Polar Bear Expedition

Thank you for all of your get well wishes and prayers. I am happy to report that I am on the mend. It’s a good thing too because we’re in our full packing mode today! Next week, we’ll be sipping hot chocolate, wearing parkas, riding in a tundra buggy, and photographing polar bears! We’re going on another wild and wooly nature tour with Natural Habitat Adventures.

We are flying up a day early to spend a little time in beautiful Winnipeg, the capital of Canada’s Manitoba Province. It will be an absolute delight to relax at the Fort Garry Hotel a total of three nights (two on the front end and one on the back end of our trip). Similar in architectural style of the grand Fairmont hotels in Canada, it was built in 1911 by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Such lovely traveling digs for folks who wear hiking boots and going on a Canadian wilderness trip!

(photo courtesy of Fort Garry Hotel web site)

After a brief stay in Winnipeg, the tour will fly us up on a charter plane to Churchill, a small seaport on the western edge of the Hudson Bay. This region is the undisputed “polar bear capital of the world.” We’ll have modest accommodations here, but that is quite okay with us. This destination is all about the bears! We will venture out into the icy wilderness in a cozy tundra buggy, which will keep us safe from the bears, yet provide us direct access to their world. Weather permitting, we’re signed up to also take a helicopter trip over this unique landscape.

Even though it is late October, it has been warm enough for an occasional ensemble of shorts and t-shirt here in Tennessee. But next week we’ll be bundled up in winter clothing! (Now where did I put my gloves?) The projected temperatures are in the mid 30s and snow showers are also expected. What a nice change!

Marty is in charge of the cottage and blog during our absence. Let’s hope that he behaves himself. I’ll see everyone once again on the other side!

Special Note:
You might want to check out Natural Habitat Adventure’s
Churchill Polar Bears Blog this coming week!
You can follow along and find out about the latest
sightseeing events on the tundra!
Our guide will be Elise.

Miz Jenny’s Tale

Miz Jenny, my dear blogging friend from South Carolina, has filed her trip report of her visit with us. Her kind words made me teary this morning, but in a very good way. As always, her superb writing ability shines from beginning to end. I am so glad that we touched her heart because she certainly touched ours.

A Ray of Sunshine

Miz Jenny of I'm Having A Thought Here is a ray of sunshine, just as I knew she would be! We were lucky enough to have her as a visitor to our cottage yesterday, and we had great fun chatting and laughing. I despise having my picture taken these days, let along flung across the internet. But in the spirit of friendship, I will relent on this isolated occasion and share this image of us together on the porch, standing under the Grey Havens sign.

It’s really funny how much you already know someone after you have been blog buddies. And the neat thing about finally meeting face-to-face is that you can finally have a running dialogue! Let me tell you, Miz Jenny is a talker and has more energy than the famous bunny that sells batteries! I know that she was delighted to meet Mr. Jim, and get to see many of his gorgeous photographs. In addition to fulfilling her writing goals, she is aching to upgrade to a digital SLR and get more serious about her photography. She is doing some amazing work with her little Coolpix and has a photographer’s eye. So we hope that she is able to do that soon! We promised her that we would take her out on a photo expedition the next time she came to town, and we would teach her some photography tricks. She also gave me a present: a lovely framed picture of a precious scene that she discovered in the magical city of Savanna, Georgia. I quickly added it to a collection of treasures in my home office. 

I’m sure that she will tell all about her visit in an upcoming post and share some photos that she took here around our craftsman-style cottage. I am so glad that I found her blog earlier this year and am sure lucky to her friend!

I wished I had felt better, but her visit really lifted my spirits. I have been battling bronchitis for over a week now. It is really not a good time to be sick, since we are going out of the country in the very near future and will be staying in a tiny town. My doctor prescribed more medicine for me so that I can have a fighting chance in whipping the cooties into submission by the end of the week. If you say some prayers for me to get well soon, you’ll be rewarded with polar bear pictures later! How’s that for a good trade, LOL?

A Special Visitor!

Marty is beside himself with excitement. We’re going to have a special visitor here at Grey Havens cottage: my dear blog friend, Miz Jenny of I'm Having A Thought Here. She is in town visiting with a couple of her children, and we’ve flung out the welcome mat for her to visit and have lunch with us tomorrow!

~ Squeal! ~

Photo Challenge: Fast Food

It’s time for another Brenda Photo Challenge! The theme is Fast Food. This particular subject threw me for a loop a bit. The last thing I want to do is drag my big camera to a fast food restaurant. So I decided to do a “Donna-twist”. Yeah, that’s my special way of taking something ordinary and making it a bit unique.

Who says that the fast food has to be for only humans? Why not grizzly bears too? I call this photo “when bears dream of fast food”! Don’t you think the look on the fish is priceless?

I used two techniques to give the photo a dreamlike effect. First, I duplicated the image and applied a Gaussian blur, masking over the bear and his prize catch so that they remain in focus. Then, I applied a raggedy frame-style textured layer for enhancement.

The camera settings were f/5.6, 1/250 second, and ISO 1000. The zoom lens was set at 200mm focal length.

Still Flying High

Have you caught your breath yet from the last post? I hope so! We’re resuming our wonderful helicopter trip of the Tweedsmuir Provincial Park in British Columbia!

As we get closer to the rugged mountains, we see a stream that looks like flowing milk. This is a sure sign that a glacier is nearby because the stream has a high concentration of silt.

And the terrain shows evidence of a glacial retreat.

The pilot is aiming our whirlybird toward a gigantic glacier, winding an icy course through the mountain peaks!

We’re soon zooming right over the massive ice-pack, and marveling at its size and the number of cracks along the surface.

This is what it looks like straight down!

A fleeting look back reveals the expansive countryside we quickly traveled.

As we fly over the mountain range, we see more glaciers precariously hanging on to steep ridges.

At the foot of the glaciers are immense lakes that have a creamy blue-green hue. The unique color comes from rock flour suspended in the water and algae.

Along the way, we spy a bergy bit and a growler! Size determines the classification, with a growler being the smaller one and limited to about 3 feet visible over the water surface. Trapped air escapes from the melting ice and sometimes makes a growl like an animal!

Glaciers carve through the mountains, grinding up rocks, and depositing them as they continue their march.

Heading up a beautiful valley, and we see a patchwork of glacial streams that are trying to converge.

Further on, there is a rapids area surrounded by a thick forest of tall evergreen trees. The blue-green color from the glacial silt is still there!

Following along this watercourse, we soon realize that it turns into the Atnarko River! We’ll witness several grizzly bears fishing in this very spot over the next few days! Don’t you love the deep teal color in the middle of the river channel?

And when we see these large, rocky hills, we know that we are getting ready to touch down back at the lodge. Unfortunately, our aerial adventure is coming to an end!

We’re back, safe and sound, at Tweedsmuir Park Lodge and the cabins!

Wasn’t that fun?  I hope you enjoyed this journey! After seeing God’s glorious earth, we know that we’ll never be the same.

Ready to Soar?

Are you ready to hop into a “virtual” helicopter and soar above the Tweedsmuir Provincial Park landscape in rugged British Columbia, Canada? As soon as you buckle up, we’ll take off!

Whoosh! We’re on our way!

As soon as you catch your breath, look back at the gorgeous river valley that we just flew up. That’s the Atnarko River way down there, where all the grizzly bears feast on salmon!

Now look ahead, focusing on the gentle mountains and the deep blue lake winding through the ridgelines. We’re flying!

Within about 10 minutes, we’re soaring by a huge waterfall! It’s Hunlen Falls, the third highest in Canada (25^th in the world) with an 850-foot drop.

And where is the water source for this magnificent falls? Why, it’s this incredible mountain lake! The jagged rock peaks provide a picture-perfect backdrop.

As we get closer to the hillsides, we can see the damaging effects of a forest fire during the past year.

Now that you have gotten fully comfortable in your seat and enjoying the scenery in the distance, it’s time to look down! The landscape is changing once again after we pass the large mountain lake.

We’re now flying over a large area of tundra. The vibrant green, yellow, brown, and blue are a symphony of contrasting colors.

Looking back to the grand vistas, we wonder if we are going to explore any of those mountain peaks in the distance.

Oh look!  A glance ahead shows that we are headed toward this heavenly mountain range. Can it possibly get any better than this?

Please come back later this week for the 2nd part of our helicopter trip!

Along for the Ride

In-between all the chaos going on at our cottage and the temporary job, I have been editing a series photographs that I took during our helicopter ride over Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. How do I even begin to describe this vast wilderness? I can’t. Only pictures will do. If a single word could sum it all up, it would be “breathtaking”. I have enjoyed more than 80 helicopter rides in my life, both for work and for pleasure. This ride ranks among the top of the list! And you will come along for a unique and unforgettable ride without ever leaving your computer chair. The helicopter will be coming in for you later on this week!

And did I mention that we have chaos going on here? Oh yes, and we’ll be continuing on the theme this week too. Builder Mike has listened to us vent our frustrations and the remaining punch list items are getting knocked out. Right now, the walls all look like they have a bad case of measles. The sheet rockers were here this past week and patched a multitude of nail pops and seams on walls and ceilings. The painters will be descending upon us tomorrow. Furniture, pictures frames, and accessories are all jumbled about, making room for the workers. The vent hood got fixed and other minor issues were also addressed last week.

Beginning tomorrow, we will also be having our driveway and walkway torn out and replaced. The walkway was a problem from the start because it was created from two separate loads of concrete and is a mismatch of colors. The driveway has a serious case of crazing (a multitude of surface cracks) as a result of improper curing. Thank goodness we are getting all of this taken care of before the winter season settles in.

We have been living an unsettled life for 4 years now, so we are anxious to get these remaining issues satisfactorily addressed. As much as we love journeys, we want this roller coaster ride of our living arrangements to end. Our sanity depends on it, LOL!

Meanwhile, activity in our neighborhood has been buzzing. A house next door (four lots over) is in the local parade of homes. It is a 3-weekend event, so there has been a lot of vehicle and foot traffic. But it is all worth it because we would love to have new neighbors!

The Self-Portrait

Wow, what a clamoring for seeing my sweet baboo’s self-portrait! I told him about the comment buzz, and he graciously gave me permission to share it. I freshened it up in Photoshop, of course.

This is the love of my life, Mr. Jim. Isn’t he adorable?

A Lesson in Self-Portraits

We went on an excursion a couple of weekends ago to a small-town apple festival. We took along our new point-and-shoot cameras to try them out. It was so easy to carry them around and take snapshots, compared to our SLRs! We had a wonderful time and stayed long enough to have a delicious barbeque lunch.

Before we left, I decided to make a stop at the ladies’ room. I gave my little Coolpix to hubby while I took care of my business. He couldn’t resist. He took a picture of himself for me to discover later. I laughed when I saw the surprise picture, of course. I never know when he’s going to do that!

He then told me the rest of the story. A lady came up to him as he was getting into position. He had his arm stretched out, positioning the camera, and wearing a cheesy grin. She asked if she could help him. He answered “No, then it wouldn’t be a self-portrait!” ~Snap!~ He said that her odd look was priceless!

Alternative to the Blogger Editor

On frequent occasions, my knickers have gotten in a twist by using the Blogger editor. When I insert multiple photos in a post (e.g., more than one and not at the very beginning), the formatting goes wonky. And the more that I try to fix it, the editor intervenes and manages to makes things worse. There have been many times that I have just plain given up, deleted my draft, and started all over again. I have used the old editor and the new one. They both give me fits. And it doesn’t matter if I am trying to upload photos from my computer (which go to Picasa) or link to my finer, artsy images loaded on Flickr. I know that other blogging friends have had frustrating moments with the editor too, so the problems are not of my own creation.

So what’s a blogger to do?  Answer: Find another way that doesn’t force me to curse like a longshoreman. After doing a little research, I learned that Windows Live Writer might be a good solution. I downloaded it from Microsoft (free) and tested it out several times this summer. For about the last month, I have been posting exclusively using Live Writer. I love it! It makes the creation and editing of blog posts so much easier. It was a snap to get it linked up with my blog site. I recently added a nifty plug-in (also free) which helps me easily link up to my Flickr pictures too. For pictures that I upload from my computer, Live Writer puts those automatically in Picasa.

And just so you know, I am providing this review of a Microsoft product with no compensation, LOL. If you’re happy with the Blogger editor, that’s wonderful. But I have been dissatisfied with it from the very beginning. I am relieved that I found an alternative tool that will help me post with minimum muss and fuss. The 2011 version of Live Writer just came out a couple of days ago, and it is better than ever with formatting options that are unavailable with the Blogger editor.  It even has some built-in photo editing features!

One word of advice: If you download the program, chose the custom installation rather than the default, which is a bundled conglomerate of Windows Live Essential programs. You need to select the installation of only Live Writer.

October – A Look Ahead

October is a welcomed sight! This summer has delivered us record heat and we’re delighted that cooler weather has prevailed in the past week. Fall decorations are popping up everywhere these days, and we’ve even done a bit of seasonal sprucing up around here, inside and out. The leaves in our area are getting a bit tired looking and should start changing soon. We’ve noticed that the squirrels in our backyard woods are working overtime, so they definitely know what time of year it is!

The work grind is getting old. I am planning my exit from the temporary job before too long. The money has been great, but I am not interested in the work itself. Most importantly, I can’t get out during the week with hubby or friends, or spend time doing projects that interest me.  I really miss full-time retirement.

On the home front, we have been frustrated with getting Builder Mike to take care of lingering punch list items. We sadly had to suspend our patience this past week because some issues have lingered long enough. The house will be in disarray this next week while needed work gets done, including the correction of numerous sheetrock pop-outs. We finally got our kitchen hood ventilation fixed today. It has not been working properly since day one, and a stuck flapper was the culprit. Golly, it only took about 10 minutes to fix it. And now hubby will be much more comfortable while he is cooking up his delicious meals! We’re keeping our fingers crossed that the subcontractor appointments are all met and items are crossed off the list. We dream of the day that there isn’t a punch list anymore! Then we can return to our usual, pleasant personalities!

One of our recent goals for ourselves is to get out and about more. We’ve been housebound most of the summer and cooler weather has finally arrived. It’s time to set ourselves loose! Last weekend, we went to a quaint apple festival at a nearby town and also visited a sorghum mill. Today, we went to a fall festival at a local historical property. Next weekend, we plan to go to an antique fair. We’re getting fresh air, having fun driving our new wheels, and we’re getting a little exercise.

Later on this month, we’ll be trekking northward once again, this time to the Manitoba Province of Canada. This will be our trip to see polar bears in the town of Churchill. So we’re getting excited about soon seeing and photographing more bears in the wild!

In the days ahead, I’ll be sharing more landscape and grizzly bear pictures from our British Columbia trip. I haven’t spare time lately to go through and process more photos through Photoshop, since I am working during the week and going out on little excursions. (I swear, the older I get, the faster time seems to slip away!) I have some really neat images yet to come, and you won’t want to miss them.