the claws....tool of the grizzly!

 it's what i must have focused on that morning.  grizzly's have longer claws than the black bears.  makes it easier for black bears to climb trees though, the shorter claws, makes grizzly a better digger.  adaptations.

 claws scared the crap out of me though.  the sound...it will no doubt be with me always.

 these are from the alaska wildlife conservation center again.  great place! it was raining today and blowing so not many pictures to take.

 did end up walking quite a lot though.  my friend kelly joined me around noon for a brisk loop of jodphur.  she only knows one speed it seems so always a challenge for me.  a good challenge.  great to catch up with her, it's been too long.  we seemed to miss the hard rain.  it started back up as we finished off our walk.  lucky, good timing.

 later i met up with amy for a few loops around university lake.  the fall colours are beautiful where ever you go though.  didn't get the miles in on the car on this stretch off.  no matter, i can find beauty close by as easily as far away.  and, of course, there are always more pictures to catch up on.

 i'll be back to work starting tomorrow.  we shall see how that goes.

 watching a documentary film from netflix.  it's about a sculpter, andy goldsworthy.  "rivers and tides".  he creats art in nature with elements of nature.  takes cairns to another level.  some pretty cool stuff that he has created and then often saw nature take down. people are just amazingly creative some times. it's good to go into the wilderness, sit quietly and creat.  it takes a great deal of patience as well to work with the elements and the mediums that are gifted us by the earth...only to watch what you have spent hours building be destroyed by a tide, or the current, or the wind. he's from scotland i believe.

 had my biometric screen.  tied into our health insurance. does make you part of it all, you have a responsibility to do your part to stay as healthy as you can and to improve.  many don't like this as they feel it gives the corporation too much personal information.  there is that. i do understand that.  my numbers, some could improve, some are quite good.  mostly i'm happy that the numbers that aren't steller, aren't bad and haven't gotten worse.  of course, i'm not totally sold on the accuracy of these rapid exams..she had to stick my finger twice as the machine came up with bizarre results.

 these are from portage valley.  loved the colour of the water and the reflections.

 little hanging glacier action

 the rest are from my walk down to the beach in kincaid.

 i really thought it would be windy that day, but it wasn't too bad.  rio was along for this one. today she waited out the first walk and just joined us at university lake.  i think she uses her morning step outside to decide how she'll plan her day.  today, she didn't like that rain coming down early.  it did ease up a lot as the day wore on.

 will read a bit again today. enjoying the current books i've gotten myself reading.  really should finish off other books that i have ceased reading that i did find interesting. usually those are the non-fiction sort. i find them interesting but don't always stick with them.  those i tend to pick up and set down.  novels, if they are good, suck you in until the last page.

 with all this shutterfly loading. i get confused...did i post those pictures in the blog, on facebook, on shutterfly?

 the moon was full that weekend and the tide came up super high.  would hate to be caught in the wrong place on any tide change in alaska.  the tides vary greatly and can be swift if you aren't careful you will find yourself wet or worse.

 views as we head back up the hill.   no moose spotted today...not sure where they are hiding.  i didn't see any yesterday either really.

 chatted with a few siblings and friends over the past 24 hours.  always enjoyable to catch up with family and friends. i do keep putting off the to do list.  gotta get a flight to texas for thanksgiving. never like flying so i think that makes me put it off.

always great to have tired dogs on the way home from a walk/hike.