Wind Songs: Silent Observers Of A Silent World

I woke up this morning to lots of snow on the ground and snow still falling from the sky.

The snow was clean and heavy and beautiful, and the world outside my bedroom window this morning looked very different from the world I had left outside when I went to bed last night.

Still lying in bed I looked over at my dog, who had taken up more than half the bed last night when she decided to sleep stretched out and sideways.

She did not want to get out of bed without me, but I could tell by her face (I'm beginning to wonder if we spend too much time together.........) that she was ready to go.

I patted her on the head, said "OK let's go" and Jamie jumped off the bed and ran down the stairs...........

After a relatively controlled but busy week at work I sat on the living room couch on this Saturday morning drinking coffee and realizing that I had very little motivation to do anything ambitious today.

It was around 30 degrees outside (so warmer than yesterday) and still snowing.

After drinking more coffee, talking with LC on the phone, and catching up with emails and current events, my restless but really wonderfully patient dog was looking at me and wanting to go for a walk..........

The world looks indescribably different covered in heavy and fresh snowfall.

Thankful that I did not have to drive in it, I decided that I would simply enjoy it.

Pictures of the snow around my house on the way out to the road with my excited pup.........

The road past my driveway and the road leading down the hill to the cove, the side trail and then eventually the open channel.

With the exception of a couple of four wheelers owned by local homeowners who take on a major responsibility of ploughing some of our side roads, the world was silent.

No plane or traffic or people or bird or animal noises.

And as Jamie and I continued to walk down the snow-covered road and closer to the cove, even the sound of the four wheelers disappeared.

My dog and I became silent observers of a silent world.

I took off my gloves a few times to take pictures as I was walking and then struggled with the lining each time I tried to put my gloves back on.

Until I realized that the air wasn't freezing, as it has been for the past couple of days.

That it was not really even cold.

Happily I shoved my gloves deep into a big pocket in the front of my jacket and continued walking along quiet country roads and then quiet trails.................

The cove at the end of the road..............

When the day is grey there are very few colors that show up in pictures with this camera - mostly blues, reds, greens and yellows.

These pictures today look like they were almost taken in black and white.

In fact, this is one of very few pictures that I took this morning that have any color in it at all.

One of a number of very lovely homes located on the shore of the cove, and that is accessed from Glacier Highway.............

My dog patiently waiting for me to take a picture...........

When we reached the cove there is one last gravel (and this morning snow covered) road left, that is actually a private driveway.

It accesses only a few homes and cabins that are hidden in the woods.

It is a private driveway, but is also used extensively by residents in the area who walk for exercise, walk their dogs, and who walk down to the beautiful and rocky beach at the end...........

My dog leading the way down the trail and eventually down to the channel...........

View of the channel from an overlook and bench close to the beach access.

I have sat on that bench many times in good weather and in bad.

Over the past months I have taken pictures of whales and seagulls, seashells and rock towers, benches and people, coves and islands and mountains and wild flowers and fishing boats.

All in this place.

And this place, as with all outdoor spaces in Juneau, looks very different to me each time I visit.

Different because of the weather, the time of day, the seasons, what is growing and what is dying, the luck of what is happening on and in the water during my visits.

Always exciting. Never knowing just what you will see from moment to moment..........

As Jamie and I walked down the last short section of the trail - walking down from the overlook to the rocky beach - I looked out over the water.

Almost immediately I saw a commotion in the water and wondered what was happening.

I carefully walked over snow covered rocks with Jamie, heading closer to the water, still wondering exactly what I was seeing in front of me.

When I finally got to the water line I stood watching and then smiling.

I was watching a group of seals playing with each other in the cove. I could not tell how many there were but they would disappear under the water and a minute later reappear on the surface in a flurry of tails and fins and black bodies circling each other.

They would disappear again only to reappear a minute later 20 feet or so closer to the open channel and do the same thing all over again - tails and fins and bodies.

It was obvious they were playing and not fighting. And I was surprised at how coordinated all of their movements appeared. It was almost as though I was watching a choreographed dance.

I tried to take pictures of the splendor that was taking place in front of me, and even took picture after picture after picture (thinking that if I simply took back-to-back pictures I was sure to get a good one out of the bunch).

Truthfully I did not.

I knew while I was taking them, and it was confirmed when I downloaded them, that I had missed most of the action each time by just a split second.

20 or so pictures of black spots on the water is all I got.

You can barely tell in this picture, but half way between the birds on this side of the water and the houses on the other side of the water is where this group of happy sea creatures were performing their aquatic dance for me...........

Still trying to capture these sea-guys in a decent picture, and not wanting Jamie to cut her paws on the frozen clam and barnacle covered rocks, I tied my mutt to a rock.

She was not a happy camper and spent the rest of our visit to the beach howling her displeasure...........

A small flock of black and white birds flew by me as I took this picture.

It was lucky timing, but I also tried unsuccessfully to capture two eagles that flew by me as well.

They were gone before I was given a second opportunity to take their picture...........

Since I arrived in Juneau I have collected bowls and containers of blue shells such as the ones below, pine cones, large white shells, and a window ledge in the kitchen filled with various types of rocks.

Whenever I leave here they will most likely all come with me, just as I have a large bowl of cones and nuts and pods that I collected in Tennessee now sitting in a large bowl on my kitchen table in Juneau............

After I tied James off to the rock I walked along the beach, balancing precariously on slippery rocks in the snow.

Eventually I lost sight of the seals and began to focus on the rocks, the coves, the mountains and pine trees around me.

After about 15 minutes they reappeared again in front of me, in just about the same spot that I saw the whale last spring.

I watched them for a long while. There were five of them in total.

By the time they reached the channel in front of me they were calmer and were no longer swimming in circles around each other.

They were floating very close to each other and I was mesmerized by them.

Just as I had watched a seemingly choreographed and playful dance between them in the cove, now (even though they were calm) they also seemed to be in tune with each other in some kind of choreographed way.

They would all quietly pop to the surface and then quickly submerge.

One would pop up, turn and face outwards, and then the others would pop to the surface, face outwards and then submerge again.

I find it difficult to put into words but it just seemed coordinated to me somehow.

Hugely interesting and magical to watch.

And my lousy picture of the whole thing...........