who knew
Holland was
only
one hour away
in Lynden Washington
If a picture is worth a thousand words
then these pictures are billions of words
Click on the picture and that will
take you to
Flickr
and you can scroll through the whole set!
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!--Rudyard Kipling
shoes too small for my big feet 
old carts and straw brooms
kids play while parents sleep 
birds of a feather at the mall
Colonel Saunders look-a-like …
Heard a loud scree this morning
"What was that????"
Jumped out of bed
and saw
Two Oystercatchers
on the island
Now that's something
you don't see very often
on Indian Arm
Well actually,
I haven't heard of any
Oystercatchers around
these parts
maybe because there
aren't too many oysters?
So it was a great sighting
and not too bad a picture
through the digiscope . . .
Black Oystercatcher Haematopus bachmani
- a jet black shorebird similar in size to a crow
- long orange beak and pink legs
- eats shellfish, limpets, chitons, snails
- pries open shells with its long beak
More pix and info at http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/eco/taxalab/stewartm.htm
Fun on the Fjord . . .
Load up bikes
drive to Mt.Vernon
ride west
through
fields and fields
of tulips
red
yellow
tulip heads dancing
in the breeze
cycle to LaConner
lunch with the seagulls
back through the fields
home again
More info about the Skagit Tulip Festival: http://www.tulipfestival.org/
forty years 
since we met
teenagers
a life time ago
through the years
traveling
university
starting careers
building a house
having our kids
Kyle
Scott
a basement full of Polliwogs
and a few puddles
along the path
stepping over
and stepping up
enjoying this life
with family
and friends
and here we are
still having --
fun !
happy anniversary
Jeannette, Francien, Judi and I
At the Steller Sea Lion Open Ocean Research Project in Port Moody, Emily Hicks stood right up close to a 200 kg sea lion, watched it stick out its tongue, roll over, and stand tall on the weight scale. After each activity, she rewarded the sea lion with a fish.
Vance Mercer, a researcher and trainer enthusiastically explained that these three enormous sea lions are the first in the world being trained in the open water. Before they were allowed to swim free, Vance and his team had to first earn their trust so they would return to the boat. “We need them to trust us so they will come back. This trust is developed over a long time.” He spends eight hours a day with the sea lions, during training sessions and then socializing and strengthening their bond. The sea lions jump out of their pen and come to him when he calls their names – Sitka, Boni and Hazy.
The sea lions needed to learn how to swim around boats and jump on and off their transport vessel, the ‘Steller Shuttle.’ They are fitted with a harness and a tracking device so the trainers can follow their movements away from the boat. The trainers run 2-3 open ocean sessions, usually in the mornings – to research and reinforce trained behaviours.
The sea lion breathes in a respiratory dome that measures its oxygen consumption, dives to a target light deep in the ocean, then returns to the surface and breathes under the dome so the scientists can measure the amount of carbon dioxide that built up in the lungs during the dive. This allows them to calculate the energy used during the dive.
Set up by the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Aquarium, the project aims to understand the energy requirements of sea lions in the wild in order to better manage the dwindling populations of Stellar sea lions on the north Pacific coast.
info from http://www.vanaqua.org/aquanew/fullnews.php?id=1728
© Colleen MacDonald 2006
You know how sometimes you are just in the right spot at the right time? Well, that happened to me early this morning. An eagle flew past my window, I grabbed my camera and in ten magical minutes this drama unfolded before my eyes... WOW !
Early morning and an eagle peers out over the cove, looking for breakfast…
It circles and spots a flock of Goldeneye ducks near Belcarra.
It swoops down over the flock -- talons out.
It misses. Seagulls scream and chase the eagle.
Alerted, the ducks scramble, bumping into each other in their haste, eyes up, watching for the eagle.
The eagle tries again, soaring in from the other side.
It misses again. Panicked, the flock lifts off.
… and takes to the air.
The ducks fly south to safety …
. . . and the eagle heads north up the fjord.
Not The End …
© Colleen MacDonald 2006
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