I’ve just come home from my trip to Alaska, photographing the Brown Bears (Coastal Grizzly Bears) and also visiting with the Homer Quilt Guild. I had a fantastic time in Bear Camp, and besides amazing viewing of the bears, it was the first time in 10 years since I was in a dark sky environment and was able to see the Milky Way in all its majesty. It was a much-needed deep embrace with Nature, and I know it will nurture and inspire me for a long time.
You may not know that there are a lot of serious quilters in Alaska! The Homer Quilt Guild is no exception. They get together and sew once a week! I imagine they don’t get together as often in the winter, but it was fun to learn that Homer is considered the ‘banana belt’ of Alaska because of its warmer coastal temperatures. Homer was our jumping-off point to take a 1953 Beaver prop plane across the bay to the park. Our pilot gave us a swooping close-up tour of an icy volcano on the way to the park, which I only need to do once in life, thank you very much.
Now that I have visited both Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks, I have a greater appreciation for the work that goes into preserving and protecting these priceless pieces of land. We met a park ranger named Diane who comes out for 4 months a year and lives alone on the coastline of the park, with bears wandering past all day and night. She lives here in Colorado the rest of the year.
I will be working on my bear photos to share with you, and I am still catching up on my photos from the Festival of Quilts. (Birmingham UK) Thanks for your patience. There is another reason why it will take me a little while to edit and upload these photos: on the way back home I started feeling funny so I took a Covid test and found out that I finally had succumbed to the virus. Ugh! But I got on Paxlovid immediately and that took the edge off in 4-5 hours. Now I am isolating in my bedroom for a week, and hopefully, due to my vaccinations and the Paxlovid, I’ll be bouncing back soon.
Happy National Dog Day! You may have read that we lost our beloved dog Ruby recently. It didn’t take us long to realize that we (and our remaining dog Leo) need a 2nd dog in the house. So two weeks from today we’ll be welcoming a new puppy into our home. No name yet – we’ll have to meet her first – but we are super excited and that anticipation will get me through the next several days of isolation.
sharing your love for fabric,
Luana and Paul
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Travel/Quilt Calendar:
August 18-24 – Bear Camp – Homer Alaska
Sept 28-30 – AQSG Seminar – Louisville, KY
