| Wednesday , November 14th - Busy Busy! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I have been very busy over the last week. (I can't believe it's been almost a week since I've updated this journal!) I've spent a lot of time mounting, matting, and framing photos, and also working on my gallery website - which needs a total makeover since I have new photos to add to it, and photos to remove from it. On Friday (the 8th), I originally made plans to run errands, but then seemed to lose my energy - opting instead to stay inside and do house chores and photo work. However, the day turned out even better than I anticipated, and I didn't have to look any further than my yard. These photos were taken over the course of one short 7-hour period.
As you can see by the photos above, the redpolls have discovered the seed tray and they came by for a short visit. I haven't seen redpolls since the end of last winter, and it was exciting to see their familiar red spotted heads and the pink breast feathers on the males. On the suet cage above, is a boreal chickadee. Boreal Chickadees differ from Black Capped Chickadees in that they have brown flanks and gray-brown crowns. While the boreal chickadees do visit the seed tray on occasion, I've noticed that they can be bullies to the black-caps - chasing them from the seeds. However, when there are several black caps at the tray, they choose to keep their distance. It's entertaining to watch them all interact. Sunrise and sunset are only separated by a mere five and a half hours now. We have about 45 minutes to an hour of daylight on either side, and that's the time when the beautiful colors appear. The first photo above was taken from my bedroom window just before the sun came over the horizon. The last three photos were taken just as the sun was heading down for the day - at 4pm.
On Saturday, I picked up my friend Lisa (her husband was away hunting caribou), and we grabbed lunch before deciding to go to the Carlson Center for the Holiday Craft Bazaar. We saw some really beautiful fur goods, and had fun trying on hats and running our fingers over the soft pelts of fox and rabbit and lynx. Lisa found several jewelry pieces created by Judie Gumm, which she had to have, and I happened to fall in love with felt Christmas tree ornaments with an Alaskan flair. It was a lot of fun to wander past the different booths, stopping to talk to some of the people running them. We sniffed candles, admired photography, entered drawings, and shared many humorous moments. When we left the Carlson Center, we realized we still had two hours left before the Museum of the North closed for the day. There was free admission in honor of the military community and Veterans Day. It had been more than 6 months since I had visited our museum, and Lisa had never been there, so we were both looking forward to it. I was particularly interested in the special exhibition "Arctic Transformations - The Jewelry of Denise and Samuel Wallace". There were quite a few art pieces and paintings I had never seen before, so the visit to the museum was as exciting for me as it was for Lisa. We took our time moving from room to room and collection to collection. I was permitted to take photos (without flash) and captured some of my favorite items.
Here are some more photos from our museum visit:
On Saturday, we forgot to collect the mail from our mailbox (it's out on the road), so Steve picked it up on the way back from running a few errands. In our mailbox was a box from England! My friend Elaine had sent me an entire box full of Cadbury Flake Chocolate Bars and one other Cadbury chocolate bar. There was enough chocolate in that box to ease six months of woe! On Sunday, I picked up Lisa again and we went to the theater to see "Dan in Real Life" (PG-13). We both loved it. I would definitely see it again. It's a heartwarming story about a widower with three daughters who writes an advice column for teens, and then meets the woman of his dreams. I won't spoil the plot, but this movie is full of romance, humor, tenderness, and even a little sadness. It's definitely what I would classify as a 'date movie' or 'chick flick'. Best of all, there was no profanity, sex, or violence (except for one scene that involved a punch in the nose and a couple of scenes with sexual innuendo, but not in too provocative a way). What a refreshing and entertaining film! Now, keep in mind that I'm no movie critic. I judge movies on whether or not I was entertained. I don't look for "holes" or "bloopers" or bad acting to complain about. All I care about is the story line and whether or not it touched me in some way. This movie did that.
It was a joy to see fresh snow falling when I woke up on Monday morning. The snow fell for several hours before tapering off. I'd estimate that we got a little more than an inch. It put a nice fresh coating on the trees, turning everything back into a winter wonderland. Gip and Carmen came and picked me up for dance class. Gip went with us to videotape the lesson so that Carmen would remember the dance steps over the next two weeks, since we don't have class. Souzana prepared a handout for us to remind us of the dance steps too. Class went well. We learned the next portion of the dance. I'm feeling more confident about some parts of the dance routine, but not as sure about others. I really hope things get easier as time goes on. I never aspired to be a dancer, although I loved to go dancing when I was single. There's a big difference between club dancing and belly dancing. With club dancing, you can at least ad lib and dance in more of a freestyle manner. Having to learn precise steps and movements is a whole 'nother ballgame. I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore either! *laugh*
Yesterday (Tuesday), Steve and I met our friends Randy and Celeste at the theater to see the movie "Into the Wild". This movie is the story of a young man named Christopher McCandless, who gave away all of his belongings, and donated all of the money in his bank account, and took off hitch-hiking across the US with a final destination of Alaska, where he planned to live off the land. He ended up dying in an old bus just outside Denali Park. I read this book several years ago, and found the story to be interesting but also tragic. The people that Chris met along the way were varied in personality, lifestyle, and spirituality and Chris seemed to take little pieces of each person with him as he made his way to his final destination - into the wild. You can read a little more about the plot on the IMDB link above. The opening scenes of the movie made me smile, as several scenes from Fairbanks are shown. Granted, those scenes don't make Fairbanks look like a real pretty place to visit -as they appear to have been filmed during the late fall or early winter months, on somewhat dreary days - but they did make me smile nonetheless. When the movie ended, I found myself wiping tears from my eyes. Some people say that Chris was foolhardy and ill-prepared to survive in the wilderness, and that he sealed his own fate. But that still doesn't change the fact that someone's son died alone in a bus, in the middle of nowhere. I grieved for the loss of his young life, and for his family's loss. One of my favorite quotes from the movie: "...The very basic core of a man's living
spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from
our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater
joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to
have a new and different sun." After the movie, the four of us had dinner at Silver Gulch Brewing and Bottling Company in Fox. Which leads me to my gratitude entry for today:
Last night's dinner was fabulous! We all started with a Four Item Taster of beer. (That's four EACH), so 16 small glasses of beer spread out across the table! It was the only way to get a taste of the beers that Silver Gulch brews. In addition to the Silver Gulch beers, there are at least 50 bottled specialty beers from all over the world, as well as wine, liqueurs, and the 'hard stuff'. If you're a beer snob, this is the place to go! We each ordered an appetizer, which we shared with the others. I ordered the cheese plate (Montrachet, Smoked Gouda, and Aged Sharp Cheddar, ciabatta toast, grapes, and apple slices). Steve had the tomato ale battered onion rings (what a nice SPICY bite they had!). Celeste had the Scotch Egg (a hard boiled egg wrapped in European ale sausage, battered and deep fried), and Randy had the Beer Steamed Mussels. All were delicious. Main courses: Stout BBQ Burger, Porter Chili Basted Shrimp, Fish and Chips (halibut), and Mustard Baked Chops with Brie. Again - delicious! The total tab was only $115 (without tip) - a real bargain when compared to some other Fairbanks prices, and considering we had appetizers, beer, and a meal. We'll definitely be going back again and again. And that concludes my restaurant review. Today, I worked some more on my new gallery website, while watching a little TV. Oprah had a couple on the show (The Rosenblats) whose love story was nothing short of a miracle. (You can read their story here.) Their story moved me to tears. Was it fate? Destiny? God's will? Are our lives scripted for us from the day we are born, or is everything happenstance and based on the decisions we make along the way? How does it happen that two people like the Rosenblats can cross paths in another country, in another time, and then find each other again years later here in America - totally by chance? I want to believe it was meant to be. Many of you know that Steve and I "found" each other in a very unlikely way. For those of you who don't know the story behind our meeting, you can read about it here. Steve and I believe that we were meant to come into each others lives. If not for being in the right place at the right time, and choosing the right letter from hundreds that were dumped from the mailbag, our paths would have never crossed. Seventeen years ago, everything as we knew it, changed dramatically. I must admit, it's been one heck of a fantastic journey! I hope that we have many more years on this earth together. |
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©2007 Susan L Stevenson