Thursday, July 21, 2016

Bees in my Treehouse

This is going to bee an interesting experience.  Have a hive of honey bees in the attic of my Treehouse studio, where I paint.  Am trying to get rid of them via taking them live and transporting their hive to another place.

Bees in my Treehouse

This is going to bee an interesting experience.  Have a hive of honey bees in the attic of my Treehouse studio, where I paint.  Am trying to get rid of them via taking them live and transporting their hive to another place.

Back from Alaskan Cruise

Rather a spontaneous cruise that started in Anchorage, boarding the HUGE boat, The Millennium, in Seward, to Juneau, Skagway (whale watching and glaciers on a side trip), then Icy Straits, Ketchikan where we took a train trip up the mountain, and Vancouver.  The plane trip from DFW was straight through on both flights.

Didn't let any experience go unattended on the cruise:  the food was absolutely the best.  Every dinner was spent with different people and that was great joy for me.  One night I had four appetizers and dessert and no entree.  Another night I had escargot and two lobsters!  Had the most wonderful massage.  Played my first ever roulette and won 33 dollars that I quickly lost at my first ever black jack.  Played in the boat ping pong tournament (2600 people on that boat) with all the 20 year old boys and won the silver medallion. Hate to admit it, but that was one of the most fun events for me.  I told each young man as I went to the table that I didn't see too well, didn't hear too well either, and I might have to have someone retrieve the balls.  Used a very fragile voice.  And, then I sliced a serve at them.  Played eight games and only lost to the gold medal winner and that one was pretty close.  A couple of the boys brought over parents or a parent to meet "that little ole lady who beat them".
  One night at dinner looked out the window and right beside the boat, saw a Blue whale (largest of all mammals that have ever existed on this earth).  I let out a yelp of "whale" and one fourth of the dining room was looking out our window.  The whale swam along right beside the boat, very close, for a while and then did a dive.  This was by far the best sighting we had the entire cruise.
  Entered a guessing contest on a huge yellow Sapphire.  The sapphire was 28.4 carats and I guessed 28.3 carats.  Won the prize of a really pretty bracelet and a 1 carat blue sapphire.  So, you can see no adventures were left untouched .  It was a genuine memory maker and great fun.  No paintings from it yet.