Friday, September 17, 2010

KAYAKING IN ANTARCTICA
I'm privileged to have the opportunity to serve aboard an eco tourism cruise ship each winter as a kayak guide. This blog is more like a photo album with captions. Earlier posts were more journalistic in style...informative tomes about our experiences there. I take you to Antarctica with gorgeous, crisp and clear photos of the wildlife and magnificent scenery. Crossing the Drake Passage was never so calm!



KAYAKING IN THE ARCTIC HIGH LATITUDES
Summer in the high Arctic is about visiting settlements of Inuits, traversing fjords, looking skyward to impossibly high nests of thousands of cliff-dwelling birds and the ever popular quest for polar bear and walrus in their natural habitat. Peruse dozens of photos that share with you these amazing scenes.



HISTORY OF THE GREENLAND KAYAK
While visiting the High Arctic I was thrilled to find a tiny little museum in a tiny little village in East Greenland that displayed one very old handmade kayak frame. It sent me on a quest for more photos revealing the history and creation of these light, fast and nimble kayaks. A Danish museum graciously sent me links to their archives where many of these photos are from. If you plan to build your own these photos will give you some insight and inspiration.



RANDOM KAYAK DOWNLOADS

From the net, random shots of kayaking from around the world.



PESTO RECIPE
For my friend Wanda who wants to try her hand at making pesto. It was fun thinking through the steps slowly and making it easy to understand. I hope it helped, Wanda!



COEUR A LA CREME RECIPE
This is a beguiling and light dessert, impossible to guess the ingredients, so I created a blog with sumptuous photos to inspire friends to try it. I just HAD to share these pretty photos with someone!




YURTS FOR LIVING
Five winters living in a yurt village in the cold and snowy Tug Hill region gave me a lifelong love of this unique round structure. Visit this blog to see plans for my future domicile.



SHACK, SHED, CABIN
I don't know what the appeal is of shacks, sheds and cabins. Oh wait! Yes, I do. I want to retreat inside them and listen to the rain on a warm summer afternoon while writing my latest novel. That's it, literary inspiration in a minimal getaway style with few adornments or entrapments. Besides, they look neat and evoke a sense of history.


DRIFTWOOD STUFF

Who can leave behind driftwood on the beach? Aren't we all sculptors at heart? And isn't driftwood FREE?



A DOG NAMED MANGO
When I had to put Jasper down a few years ago it broke my heart, of course, but I vowed I'd always have another border collie. Then they just started appearing out of nowhere. It all started with caring for a sweet one named Ivy and then the old hunger came back. So I acted on it and felt a great deal of satisfaction in putting together a photo album of sorts, gleaning photos from the cyber world as well as dogs I've recently met. I'm on a track to get another one. I may have to name the new dog Mango.



VESLA SPEAKS
I've enjoyed speaking about Antarctica and showing awesome slides in a variety of settings. Standing room only at the local libe, Rochester Museum of Science, Binghamton University, a national Women Outdoors gathering in NH and numerous outing clubs. This is my shameless huckster bid at finding more venues to get all breathless with passionate excitement about our experiences in the Great White South, eye-to-eye encounters with penguins, humpbacks and leopard seals, all from the seat of my kayak.




MY NEIGHBORHOOD IN TRUMANSBURG, NEW YORK
I created this blog for a Tour challenge on an international blog called Apartment Therapy. Within 10 minutes walking distance of the Adie family house here on Strowbridge Street there are all kinds of wonderful places to visit and things to eat. Take a tour with my blog and you'll see what I mean.



HATS
When the temperature drops the tough start knitting. Here are loads of shots of some of the hats I've knitted over the past few years. Many are for family and friends. I've sold a few but that's not my main interest. The wool I use is Lamb's Pride bulky, from Nebraska. Aren't the colors yummy?


EVERYWHERE THERE'S A WALTZ
A fairly comprehensive listing of my most favorite waltzes. There's some stunning music there for you to peruse. Click on the highlighted titles for a listen. Most clips are from YouTube.