Photography, Life

Kitties in the Garden, Alaskan Bound, Bisou Likes to Sleep in Rainbows, A Dolphin Stampede, Baby Animal Photos, Re-Upholstery, and Eugenia is Going to the Orange County Fair

A couple of weeks in photos

Well, by the time you read this, we’ll be in Alaska. I am so excited for our upcoming trip. We’re flying into Juneau tomorrow and then getting on an UnCruise boat for a week out on the water. Then, we have four nights on a little island off of Sitka.

You might recall that we did a similar trip last year. We had actually planned to go out on the same small boat again this year, but, a month ago, we got word that they had to cancel the trip because of mechanical issues. They just couldn’t get the parts or the labor they needed to do the repairs. So, with airline tickets already purchased and a non-refundable VRBO rental, I had to scramble.

I’m actually really excited about the new boat though. It’s just a tiny bit bigger (eighty people) and, while we will still see Glacier Bay again, the itinerary takes us all the way out to the Baranoff Islands.

With any luck, in a couple of days, we’ll be waking up to views like these:

In the meantime though, the kitties have been greatly enjoying their time in the garden. We also have a pretty phenomenon that happens every afternoon — we get a rainbow from a beveled window in a dormer. Bisou, who is eight now, discovered, when he was just a baby, that he loves to sleep in the rainbow each afternoon.

We also re-upholstered our outdoor furniture. The cushions were just falling apart — literally, with stuffing exploding from the seams — but the chairs were still fine. I think they turned out pretty nicely. What do you think?

We had a really nice afternoon out on our friend’s boat. We cruised from Newport Beach to Dana Harbor and we encountered a stampede of dolphins.

You can read about it (and see more photos) here:

I’ve been doing a series of stories about baby wild animals for Randy Runtsch’s Wildlife Trekker baby wild animal challenge, and it’s been super fun to re-visit some old photos of South Africa. There will be several pieces, which will feature lions, zebras and other animals, coming up next week. In the meantime, you might like this hippo story:

And here’s a little teaser of the zebras:

And, some of you might recall “Eugenia,” our little girl hummingbird who likes to take baths in the fountain. Well, I entered her (and several other photos) in the Orange County Fair photo competition. She was the one photo who made it past the first round of judging. So, she’ll hang on the wall of the gallery at the fair.

I have long admired those photos at the fair and I am so excited and honored to have a photo accepted. I’ve been playing with different papers to print her on and have gone with a really cool metallic paper. I’m doing a limited edition of twenty-five prints and already have several of them accounted for — sort of exciting for me, since I’m a bit new to this selling my photos thing.

The hardest part about any trip is leaving the kitties. I just love them sooooooo much! Emerson and Freyja were “helping” me pack yesterday. I haven’t actually pulled out the suitcases yet because it stresses them out. But I’ve got things sorted out. I just have enough time today to hit the trails on my bike for a quick ride, and then it’s time to get serious about packing.

I hope you all are having lovely weeks.

As I mentioned, I do have several stories which will be published next week. But I may be a bit “off the grid,” so please excuse me if I don’t respond to your comments right away. I’ll get caught back up (and I look forward to reading your stories too) once I am back in the internet zone again.

Bon voyage!

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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As always, I thank you Dennett for creating this “week in photos” challenge.

It’s so fun to share about the week and to read about so many other photographers’ weeks around the world.

You might want to check out a few of the others who participate:

Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett/Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages (if I’ve missed any of the “week in photos” tribe, please let me know!)

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Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.