barbados: fauna

Besides the amazing sea turtles, there were a lot of other animals in Barbados to admire. All kinds of birds, amphibians and more, just a few of which I've tried to capture here. Such an interesting variety of creatures quite different than my own west coast beasts. Although I had desperately hoped to spot a monkey or two, all these guys kept me well entertained. As always, please click on the images to see more info about each one in flickr.

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The wind howled all night and the rain came down, down, down. Ty stared at me in disbelief this morning when I led him out just after 6 for a walk on dark, wet streets with the trees swaying around us. We only did the small loop though, just to clear him out and hopefully hold him till this afternoon. Poor boy, but tomorrow there'll be someone to play (or sleep!) with him all day.

Whether you're weathering a storm or seeing the evidence of bright spring days, here's a few links to check out today:
>>> I have a sad little shamrock hanging on in my kitchen window, but I'm thinking I should upgrade its living quarters.
>>> Is it sad I kind of wish one of my denim shirts would spring a hole so I could mend it as beautifully as this?
>>> These buttermilk berry muffins sound delicious, and I even have buttermilk on hand from making soda bread for St. Patty's. Definitely will be made this weekend.

a sea of turtles...

The "Wasn't Me" sailed slowly up the coast, the catamaran riding up and over each swell under a blistering sun. Thankful for the breeze, I sipped my rum & pineapple and watched the shoreline pass by. The boat eased in between two surf breaks and anchored, and a crew member doled out snorkelling gear while another was already in the water, using a bit of bread to lure a green sea turtle to the surface. I stayed on board and snapped my camera as AK bobbed in the turquoise sea, a fat turtle circling him and the rest of the group. Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye, and then we were off again, sailing back down the coast to another destination.

>>>I flashed back to the day before, an entirely different experience:

Our first full day in Barbados, an ease-into-it sort of day. We took the shuttle down to the beach, wandered the boardwalk to soak in the Caribbean view. We took a swim, laughing in the aquamarine waves as we played with the waterproof camera, ducking below in attempts to capture our underwater faces. All too soon we clambered out of the sea and wandered barefoot down the sand to meet AK's grandmother at her rental house right by the next beach over. I marvelled at the hordes of bananaquits flocking to the bowl of sugar hanging on the edge of the porch, and the large black hummingbird flitting in and out.

With our foursome swelled to five, we ambled back down past the beachside bar and onto the sand again. She suggested this beach might have turtles about, but we hardly dared to hope. Once again we slipped into the water, waves crashing over our feet as we waded out toward the reef barrier. A few others played just off the sand, but few ventured out as far as we. A few hundred metres out and the water was still only shoulder deep, a bigger swell lifting us up and off our feet every now and again. And then...there! I was the first to spot a dark head popping up between the ripples. And suddenly it was clear that although a few of the dark shapes visible through the clear water were indeed rocks, several others were moving, young turtles grazing the ocean bottom in this protected bay. I bounced up and down - or as near as one can do under the forces of the ocean - feeling giddy. AK started snorkelling, while his dad and I floated at the surface and tried to follow the turtles as they ate at the bottom and then came up for air at regular intervals. They seemed ambivalent to our presence, mostly continuing their routine. When they moved away concertedly we let them go, watching the dark shape in the clear sea float off towards the reef. The moment felt so special, like a personal experience for just our group. I felt welcomed in by these graceful swimmers, allowed a glimpse into their underwater world. I was reluctant to head in, but knew the two others would be eager to see the turtles too and someone needed to stay on shore with our gear. I sat in the sun, watching happy heads bobbing in the sea.

Finally, with the afternoon waning, we all reconvened on the beach. Feeling wholly welcomed to the Caribbean by one of its most incredible beasts, we enjoyed a fruity drink at the beachside bar, walked back to our home for the week, rinsed our salt-caked bodies, and got ready for dinner. Making plans for the week, we were already talking about another swim with the turtles...



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Today is a quiet Sunday, our plans changed and now a peaceful day at home in the works. The wind is howling with purpose, but I might try for a walk before the rain sets in. What are you up to?

>>> Sarah Britton's life changing bread is resting on the stove before baking. Can't wait to try it.
>>> I also whipped up my full-of-additions (pumpkin seeds, coconut, raw cacao nibs) version of these raw peanut butter cookies.
>>> I may be back in the northern hemisphere, but apparently my mind is still thinking summer, as I contemplate a new pair of sandals.
>>> Need some art inspiration? Check out this amazing piece from Lisa. I'm awed.

[almost] wordless wednesday

We're back! I've got lots of photos to share soon but just wanted to pop in quickly and say hello. Hope you've all had a good week

scenes from the weekend...

a few shots from our weekend away. the weather was temperamental, as expected, so climbing opportunities were pretty limited. we did manage to get in a few short routes between (or during) rain showers, fingers and rubbered toes fighting to get a grip on slick granite. all fun, just the same. sorry for no actual climbing shots (if you were interested) since a pair of climbers means one is always belaying while the other is climbing, which means no free hands for photo taking. still, the scenery in that part of the province is always spectacular, and the shifting sun and rain made the light all the more dramatic. the last shot shows us tucked into the back of the truck on our first night, under the trees below that massive hulk of rock known as the 'Chief'.

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my apologies if i have seemed even more disjointed than usual lately. 2012 seems to be the year of hard knocks and i can't say i'm navigating through it particularly well. starting the year off with an injury that still continues to nag now and again doesn't help, plus some other bits of bad personal luck that probably really fall under the category of 'first world problems'. the recent shocking death of a good friend was a tough blow, and i've just heard that someone i was friends with in highschool (although haven't seen in at least a decade) had an equally tragic end to his life this week. while i have never called myself much of an activist, the continuing trials of the NGP are keeping me awake at night, especially when i read stories like this and this. yes, there is an inherent hypocrisy in opposing the development of a product we all continue to use everyday, but i am sure the risks for this project far outweigh the purported benefits. i could rant on for hours about that one, but instead i'll just send you here, here, here and here for further insight into this proposed disaster-waiting-to-happen. all this and a busy work schedule and i'm just so mentally and physically exhausted of late.

i'm sure you don't want to hear my complaining, but i thought i'd give you a picture of where i'm at lately. hey, at least the sun is shining today!

ETA: i just saw these awesome words from soulepapa that are a wonderful reminder: 'So you wait for the storm to break. And don't let the storm break you."

wordless wednesday*

*it hasn't started yet, but it looks to be a very rainy day, and for the foreseeable future too. made me want to take a little trip back to the sagebrush of eastern washington, even if only in photos. thanks for joining me!

lichenscapes...

one of the things i love along the columbia river gorge is all the colourful lichen growing on the rocks. i got very distracted taking photos of it this trip. the colours and textures are amazing. we have lots of moss around here, but I don't notice the lichen as much. then again, maybe i'm not looking close enough. but the dry shrub-steppe environment east of the cascades is so very different from my own wet coast, and the change in ecosystem fascinates me.

little lizards scurry between rocks, small brown bunnies rest between sage brush bushes rustling in the afternoon wind, rattlesnakes sun themselves...oh yeah, and at night the mice come out in force! this was the first year we had to set traps inside my truck, as a couple had snuck in and made themselves at home. gross. actually, the traps are still set, just in case a few came north with us (don't tell the border patrol i may have smuggled wildlife into the country!).

uh, moving on... this was our third year in a row visiting this area of washington state. i love it most of the time, although the heat and sun kind of overwhelmed me this trip. very thankful for the river to cool off in on those hot days. i had thought this would be our last summer hurrah and i was feeling very ready for cooler fall temps upon returning home, but it seems not to be. after our summer that wasn't, we have plunged into september with a heat wave that seems to have no rain in sight. soon enough i know there will be a wet swath of clouds that hangs over the island for much of the winter, so i suppose i should enjoy it. although i'm a bit jealous, seeing lisa and joni's wonderful mushroom finds, and knowing ours won't be popping up in this dry weather. good thing there is foraging to be done of a different kind, with the blackberries beginning to hang dark and heavy from their branches. i picked a couple small buckets last night, and plan for more, if i can squeeze a few more bags amongst the strawberries and blueberries already crowding our small freezer.



hmmm, this post seems to be taking a lot of random, tangential turns. hope i'm not boring you too much; just enjoy the photos! the spider above was one of many we saw - late summer seems prime time for web spinning. we even spotted a tree filled with dozens of big fat ones in their webs; unfortunately spotted after i'd been sitting under the tree for quite a while, and there were some just inches above my head!

it always takes me a bit to get back into focus after a holiday, but i hope this weekend i will be able to finish the special pieces i am working on and then get some new items in the shop! thanks to those who have been emptying it out! i also have some cool dye results to share, and more pics from our escape. but i will stop rambling for now, and instead get back to dreaming about the tasty margaritas i will be sipping tonight with friends, cooling my brain off.

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other things i'm liking recently:
• i made heidi's magic sauce last night, so so delicious. i can see it will become a staple.
• and incidentally, i poured the sauce on this prawn, tomato & white bean recipe from martha and it was all divine. the remaining sauce in the pan was sopped up with crusty bread.
• and just to round off this foodie link list, lisa made some yummy looking soup with her recent foraging find.

wordless wednesday...

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okay, slightly less wordless. i'm home again - thanks for the well wishes on my travels, we had a great time. i am a bit up to my eyeballs, but regular blogging shall resume shortly. for now i hope you'll enjoy this late night shot from our campsite, what a beautiful night it was.

away...

hey folks. i'm headed south for a few days to hang out with the lizards amongst the sagebrush. and maybe climb some rocks. okay, and maybe also to see these folks. i'll be back after the long weekend with hopefully more pics like the ones above. and some other new stuff (sometimes i sew and knit and dye, if ya didn't know). wishing you all a great labour day holiday if you're in north america, or just a great step into september (!!!) if you're elsewhere.

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ps. the shop will remain open while i'm away, but any orders won't be shipped until after the 6th. thanks for your understanding!

seven hour road trip...

6pm - drive 3 hours-ish west, to the open coast. 10pm - turn around and follow your trail home. 1:30, go to sleep. yup, we made a very quick road trip yesterday. see, A is leaving on a trip tomorrow, departing by kayak from a remote town northwest of here tucked away up an inlet, and paddling the winding passageways of nootka sound and then out along the open coastline south to clayoquot sound and finally finishing in tofino. i dream about tagging along, but my kayaking skills are not up for open water, especially compared to his experienced crew. but since he and his two paddling partners needed to shuttle a car to tofino to be waiting for them upon their return, i tagged along for the ride, camera in hand (as usual). here are a few shots along the way.



cathedral grove is one of the first landmarks you come across after leaving the main freeway to follow winding highway 4 to the west coast. aptly named, as you will be looking to the heavens to find the tops of most of the trees, stout and sturdy cedars and douglas firs hundreds of years old.



and apparently it was black bear night along the highway! i think i did a good job of willing them there, as while we were driving alongside where a river flows and dips over gravel bars i said "there's a bear! no, not really." yeah, i'm hilarious. but nonethelesss, not five minutes later we were curving around a corner and A pointed, "well there's a bear." and there was.



this black bear snuffled along in the ditch beside the road, not two metres from the car, eating grass. he wasn't the least concerned about us. i don't really like that, as i think we both should have a healthy fear of each other. but at least he didn't object my camera snapping, although the waning daylight made it hard to get sharp shots (my apologies).



once we left him, not another five minutes along, we spotted mama bear and two cubs perched on the edge of the road where it dips quickly down into forest, and stopped again. the cubs disappeared below our view while mom stayed at the road, eating and watching. while this highway is generally fairly quiet, we found ourselves joined by several more cars within a few minutes, stopping to have a boo. i suppose this was more than mom liked, and suddenly the cubs appeared again, but this time hurriedly shimmying their way up the nearest tree, er, telephone pole. and this was definitely becoming a trip where i cursed myself for not bringing the telephoto lens, although the falling darkness was making shooting with my regular lens hard enough. but with mama guarding the bottom of the pole there was no desire for me to get closer. it seemed much safer to remain in my perch peeping out A's sunroof.



after a few minutes it seemed best to leave the threesome in peace and we continued on our way, stopping only once more for me to snap a few shots at my favourite little hilltop lake along the route.



the light faded as we drove along, catching the pinkening sky along huge kennedy lake in our last stretch before the coast. daylight was all but gone as we drove past the open shores of long beach and into town. after a short wait our friends caught up with us and we parked one car, piled together in the other, and headed home in darkness, to finally fall exhausted into bed well into saturday morning.

fading daylight, fleeting days...

eep, where did the time go? i've been trying to update more regularly, but i knew october was going to be a challenge. a few days after my last post, we went to tofino for the annual surf kayak festival. i don't paddle, or haven't recently, but A does, and many of our friends. it is usually a fun weekend by the beach, a last camping trip for the season (and the weather was beyond beautiful for early October), a chance to visit with some folks we don't necessarily see that often, and soak up some west coast goodness.

the beautiful sunshine was not quite warm enough to forego a hat though, so it was a good thing i had recently finished (read: wove in the ends on the ride out there) a quick new purple toque. i have had two skeins of purple cashmerino in my stash for quite a while now, but hadn't found the right project for them. when i bought them, i thought getting two different shades of purple was a great idea, but later realized two skeins of one colour might have made a bit more sense, and made pattern selection a bit easier.

lately i have been admiring the many garter stitch stripe items i see on ravelry. they also remind me of many crochet hats i see on my friends, but with added benefit of not being crochet, which admittedly i'm not that fond of, not to mention not really knowing how to do it. so i hoped this hat combined both elements for a cozy, stripey, kinda hippie hat.

we also went on quick trip to vantage, wa to go climbing for a week (see top pic). but our week was cut disappointingly short when after two days of well-below-seasonal-norm temperatures, it proceeded to pour rain. in the desert. boo. needless to say not too impressed and the forecast wasn't improving much, so turned toward home after just three nights.

october has been rounded out with another trip to tofino with visitors from ontario, and now i am finally getting a chance to breathe a little. i hope to have another post for you this weekend, and more pics up on flickr soon. the weather seems to have settled in early to it's november routine of wind and wet, so it should be a perfect weekend for projects at home.

travel snapshots...

around here spring is well on it's way. however, last week i was in ontario where the deep snow definitely makes winter still feel very close at hand. although i didn't get a chance to take as many shots as i would have liked, here are a few things that caught my eye.


st lawrence river, at prescott.


dock in the frozen harbour bordering the st lawrence, prescott.


stonework feature, parliament buildings, ottawa.

south o' the border again...

i haven't had much say lately, or maybe i can claim i've been busy with work. nonetheless i thought i would share a couple of photos of my recent whirlwind trip to seattle. i was only there for two nights, and did not have much time to walk around, but the weather was very co-operative despite the forecast and saw a few sights and did a little shopping. i was extremely impressed with the REI flagship store in downtown, which included a waterfall/creek, lots of trees, and walking and biking trails, all in the midst of a bustling city. on the other hand, the crazy one way streets and poor signage made us curse while driving. then again, people were ridiculously helpful - i can't remember how many people asked if we were lost when we were spotted with a map in hand.

i was also quite fascinated with the experience music project building - designed by frank gehry. just amazing.
on more work notes, i have mostly finished (barring minor polishing) the new website for On the Rocks Climbing Gym - and if you are in the area you should definitely stop in - although i'm not a big fan of pulling plastic, it has been great for keeping me in shape over the wet season. as well, my personal website will be launched imminently - keep an eye on Pedersen Creative , and let me know if i can help with any design needs!