountain Goat - 1 Swans - 30-ish Sand-hill Crane - 1 Trout/Salmon - no specific count Airplane Statistics Airplanes Flown - Piper-18 Supercubs -2; Cessna 172 with 180 HP engine conversion - 1 Alaska is the most flying-est state, with the most airplanes, in the nation.   It is one of the major sources of transportation. The border of Yukon Territory and Alaska. A section of the original Al...