Melanie and Charlie bring salmon and dogs; Lynx returns

Melanie returned from the project she had been working on up on the Denali Highway. She did see a lot of bears, both grizzly and black, but only from the helicopter. She saw none from the ground. On Sunday, she and Charlie came out and they brought some salmon they had dipnetted at the mouth of the Kenai. Jacob, Lavina and all three boys came out as well.

Melanie and Charlie brought dogs Kingston and Akiak, who they are pet sitting while their people, Rex and Cortney, are off in Seward, presumably catching more fish.

I would to catch a fish before freezeup. Wonder if it will happen?

Given the still very fragile state of my belly, it was pretty scary when Kingston came charging at me. Fortunately, Melanie arrested the charge.

I was back inside, sitting in the recliner, when Charlie brought in a plate of salmon he and Melanie had grilled outside. Ohhhh..... so good! Firm, juicy, flakes that peeled apart just right. They also made salad and greens, partly from their garden, I believe, grilled a garden zucchini, and brought fresh strawberries for dessert.

Jobe and Kalib each got a Popsicle. I wanted one, too, but there were none left.

A bit after the feasting had ended, John Lennon appeared from out of the past singing "Imagine" as part of the closing ceremonies of the London OLympics.

Yes - Imagine! I did. A tear came to my eye.

Late in the evening, Melanie and Charlie took Akiak and Kingston on a "digestive walk." I also needed a digestive walk, so I followed.

As the five of us walked, Jacob, Lavina, Kalib and Jobe came driving by to wave goodbye.

Melanie and Charlie look at a photograph of mine included in Liberty and Justice (for all) A Global Photo Mosaic, an Alaska Quarterly Review tribute to the great photo journalists Tim Heatherington and Chris Hondros, both killed while covering the war in Libya.

The Quarterly, a literary publication of international renown, invited 68 photographers, mostly famous but a few of us only barely known, from around the world to contribute one image each on that theme.

My image appears on page 241, of the Spring and Summer, 2012, edition.

Even though his parents and brothers had returned home, our boy Lynx had stayed behind to spend the next four-and-a-half days with us.

It may look to some as though I have gone back to my old-style blogging and left the iPhone blogs behind. No, I haven't. This is all shot on my iPhone, but instead of posting it the quick and easy way direct from the phone, I downloaded the take into my desktop computer and then built the post from the computer. It has been a boon to me to be able to post from the iPhone. In fact, without being able to do so, I would like have posted very little since my surgery.

But I wanted to use more than one, two, or three pictures and since the iPhone stacks all the pictures on top of each other and places all the text at the bottom, I went to my computer. Up until Thursday, when the doctor removed the brace he had implanted in my abdomen, to sit at my computer for more than 15 or 20 minutes, was just too painful.

Now I can bear it much better.

Some might also notice that these photos look a better technically than do the ones I post directly from the iPhone. This is because some brilliant app developer did an absolutely absurd and idiotic thing and designed the Squarespace iPhone app to put an upper limit of 500 px as the maximum width one can upload a photo to. My columns, as are many columns these days, are 800 px. A Sqaurespace support person created a custom fix for me. The Squarespace app still uploads my images at the reduced 500 px size, but then the fix interpolates them up to my 800 px column width.

Unfortunately, in the process, the interpolated images become a bit pixilated and soft.

Still, it took way too much time to make this post and while I am finally truly on the road to recovery, it has still left me drained and sore, so I don't think I will do a post of this nature again for awhile.

Comments

[Nancy]

Thank you for this post = I love the family posts the best. You have a wonderful family.

[twain12]

i agree, love seeing your family and i'm glad you are doing better...the salmon looks delicious

[Suji]

From the last pic , I think the way Jobe and you are connected, Marige and Lynx seem to have share a special bond too! Bless Him.... damn cute cup cake! <3

[Ash]

I agree with Suji.. That is such a beautiful click..

[kalaluka]

You said: "finally truly on the road to recovery." HOORAY!