Open Thread – Islands
Most people don’t picture this when they think of “getting away to the islands,” but I do. This shot is from a trip to Prince William Sound last month.
December 18, 2024
Thursday, August 3, 2023
The Quitter Returns! -Monday, March 21, 2022
Putting the goober in gubernatorial -Friday, January 28, 2022
Most people don’t picture this when they think of “getting away to the islands,” but I do. This shot is from a trip to Prince William Sound last month.
Beautiful!
I googled Anchorage and Wasilla Alaska and there are places in each town where you can get Well’s Blue Bunny ice cream,especially Chinatow…er…I meant Wal mart. Have at it and no I don’t get commissions for this.
Just for fun and because you never know — we have so many adventuresome spirits here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/01/many-women-get-tattoos-po_n_889026.html
I’m in the demographic (barely, but proud and lucky to be there), and I’ve started riding two-up with my husband on our Goldwing, so maybe someday — when I overcome this huge cowardly streak as regards intentional pain . . . . 🙂
I have a rosebud on my right shoulder blade which is right out of the “My First Tattoo for Girls” book. Years later, I got one of my own design; “Chaos” in Greek lettering on my left ankle. Chaos is one of my favorite things to ponder, and I get a real sense of courage from having to live with chaos daily.
I just saw on the evening news a photo of a grizzly bear in the beautiful state of Washington. There’s supposed to be a very small population of them in the Cascades, but this photo is the first confirmed sighting in a very long time.
Beautiful picture….I can almost feel the air.
Speaking of fresh air, I just got back from a contentious site, and I have to say, in appreciation,”Thank you” for The Mudflats, for such congenial people and friendly place to visit.
Do you ever get the feeling that Progressives are like ants,trying to scale the side of a sand trap,knowing at the rim lies the future for all mankind and it is good and attainable and holds the promise of better lives for all? While Progressives are trying their best to leave the people of Earth better than they found them,below the ants are the ant-lions,digging furiously away at the sides of the sandtrap so all of slide into the abyss of the past where money ruled everything and only the few had money.And the ant-lions have a face and that face be Rethuglican/tea-bagger. And by their deeds shall ye know them.
— the gospel according to Mike – ??
And more on Native oppression and exploitation, this time from Arizona:
http://www.truth-out.org/reservation-airwaves-navajo-band-battles-injustice/1309282490
“Despite the 13 Native tribes’ argument that freedom of religion should protect this sacred mountain, both lawsuits that were filed failed to achieve the outcome that the tribes had wished for. The Supreme Court denied the final appeal in 2009. Unhappy with this verdict, Blackfire’s members have not given up hope. Jeneda and Clayson, in conjunction with seven others, have filed another lawsuit, this time based on the damage the wastewater could have on the ecosystem of the San Francisco Peaks.”
Blackfire’s touring the east coast this month. I’m going to look them up; if they’re in my city, I’ll be there.
Thanks for this link and the info about the band. I had not been aware of this band before, though I am somewhat familiar with some of the issues facing Black Mesa. I went to YouTube and listened to some of their music, visited their website and read about them on Wikipedia (not that that is the finest resource, but . . . ).
I also felt compelled to leave a comment on truth-out because one commenter was attacking these young people as being frauds, of somehow not being able to represent the Navajo and the issues concerning the sacred mountain. I referenced your comment (without your name) so I hope I did not say anything undeserving of your passion for them. I really like seeing young people (well, heck, any age) stand up for their community and the environment. I wish this band were coming our area because, I, too, would try to see their performance.
It is a national disgrace that the judicial system is favoring corporate interests above community interests and needs; is particularly offensive when those corporate interests are allowed to desecrate Native sacred places. I can only imagine the outcries if this development were on areas deemed holy by evangelicals – or maybe not, considering how they are defiling their own faith through hate and ignorance. Why is tolerance so difficult?
Thanks for caring, as I do, about Native sacred sites and their desecration for greed. It’s happening to the indigenous all over the world.
Blackfire is playing the Grassroots festival near Ithaca late this month. It’s a three-day festival, and sounds like lots of fun. Any Upstate mudpuppies familiar with it? I may try to talk the dear one into attending with me (I don’t know how to drive, although I’ve started learning).
No dates in NYC, however. Bummer.
I’ll be heading to Ithaca in a couple of days to visit family so I’ll find out if they know anything about it. They’re all into music (two are Ithaca School of Music grads) so they’re bound to know something.
Ithaca is in a very pretty part of the state, with lots of rolling hills and lakes and wineries. Some of our most beautiful local and state parks are in the southern tier so it would be well worth the trip for you, even without the music!
If you haven’t seen this yet, please read:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12824
“The current crop of Republican presidential candidates is an insult to the intelligence and sensibilities of the American people. Social diatribes are meant to define standards of morality. A false narrative about those who are ‘different’ in terms of appearance, religion and national origin is spread throughout the media and most vociferously by right-wing pundits in a sickening barrage of hate speech. And rarely do leaders running for the highest office in the land take a moment to speak out against assaults on our national integrity. Into the mix of moral hyperbole add Michele Bachmann’s better half who refers to gays as “barbarians.” Of course Michele has been sermonizing against the gay lifestyle for some time but we hadn’t heard much from hubby Bachmann before, at least not in the mainstream media. Now he’s just part of the campaign hurly burly. And this couple home-schools five kids – – whew.”
There’s much more in the same vein.
According to Bachmann’s testimony, her biological children went to “a private school”…she and Closet Man Bachmann had started the city’s first Charter School. Her foster children ‘begged’ her to be allowed to go to the same school as her bio-kids, but they couldn’t. (WARNING: Much smarm and gag-triggering footage in her testimony, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp3m_06KmRw&feature=related )
There is something *really* hinky about her “24 foster children”… all teen-aged girls, none with them for more than a year, and yet she trots out their ‘image’ at every turn with the claim (sometimes implied, sometimes explicit) that she “raised” each and every single one of them.
As the mom of a foster family (in my previous life), I know that a child can be placed in a foster home for anywhere from overnight to from-birth-to-18… In our 3-years of fostering, we (DH, DS1, DS2, and I) had 7 children placed with us. The shortest placement was one week and the longest placement was 2.5 years. There is *no* way I could claim I’d “raised” any of those chickadees – we simply didn’t have them in our home long enough for that claim to be factual and/or true.
The Bachmanns were licensed to foster –and fostered for — six years. I do wish someone would truly explore how *long* each of those 24 foster kids lived with them. I have a sneaking suspicion the ‘image’ she’s so carefully crafting and presenting to the unsuspecting public is as phony as is all the rest of her. Heck she might even be giving $P a run for them money when it comes to exploiting ‘props’. beth.
Good morning. We had a long, lovely thundershower this morning and the air smells fresh and clean. Everything is wet and happy right now. As far as I’m concerned, it can rain all day. I have to work this afternoon and evening and i’m just not feeling like dealing with some of our customers today. They tend to “harsh my mellow” 😀 with all these beautiful flowers in bloom, I find it hard to leave to go to work. Have a wonderful day!
My wish for you is to find work that brings satisfaction, enthusiasm, and even a bit of joy. You seem like such a lovely person and bring energy and goodness to this blog. You deserve a better work environment and more fulfilling work. I’ll wager you are a very creative person stifled by a non-creative job.
I have had a job where I felt it a chore to even get ready for work. That kind of job steals our off-time by filling the moments leading up to it (the night before, the morning or pre-job prep) and drains off our energy and zest for life. I hope to never again fact that kind of situation, and merrycricket, I hope something better will come your way soon.
BTW, I love your phrase, “They tend to ‘harsh my mellow. . . .'” It is just this lovely turn of phrase that brings us smiles that speaks well of your underutilized talents.
How sweet of you to say such wonderful things. I am looking for work in social services, where I used to work before I became collateral damage of corporate greed. When I worked in the shelters, I was the happiest camper on earth. If you are hoping I find work, could you visualize me there?
Yes, merrycricket, I’m an old hand at visualization, and I’m visualizing you there, and merry as a cricket.
I will join you in that!
Happy wet afternoon, merrycricket!
I was out and about this morning doing some chores and came across a sale of hydrangea bushes. They’re the endless summer kind that bloom from the beginning of summer right through to fall. I lost several of my pink blooming shrubs this spring due to the rain, and all of the shrubs I have left are of the white, spring-blooming variety. I figured that a couple of pink hydrangea set in between them and slightly in front would give me color all summer. I already have one that needs to be relocated from under a red osier dogwood that grew a little faster than expected so, added to the two I bought this morning, they should brighten up my yard quite nicely. And they were 40% off, too! 🙂
Also got some basil and a nice little rosemary plant on half-price sale too. I don’t care too much for pesto, but I cook with fresh basil quite often and I just love the way the whole yard smells when I pull some leaves! Of course, now I have quite a collection of plants and shrubs that need to be planted so I know exactly what I’ll be doing after the holidays.
BTW, what you need for work is a nice big button with a picture of a smiling sunflower that says “Don’t harsh my mellow” underneath!
And if you’d like one of your all-season-long hydrangeas to bloom blue instead of pink, stick a rusty nail into the soil in the root area. The iron will change the color (I found this out two days ago in my community garden).
It got me wondering what’s in the soil in Newport, RI. The hydrangeas there are the most amazing indigo I’ve ever seen. Not the typical blue hydrangea, they really are indigo (the color between blue and violet on the spectrum). I’ve always wondered why indigo is counted in the seven colors of the rainbow, while aqua is not. Makes no sense to me. Anyone care to venture a guess?
Leenie 17,lying out in the sun all day will give you color that will last all fall and part of the winter. You don’t need plants,just lay there like one. Try not to burn.
Mike, I’m half Irish and half Ukrainian…two cultures that are not known for beautiful golden color!
The only color I get is some freckles, and my cheeks and the sides of my neck already look like they’re permanently dirty! I use sunscreen religiously but after the first few days in the garden…out pop the freckles! If they would at least all blend together, it might look like I have a tan but, alas, it just looks like I’ve been splashing in the mud. It does take until halfway through the winter before they fade enough to look like I’ve been washing my neck again.
I’ve never been much for sunbathing and I keep reminding myself that my friends from high school who went to the beach all the time (I grew up on Long Island so the beach was pretty much everywhere!) will someday look like wrinkly old leather and I will just be, well, freckly.
I much prefer to sit on my patio under my nice awning and enjoy the colors of the flowers…and now I’ve got some pretty new ones to look at!
Oh yeah-Well I got a farmer tan and can’t grow flowers to save my soul. I’ve never seen a real beach and my left arm sunburns while driving and my right arn never burns. Besides,it was just a suggestion. Have a wonderful fourth of July.
I love a plant sale! But my all time favorite plant is the free one! 😀
Got quite a few of those kind too! My cousin in Philly (who has won gardening awards from the city) gave me a whole bunch of perennials when I was down there a few years ago. I have some phlox, Russian sage and butterfly bush from her yard.
The morning I was going to leave to drive home, I woke up and heard some strange grunting noises out the window. There were leaves and branches allll over the yard that she had pruned off a big trumpet vine that she was in the process of digging up. She had paid quite a bit for it a few years earlier but it had never bloomed and it would annoy her every time she looked at it. She decided she would be much happier without seeing it every day so she gave it to me. It’s doing very well in my yard (although it is a bit of a thug) but it has never bloomed for me either, which is actually fine because the color would clash with everything around it. If a plant doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, do you call it a ‘lemon’? 😉
I didn’t mean to type things twice , and No I haven’t been drinking !
My cousin sent me this fun web site.
My cousin sent this to me——have a little fun!
II do not know how this works, Think of someone who is famous before answering the questions.
http://www.akinator.mobi
Ok that is too weird – I did Julia Roberts the first time and then Frankenstein, and it figured out both of them in about 10 questions. Can our world be that limited?
HA! took three times for it to find George Fox, founder of the Quakers (Society of Friends). First guess was the Elephant Man (!!), then John Wesley (getting warmer).
OK, back to work on turning over the 1,000 pound leaf that is my existence. 🙂 Thanks for the diversion.
This is too scary. I first started with an easy one: Robin Hood. The site nailed it in 12 questions.
Then I tried OctoMom – it took 19 questions but shazam – nailed it as well. Seriously, OctoMom??
Well, I did the most famousest person of all, and it didn’t ever guess her–our own AKMuckraker! 🙂
She’s now on the list.
How did it get Paul Bunyan?
I don’t know where you found this,but it obviously cheats. I used dubya and still lost. Wagh!!
Ohh What fun! I first chose Tim Tebow, Cleopatra and John Adams. It nailed all three. Gotta go and send this link to all my buds!! Thanks mucho, Lacy Lady!
What fun, Lacy Lady. It took four tries and 43 questions, but it finally figured out Clancy Brown. One thing I find interesting is that it asked if he’d ever held elective office. He had not, but his dad did (that’s why he went to school in DC), and if memory serves, so did his grandfather.
I knew it was getting close when it asked if he played an animated character. Indeed, the scary warden from Shawshank Redemption and scarier preacher from Carnivale has done the voice of Mr. Krabs (Spongebob Squarepants’ boss) since the beginning.
I did Joe Miller. Didn’t get him. Whoever did that site doesn’t read the correct blogs! 🙂
It did, however, get Rin Tin Tin.
Well, that was fun, lol! And yeah, it guessed correctly– Jane Eyre.
OMG~ i just did it..I put Santa Claus…He guessed it…
I did Severus Snape, and it got it within 10 questions. then irish revolutionaries Michael Collins and Constance Markiewicz. It got Collinswithin 10, but had to have a second go with Constance. Very interesting and I’d like to have the method explained to me.
Ha! I got to ‘introduce’ it to a new character! (Curdie, from ‘The Princess and the Goblin’ and ‘The Princess and Curdie’. I need to find that novel again and see if I still love it as much as I did as a child.)
But it guessed Dexter Morgan and Alfalfa from the Little Rascals quickly enough!
Oh, geeze… according to wiki, it was published in 1972, no WONDER it needed an introduction!
Strike that, 1872, not 1972.
AKM – I’ve always loved the look of Alaska from the sea. We due have epic.
Just chucked some ice cubes in the bird bath to give them a thrill. Those islands are so pretty. It looks so cool there! Was awakened at 6 this morning by an 8 year old’s hand patting my cheek, and a voice wondering if I wasn’t ready to wake up. Himself was getting the same treatment from the 10 year old. Of course we got up and all made a huge, totally unhealthy breakfast and ate every bit..
I am watching Kansas very closely. Clearly, this was another test case, and I am guessing refinements will continue to be made. Argh!
Love the great photo of such beautiful islands!
Looks like the battle goes on in “Bloody Kansas” against the Ultra-Right Republicans…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43613835/ns/us_news-life/t/judge-blocks-kansas-abortion-licensing-law/
Interesting because the US Suckpreme Court stated that Dubya Bush would be caused “irreperable harm” if he weren’t allowed to become Potus in 2000. Good to see Rethugs get their arguments tossed back in their faces.
Yikes! I wrote “gorgeous picture”, and it didn’t pass the spam filter?! Perhaps the moderators have started celebrating early 😉
I agree – so beautiful. I was too bleary eyed to really take in the image when posting at 2 AM or whatever it was.
Ah, the spam filter. It actually has a personality. Perhaps it disagreed with your assessment, or it was sleeping, or it was pining for another spam filter and wasn’t concentrating, or it just likes playing practical jokes, or…
Sometimes spam filters get a little clogged. LOL
Gorgeous picture! Happy weekend, everyone.
Michelle Bachmann caught with her hand in the hypocrisy cookie jar:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/conservative-cash-crop/?hp
Note: I love how the author compares her to Palin.
Those pesky facts just keep getting in the way !!! Why can’t we just vote people in on “Faith” and just trust in God that it will all turn out alright in the end ?? Cuz does it make any differenece anyway ?, as “The End” is coming in Decemeber any-hoo, isn’t it ?? ( shakes excess sarcasm from finger tips)
Oh, what a Freudian slip – turn over a new LEAF – not life, or … maybe… ?
Wishing you luck as I envy your determination.
I am first – only because I am LAST to go to bed. Wish me luck, I am trying to turn over a new life, reorganizing my whole home and finishing remodeling part of it. Actually it feels like pulling up an old stump instead of turning over a leaf! 🙂