Enjoying Alaska again -- and ah, the wildlife! -- August 17, 2009

Well, for those of you who are still hanging in there, now that I am home in Alaska and many of you expressed your interest, I thank you for continuing to read this journal and special thanks to those who keep writing to me! In many ways Alaska is as interesting as Romania, and it's great to hear people speaking English!

I had a visitor on Saturday night at 3 a.m. -- a rather large one who had already probably been here before, leaving piles of poop (called "scat") and making my dog growl. Not only did he crash around in the trees by my lawn, but then he (or she?) actually jumped right into the lake and swam away to the left near the shore. I could see the huge head of the bear as he (or she) cruised by my place to huff and puff back into the woods, spashing and blowing. Yes, we have more bears than we need here. Read more:

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/bears/story/897940.html

http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/081409/new_480997067.shtml

But I do love having the wildlife around, the mama moose who still brings her new babies back every year, the pair of loons on my lake who managed to keep their baby alive this year (hooray! the eagles usually get them) , the muskrat who lives in my lake all alone, the multitudes of bunnies in this "high rabbit" year, and the many other critters I haven't yet seen. It's one of the great joys of living here.

Yesterday I was reading an article about Palermo, Sicily, and was remembering my trips to Italy over the past 20 years, three times with friends and my own trips alone:

• in 1989 on the train from Nice when the guards with machine guns scared me and I got right back on the train to France!
• with Ellen in 1999 on our three-week driving trip, during which we crossed the country and learned Sardinia quite well;
• my quickie drive one day a couple of years later to the northern villages so I could buy groceries to fix dinner in Germany the same night;
• from Romania in 2008 when I met Pam in Pisa, and we spent two great weeks in the Lucca area of Tuscany;
• another week with Gloria and Sonny in 2009 on the south Calabrian coast, when we drove to the northwestern part of Sicily, circling Mt. Etna, and then took the overnight train back north to Verona;
• my quiet week in Venice after they left. Many photo albums are online.

Those memories stir a longing that never leaves me, and what I read renews that urge to return, to see a new coastline, to stay long enough to meet the shopkeepers and have them welcome me when I come back to their places. I feel a kinship in Italy that is in some ways stronger even than I feel in Alaska, or anyplace else where I have lived. I know I need to go back there again.

I haven't been taking many photos, but here is Peter when he was leaving for Germany, my favorite rose of the summer on my deck, and Cheyenne indoors and by the lake. I'll be getting more pictures soon, but you can see I'm finally getting somewhat more settled.