I Love Old Things!

The first time I saw this dresser it was black. Really black, from the old furniture oil and probably just old age. Instead of a mirror there was tinfoil, shiny side out of course. And there are some deep cuts on the left top side. But it was love at first sight for me. It belonged to Wayne's Great Uncle and Aunt. I never ever thought it would be mine. Aunt Frances passed away first, then a few years later, at 96 Uncle Claude passed. Wayne was in charge of Uncle Claude's estate (not an easy job). When he got all the paper work and we began to sift through things, Wayne said your name is in here...Me? What on earth..yep I was left this dresser, tinfoil was gone. It's one of my most prized possessions. Uncle Claude & Aunt Frances were special to Wayne and I. They never had children. Most of their things went to other family members. I had the dresser refinished and the guy who worked on it for me said it was very old, and handmade. I know that Aunt Frances made furniture, she had shown me some tables and cabinets she had made. I'm not sure if she made this dresser or not but I like to think so, or maybe even her dad made it and that's how she learned the trade. Anyway, I love it!

The lamps on the dresser are antiques, a gift from my brother. Aunt Frances had a lamp very similar to these on the dresser every time I would visit her. The mirror is from an old dresser that someone brought into a glass shop where my brother-in-law worked, they wanted new glass, silly people. He said he immediately thought of my mirror less dresser. How about that!
This is the piece at the top of the dresser. If you look real close you can see that nothing is exact, it's all hand carved. They may have even said 'whittled".
The guy also told me this was a tell-tale sign of it's age and hand made construction. The inside of the drawers are "dove tailed". The boards are very rough, no electric fine sander was used on this baby.
This was also Aunt Frances' (it was white when it was in her kitchen) It too is handmade. I know she made this one, she told me. It was not left to me or Wayne, but the person has never come to get it and the attorney said it was ours! Even the door and drawer pulls are hand made. I was hesitant about painting it red for my house, but I just asked Aunt Frances to please forgive me if she didn't like red. She was a neat person, some folks said she was tough and hard to know..I never felt any of that. We hit it off pretty good. So thanks Aunt Frances and Uncle Claude. I hope my kids and theirs will one day treasure it as well.

* sorry to be so long winded, but I was really trying to preserve this story for my children!

Odd Things in the Garden

Today was a crazy odd day from the get go.

I went out to check on the pool early this morning, and on my way back inside I saw some odd things.

This is a "Bat Face" plant. Looks just like a bat with a red frilly dress on!

It must have started blooming while I was gone.
Twins, These odd little guys are growing in a pot on the pool deck. They are very tiny little blooms but I sure do like them. Maybe they look more like a bat flying out of a red frilly dress?
Now this odd thing is actually a clematis growing on the arbor out by the pool. I've never seen them in this "ball" stage. Only after the ball has unwound.
Wow! My sago palm is blooming. It's odd because I have never seen this either. It's really a big bloom. Not sure what comes next, after it dies off. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Think it will be odd?

Odd, I did not even know all this was out there; the "Gardner" I had while I was gone did not tell me about any of this...he said "You said water, not report!"

And so I did, I will be clearer next time.

Nana and the babies & Whittier, Alaska

First Nana and the babies.

We were taking a walk after supper one evening.

We stopped for a photo op and this is what we got. I had a great visit and sure do wish they could get transferred to where people know what sweet tea is!!!!

Now Whitter, AK

Another Alaska Picture. This is a picture of the mountain you have to drive threw to get into and out of Whitter, AK. It's a 2 1/2 mile tunnel that is one way only.

A train uses the tunnel too, so all vehicles wait on it of course. All traffic goes into Whitter on the half hour and can only leave on the hour. Whitter was call "The Secret Port" during WWII. It opens up to Prince William Sound. Which gave the US great advantage during the war. The Army built two buildings in Whitter one is abandoned and the other has been turned into condos. The town hall and post office are on the first floor. 98% of the residents of Whitter live in that building. When you come out of the tunnel into Whitter water is on your left and the mountain on your right. I'd call Whitter a "shelf" about 1000 yards long and 800 yards wide. Maybe just me and the other history nerd (Shelia) find this interesting but I just wish I had spent more time there and had taken a picture of the the Condo. Not the greatest picture but I just loved the experience. If you enlarge the photo you can see the entrance to the tunnel leaving Whitter.

You can go to www.ci.whittier.ak.us/about.html to see an aerial shot of the Whittier and why I call it a "Shelf". You can also see Portage Glacier in top left of photo.

What's That?

Look at Jake's face. He was excited about something I'm not sure what the kids were pointing at, maybe Jamie can shed some light on that. This was a little "beach" on the river at the Portage Glacier. The water was a aquamarine blue. The "beaches" in Alaska are really overburden (rocks that sled off the mountain) not much dirt or sand.

I love this picture of Em.

They were having such fun, although it was cold, it was just so much fun to send time doing things with the kids.
They were skipping rocks off the water maybe that is what they were showing us.

We love to be together, no matter the weather.

The rain could not dampen our fun, and our hugs kept us warm as toast.

Talk About Windy

Mom was happy to sit in the car and let Jamie get her a piece of glacier ice from the sound. She really looks impressed, huh?
Now you know why. The wind was blowing so hard; we were all trying to hurry and get a picture, any picture. The "rain" at this point was really sleet. Mom and all of us had a good laugh when we saw this picture.
She made it out of the car, but as you can see we were all freezing; even the resident Alaskans. McKinley was the wisest, she never got out of her seat.

Portage Glacier

Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. This is the Portage Glacier. The aqua color is the actual glacier. The color has to do with the all the minerals that are in the collection of snow and water. That's a cloud in the top left corner of the photo. Guess you could say we very high in the clouds.
After the cloud passed, we took this is a closeup of the top left piece of the glacier,

but I think that is the shadow of the cloud on the ice.

This is the top center piece of the glacier. We did not get a closeup of the "little pool" at the bottom. Like I said at the top it's just awesome. I catch myself trying to see everything at once! No matter which way I turned the view was AWESOME!

I just have to marvel at God's handy work.

Perspective

These pictures were taken on our trip to Whittier, Alaska.

We went to see the Portage Glacier and I'll post some of those pictures later.

I was hoping to get a perspective for you on the vast expanses of this great land called Alaska. The first photo was taken at 75 mm. It was a very grey, rainy and cold day.

This photo was taken with 300mm. I don't know if you can get the perspective I was hoping for or not. You may be getting a different kind of perspective if Jame and I post our on take on some of the same the photos.

It's good to be home, but boy was it a tearful tear away at the airport today. I'm still crying. I'm also trying to reset my internal EST clock.