The City of St. John's - Newfoundland, Canada

Alycia recently had an academic conference to attend in St. John's, Newfoundland.  I tagged along, because when are you ever going to have a reason to go to a place like Newfoundland?  St. John's is a town of about 200,000, situated alongside a working harbor, and has a pretty interesting and vibrant downtown.

This was the view from our hotel room, the harbor to the left and downtown to the right. It was quite a lovely view and we enjoyed the salty sea air as it breezed into our room. St. John's claims to be the oldest city on North America and this harbor has been used as a shipping and fishing port for many hundreds of years. 

The road alongside our hotel went straight up to Signal Hill.  This is the view of the harbor and city of St. John's from Signal Hill, and the ocean is directly behind us.  Signal Hill was the site of British, then French, then British forts throughout the years and was the also the site of a battery of cannons that guarded the entrance to the harbor.  Signal Hill is also the site where Guglielmo Marconi received the first Trans-Atlantic wireless radio signal from England in 1901.

Your next fun fact about Newfoundland (and Labrador in this case) is that it is the origination of both the Newfoundland and Labrador dogs.  There are statues in the city commemorating these dogs, which both were originally bred as working dogs to help fishermen.  It's possible that the Lab or Retriever that's sitting near your feet, snoozing away, is descended from the line of working dogs originally bred here in Newfoundland. 

Snuggle Time

Snuggle time is important.  Even in the summer when it's warm outside, it's never too warm for some snuggling.

Alycia also wanted to make sure you notice her super-sweet house clothing, aka the lime on lime outfit that she's rocking in this picture. 

Deaf Dog Pic of the Day

This is Shadowfax.  No other words are necessary as this one photo perfectly sums up her entire essence. 

The Bear Family Travels South

My friend that I have known since second grade, Stacey, got married in Auburn, AL last month. She married a very nice Italian fellow named Antonio. John opted to stay home. He said that driving through the Deep South in a rental car with the Bear Family was a nightmare of his.  (John here - Yes, I've actually had a very visceral and horrific dream about being stuck wandering through the South, confined in a rental car with Alycia and her family.  It was a terrifying dream.)

My parents played multiple roles in the ceremony: my dad escorted Stacey down the aisle, and my mom found readings for my dad to present, as well as hemming the suit for Stacey's adorable son, Jonathan.

Below, they're with Stacey's department chair who officiated the ceremony. 

Along with going to the wedding, my parents and I had a little bit of time to do some sightseeing. Stacey had suggested going to the Little White House in Warm Springs, GA so we stopped by on our way to Auburn from Atlanta. As you can read from the sign, FDR came to Warm Springs to seek relief from the polio that affected his legs.

The presidential compound was actually very small. The president's cabin was in the middle (with bedrooms for the president, the first lady, and his personal secretary), with a guest house on one side (with 2 single beds in it) and servants' quarters on the other (with 2 bedrooms). It was very quiet and peaceful there. Basically the only indication that it was a retreat for a president were the sentry posts spread out in the woods around the house.

Shaak Ti's Sweater

After a successful sweater venture with Shadowfax, my mom decided that Shaak Ti needed a sweater too. After all you can't have one of the grand-dogs running around with a sweater and one go sweaterless.  Here are the photos from her first sweater fitting.

Shadowfax was a little bit jealous that she wasn't getting the same level of attention as Shaak Ti.  We tried to explain that she already had her sweater experience, but she wanted no part of the explanation. 

A sweater fitting can turn into a tummy rub session at the drop of a hat.  I can personally vouch for this fact.  

Grandma takes some measurements to make sure that it fits nice and tight on Shaak Ti's tummy. 

One person measures, one person gives Shaak Ti pets. 

Poor Shadowfax sits and waits for her turn for attention. 

Tito hangs out in his bed and is a shining beacon of indifference...and anger.  This is his "I frickin' dare you to try to put a damn sweater on me."

Grandpa can't help much on the sweater knitting front, but he's always available to give lots of pets. 

All this attention is making her sleepy.

While my mom loves all of our dogs, Shaak Ti is her favorite. Here they're having a nice talk, which ended with Shaak Ti giving grandma a kiss. 

Pileated Woodpecker Video

Pileated woodpeckers have been making regular, usually daily, visits to the bird feeders in the front yard.  These birds are pretty impressive and I enjoy watching them on the suet feeder have a snack. 

They're a pretty impressive bird and you can hear the audible "whoosh" of their wings when they take off. I didn't catch the woodpecker taking off from suet feeder in this video, maybe next time. 

Peony Blooms

The blog may have been quiet, but we've been busy bees here at the homestead.  Spring planting and clean up projects, along with overdue hardscape additions and modifications are enough to keep any gardener busy. But we had a much needed week long vacation at the end of May and had to accomplish everything in a compressed time frame.  The inevitable result was a lack pictures and postings. 

It's amazing what a week away can bring.  We left North Dakota with cool Spring weather, no mosquitoes, and the last of the bulbs blooming.  We returned to find the lawns fully emerged from dormancy and growing rapidly, warm late-Spring weather, mosquitoes aplenty, and the annuals that we had planted before departing starting to establish themselves.  Oh, and we came back to the peonies blooming. 

The peonies don't bloom for very long, perhaps just two or three weeks.  But it's quite a show when they do bloom, huge profusions of brightly colored blossoms.  Before the vacation I also (finally!) found system for staking the peonies that works great...I'll detail that in another post. 

As always, my supervisors watched from their perch, making sure I'm not slacking off.  They're true taskmasters, regularly barking at me to work faster. 

Crazy Spring Weather in North Dakota

Spring weather here in North Dakota has some wild swings.  Thunderstorms, hot days, sudden cold snaps, you name it, it can and does happen.  Two weeks ago it was 80 degrees and we were in the midst of a drought, everyone was talking about how little precipitation the area had received.  Farmers were able to get out into the fields and start planting, some a month or more ahead of schedule.

Then over the last week, we've gotten multiple inches of rain, almost 2 inches on Sunday alone.  The rain front passed through and now we're getting booming cold North winds and even a little bit of snow.  Yes snow, in Mid May.  The white blurry spots on the picture below are snowflakes.  It wasn't a blizzard or anything, but off and on snow showers most of the day. 

The final oddity was temperatures down to 27 degrees last night, a hard frost.  I had to scramble and cover the few annuals that I'd already planted so they didn't get frost bitten.  The good news is that the rest of the week is forecast for sunny and pleasant, and then we're nearing the time of year (late-May) where it would be REALLY strange to get a frost.