All is calm and even a little bright. The birds are happy at the feeders and a wandering sunbeam spotlights distant trees. This afternoon things will change as hurricane Idalia approaches, bringing heavy rains and 50-70 mph winds to our area over the next 36 hours. All loose items have been removed from our lanaiContinue reading “The Calm Before…”
Author Archives: eskildoodle1
Holy Schist!
During our recent cruise I found this unusual rock in Ketchikan, Alaska. The thin, flat rock was about the size of the palm of my hand, and I just had to pick it up. This tortured rock was once buried miles beneath the surface of the earth and was forcefully thrust upward by collisions ofContinue reading “Holy Schist!”
Of Mist, Magic, and Fairy Boats
I believe in the magic of Fairies and boats. Yesterday’s blog showed a place where the Fairy Boat had once moored in British Columbia. This is a picture of it about 25 years ago in Princess Louisa Inlet, about 150 miles from where it was kept when not in use. This is a magical placeContinue reading “Of Mist, Magic, and Fairy Boats”
Memories Afloat
Just beyond the Japanese Garden this sheltered cove provides moorage for boaters visiting Butchart Gardens. I could almost see the ghost of our beloved Fairy Boat at the empty mooring buoy near the center of the photo. We have been to the gardens several times, but this most recent visit was the first time weContinue reading “Memories Afloat”
Signs of Life
Inspiration and a great deal of perspiration turned this mined-out quarry into a glorious garden. Robert Butchart operated a limestone quarry just a few hundred feet away from his home and left an unsightly scar in the landscape when it was mined out. His wife, Jenny, was not about to put up with that eyesoreContinue reading “Signs of Life”
Two Choices
Other than that, the future looks bright. #skagway #stampeder #1898
Summit Lake
The White Pass and Yukon Train chugged up the Skagway River valley through dense forests below towering peaks littered with blue and white hanging glaciers. Openings appeared along way revealing magnificent cascading falls, and even a wandering bear. Eventually the railway crossed a great curving trestle bridge to double back and rise farther up theContinue reading “Summit Lake”
End of Endicott
The rising sun hardly cut the morning chill in the deep valley where ice meets the sea. Great masses of deep blue ice occasionally crashed downward into the sea shooting columns of spray upward with a thunderous roar that echoed through the canyon. Waves rippled the waters with a warning that though we might beContinue reading “End of Endicott”
Creek Street
Incoming tides turned a babbling creek into a seemingly placid pond along Creek Street in Ketchikan. Salmon schooled in the deepening waters, no longer struggling over cascades to get upstream to spawn. At times, however, the tranquility was interrupted as waters roiled and splashed with panicked salmon as they fled a harbor seal seeking anContinue reading “Creek Street”
North to Alaska
The sun set as we cruised through the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. We passed through waters we had cruised in the Fairy Boat in the previous millennium and resurrected ghosts of memories of the places we had visited. Now we’re leaving that behind en routeContinue reading “North to Alaska”
