Rich Parker in Alaska @cajun_cheechako@qoto.org

Fresh kelp help - SE Alaska
Found very nice looking kelp at low tide at Outer Point. Took it home & put it in water - thinking I should add salt? - I want to do something with it, but realized I've no earthly idea what I'm doing. Any suggestions - Google foo has failed me so far.

* Further research and comments indicate it might be 'sea lettuce' ?

To be soaked in fresh water for a couple of hours, then spread out to dry in the shade?

Any other options/suggestions?

Another office dog (news dog).
Not sure if she really likes me or is just into the treats I give her.
(I suppose that's not mutually exclusive) ;)

Sunday morning at Chapel by the Lake. Another rare, cold, sunny day in Juneau, AK.

If we'd never moved to Alaska I never would have discovered that an ulu is far superior to a pizzawheel for cutting pizza!

Well, looks like Juneau, AK finally got our big snow. Started out fluffy and very wind-driven, but now it is getting sticky and heavy. I'm down with a cold, so not going anywhere, but loaned my neighbors my snowblower that I brought from Vermont. City was nice enough to send a plow down our street and block everyone back in with a giant berm. With over 12 more inches, the Neos I brought also came in handy. Might be brave later and open the hot tub ;)

Looks promising for more Auroras tonight (it's often too cloudy in Juneau, #AK)

We had a wonderful time with my brother and his wife, at their house in Kalua, Kauái. A beautiful place, but memories of the intense colonialism and resource extraction remain.
One oddly poignant item - there is a place called Spouting Horn. Waves coming into lava tubes shoot spray far up into the air. Very beautiful - but we were told that one of the holes shot water so high that it got into the sugar cane planted nearby, so a foreman took some dynamite down to the spout and blew it up - widening and blocking it.
Seemed Iike such a perfect metaphor, for so much of colonial history in Hawaii ;(

At Allerton Garden we were told this is a replica of a fountain in Italy. It is designed so that if you sit quietly by the pulsing water your resting heart rate will slow down to match the pulses - about 55 bpm

So far, after almost seeing all of two seasons, this has been my favorite Ted Lasso quote:

"Boy, I love meeting people's moms. It's like reading an instruction manual as to why they're nuts."

Tremendous thunderstorms last night and this morning (Koloa, Kauái). Lots of lightning, thunder and rain. Haven't seen/heard anything like it since I lived out west (well, technically I am pretty far out west...). My wag of a brother noted that it was a 'chilly 75°F this morning.
(Windy app)

Mother hen and chicks - nice pictorial illustration of Matt. 23:37 for folks who have never been around chickens. Wild chickens on the beach.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

Brother & SIL treated us to an Allerton Garden tour, with dinner and fire-dancing. It was very cool, and in the middle of dinner (when the musicians asked if there were any special events) we realized it was the day before our 47th anniversary ;)
– at Allerton Botanical Garden

Cooking breakfast, cleaning house while our hosts are at pickle-ball clinic. Lovely sounds of classic Hawaiian music on the TV.

Life goal - black cat, in a chair, on the lenai.

Gosh, even w/ no robo-calls, the scams continue in email and SMS.
Particularly since I had ordered something that was being delivered via DHL (to Alaska - and it did arrive).
The tests are a bit more random, (I do use Prime, and long ago, PayPal) but it would be nice if they could get a handle on these now.

Sperm whale washes up on Lydgate Beach in Kauai. (1/28/23)
Lots of police, fire, DLNR, and NOAA folks. Asking folks to stay away, beach is roped off. No reports yet on the cause.

African tortoises, imported to eat plants that competed with local trees.

Monk seals - napping on the beach.
Poípu Beach

Many neighborhoods have tiny free library boxes. In my brother's neighborhood (Kōloa, Kauaʻi County, Hawaiʻi) there is a free bananas box.
They were very good!