2017: The year in review, as seen through selfies

WINTER, snorkeling in Kealekakua Bay, Hawaii

SPRING, cycling around Aigues Mortes, France

SUMMER, viewing the eclipse in Oregon

FALL, cycling around Pacific Grove, California

Late summer, early fall

This time of year is always spent getting ready for the upcoming winter: trimming trees, stacking firewood, getting the chimney pipe cleaned, sealing the deck, etc.  It's also salmon season, a good time to crab, and time to gather wild mushrooms.  We have been doing all of the above.  So here are some quick highlights of recent fishing and gathering excursions.

Nice big Chinook

Ditto

Today's catch was about 35 pounds

For scale, these are the fillets from today's fish on top of our stove.

Chanterelles

Dungeness crabs

Part of our 24-crab haul this week

Cooking the crabs in back of our house

 

Our freezer is getting full! 

Not foggy enough to eclipse totality

The marine layer never ceases to surprise us.  From one minute to the next, we can go from clear to foggy, or the reverse.  So we didn't know what to expect for the solar eclipse this morning.

Early, it was clear, but then fog rolled in.

But once the eclipse began, we put on our glasses and viewed the solar show from our deck, facing east-ward.

Totality didn't last long, but was great to see.  The neighborhood was quiet except for a lot of gasps and little cheers when it happened, despite forecasts for overcast skies.

The light fog knocked out any chance we had of viewing stars during totality.

Sea lion on the beach

Ordinarily, a sea lion on the beach is not really a big deal around here.  However, this Sea Lion is a salmon fishing boat that ran aground yesterday, due west of the Bayshore Beach Club.  The skipper fell asleep and woke up when it was too late to do anything.  They hoped the boat might lift off the sand at high tide, but that didn't happen.  Early reports are that the hull was cracked, so salvage operations are planned.

On my last beach walk, I came across snowy plovers.  Today a beached boat.

Aujourd'hui!

Today!
Our last day in Paris.  We started it off by renting bikes and cycling along the Seine River.  The road nearest the level of the river has become a park.  Last year it was flooded in early June.  This year, it is high and dry, and a pleasant spot to walk or cycle.

Then this afternoon, we went for a little culture.  We visited the nearby Pompidou Centre.  The Pompidou has lots of interesting modern art, including one piece of performance art: a woman sweeping some kind of grain, in slow motion.

Performance art: Move

Here are a couple of pieces by great painters.

Matisse

Picasso

Picasso

Walking to Ile de Cite

The shortest route to Ile de Cite from our hotel is past the grand Hotel de Ville (City Hall).

We crossed this bridge towards Notre Dame.

Then on Ile de Cite, we entered the Hotel Dieu, which is a hospital.  The courtyard looked interesting, so I went in to take photos.

Lovely garden and architecture

Quite classical in appearance

And then this statue

And this piano.  The French have a sense of humor.

The weather was dicey.  We knew thunderstorms were in the forecast, but were surprised by the violet wind action when it struck, knocking over many chairs outside, and chasing all the outside diners inside.

Walking around the neighborhood

Oh the things you can see if you stop and look.  I took the first group of today's photos walking around a church near the Pompidou Centre (St. Merri?)

 Adam? as a gargoyle

Eve? as a gargoyle

Winged gargoyles

Dog-like gargoyle

These photos were taken in the Place du Chatelet, west of Hotel de Ville.  This is the Fontaine du Palmier.  It provided drinking water to the neighborhood, while commemorating the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Fontaine du Palmier topped by a winged statue of Victorie

At the base of the column -- a sphinx

Leaving Arles

Today is our last day in the south.  We at heading north on a high speed train in the morning.

As my parting blog post to Arles, here are some views of the Roman arena.

View from the north

Approaching from the south

View along west side

View towards the east side

A bientot.

Never say "last"

I was rather surprised to hear that Bori wanted to go cycling again this morning.  So, please disregard the title of my previous post. We followed along the same route as yesterday, but went much farther along the canal.

Here are a few landmarks to find the 1Veloc bike shop.  It is one block inside the gates to the old city.

Gates to old Arles, as seen from inside the city

This giant monument appears across the street from the bike shop.

The monument is topped by a lion

Our destination today was Mas Thibert, a small town along the canal.

The most interesting building in town

The sculpture in front of the building above

The road into the city center, including a little café, 2 blocks down on the left

 A few scenes from the bike path.