Category: On the water

On the spur of the moment

My friend Zoya, who is a crazed walker and runner, called just as I was getting ready to take my husband some lunch at work.  The wind was muffling her voice so I knew she was outside.  She says “I am out at Priest Rock (I know she means Little Priest Rock) and there are so many seals sitting on the rocks, about 12 of them.  I’ve never seen so many together and they are so big.”  I verify that they are seals and not sea lions.  “Oh no, they are seals and they are so fat.  You should come take some pictures.”  (And you have to read this with an Armenian accent, by the way.)

By the time I got out there after going all the way over to airport to drop off lunch, they had decreased in numbers to about 9.  But they were so roly poly fat.  And all different colors.  Just basking away the afternoon in the winter sun;  sharing space with Emperor geese who were grazing in the near shore waters.

There are actually 8 harbor seals, but one is kind of on the other side of the rock.

There is nothing better than being able to drive out Summer Bay road in January.  Typically we are unable to drive it past November due to snow and avalanches.

This fatty had a rock all to himself.

And there is nothing better than living in a place where a spur of the moment phone call from a friend equals basking harbor seals…

I love how they relax!

…and feasting fowl.

I'm assuming these guys were grazing on mussels.

Thanks, Zoya!

Happy 2013!!!

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Cousins….cool cousins with their ultra cool New Year hats from the Grand Aleutian Hotel. Awaiting midnight.
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Bubbly at the ready.
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A pretty amazing show put on by the the City of Unalaska!
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Love being able to watch the show from my driveway!
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12312012 011a We had the birthday cake and cupcakes for the two New Year Birthday babies.
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Happy Birthday! Happy New Year!!

Could I say a mother’s work is never done?

Having just celebrated Mother’s Day by making my mother and myself prepare brunch for the multitudes (okay – it was totally impromtu), I have been reminising lately about motherhood.  Maybe it is because Alena has been off island attending school so much lately and we have had the added responsibility of looking after grandson number one.  You know the drill -making sure homework is done, and vitamins are taken, and enough sleep is obtained.  Schedules of school time, early release days, when is the after school program?, boots for PCR, and the ultra important – inside and outside shoes.  Of course having to also take care of the dog and cat is reminisent of something Caleb and I have already done, and vowed to never do again.  We can’t stand it when they die. 

Wild geranium (cranesbill) and wormwood (artemesia)

Perhaps it is the coming spring that is making me so introspective.  Maybe it is all the things about Unangan values and culture that I am still learning from my mother and am passing on, in a continuous stream of consciousness, to my children, who must pass it on to theirs.  It could be that life seems to be rushing me along, each year getting shorter and shorter – or so it seems.  I do find that I no longer have time to spend on folks who focus on the negative, so I have made a conscious choice that my time is no longer their time.  I know.  Radical, but good for the soul.  I would hazard a guess that turning to the far side of 50 has had a great impact on what I do and what I think!

Ah, motherhood.  The one thing I don’t miss about it because I am still totally immersed in it, is worrying about the welfare of my offspring.  So, I guess this all started on Mother’s Day, when after helping with the dishes, Laresa said, “Gotta go”, to her grandmother and me.  Off sailing.  Her second sailboat ride.  The first in the near bays.  I know that this one will be out of the bays.  And like any mother, I am a worry wart. 

She says that the sailor sailed it all the way up here by himself, on his way to Russia.  It is safe.  There are survival suits. 

I have to say that I am a bit ashamed of myself.  When Laresa got back home from her sail, she mentioned that she got a little seasick at one point.  I was tickled; full of glee.  Safe in my hope that she won’t make a real habit of sailing off into the Bering Sea.  Good god!  I am hopeless!