#2018 Fly Fishing Guide of the Year | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dansnaturepictures · 4 years ago

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4/4/21-Easter Sunday part 2 of 2: Lymington walk (Swallow, Sandwich Tern, Spotted Redshank and more) 10 more different pictures in this photoset to those I tweeted tonight

We then this afternoon came to the same nature reserve that we came to yesterday, instead of the Pennington part of the site (Lymington-Keyhaven nature reserve) the Lymington or Normandy lagoon/marshes end. This was great to come here again guided by a bird we were trying to see both days which we did not and it meant we had really walked most of the coastal path within the reserve in two days the only bits we didn’t touch was the first bits of Keyhaven yesterday and the same for the real first bits of the Lymington walk today but we certainly coveted most of it. We have only walked from one end to the other from Lymington to Keyhaven and back once before. I took the first three and sixth, seventh and ninth pictures in this photoset of beautiful views here today.

And as the places looked so beautiful and serenely blue drenched in the sunshine we were so lucky to have again it was very similar to yesterday with the birds we saw with many Avocets that it was a true delight and honour to see with some really special views, Shelduck, some straggling Brent Geese and others all frequent sightings this afternoon. By contrast in Normandy lagoon and the water by the bridge and gates especially there were many Black-tailed Godwits again for me lately with most of them looking exquisite and very beautiful in their bronzed brown summer plumage they really were so appealing and lovely to look at a special few moments to see them. I took the fifth picture in this photoset of one and there were another two I tweeted on Dans_Pictures one I made into a “Where’s Wally” type picture as it was a whole group of them together most of them with heads on their back. I took a picture and wanted just one bird with its beak visible and for this one there was but it was actually a lone Redshank with them all. We also saw a great deal of Spotted Redshanks a key bird for this part of the reserve a stronghold for them I tweeted a picture of one of those too, we got some top views of their bright, shining, distinctive and impressive scarlet, grey and black markings we got some great up close views of them today. I also adored as we did a couple of weeks back seeing the iconic Lapwing in flight driving right over our heads, not only screaming their delightful “pee-wit” call which gives them another of their names but we heard the almost sonic boom-eque drum of their wings beating surrounding us as it passed over a a sensational natural experience. Also known as the green plover and right at home as one of my stars of an amazing wildlife and photography Easter weekend which was especially a memorable one for plovers. I also enjoyed seeing the flowers shown in the fourth picture in this photoset, more lovely gorse in bloom all over the place shown in the eighth picture in this photoset and some fumitory not a flower I had ever noticed before which I loved seeing and tweeted a picture of.

As we walked on I was thrilled to spot a Swallow flying over it was in a group and we saw others as the walk went on. My first of the year and always one of the most crucial year ticks in spring my second hurundine in as many days and this year at this reserve it was so great to see them. It became probably my best ever day for seeing Swallows for the first time in a year I think with rather than the usual one a very decent few seen and some very close really getting to make our their fairly exotic colours and strong features with those iconic long tale streamers it was the perfect place for it. The saying “one swallow does not a summer make” seems apt today with the apparent imminent plunge into lower temperatures.

But my second hurundine of the year has now been a year tick for me on Easter Sunday three times after 2015 and 2018 and I saw my first of 2020 a year ago today alongside my first Orange Tip and Comma butterflies of 2020 on a lockdown walk along the river Itchen where I was on Tuesday so (whilst I obviously know Easter Sundays fall on different dates each year) a Swallow was expected about now and I was so thrilled and pleased to see them today. That’s ten year ticks in three days now taking my year list to 129 now level with how many I had seen at this stage in 2017 making my year list the joint fourth highest a year list of mine had been on on this date behind the past three years which I am so thrilled with my year list is booming so much. The only time I remember anything like this happening with the amount of year ticks in quick succession in spring so not the first days and weeks of the year in winter with so many birds to see was on the first May bank holiday of 2014 at RSPB Weymouth’s Radipole Lake and Lodmoor reserves in Dorset where I got ten year ticks in a day which is always notable to see when comparing current year lists to past ones so this will live so long in the memory too.

As we walked on I loved seeing a bold and large Sandwich Tern dash over us fishing over the sea. It flew up the coast and flew back round again, a brilliant showing and this was a fantastic fresh nautical moment. It wasn’t a year tick as one of the best moments of my week off in January was catching an overwintering one on a coastal walk just before my birthday. But this was my first summer plumage one of the year with the jet black feathers on its head going so sweetly with the bright yellow tip of the black beak I always find. I had hoped to sneak a tern today Lymington is so good for them. I reflected when seeing this at how much this reserve and generally Sandwich Terns have become easier for us to see the past few years. There was a time when it wasn’t a given we would see one so easily in a year or at least not within our real regular haunts (in normal times) perhaps. But the last few years we have seen delightfully so much of this B list favourite bird of mine and I love that. I really liked spotting this one today.

As we walked on back I liked seeing an Oystercatcher wading in noticeable deep mud which I also tweeted a picture of, Meadow Pipit really well too shown in the tenth and final picture in this photoset and we got cracking views and heard their wonderful call so loudly of smashing Skylarks too which was fantastic. A memorable and very enjoyable Easter Sunday today with some very enjoyable and productive time this morning at home too. I hope you all had a good one.

Wildlife Sightings Summary: My first Swallow of the year, three of my favourite birds the Shelduck, Brent Goose and Little Egret, Grey Heron, Cormorant, Black-headed Gull, Herring Gull, Sandwich Tern, Spotted Redshank, Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Avocet, Turnstone, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Mallard, so many Teals, Shoveler, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Blackbird, Robin, a couple of butterflies flying so quickly I couldn’t quite see what they were but likely Small Tortoiseshell or Peacock and it was great to hear Mediterranean Gulls so well again.

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awenvs3000w21 · 4 years ago

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We Humans our own worst Enemy

Nature underpins our economy, society and our very existence. Our forests, rivers oceans and soils provide us with the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink and irrigate our crops with. Nature is free and for that reason, we often undervalue the impact it has on our very lives. Without nature and life around us, we would cease to exist.

I want you to think back to a time you can remember that made you feel happy. Most likely you will think of something where you were outdoors enjoying nature. For me, it would be on a family vacation to Mexico where my brothers and I were riding the waves into shore while sand coats our light blonde hair. We giggled and looked at one another as the waves scooped us up and crashed us back to shore. I always have been amazed at nature and especially bodies of water. Even now I love to ride the waves while surfing and always have to stick my hand in the water when I see it to feel its cool embrace. Even when I was a baby I was nicknamed “fish” because I never wanted to get out of the water once I got in. Doesn’t help that I am a Pisces!

Retrieved from: https://www.nps.gov/im/medn/sandy-beaches-lagoons.htm

As research has proven time and time again nature makes humans happy, less irritable and more creative (Mayer et al, 2009). I think my love for nature started when I was a child. I loved discovering the world in my very own backyard and am very grateful that my parents gave me the freedom to do so. I grew tadpoles, identified trees and played in the river and there was never a time where I was happier. Even now I love to go for nature walks, am an avid gardener who took on growing cannabis plants this summer and plan on doing it again this year. I also grow vegetables and have developed an obsession with houseplants. I think quarantine has given me more time to develop hobbies, I want to know if you have found any pastimes to do over the lockdown?

Photo from: my indica GDP plant I grew this summer. Photo taken 10/10/20 right before harvest.

As a future early childhood educator, I believe I have a personal ethical duty to provide my students with a rich understanding of our world. Children love to explore the outside world and offering them time and resources to expand their knowledge about the ecosphere is one of the most beneficial things we can do for their development (Kruger et al, 2010). Nature can provide countless opportunities for discovery, creativity and problem-solving. Exploring the natural world allows children to learn through play and experimentation because it allows children to think the question and make hypotheses developing inquisitive minds. Spending time in nature is also essential for cognitive development and executive function (Kruger et al, 2010). Children will also develop a sense of love for their world and want to continue to be stewards of the earth by protecting it when they grow up. We know climate change is the biggest issue humanity currently faces and we need to make a change NOW to avoid irreversible damage for not only the future inhabitants but are. It is probable that in our lifetimes we will see even more devastating effects of climate change so it is up to us and future generations to make a change right now.

Teaching future leaders and citizens about the planet I have a responsibility to allow scholars to explore nature in their own way to build their sense of place. By exposing children to nature early it will help imprint a love for the natural world, which is increasingly more important as the earth is dying. Humanity is barrelling towards a ghastly future of mass extinctions, climate crisis, health issues and more. Events that can only be prevented if world leaders take environmental threats more seriously. From forest fires, oil spills, overfishing, deforestation, overhunting, gas emissions to massive garbage piles, increased use of fossil fuels etc. these are all human-made creations that are killing a planet that has thrived for over 4 billion years. It is only in the past century that we have begun experiencing this crisis fuelled by the industrial revolution breeding greedy capitalistic ideologies.

Amazing video by 16yo Greta Thunberg that explains the importance of acting NOW for climate change.

Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/greta_thunberg_the_disarming_case_to_act_right_now_on_climate_change/up-next?language=en

Although it may not be appropriate to talk to children about how humanity is going towards the path of extinction it is important to teach them about climate change and what we can do to help. If we want to make a change it has to start now, scientists predict that by the year 2050 the global population will reach 9.7 billion, which is 2 billion more than today (Kossin et al, 2020). New historical climate data project the earth's temperature will cross a threshold for dangerous warming (+1.5C) between 2027 and 2042 if climate change efforts are not in place to reverse the damage humans have caused (Kossin et al, 2020).

Retrieved from: https://www.nrdc.org/stories/your-guide-talking-kids-all-ages-about-climate-change

Researchers predict the best path to limiting warming involved cutting net human carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 if we want to stop the damage we have caused. In order to do this, we all need to work together, when possible walk or ride your bike to avoid carbon emissions, carpool and use public transit, drive low carbon vehicles if possible. Other ways to reduce CO2 emissions include taking fewer and longer aviation vacations, fly economy, don’t fly on private jets, insulate and seal your home, make energy-efficient a primary consideration when choosing a new furnace, AC unit, dishwasher, or fridge (ensure an energy star label), turn off lights when not using, add solar panels to the roof of your home, don’t set the thermostat too high or low, eat local food decrease beef and dairy consumption, be conservative of water usage and reduce reuse and recycle. High-temperature extremeness, heavy precipitation, glacier and snow and shrinking and sea ice are retreating. Seas are warming, rising and becoming more acidic. All this leads to an imbalance between earth and the live that inhabitants it

Overall, the world is an amazing place full of wonder but in recent years we have let the planet down. A once thriving full of live biospehere is now dying because of habitat destruction, distribution of invasive species, hunting climate change and overall humans. I want to educate the future by instilling a sense of wonder and lust for nature and a need to protect its beauty. I hope humanity finally learns we are our own greatest enemy and are able to come together to make changes before our untimely demise.

Work cited

Kossin, J. P., Knapp, K. R., Olander, T. L., & Velden, C. S. (2020). Global increase in major tropical cyclone exceedance probability over the past four decades. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 117(22), 11975-11980.

Kruger, J., Nelson, K., Klein, P., McCurdy, L. E., Pride, P., & Carrier Ady, J. (2010). Building on partnerships: Reconnecting kids with nature for health benefits. Health promotion practice, 11(3), 340-346.

Mayer, F. S., Frantz, C. M., Bruehlman-Senecal, E., & Dolliver, K. (2009). Why is nature beneficial? The role of connectedness to nature. Environment and behavior, 41(5), 607-643.bye

#nature communications #nature #forest #climate action #climate chaos #weed #cannabis #paris climate agreement

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jorge5000 · 4 years ago

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A simple Colombia itinerary in two weeks

This is a short description of my trip to Colombia with a friend of mine in late February 2018. While it doesn't include any spectacular treks or adventures, it might include some technicalities you will find useful for your own trip to Colombia after the 23rd COVID-19 wave or some information that will help our AI overlord create fun virtual adventures for humans in 2034.

Nice views in Guatape.

Key info:

Colombia? For some reason, flight tickets to Colombia/Bogota are cheaper that most surrounding countries, so it might be cheaper to fly to Bogota if planning to explore more of South America. While your idea of questionable safety in Colombia might be right, Colombia has plenty good things to offer as well.

Trekking in Tyrona national park. Trekking on your own, without a local, is probably not the best idea in Colombia, but Tyrona seemed a good option and was in deed, even with the occasional jaguar and crocodile warnings. Exit at the smaller entrance, the first one when heading there by bus from Santa Marta. There are regular bus connections from the marketplace. Start exploring more distant parts first, and later continue to the main entrance. Pueblito was/is no longer not accessible. Get more info here.

Cocaine for the price of a pizza cut. Not really, but for as little as few (few as in five) bucks a gram offered to a gringo. Every gram funds addiction, paramilitary, guns, murders, and incentivizes new actors on that scene. It's cheap, available everywhere, and if you ask for el vicio, it will soon find it’s way to you, especially combined with las chicas. Make your choice, plenty of reasons against. While the possession of a small quantity is legal, you should probably be wondering about how exactly will the police determine when and where will they be done with searching you.

The Amazon. Catch a flight for Leticia and explore the Amazon. You will probably want to use an organized tour. English-speaking guides are available, but more difficult to find and even more difficult to understand. Definitely amazing, wild. Be prepared to be soaked in rain if you choose a sleepover tour.

Park Arvi in Medellin. I missed this opportunity, but just passing through it quickly seemed like it wold be fun and safe staying/mountainbiking there.

Psychedelic adventures? Reportedly, psychedelic mushrooms can be found around Guatape. Ayahuasca is not very common outside the jungle around Leticia. There are trustful providers near Medellin/Park Arvi and Santo Daime has its roots there. As for the jungle experiences around Leticia, some say the aya there doesn't have an ingredient responsible for the colorful trip, just those that makes you sick and reflective of your life. Reportedly, some tribes around Leticia use kambo medicine, but I wasn’t successful in finding any more info about that.

Safety. Trouble will stay away from you if you don’t ask for it. As simple as that.

Big ass ants and fire ants. I was unsuccessful in pursuing my goal of finding a fire ant and get bitten by it.

My personal research results indicated that it would be better to skip swimming in the Amazon.

Day by day

Day 0: Fly in to Bogota and stay overnight to catch continuing flight to Medellin next morning. Even though there is plenty of accommodation around the airport, it doesn't look like a place where you'll want to wonder on foot after the sunset. Or before. Hosts are friendly but use Google translate for English and communication is difficult unless you speak a few words of Spanish.

Day 1: Fly to Medellin and settle in. Free city tour, not easy to find the meeting point. Rejected after, because the guide doesn't want to have too many people on tour due to security concerns.

Day 2: A day trip to Guatape, a nice place. Eat some fish in a restaurant where the bus leaves you. It's ok to walk to the town from there, there's a trail next to the road.

Day 3: Medellin. Roam around town. You'll find plenty of stuff to do there on other web sources.

Day 4-6 Santa Marta. Take a swim at the beach, eat something tasty, get offered to buy new sunglasses at the beach with a gram of cocaine included in the box. Sunglasses are not a part of the offer. The center should be safe for getting around on foot say the locals. Food is delicious, sun is strong. Tyrona park is the main attraction. Spend two days, enter through the smaller entrance where the bus will make a stop. Walking trails are well marked. Lodging, camping and hammocks are available at the main entrance, but also at end of the second main walking path.

One of the Tyrona beaches (San Martin?).

Day 7-10 Leticia. Plenty of tourist agencies in the center with very similar prices and places they visit. Some have English-speaking guides, but they mostly don't speak good English, if they do at all. Some tourists I met decided to spend the night in the jungle, but later reported that heavy rain filled their hammocks with water even though there was a wooden roof above their heads. Walk across the border to Tabatinga, stay safe, and return back to Leticia. Contemplate people living in the jungle for thousands of years.

Day 11-12 Bogota. Many streets in the center are closed in the evening/night, which can make getting around with Uber complicated. Monserrate is a nice day trip.

And that's it. Stay safe

#Colombia #theamazon #Leticia Tyrona

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dansnaturepictures · 3 years ago

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20th June 2021: Blog 3 of 3-Fish Quay, Holyhead and another look at South Stack

Today we then moved on to Holyhead harbour as intended and more specifically thanks to brilliant information from an RSPB guide at South Stack fish quay, as we had heard Black Guillemots could be seen there a bird we had only ever seen once before in winter plumage at Portland Harbour on a stormy New Year’s Day in 2014. We arrived and were sent euphoric when in the first minutes of arriving we saw a Black Guillemot on the water and then flying. We then got astonishing views over some time here seeing these incredible seabirds on the water, flying including pretty close at one point and going into holes on a wall the other side of the water from where we were. I took the first, second, sixth and seventh pictures in this photoset of these birds. We were incredibly lucky to see four or five of these beauties. Making out their delicious red and black my favourite colour scheme two of my favourite colours with their scarlet red legs glowing and all black body with charming pieces of white looking amazing.

This was one of my best birdwatching moments this year and ever and one I really felt with my heart. This is because it was a bird I dreamed of seeing since I was a boy and I loved seeing the one in 2014 obviously but today was my first ever in all its glory of summer plumage and to see so many was sensational. My first bird species seen for only my second time ever this year, coming gloriously just after the three new birds in four days this time last week. There was a feeling of fate about this happening though. As this favourite bird of mine was alongside Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and Tawny Owl that was on my original list of birds now among my favourites that I would write in the back of my bird sightings book as a kid together with one other bird the Little Auk in the dream that I could see them all on one utopian day. I saw the three species for the first time in the same year in 2014 which made that year go down in my birdwatching and wildlife history. And I had another personally historic day earlier this year in March seeing both the Tawny Owl and Lesser Spotted Woodpecker in one day on a woodland walk minutes apart. I knew Black Guillemots a very rare bird where I’m from could be seen in North Wales but we didn’t really explore that in 2016 my only previous North Wales visit. So I just sort of thought with us coming here this year after the trip being postponed last year it was maybe meant to be knowing I had that Tawny/Lesser day. And on BBC Springwatch this year a series I really felt so connected to once more they featured heavily in Northern Ireland and Scotland one of the moments of the series that captivated me most. And those were both in this habitat of coastal walls where I maybe didn’t expect to see them but all of a sudden today as soon as we arrived here I knew this was a great area. Such dreamlike moments today.

I took the third, fourth and fifth pictures in this photoset of great views here today. This place had some great red flowering possibly bouncing bess. And Sandwich Tern one of my birds of the year which always seems to pop up during time off these days and typical of the habitat Oystercatchers made nice sightings here too adding so well to this smashing coastal day.

We then returned to South Stack for lovely tea and cake and as well as taking in the stunning scenery like in the eighth and ninth pictures in this photoset the ninth showing the impressive lighthouse our search for the Chough intensified with a few hearing something like them moments and nearly sightings. This culminated in walking high up two flying firmly over our heads with their unique shape then this divine crow sharply announced itself a loud “chuff” call. An exceptional moment with another very key target this holiday and yet another of my favourite birds seen. It felt such a relief and so joyful to here on this holiday seeing the species we had come for a poster species for the place. My bird year list reached 164 to mean its level with how many birds I had seen on this date in 2018 my second highest ever year list in total and only in 2019 had I seen more species at this stage which I am again so proud of.

On this second South Stack walk as well as the seabirds mostly Guillemots which I took the tenth and final picture in this photoset of looking stunning in the evening sunshine and Herring Gulls and burnet moths again I liked seeing Painted Ladies flying around a beautiful butterfly. A phenomenal Sunday where we really made the most of being out in brilliant weather and was so captivated and overjoyed by wildlife, scenery and enjoying being on holiday.

Wildlife Sightings Summary: (South Stack) My first Puffin and Chough of the year, five more of my favourite birds the Razorbill, Guillemot, Fulmar, Gannet and Peregrine, one of my favourite butterflies the Small Tortoiseshell, one of my favourite moths the Burnet moth, Stonechat, Linnet and Meadow Pipit well, Magpie, Jackdaw, pigeon, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Large White, Meadow Brown and Painted Lady. (Fish quay) My first of one of my favourite birds the Black Guillemot this year, Sandwich Tern, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Oystercatcher and Cormorant.

My previous two posts from today are: https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/654547862511845376/20th-june-2021-blog-1-of-3-from-the-cottage-it and https://dansnaturepictures.tumblr.com/post/654549032215117824/20th-june-2021-blog-2-of-3-rspb-south-stack

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sciencenewsforstudents · 5 years ago

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Humpback whales need to eat a lot every day, and some even use their flippers to help snag a big mouthful of fish.

Researchers filmed humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) hunting with this tactic, called pectoral herding, off the Alaskan coast. It’s the first time that this behavior has been documented in such detail, the team reports October 16 in Royal Society Open Science.

Humpbacks often feed by lunging with their mouths open to catch any fish in their path. Sometimes, the whales will swim in an upward spiral and blow bubbles underwater, creating a circular “net” of bubbles that makes it harder for fish to escape (SN: 10/20/15). “But there’s so much you can’t see while you’re looking at these animals, standing on a boat,” says Madison Kosma, a whale biologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

youtube

Humpbacks sometimes blow bubbles underwater, creating a circular “net” of bubbles that makes it harder for fish to escape. Now a new study documents the whales using their flippers and these nets to help catch fish. In the horizontal version of this tactic, called pectoral herding, whales at the ocean’s surface splash a flipper to strengthen weak parts of a disintegrating bubble net (first clip). In vertical pectoral herding, whales raise their flippers in a “V” formation while ascending through the net to guide fish into their mouths (second clip). The research was recorded under NOAA permits #14122 and #18529.

The researchers got a better view of the whales feeding at the ocean’s surface by flying a drone over the water or extending a video camera attached to a pole from the walkways of floating salmon hatcheries. Over the three-year study from 2016 to 2018, the team noticed that two whales repeatedly consolidated fish inside bubble nets using their two long, pectoral flippers.

In horizontal pectoral herding, whales blew a bubble net before splashing a flipper at weak parts of the net to reinforce the barrier. In vertical pectoral herding, whales created a bubble net and then raised their flippers — like a referee signaling a touchdown — as they ascended up through the net from deeper water, helping guide fish into their mouths. What’s more, the whales sometimes tilted one or both of their flippers, reflecting sunlight off the white skin on the underside to disorient fish, the researchers say.

This behavior isn’t just a fluke, the scientists think. Although they observed the behavior in only a few whales feeding near salmon hatcheries (SN: 7/11/17), Kosma speculates that other humpbacks also use their flippers in similar ways when feeding.

#science #scied #sciblr #humpack whales #bubble net #flippers #fish #pectoral herding #whales #animals #behavior #video

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ericahitshawaii · 5 years ago

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Mantas and dolphins and whales, oh my!

Today I start my adventure on the big island! The Big Island is probably most known for its active volcanoes and the recent eruption of Mount Kiluaea in 2018. Because of the tectonic plates on earth, the Hawaiian island are actually moving Northwest over over a “hot spot” of volcanic activity. Over 5 million years ago this hot spot formed the oldest of the Hawaiian islands, Kauai (at the north of the chain). As the islands shift north, the volcanic activity slows and eventually stops and the surface begins to erode, which is why Kauai is smaller than the southern most island. The Big Island, which is the most “southernly” island, is the youngest (One million years old) and the most volcanically active, due to its proximity to the hot spot. Currently, another Hawaiian island is formed under the Pacific called Loini and if any of us live to be 10,000, we might be able to visit it.

I flew into Kona on Wednesday evening. I am in love with the Kona airport. If I thought the Kahului airport was “open air” then this airport is basically outside. It is completely open air, with some roofage. So amazing.

Kona Airport (KOA)

I very excitingly went to pick up my rental car, so no more bus adventures for me. I forgot how luxurioius and freeing it is have a car. I never did it in Australia because I was scared t drive on the wrong side, but not a problem here. It’s also such a life upgrade to have a car that DOES NOT have a tape player. Modern technology is awesome. Thanks Kia Rio!

Ok, anyway, I checked into my hostel, aptly names “My Hawaii Hostel.” If I thought the last one was halfway decent, then I will need to severely downgrade it compared to this one. This hostel had furniture other than a bed, decorations on the walls, a rug and multiple pillows and blankets. I know that sounds like a given in a hotel room, but not in a hostel. Absolutely dreamy! The hostel itself is absolutely charming with a little garden and an open aiir living room and lots of outdoor seating, just a few minutes walk from the beach. I am living my best Hawaiian life, for real this time!

My Hawaii Hostel, Ali’i Road, Kona

Patio area outside my room.

My room.

Thursday morning I headed off for the next phase of the ocean part of my trip. I signed up for a morning “Ocean encounters” tour and a Night “Manta Ray Swim” trip.

Note: You are going to be disappointed again by the lack of photos, because I bought an underwater disposable camera for the trip, but some of you may remember, that you have to get those photos developed. (I actually am unsure of how I’m going to do that in this modern age, but that is a future me problem. Anyway, the tour company promises to post some photos in the next few days, so there will be another update post once I have those. But keep reading, it still is exciting and there is a sweet video I took that you should see!)

The morning snorkeling tour started out with swimming with spinner dolphins!! So, wild dolphins are the best. They are nocturnal, so we were visitng them during their daytime nap time. Hilariously, while they are sleeping they still swim on the bottom in a big pack. I have no idea how they do this. How fascinating. Anyway a few of them woke up and swam up ot the surface to say hi. When we got into the water they headed down towards the bottom again. It was amazing to snorkel right above big pods of dolphins. There must have been at least 20 in some of the bigger pods and there were several pods around us. Just as a few more of them were waking up and coming to the surface, our captain said we had to go. I’ll be honest, I was pissed. I had dreams of high-fiving a dolphin and Captain Taylor was ruining my dream. But I’m glad he did,because what happened next was SOOO worth it!

Next we headed out to a site where whales had recently been spotted. When we arrived, we discovered there were several large whales around and a BABY WHALE. This whale was only about a month old and still absolutely gigantic. The baby whale was splashing around in the water very close to us. Just like a human toddler, it seemed to be having a blast splashing aorund, trying to breach (jump out of the water) and stick its head up. It was still really floppy and uncoordinated in the water, which was absolutely adorable. It was so funny to see a whale just playing around. I don’t know how it had so much energy to do all that.

Eventually we saw the mam whale pop up around the whale, apparently keeping her eye on it and maybe helping from below with its practice breaches. While we were distracted by the baby whale someone yelled out that there was another whale further off that was breaching. (Whales often will breach several time in a row, because they are communicating with other whales and trying to get their attention.) I looked over just in time to see a huge whale breach completely out of the water. It was one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. It was like it was happening in slow motion. It’s entire body was up in the air and it seemed like it just hung there until it crashed back into the ocean with a huge splash. Just like on Animal Planet! I thought I had really seen it all until we looked back over at the playing baby whale and realized Mama had surfaced on our side.

All of s sudden I see her huge humpback surface like it is facing us. It is coming right for our boat. Right in fron of us, she lifts her tail and dives right under the boat. I was both incredible and a little scary! Seeing her SO CLOSE to us, it is astonishing how huge they are. Just her back was probably as tall as the deck of the boat and she was easily twice as long. It was shocking to see her giant tail come out of the water right in front of us. Despite my fear that she miht capsize the boat, the crew said that they are insanely spatially aware and can get within inches of a boat and not hit it. They have sonar like bats. When I say this was a bucket list activity, I would almost say this was better than what I imagined being on my bucket list. Even the crew was freaking out and taking video and photos. They said that never happens. I will remember that moment for as long as I live. I do have a video of the encounter. Honestly, it doesn’t do it justice, but you can kind of see what I’m talking about. Watch here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QTA9JieqQdEWPfag6

Now as if that wasn’t enough, we went to a third spot to find Manta Rays. We made a quick pit stop at an amazing place along the coast known as the Grotto. It’s the outlet to the sea for a large series of lava tubes that run miles underneath the island. The waters were the most incredible aqua color and crystal clear.

The Grotto

To add to the incredible day, we ran into two huge manta rays (In case you are worried they are not sting rays...who killed the crocodile hunter. They are harmless plankton eaters. One of our guides said we found his favorite manta named Amanda Ray. She is the friendliest and has one bent fin. Both mantas were about 10 feet long. They can actually grow to have a to 15 foot wingspan. They are beautiful to watch. We hoppped in the water and snorkeled with them. They looked like they were flying on the bottom of the ocean, completely gracefully. This was preview for that evening.

After the snorkel adventure I decided to head to the beach. I’m not really a beach person, but figured I should do it once. I went to what they call a dark gray sand beach, which is half white sand and half black volcanic sand. How do gray and black sand beaches form? Well, when the hot lava hits the cool water it basically explodes and shatters like glass, spewing small particles of lava rock, which eventually breakdown into small pebbles and sand like particles. The beach was very rough, but beautiful. Its incredible to see the lava rock solidify in the form it was when it flowed into the ocean. Very surreal.

Lava rocks at Kahalu’u Beach

After lunch and beach chill, I headed back to the marina for the night manta swim. For this one, they take you out onto big boogie board looking things with lights. Here’s a photo I did not take, that demonstrates this:

The lights on the bottom of the board attract plankton, which then attracts other fish and manta rays. This was both an awesome and miserable experience. The weather up to this point had been absolutely perfect. *0m degrees and sunny everyday. However, storms had come in that night and it was cold and raining. The water was freezing, but the experience was still pretty great. One of the coolest things that I didn't expect was that the lights also drew in tones of fish. There were a bunch of fish that looked kind of like big sardines that swarmed around us in big schools, it was really interesting to be that close to so many fish. The highlight of the trip was that a big manta swam right next to me and did a backflip to eat the plankton right under the board. They have awesome white bellies and gills and huge gaping mouths. Its really otherworldly.

After the manta show we headed back to the boat for the long and extremely rocky trip back to the marina. I generally have a pretty good stomach for boat rides, but this was a rough one. I had taken Dramamine earlier, just in case, and still feeling like I might lose my lunch. It was close to a repeat of the Great Barrier Reef puke episode but disaster was avoided, thank goodness!

All in all, a dream of a day. I am officially hooked on snorkeling and boating, in general. Who knew I’d be such a water baby. I spent most of my life avoiding getting my hair wet.

Next stop: Farm tour day in Southern Kona.

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beansonbread2 · 5 years ago

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BEANSONBREAD AWARDS 2019 - BEST SONG

AWARD NO.6 - BEST SONG

PAST WINNERS

2018 > Let’s Eat Grandma ‘It’s Not Just Me’ (see full list HERE)

2017 > Richard Dawson ‘Ogre’ (see full list HERE)

2016 > Solange ‘Cranes In the Sky’ (see full list HERE)

2015 > Kendrick Lamar ‘The Blacker The Berry’ (see full list HERE)

2014 > FKA Twigs ‘Two Weeks’ (see full list HERE)

2013 > Oliver Wilde ‘Perrett’s Brook’ (see full list HERE)

2010 > Untold ‘Stop What You’re Doing (James Blake Remix) (see full list HERE)

2009 > Joker - ‘Digidesign’ (see full list HERE)

2008 > Lil’ Wayne - ‘A Milli’ (see full list HERE)

2007 > Panda Bear - ‘Bros’ (see full list HERE)

2006 > Hot Chip - ‘Over And Over’ (see full list HERE)

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RULES - A maximum of THREE tracks from any one artist. Songs can be tied in the same position.

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*SPOTIFY PLAYLIST WITH (ALMOST) ALL THE TRACKS*

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THE RUNNERS UP (in alphabetical order)..

A. G. Cook ‘Lifeline’

Angel Olsen ‘All Mirrors’

Beak> ‘Life Goes On’

Big Thief ‘Jenni’

Billie Eilish ‘Bad Guy’

Black Midi ‘Speedway’

Bonnie Prince Billy ‘In Good Faith’

Caribou ‘Home’

Cate Le Bon ‘Daylight Matters’ / The Light’

CHAI ‘Wintime’

Clinic ‘Rubber Bullets’

Coucou Chloe ‘Gecko’

Daniel Lopatin ‘Fuck You Howard’

Deerhunter ‘Death In Midsommar’

Denzel Curry ‘Ricky’

Dorian Electra ‘Career Boy’ / ‘Flamboyant’

Dry Cleaning ‘Viking Hair’

Earl Sweatshirt ‘East’

EBU ‘Light Show’

Famous ‘Surf’s Up!’

Field Music ‘Only In A Man’s World’

Flying Lotus & Tierra Whack ‘Yellow Belly’

Giant Swan ‘Pandaemonium’

Girl Ray ‘Girl’ / ‘Show Me More’

Gruff Rhys ‘Pang!’ / ‘Ara Deg (ddaw’r awen)’

Injury Reserve ‘Jailbreak The Tesla’

Jai Paul ‘Do You Love Her Now’

The Jelas ‘Overthink And Never Stop’

Kano ‘Class Of Deja’

Katy J Pearson ‘Tonight’

Kero Kero Bonito ‘The River’

Kim Gordon ‘Air BnB’

Klein ‘For What Worth (feat. Matana Roberts)’

KOKOKO! ‘Buka Dansa’ / ‘Kitoko’

Lim Kim ‘Yellow’ / ‘Mong’

Lizzo ‘Tempo (feat. Missy Elliott)’ / ‘Truth Hurts’

Magdalena Bay ‘Oh Hell’

Missy Elliott ‘Throw It Back’

Mouse ‘Touch’

Neil Hamburger ‘Backwards Traveller’

Nilufer Yanya ‘In Your Head’

Panda Bear ‘Playing The Long Game’

Pet Shimmers ‘Feels Hz’ / ‘Mortal Sport Argonaut’

Pictish Trail ‘Turning Back’

Purple Mountains ‘All My Happiness Is Gone’

Rosalia ‘A Pale’ / ‘Milionaria’

Rozi Plain ‘The Gap’

Silver Waves ‘My Face Is Held Together By 52 Screws’

Slagheap ‘Power Shower’ / ‘Horsey Girl’

Sleaford Mods ‘Kebab Spider’

Slowthai & Mura Masa ‘Doorman’

Slowthai & Denzel Curry ‘Psycho’

Solange ‘Binz’

Sorry ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’

Stealing Sheep ‘Show Love’ / ‘Jokin’ Me’

Stormzy ‘Sounds Of The Skeng’ / ‘Vossi Bop’

Sui Zhen ‘Natural Progression’

Thom Yorke ‘Dawn Chorus’

Tim Heidecker ‘When I Get Up’

Wharfwhit ‘I’d Say Croydon’

Wych Elm ‘Monkey Jaw’ / ‘School Shooter’

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TOP 80 SONGS OF 2019

80. 21 Savage ‘A Lot’

79. Lil Nas X ‘Old Town Road (remix feat Billy Ray Cyrus, Mason Ramsey & Young Thug)’

78. Dry Cleaning ‘Sit Down Meal’

77. Little Simz ‘101 FM’

76. MGMT ‘In The Afternoon’

75. Young Thug ‘Hot’

74. Rozi Plain ‘Symmetrical’ / ‘Swing Shut’

73. Rachael Dadd ‘Cut My Roots’

72. William Doyle ‘Nobody Else Will Tell You’

71. Jpegmafia ‘Free The Frail’

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70. Steve Lacy ‘Playground’ / ‘Love 2 Fast’

69. Nilufer Yanya ‘Melt’

68. Holly Herndon ‘Eternal’

67. Scalping ‘Chamber’

66. Jai Paul ‘He’

65. Tyler, The Creator ‘Earfquake’

64. Rosalia ‘Con Altura’

63. Giant Swan ‘55 Year Old Daughter’

62. The Orielles ‘Come Down On Jupiter’

61. These New Puritans ‘Infinity Vibraphones’

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60. Sharon Van Etten ‘Seventeen’

59. The Jelas ‘Interrupterruption’

58. Danny Brown ‘Dirty Laundry’

57. Future ‘Crushed Up’

56. Cashmere Cat ‘For Your Eyes Only’ / ‘Emotions’

55. Podcasts ‘Dragging The Lake’

54. Lizzo ‘Juice’

53. 100 Gecs ‘Money Machine’ / ‘Stupid Horse’

52. Jockstrap ‘Charlotte (Taylor Skye remix)’ / ‘Hayley (Taylor Skye remix)’

51. Panda Bear ‘Dolphin’ / ‘Token’

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50. CHAI ‘Curly Adventure’

49. These New Puritans ‘Anti-Gravity’

48. James Yorkston ‘My Mouth Ain’t No Bible’

47. Vampire Weekend ‘Unbearably White’ / ‘Sunflower’

46. Lana Del Rey ‘Norman Fucking Rockwell’

45. Fat White Family ‘Fringe Runner’ / ‘Rock Fishes’

44. Big Thief ‘Not’

43. Tyler, The Creator ‘Puppet’

42. Cashmere Cat ‘Watergirl’

41. Lana Del Rey ‘Mariners Apartment Complex’

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40. 100 Gecs ‘800db Cloud’

39. Aldous Harding ‘Fixture Picture’ / ‘Zoo Eyes’

38. William Doyle ‘Design Guide (feat. Brian Eno)’

37. Hannah Diamond ‘Part Of Me’ / ‘Love Goes On’

36. Charli XCX ‘Next Level Charli’ / ‘Click’

35. Sorry ‘Right Round The Clock’

34. FKA Twigs ‘Sad Day’ / ‘Holy Terrain’

33. Danny Brown ‘Best Life’

32. Jpegmafia ‘Jesus Forgive Me, I Am A Thot’

31. Angel Olsen ‘Lark’

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30. Squid ‘The Cleaner’

29. Romeo Taylor 'The Kingdom Of Scotland'

28. Kero Kero Bonito ‘Battle Lines’

27. Cate Le Bon ‘Home To You’

26. HAIM ‘Summer Girl’

25. Fat White Family ‘Feet’

24. Weyes Blood ‘Something To Believe’

23. Caroline Polachek ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’

22. Hannah Diamond ‘Invisible’

21. Self Esteem ‘Girl Crush’

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THE TOP 20 SONGS OF 2019

20. Richard Dawson ‘Jogging’

19. Pozi ‘Engaged’

18. Jockstrap ‘I Want Another Affair (Taylor Skye remix)’

17. Charli XCX & Christine And The Queens ‘Gone’

16. FKA Twigs ‘Cellophane’

15. Aldous Harding ‘The Barrel’

14. Caroline Polachek ‘Door’

13. These New Puritans ‘Beyond Black Suns’

12. Black Midi ‘bmbmbm’

11. Black Country, New Road ‘Sunglasses’

10. Black Midi ‘Talking Heads’

9. Pozi ‘KCTMO’

8. Pet Shimmers ‘Persona Party’

7. Self Esteem ‘The Best’

6. Weyes Blood ‘A Lot’s Gonna Change’

5. Squid ‘Houseplants’

4. Kero Kero Bonito ‘When The Fires Come’

3. Self Esteem ‘Favourite Problem’

2. Vampire Weekend ‘Harmony Hall’

1. Weyes Blood ‘Andromeda’

#list #Awards #2019 awards

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flyfishingthesmokies · 7 years ago

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Winter Projects

Each Winter the Fly Fishing industry is typically busy trying to get ready for their upcoming seasons. Be that tying flies, repairs to gear and boats, or hatching out new game plans to one up their competition. Lots of guides and shops also travel to trade shows in far flung reaches of the country in hopes of attracting new customers. While we have our fair share in all of those activities, we…

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#2018 Fly Fishing Guide of the Year #2018 Fly Fishing Outfitter of the Year #Best Fly Fishing Guides and Outfitter in Bryson City #Best of the Blue Ridge #Bryson City Fly Fishign Guides #Carp Fly Fishing Guides #Carp Fly Fishing North Carolina #Cashiers Fly Fishing Guides #Cherokee Fly Fishing #Cullasaja River Fly Fishing Guides #Eugene Shuler Fly Fishing Guide of the Year #Fly Fish Gatlinburg #Fly Fishing Float Trips on the Tuckasegee River #Fly Fishing Gatlinburg #Fly Fishing Great Smoky Mountains #Fly Fishing Guides in North Carolina #Fly Fishing in North Carolina #Fly Fishing in Western North Carolina #Fly Fishing Outfitter Bryson City #Fly Fishing Report Great Smoky Mountains #Fly Fishing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park #Fly Fishing the Smokies #Fly Fishing the Smokies Outfitter of the Year #Gatlinburg Fly Fishing Guides #Gatlinburg Fly Fishing Outfitter #Great Smoky Mountains Fishing Report #Highlands Fly Fishing Guides #Nantahala River Fly Fishing Guides #Panthtown Valley Fly Fishing Guides #Pigeon Forge Fly Fishing Guides

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jerardeusebio · 6 years ago

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Retrospect: Saigon

The first thing I do in Vietnam is pee. It isn’t very glamorous, isn’t something that would end up on my Facebook timeline, but here it is. The mundane, inane realities of traveling is oftentimes obscured by the prescribed highlights, but in order to get to them, there are necessary steps to be taken. Most of the time, these are the things we don’t bring out our camera phones for. Technically, the first thing I did after Dylan and I looked through the airplane window, to marvel at the city lights of what presumably was Ho Chi Minh, was to wince in pain. My ears were throbbing and in a matter of seconds became temporarily deaf. Change in altitude. It figures. I think I even cried. Minutes later, no longer deaf and wincing, backpack strapped securely on, two feet back on land, I am peeing.

17 December 2018

The first morning in Ho Chi Minh is dedicated to phở. Dylan and I learned from our many local travels prior that it is vital to watch where the locals eat. We are in Vietnam, hungry. We want the best of their food. And what is about to be proven, yet again, is this: the best referrals aren’t always found online. From our hostel, we randomly choose to turn left and walk the length of the street. We log only a few meters and find a crowded corner restaurant. It isn’t fancy. In fact, it looks like a lot of the eateries in the grittier parts of Manila. Stainless steel tables. No air conditioning. Staff in different clothes. Men and women crowd its tables as soon as they get off their motorcycles, which they park close by. It is almost as if the place is part of their routine for the day, an automatic stop. There’s no way of knowing of course except to ask them. Dylan and I are too hungry to attempt that so we order instead. We continue to wonder, briefly as we begin munching on the generous greens that come with the large soup bowls. I forget what I was just thinking. I forget what day it is. I forget that we’ve committed to veganism for more than a quarter of a year. For a fleeting moment, I forget all the other delicious meals I’ve ever had up until that point.

We walk to the City Hall and gaze at its European architecture. Dozens of other tourists are taking a picture of it, with it. Dylan and I do the same under the shade of a small tree. We walk afterwards to a group of pigeons pecking at whatever we couldn’t see on the pavement. I run to them and Dylan takes a snap as they scatter away, flying for their lives. This is the better-looking part of the city. Our feet, moments later, brings us then to the Notre Dame church, where the crowd is thicker, even though the church is closed. We take more photos of ourselves and the structure, and I couldn’t help but dismiss it. Sure, I’ve seen in it before, blown-up on a wall in a Vietnamese café, a block from where I worked in Makati. It isn’t at all impressive next to the churches, basilicas, and cathedrals I’ve been to back home—but this is Vietnam, it’s part of their history, so we take a couple more photos, even a video. We catch on camera pigeons flying right behind us and get a charge out of our luck.

After checking out the large and interesting post office, we find our way into a charming street left of the church. Bookstores, cafés, and kiosks are lined up the length of the road. I browse through the books on sale and see everything is in Vietnamese, including the fifth installation of the Harry Potter series. Dylan lines up at the prettiest café and orders us cream puffs, which we instantly decide we love. The coffee is too bitter for him, though, and we leave for the Imperial Palace with his cup still half full.

The line for entry at the Imperial Palace is long. Patiently holding our spot in the line, we gaze at the structure through the wrought iron fences. It takes us quite a while, but we get in in the end. At the vehicle ramp, we’re greeted by these bonsais in gorgeous pots. I recognise the plant as kamuning. I push Dylan to smell the flowers, to notice it, to believe I identified it correctly, and to take a photo of me, naturally. The palace interiors is as could be expected. Grand, intricate, Asian, and dated. The palace reminds me of the Marcoses’ Malacañan of the North. The thing I like most are the bunkers, and the maze-like layout of the basement. The garden at the back of the palace is home to a beautiful giant tree, its roots visible on the surface of the ground, the pattern revealing an intricate and altogether interesting display. Dylan and I marvel at the sight before deciding it is time for the War Remnants Museum.

We walk a long way and, in the middle of our search for the museum, even get lost. We tap, tap, tap on our phone screens and wonder what offline Google Maps has that could help. When we finally find it, we’re hungry again and a bit impatient, but the war is such a part of Vietnam’s history and identity that our resolve is renewed. We are certain we want to be here, of all the places we could be going at this hour. Honestly, there has been considerable anticipation for this part of our visit here, at least on my part. To say that I was inconsolable at the end of Miss Saigon would be an understatement. This museum visit is about to give me the cold, hard facts of how the war was for Vietnam and its people. But of course we had formed manageable expectations, and in the first few galleries, our low expectations are met. But gallery after gallery, room after room, we begin to understand the story from the Vietnamese side of that story. We arrive at the top floor, where they show the effects of the chemical warfare not only on the forests and crops, but also on the people who have been disfigured and debilitated by these chemicals. We examine the photographs and read the writings on the wall. My lips part partially. I turn to Dylan and find tears rolling down his cheeks. I look at what he’s eyeing—a disfigured man, a second generation victim and survivor, trying to carve wood using his feet. I scan the room and take in these testaments. Outside, when we exit, a soft wind arrives, rustling the leaves of a towering ficus, and we leave the museum compound knowing well what evil looks like.

On the way to Ben Thanh Market, we pass by a Jollibee. We’d be absurd not to try, so of course we do. And of course the food tastes similar but different, even the drink options are exotic-looking. We spend the rest of our time there watching a skilled staff arrange balloons for a kiddie party.

At Ben Than, Mika lures us with her prowess in Tagalog. The small Vietnamese woman has been selling here a long time and so has worked and is actually friends with a Filipina, who presumably has been teaching her. We compliment her repeatedly for her mastery of our language, her sheer interest and charm while using it. “Mura lang, bigyan kitang tawad.” She could easily pass as one of us, albeit very business-minded one. We buy embroidered wallets and trinkets of all sorts. We leave unsure if we really got the promised discounts.

The first night in Ho Chih Minh is also dedicated to phở. This time we try to be a just a tad bit fancy and walk in Phở 2000 for dinner, above a swanky looking Seattle’s Best. We feast on vegetarian options until our tummies hurt, enough to call it a day, enough to know that it’s a perfect first day.

18 December 2018

Of course the tour guide chose a Hollywood star’s name, the original Tomb Raider. Equipped with a microphone, Jolie is a small lady with brown-orange hair and red spots on either cheeks. She spews out a joke, which half of the van’s passengers laugh at, including me. I laugh purely to show courtesy. Jolie’s English deliciously betrays Angelina’s, and I love her for it. I stare at her for a few seconds and wonder what her actual name is. Could it be Nguyen, as what’s on every other signage we pass by on our way to the Mekong River? I would ask her, except Dylan and I are way at the back. Right across the isle is an Australian-but-Asian-looking dad with his two sons. I look at the passengers and feel a sense of pride that most of us have some Asian features about us. I don’t know why I’m saying this, but I think the whites win in the end, because we all understand English.

We booked this tour shortly after our encounter with Mika at the market, for a ridiculously discounted rate. Dylan is a pro at haggling—and math—and I have therefore advised myself never to leave without him. Even this time, I can say, he out-haggled himself. Prideful people like me find it hard to ask other people for discounts. It could easily be mistaken for begging. What I learned from Dylan is that it’s not bad to try, and the savvy entrepreneur would never say yes to a breakeven setup.

When I finally get the hang of balancing myself in the boat, I get this thought: Mekong River is okay. I mean, it is historic and has given a lot to the people around it. That’s all good. That’s all well. It is an honour and a privilege to be gallivanting on its waters, a dream even. The tour, as it turns out, though, is as basic as it can get. Back to how mundane, uneventful things are and can be necessary, too? That’s what I am beginning to feel. We’ve been navigating through narrow ducts into wider ducts and back into narrow ones. The boats are plenty, enough to obscure the brown waters where they float on. Water palms encroach the space above us, on either side. It’s wonderful and certainly interesting in photos, but that’s about it. (Either this or we didn’t get the best tour.)

At lunch, while waiting for our feast, Dylan and I interact with a couple from Brazil, who like us have been on a vegetarian diet for a while, but (still like us) have decided to make exceptions on this trip every now and then, just like we were all about to do with the fried elephant ear fish that has just been served. We also interact with a Polish couple, who recommend highly that we visit northern Vietnam for its milder, more provincial feel. After finishing off what the rest of our table couldn’t, Dylan and I explore the rest of the place (there were snakes and crocodiles and monkeys) with the others and followed the rest of the itinerary.

It is almost dusk when we arrive back in the now familiar Ben Than Market. We look for Mika and buy more items we think we can’t afford to forget, like ref magnets and more of those wallets. For dinner, we decide to continue on our never-ending quest for phở served by the street. We find it, and about an hour later are licking ice cream at the Note Coffee place at Bùi Viên.

When we arrive back at our hostel, we decide to try the local beer. It is our last night in Ho Chi Minh, and we finally strike a conversation with Túan, who mans our front desk.

Tùan here, we discover after just a bottle of beer, has a different view on the United States and the war. He believes that his government has been tricking people to believe the US forces were bad, that they did them wrong and should be hated. It’s all propaganda and politics, he says. To him, Ho Chi Minh will never be Ho Chi Minh—it has and will always be Saigon. He confesses he loves Americans and dollars, and that he’d love to get to the United States someday. Tùan reminds me of The Engineer character in Miss Saigon, and I climb up the stairs minutes later playing the songs from the musical, all in my head. I feel a bit sad.

19 December 2018

We have our last Vietnamese meal at Veggie Saigon, a vegetarian restaurant we spotted yesterday. The food arrives on our table and we are blown away by how delicious and different everything is. We immediately get sad for not knowing about the place sooner, that we were about to hop on a bus three blocks from where we were, it was just a matter of hours now. We’ve never heard anything about Cambodian food—that made me anxious, a little bit, and then it didn’t.

As far as Dylan and I are concerned, Vietnam has delivered and given us an unforgettable gastronomic experience, among so many other things.   When the best meal of our Ho Chi Minh stay is done, we begin our walk to where the bus is supposed to pick us up. I feel my bag pressing against my back and weighing my shoulders down. It has gotten a tad heavier, as I know I have these past days.

It is late afternoon when reach the border. From the bus window, I look at the building we’re approaching. With the sunlight slanting the way it is, I only make out the roof’s silhouette, but Khmer architecture is unmistakeable. Our conductor instructs of the procedure. We’re about to go down and appear before the immigration officer. I open my bag to check that my documents are ready. After I confirm this, I make a quick run to the bus’s toilet, which I begin to smell two meters away.

Bracing for the ordeal, I inhale a lung-full of air. I step in. Yes, the last thing I do in Vietnam is pee.

#literature #travel log #ho chi minh #saigon #photography #retrospect

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panfishonthefly · 6 years ago

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Rigging the Jackson Mayfly - Storage

Last March I did a review of the Jackson Mayfly. The Mayfly is Jackson Kayak's idea of a kayak designed exclusively for the fly angler. In addition to that review, I wrote several additional posts on how I rigged the kayak. I never got around to posting those articles, and they got lost in the shuffle. A recent email from a reader of the blog reminded me that I had promised a write up on how I rigged my boat. So I reached into my drafts folder and blew the dust off of this post that has been sitting around for over a year. Without further delay here is the article in its entirety

In a (not so) recent post, I did a review of the Jackson Mayfly Kayak. The Mayfly is a kayak that was designed from the ground up as a fly fishing platform. The boat ships from the factory very nicely equipped, but l found that adding a few extras enhanced the fishing abilities of this boat. I have decided to produce a series of blog posts on the additional rigging I have done on this kayak to make it the ultimate warm water fly fishing platform, at least for my needs. If you want to read the original review which goes over all of the features of this great kayak you can find it by clicking on the button below.

Onboard Storage

One of the great features of this boat is that it comes equipped with a ton of storage space. In addition to the two cavernous storage areas under the bow and stern hatches, there are molded-in storage compartments for fly boxes, a seat with built-in storage for tackle boxes and tools and large waterproof seat back pouch. You can also store two fully rigged nine foot fly rods, with their tips protected, onboard. With all this available storage do you need more? Probably not, but if you're looking to organize your gear for easy access, then you can always make improvements.

Under The Seat

For 2018 Jackson Kayak announced a sliding storage tray that mounts under the seat. I often store items under the seat, especially when it is the seat is in it’s highest position. The 2018 models that are compatible with this new storage tray have an additional rail mounted under the seat to accept this sliding tray. Unfortunately, my kayak being a previous model is not equipped with the gear track, but I picked up the tray all the same. It fits under the seat perfectly and allows me to keep items off the deck where they sometimes get wet. If I need to, I can always install a track to permanently mount the tray, but for now, it just sits under the seat and works just fine.

The seat itself also has built in storage. Each boat shipped with a waterproof storage bag that mounts to the back of the seat. The seat has three storage areas on its underside for storing tackle boxes or other flat items. There is one large compartment on each side and a small one in the front of the seat.

The Crate

The first addition to kayak to increase storage, was a crate system for behind the seat. Crates make it easy to store tackle, fishing accessories, tools water, food, and other supplies such as bug dope and sunscreen. While you could put all of these items in one of the covered hatches, having them in a crate makes them easy to access. Just reach behind you while seated and grab what you need out of the box. For the first season, I just threw my Plano Guide bag behind the seat and loose items were stored where ever I could stash them. Next I upgraded to your basic milk crate. It was easy to fasten down, and it held everything I needed. The milk crate is a simple, economical solution to storage but it is not without its problems. The open design of a milk crate does not protect its contents from environmental conditions such as sun, wind, and rain. On more than one occasion the contents of the box were drenched when I found my self caught out in a shower. While out on a particularly windy day I once had to paddle clear across a lake to retrieve a Tiley hat that had blown out of the open crate. After a season of being exposed to the effects of the sun, I noticed some of my flies that were stored in clear Plano tackle boxes were starting to bleach out a little, so it was time to make a change. Also, I have always been concerned about the safety of the items stored in the crate in the unlikely event I manage to flip this kayak. If the boat flipped everything stored in the open container would be lost.

The BlackPak

I researched many different crate systems and was immediately taken back by the prices being asked for what is essentially a plastic box! I was looking for something that provided some protection from the elements (but need not be totally waterproof), had a lid that could be secured thus protecting the contents from the elements, and in the event things went south, could be easily secured to the storage well of the boat and remain closed during a capsize. I was also looking for the ability for the box to be easily customized as my needs change. The YakAttack BlackPak addressed all these concerns. The single issue with this product was the cost. Retailing for $130.00 the price seemed extreme to say the least! We are talking about a plastic box here! Other manufacturers offered storage options at comparable prices, in some cases even more expensive, but none had all the features of the BlackPak. Because of the cost, I initially decided to stick with my milk crate, but I stumbled upon a great deal on a 2018 (yes, it is a plastic box with a model year!) tan colored BlackPak. It was a great price, but it was still more than I wanted to pay for a plastic box. However, I took a chance and purchased it. I have to admit that I love this product! It is exceptionally well made, it feels very sturdy, and is more than capable of standing up to any abuse I will give it. It answered all of my storage needs and can be customized far beyond anything I will ever ask of it.

Customizing the BlackPak

What puts this box at the top of my list is the customization features. The box comes with a myriad of pre-drilled holes that allow for the mounting of a whole host of accessories. The BlackPak ships with three standard rod holders, but being a fly fisherman, they will not see much use. However, I am considering using at least one of them as a net holder. These pre-drilled holes will allow me to mount holders for pliers, fish grips, a flashlight and other items that need to be kept out of the way but readily accessible. The top of the box is equipped with holes that will accept standard gear rails for even more customization. One complaint I have heard about this box is the use of bungee cords to act as hinges and a method to secure the lid. I for one like this feature. In many box systems hinges are a point of potential failure. They are all destined to fail at some point, and then you left with an unusable product. In the unlikely event, I wear out one of these cords, they can cheaply and easily be replaced. Except for the overall cost, I only have one other issue with this product. I have a hard time referring to this box as a BlackPak, but TanPak just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

Additional Odds And Ends

I rounded out my storage needs by adding retractors to the gear tracks along side the seat to hold items like forceps, pliers and fish grips. The bar at the base of the seat is a handy place to hold spools of tippet and my nippers mounted to a retractor. This makes all these items instantly accessible but out of the way and secure. I have also added a few adhesive backed fly patches to the hull near the seat area to dry off and store flies so I don’t have to keep opening and closing hatches. I like to be as stealthy as possible on the water and this eliminates the noise made by fumbling around with the compartments and hatches. After all this there is even room left over for a small cooler!

Wrapping It Up

You may not need to go to all this trouble as the Jackson Mayfly is ready to fish right out of the box. I, like many anglers, probably carry too much gear on the water. I like to be prepared for what ever comes my way and still have room for lunch and a few drinks.

Next up will be a review of the anchor systems I have installed on the kayak. Yes I said “systems”, there are more than one. Hopefully you will not have to wait a year to read that one!

#Jackson Mayfly Storage

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jillmariej · 6 years ago

Photo

The beautiful art by txdora I had the opportunity to write for

The archangel Michael steals the control of Dean’s body and he plans on keeping it. Dean fights to get it back until Michael sends him on the "vacation" he’s always dreamed about. Turns out Wincest saves the world (again). Spoilers for Supernatural season 14. Written for the Spn_reversebang 2018

ao3 link lj link or read below

The One in Which Wincest Save the World

“No! You can’t do this!” Dean howls, but only Michael hears him. Dean struggles to move his arm, fights to stop his legs from walking but he has no control over his limbs. “Listen douchebag, we had a deal.”

“I don’t make deals,” Michael replies to the voice in his head. “That was your friend Crowley.”

“But you need my permission. I’m rescinding my permission. I take it back. Get the fuck out of my body!”

Michael ignores him and gets his vessel some new clothes. Then he admires himself in a mirror. “I make this look good.”

Dean looks into his reflection, but he isn’t there. Those aren’t his eyes looking back at him.

**************************************************

It only takes Michael a moment to see that this earth is no better than the one he left.

“How did this place become so depraved that even its holy men commit the most immoral of sins? Where is God? Where are the angels to guide them? Why aren't my brothers stopping this?” he asks Dean though he doesn’t need Dean to speak to get the answers; they fly from Dean’s memory as the angel speaks.

We stopped them. Me and Sammy. You junkless angel douchebags were nothing to us. Now there’s only like ten of you left. You have no power here, so get the hell out!

“That's where you're wrong, Winchester. That simply makes me the most powerful being in this universe. I will set this world right. The sinners will be stopped and the righteous will rule.”

Sammy can stop you.

“He wouldn't dare hurt this vessel.”

About that. Why don’t you go find yourself another one and leave me out of your plans?

Michael admires himself in the mirror. “No, I quite like this one. It’s strong and beautiful. Yes, I'm keeping this vessel.”

You can’t do this! Dean bellows from deep inside himself. I’m getting my body back and I will make you pay for this.

“Shut up. I’m the captain now. You will be silent and stand down,” Michael commands.

Dean snarls. If Michael wants him to be silent then silent is the last thing he will be. Sammy won’t let you do this. He will hunt you down and stop you. My brother won’t give up until you’re dead.

“Killing me would kill you. Your precious Sam wouldn’t do that.”

That’s where you’re wrong. Sam will never give up. He’ll figure a way to break me out of here and when he does--

“Stop fooling yourself, Dean. Sam’s given up on you before.” Michael smirks at the pang of betrayal Dean feels. “And now he has no one to help him. You think he’ll put saving you before saving others? We both know better than that. Sam’s a big picture guy. Sam saves the world. He won’t have time to look for you.”

What does that mean? Dean demands.

“Assume he’ll be busy fighting his own demons and monsters and things that go bump in the night.”

Michael’s right. Jack is powerless. Cas is weak. With Crowley gone, no one is ruling the demons. Rowena might be able to do something but Sam would have to find her first.

“That witch can’t touch me, boy. She’s much too afraid of my power.”

Dean growls in frustration. How can he defeat this asshole if his every thought can be heard?

“I’m glad you finally understand.” Michael checks his reflection again. “Now hang on and enjoy the ride.”

Dean knows this isn’t really him doing these awful things, but it is his hands and it becomes his guilt. He makes another vow to himself to defeat Michael’s hold on him. What did Sammy use to say? Always keep fighting.

He’s struck by a memory. He can’t dwell on it, Michael might figure out a way to stop him if he does, but hell, it worked for Swayze.

I'm Henry the eighth I am,

Henry the eighth I am I am,

I got married to the widow next door,

She's been married seven times before,

And everyone was a Henry (Henry),

She wouldn't have a Willie or a Sam (no Sam)

I'm her eighth old man, I'm Henry,

Henry the eighth I am

Second verse, same as the first

I'm Henry the eighth I am,

He continues to sing loudly, off key and occasionally in an awful cockney accent. Michael doesn’t sleep. He doesn’t need to eat. So, neither does Dean, which allows him to continue singing for twelve hours non stop. His voice never weakens.

At first, Michael thinks Dean’s gone bat shit crazy. But at hour twelve and one minute, his eye twitches. At hour fifteen, he searches Dean’s memories for anything that would make him shut up.

All he finds is Sam. The song makes it difficult to focus but Michael finds a couple memories that stand out.

Dean likes classic rock and ‘80’s horror flicks. He likes cheeseburgers and pie. Michael examines every memory he can. The car seems to be very important to Dean, but nothing is more important than Sam. For his entire life Dean has made sacrifices for Sam, though he doesn’t see them as sacrifices since he did them willingly. Michael also finds promises Dean’s made but has yet to keep. And that is something he can work with.

Hunting and Sam have been Dean’s entire existence, so hunting and Sam will be what Dean gets.

“Sam!”

“Dean!”

The ancient oak door slams shut between them leaving Dean outside the dilapidated house “Watch your back, Sam. I’ll go around.”

Dean picks his way through the overgrown brush along the side of the house. This was supposed to be a simple salt and burn, but nothing was ever simple.

The sound of a shotgun blast quickens his step to the back of the house. “Sam!” Dean yells as he pries a board off a low window.

From the inside, Sam lifts the pane. “Hurry. I don’t know how long that will hold him off.”

Dean hoists himself and a duffle bag through the window and rolls onto the floor. “Get down.”

Sam falls to his knees and Dean shoots at the giant masked figure behind him. “Let’s get to the basement.”

Once in the basement the brothers take pickaxes to the wall. When they finally break through, they are greeted by a blast of cold air and the rotten stench of death. Knowing they are close drives them on. Ten minutes later they are salting and burning and congratulating each other on a job well done.

As they pack up the Impala, Sam says, “You know, any of the newbies could have done this. We didn’t have to drive all the way to Wisconsin for a ghost.”

“Not just any ghost, Sammy. Ed Gein, the original leatherface. You love this serial killer shit.”

Sam smiles. “Yeah, I do,” he concedes with a slight blush.

“And did you see Celeste?” Dean whistles low. He grins at Sam and waggles his brows. “You know she has a sister.”

Sam rolls his eyes and walks to the passenger door. “That’s okay, Dean. You can go be with Celeste, but I don’t want a set up with her sister.”

Dean starts the car and chuckles, “Your loss, man.”

************

He drives them back to the hotel and gets cleaned up while Sam pouts in front of his laptop screen. Sam does a double take when his brother leaves the bathroom in boxers and not dressed for a date. “Making it pretty easy for her, aren’t you Dean?” Sam teases.

Dean shakes his head and crosses the room to Sam. “No, man. I was just yankin’ your chain. Let me show you something.” He spins Sam’s laptop to face him and taps a few keys. “Celeste’s sister is a travel agent and she hooked me up with these.” He turns the screen to his brother.

Sam looks at the screen and then to his brother in awe. “Boarding passes?”

Dean nods, grinning like a kid at Christmas. “All expense paid trip to Cabo, Sammy. Just her way of saying ‘thank you for saving my sister’.”

“Seriously?” Sam’s eyes are wide with excitement.

“Hell yeah, I’m serious. Now go get cleaned up. I want to get some shut eye. We leave early in the morning.” He pats Sam’s shoulder as he heads for the bed. “Sun, sand, tequila and Sammy. My kind of vacation.”

Michael seduces another human to feed to his vampire pets.

This is what heaven feels like, Dean thinks, then shakes his head. No, he’s been to heaven and it ain’t this nice. Their suite is on the ground floor with a sliding door that opens onto a private beach. The resort has everything they could want. Parasailing, deep sea fishing, a masseuse that comes to your room, there’s even a grill if you want to cook your own food. He’ll make use of that later, grill up some seafood since Sam likes it so much.

“Dude there’s a hot tub,” Sam tells him as he strips off his shirt. “This place is amazing. I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

His smile warms Dean more than the Mexican sun. “We’ve earned this, Sammy.”

“Yeah we have.” Sam pulls on some swim trunks. “I’m going for a swim. Wanna join me?”

“In a minute, I’m gonna order something I can throw on the grill. What do you feel like having steak or seafood?”

Sam wrinkles his face in thought. “Why not both?”

“Surf and turf it is.” Dean picks up the phone. “Don’t forget sunscreen. I don’t want to deal with your whiny ass if you get burned.”

They spend the day relaxing in the sun, drinking beers, and reminiscing. Dean loves seeing that smile on Sam’s face and he loves being the one to put it there. It’s been a long time since they were alone, just the two of them, without the pressures of a case and Dean feels years younger by the time they pour the wine for dinner.

He’s nervous about the food though he doesn’t know why. For some reason it’s especially important that Sam likes it. And he does. He tells Dean so more than once during the meal and Dean smiles with pride. He pours Sam the last of the wine but notices that he’s staring at the cooler. “Did you want a beer instead?” he asks.

Sam shakes his head. “No.”

“Are we out of beer?” Dean asks since Sam still finds the cooler interesting.

“No, not yet.” Sam raises his wine glass. “Thanks, Dean. I can’t believe we’re finally doing this.”

“Like I said, we earned this.” Dean pushes himself back from the table, perfectly sated after their meal. “The best part? We don’t have to clean any of this up. They’ve got someone to do that for us.” Sam makes a disgruntled face which makes Dean roll his eyes. “Dude I’m going to tip them.”

“No. I mean good,” Sam nods, “but I was just thinking that maid service is definitely not the best part of this trip.”

Dean laughs at himself. “What do you think is the best part, Sam?”

Sam stands up and moves around the table to Dean. He reaches out a hand to pull him from his chair. “You and me, here, alone without a care in the world. That is the best part.”

“I can get on board with that,” Dean says as he allows Sam to lead him back into their suite.

Sam pulls Dean into his arms. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had you all to myself without worrying about interruptions or the world ending?”

“Too long,” Dean whispers stretching up to kiss his brother. He ignores the slight tremor under his feet, not even an earthquake will keep him from his brother.

Michael twitches like a trickle of ice water slid down his neck. What was that? Doesn’t matter. He can’t dwell on it, can’t let it become a weakness Winchester can exploit.

He doesn’t have time, anyway.

The rumble of the Impala tells Michael this will be over much too soon. Sam Winchester and his little army of hunters will put an end to this group of vampires and he will have to start over. If he’s lucky his vamps will kill a few of Sam’s people. If he’s luckier still, they’ll turn one. But he knows they won’t get lucky enough to capture Sam.

Michael doesn’t stick around to help his brood. He has to find Anael, that whore must have told Winchester and company where to find him. She’s going to pay for that.

In the morning there’s fresh fruit, pastries, bacon, and eggs waiting on the lanai for them. Sam’s already at the table when the aroma of fresh coffee entices Dean to join him. Sam hands him a steaming mug. “Dude, I --” recognizing Dean’s nothing before coffee look makes Sam pause. “Right, in a minute.”

With his eyes still closed, Dean savors his first sips. Once the coffee does it’s trick, he opens his eyes. “Alright, what’s up?”

“Here, eat up.” Sam hands him a plate filled with bacon, eggs, and hash browns. “I thought today maybe we’d go fishing. There’s a charter that leaves in an hour.”

The green cooler captures Dean eye. He ignores his food and nods absentmindedly. “When did we get here?”

“Yesterday. Just before one. What’s going on with you?”

“Had a weird dream. There were vampires and you were driving the car instead of me.”

Sam’s eyes widen but he’s smiling. “Ooo, nightmare, huh?” he teases.

Dean ignores the teasing. “It felt really real, ya know? Like I was watching it all happen but not actually a part of it.” He shakes his head as if clearing cobwebs. “Do you like it here?”

“Yeah, it’s beautiful,” Sam assures him quickly. “This place is the vacation we always wanted but never took. So, fishing?”

“Sure, Sammy, whatever you want.” Dean tucks into his food, savoring every bite.

The ocean is the deepest blue Dean has ever seen. It’s beautiful and grand and awe inspiring. Dean drinks it all in because it took a lifetime to get here and he doesn’t know when they’ll ever be back.

Sam is going on about the types of fish that are migrating at that time of year. He knows how big they get and how fast they swim and the best bait to use. Dean’s about to tease him for being a nerd about everything, but seeing the smile on Sam’s face stops him. For a minute. “You gonna talk the fish to death or are you gonna catch one?” His rod and reel are already set and he’s sipping his first beer. Sam gives him a bitch face but joins him, grabbing a beer for himself.

“This is the life, Sammy.” Dean grins tipping his head back to soak in the sun.

Dean’s lost track of time again. He doesn’t think much of it. It’s not as bad as when that witch cursed him and he forgot who he was. But something is scratching at the corner of his mind, telling him that something isn’t right.

He’s about to mention it to Sam when he feels a stabbing pain in his arm. “What the fuck?” He mumbles under his breath. He rubs his bicep and the room around him shimmers. There’s a brief flash of a hooded figure in the woods. “What the hell was that?”

“What the hell was what?” Sam asks.

Dean turns startled, like he forgot Sam was in the room. “Nothing. I tweaked my arm somehow.”

“Huh. Weird. Gettin’ old, dude.”

“Shut up. You’re old.”

Sam snorts at the lame come back. “Yeah, I am, but you’re way older.” HIs insult is softened by his fond smile and the kiss he places on Dean’s neck when he comes up behind him to wrap his arms around him.

Dean allows himself to be encircled in Sam’s arm and tries to ignore the pain in his arm and itching in his brain.

That bitch with the spear must be stopped. Michael gathers some werewolves and puts them on her scent. No need for him to risk injury again. He looks at the scar on his vessel’s arm and wonders if Winchester felt it.

But, Michael doesn’t bother checking in on Dean. The world he created for Dean is based on all of the man’s favorite things. Winchester is so far back in his mind on “vacation” that Michael is confident he might never hear from him again.

Dean’s not bored. Not exactly. He’s having the time of his life with Sammy on this vacation, but he feels like he should be doing something more. It’s almost like he misses hunting. Maybe he only misses the adrenaline rush it provides.

Sam comes in from his morning run and pours himself a glass of lemon water. “So get this, I overheard the staff talking about el chupacabra.”

Dean stares at him for a long moment. He has the oddest sensation, like the room is expanding around him, but Sammy is waiting for a response. “So, you want to go hunt it or something?”

Sam shrugs but he’s also smiling which tells Dean that his brother definitely wants to hunt. Dean sighs like this hunt is a major inconvenience. “Okay. Go take a shower. I’ll see what I can find out.”

There are no coincidences, Dean tells himself when Sam leaves the room. He rubs the phantom pain in his arm and thinks about the figure with the spear. His thoughts are coming so fast he can’t focus. He steps outside for some fresh air and, when his eyes land on the cooler, everything becomes clear.

“That shouldn’t be here.” He turns and races back through the room. His hand is on the knob for the front door to their suite. If he opens the door, he’ll see the Impala. He’s as certain of this as he is his own name. But he knows if she’s out there, Michael still has him and Dean can’t risk the angel knowing he’s onto him.

Dean thinks about a hotel he stayed in when he was sixteen. It was in the Arizona desert. The air was crisp and clean and the sky was the bluest he’d ever seen and stretched out forever. With that memory fixed in his mind, he opens the door to the Arizona desert and Baby shining in the sun.

“Fuck!” he growls, slamming the door.

The room shimmers again and he fears Michael is on his way to tear him away from here and make this possession a million times worse.

But, when Sam’s done with his shower and Michael still hasn’t shown, Dean thinks he might have a chance. He fears he can’t hold his entire plan in his mind at once or that rat bastard angel will figure it out.

“So, what do you think? You want to hunt the chupacabra or what?” Sam’s eager expression ignites more hope within Dean.

“You know that it’s probably a dog with mange, right?”

“Obviously, but if it’s rabid, someone should put it out of its misery. You don’t want it attacking someone or something and spreading the infection.”

“Yeah, sure, but first I want to apologize about the whole Ezekiel/Gadreel mess I got you into. I know I had no right to do that, but I love you and I wasn’t ready to let you go. After you sacrificed so much, it didn’t seem fair that you didn’t get to enjoy it.”

Sam makes a face at the abrupt subject change. “Dean, I forgave you for that a long time ago. Why are you bringing it up now?”

“Because seeing you this happy is all I’ve ever wanted. I’ve always wanted to take a vacation like this, with you.” Dean looks out the sliding door. The sun is at the perfect angle and the palm trees are shading the extra large chaise lounge. A light breeze is rustling the privacy drapes and the sky is that perfect blue.

Dean watches his brother pull on some long cargo shorts and his mind goes back to the tremor from the other night. Maybe that wasn’t an earthquake. “You know, we haven’t done it on those lounges yet.”

Sam snorts a surprised laugh. “You wanna do it outside in broad daylight where anyone can see us?”

“There’s no one around and besides we’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“A pre-hunt fuck instead of waiting until we get back.” Sam smirks, but he starts to undo he shorts.

“Think of it as a fuck for luck,” Dean adds with a grin while grabbing the lube off the bedside table.

Dean’s laying back, drinking in the beautiful sight of his gorgeous brother riding him, when he feels another tremor and the world around him shimmers. He doesn’t know why sex effects Michael’s hold on him, but he doesn’t care. His joy at this discovery brings his orgasm faster than he would like. Not wanting to disappoint his brother, Dean blows Sam to make up for it.

“Dude,” Sam pants as he catches his breath, “vacation sex might be the best sex yet.”

Dean chuckles and they both lay back on the chaise, the sound of the ocean waves relaxing them. The shimmer has stopped. The only thing Dean feels is the light breeze and the heat coming off his brother.

Dean chooses his next words carefully. He doesn’t want to tip off Michael, but he needs a certain memory. “You were such a badass at Stull, owning Luci like that.”

Sam shakes his head at the praise, but gives Dean a confused look. “That’s because you were there. You never gave up on me.”

“And I never will Sammy. I knew you were strong enough, how’d you take control?”

“I remembered how much you loved me. My whole life, you were always there for me. Even when I thought you were gonna push me away, you accepted me and loved me.”

And Yes! That was it. The memory comes flying back to him. Fifteen year old Sammy, drunk from a bottle of dad's Jack and crying in the rain.

“I hate you!”

Dean sighed and pulled his little brother out of the pouring rain into their motel room. “Yeah, I know. What’d I do this time?”

“Why are you hanging out with Sheila Ward? She’s such a bitch. She's just using you. She’s tryin’ to make her old boyfriend jealous. She doesn’t love you.”

Dean wrapped a dry towel around his shivering little brother. “I know Sam. It’s okay. I don’t care.”

“You should care. You deserve better. I love you. I would be so good to you, Dean. Don’t you see you deserve someone better than her? If only you’d --,” Sam sobbed.

Dean hugged him. “Shh, Sammy, it’s okay. I love you, too. It’s just Sheila can do stuff you-”

“I can do those things, Dean. I’ll do anything you want.” Sam practically slammed his mouth onto Dean’s in a sloppy demanding kiss.

*******************

“That’s enough!” Dean’s voice bellows at him. Only it’s Michael and not him.

Dean’s torn away from his vacation and finds himself treading water in an endless black sea. “What’s enough, Mikey?”

“He’s your brother. It’s one thing when it’s your disgusting fantasy, but a memory?! How can an abomination like you be my perfect vessel?!” Michael’s voice echoes over the water.

“It doesn't matter what you do, Michael, Sam and I are soul mates. We love each other. We even share a heaven.”

“No, it’s not possible,” the angel sputters. “This is an outrage! An obscenity! You don’t belong in heaven.”

“No, it's not,” Dean argues. “It’s love, pure and simple.”

The space around Dean shimmers and he has a brief glimpse of Sam.

“Your father knew about me and Sam and never once did he call us an abomination. Hell, he even wrote books about us.”

“That can’t be!” Michael growls.

“Love is Love. God is Love. Love is the strongest force in the universe. And that’s what Sam and I have an abundance of and it’s something you can never take away from us.”

Michael screams in anger and the world around Dean vibrates with the angel’s rage. He drags Dean deep under the water until there is no light and Dean doesn’t know which way the surface lies. His lungs ache, but he keeps swimming.

*********************

Fearing this is the end, Dean focuses on Sam. He remembers Mary placing his brother in his arms when she brought him home from the hospital. He remembers carrying him out of the fire. He remembers that first kiss that was unlike all the other kisses. “I love you, Sammy.”

“GET OUT!”

Michael is gone in a blink of an eye and Dean is left, collapsing into his brother’s arms. “Sammy?”

“Dean, is it really you?”

“Yeah, it’s really me.”

Dean is exhausted and silent on the drive back to the bunker. He’s resting against Mary in the Impala’s backseat as she attempts to comfort him. All he can do is stare at Sam. When Sam meets his eye in the rearview mirror, Dean tries to reassure him with a smile. Sam’s too worried to smile back.

Sam can feel Dean’s eyes on him, he’s so desperate to have Dean back he fears he’s overlooking an obvious trap. He wonders if Michael is still in Dean, hiding the way Gadreel did. He worries that the refugees in the bunker will be too much for Dean. What if one of them tries to attack Dean before he can tell them he’s no longer Michael?

Back in the bunker, Dean ignores everyone and retreats to his room. Both Sam and Mary follow him, but Sam stops her with a hand on her arm. “I’ve got him, Mom.”

“But,” Mary begins looking a little disappointed but then aquiesses with a nod.

Sam taps on the door, opening it only a crack to say, “Can I come in?”

“I’m fine, Sam.”

Sam peeks his head in. “Can I come in anyway?”

“Yeah.” Dean sounds exasperated.

Sam closes the door behind himself and leans against it. He wants to rush across the room, wrap his arms around Dean and hold on for a lifetime or two but he knows he has to wait for Dean. And right now, Dean’s not able to look him in the eye. It’s a red flag and Sam’s ready with an angel blade but he silently prays he won’t need to use it.

“I’m sorry.” Dean finally looks at him with eyes begging forgiveness. “I shouldn’t have said ‘yes’ but Lucifer had you and I, I couldn’t let him hurt you again.” Disappointed in himself, Dean ducks his head. “I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Dean-”

“I know Michael did awful things but I couldn’t stop him. I wasn’t strong enough.”

“Why’d he let you go?”

Dean looks up at him and for a moment considers telling him everything he remembers, but instead he shrugs. “I don’t know.”

Sam accepts the answer with a nod and edges further into the room. “Can I stay here tonight?”

Dean huffs. “I’m not him. He’s gone. You don’t have to worry-”

“I know,” Sam quickly interjects. “That’s not why I want to stay.” He blows out a shaky breath and steps towards Dean’s dresser. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. And if I did,” he sets the angel blade on the dresser, “I thought I’d have to kill you.” Looking over at Dean, he adds, “I don’t know if I could do that.”

“You could.”

Dean’s quick response makes Sam pause. Expressions of anger, hurt and sadness wash over his features. “I’m glad I don’t have to find out.” Dean has to understand how much he means to him. “I looked for you, you know. I followed every lead I could. Mom’s been on my ass ‘cause I haven’t eaten or slept --”

“Or shaved,” Dean teases with a small smirk.

Sam makes a face. He doesn’t want snarky Dean right now. He wants his Dean. He goes back to what has always worked for him in the past. He sits on Dean’s bed. “I was so scared, Dean.” His voice is just above a whisper. “I love you so much and I thought I lost you.”

Dean’s rounding the bed and is hugging his brother to his chest a moment later. “I love you too, kid.” He rubs a hand over Sam’s hair like he has since they were children with no one to comfort them but each other.

“Can I stay here tonight?” Sam asks again. “I don’t want, I mean we don’t have to do anything. I just want to sleep knowing where you are.” Dean goes to pull away but Sam doesn’t let go.

“What about the others?” Dean asks

Sam looks up at him. “I don’t give a shit about the others.”

“Mom?”

Sam scoffs. “Dean, God stayed down the hall from us. He didn’t give a rat’s ass about it so why should we care what anyone else thinks.”

Dean cradles Sam’s face in his hands and stares into his eyes like he’s memorizing them. “Yeah, okay.”

He walks back to the other side of the bed and strips out of the last bit of clothes Michael put on him. On the other side of the bed, Sam is quickly down to his boxer briefs and crawling under the covers. Dean snaps off the light and lets Sam curl up next to him. “You can stay on one condition, Sammy.”

“What?”

“Lose the beard.”

“Some people think it looks good,” Sam argues, rubbing a hand over his cheek.

“I thought we didn’t care what some people think.” Dean turns on his side and says, “And I am not getting whisker burn all over me.”

San chuckles and holds Dean close, pinning their bodies together. He rubs his beard on Dean’s shoulder before he kisses it. “First thing in the morning, it’s gone.”

Dean turns in the tight circle of Sam’s arms and kisses him with all the pent up passion of the last few weeks. Sam eagerly takes all Dean can give him. When they’re lying there, sated, but not ready to let the other one go, Dean whispers, “It was you, Sammy. You saved me. When you told me you loved me. When you trusted me with that love, that gave me the strength to fight Michael.”

They lay quietly together, their breathing falling into a synched rhythm as they drift off into the most peaceful sleep they’ve had in months.

Please check out the gorgeous art txdora made

#spn fan fic #wincest #spn season 14 #dean winchester #sam winchester #spn reversebang

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coffeebased · 6 years ago

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It’s been a whole year since I posted last. Part of me wants to apologise for being gone so long, but mostly I’m just glad that I’m here.

Instead of doing a GIANT 2018 READING POST, I’m going to chop it up into three posts:

Favourite Books Read in 2018

2018 Reading Data and Goal-setting for 2019

2013-2018 Reading Data Trends

I was going to do a bigass one like I usually do but it just felt so daunting. Probably because I read 256 books in 2018 and it was pretty tempting to just close that Excel sheet and move on to an empty one for 2019. But what is the point of an unexamined life, anyway?

So this post is basically a listicle with summaries grabbed from Goodreads, as well as the complete list of the books I read in 2018. I really enjoyed all these books immensely and they’re all in my personal canon now.

My Top 10 Reads for 2018:

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home.In this fresh, authoritative version—the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman—this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer’s sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer’s music.

Circe by Madeline Miller

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

3. The World of the Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold

A man broken in body and spirit, Cazaril, has returned to the noble household he once served as page, and is named, to his great surprise, as the secretary-tutor to the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is next in line to rule.

It is an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it will ultimately lead him to the place he fears most, the royal court of Cardegoss, where the powerful enemies, who once placed him in chains, now occupy lofty positions. In addition to the traitorous intrigues of villains, Cazaril and the Royesse Iselle, are faced with a sinister curse that hangs like a sword over the entire blighted House of Chalion and all who stand in their circle. Only by employing the darkest, most forbidden of magics, can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge—an act that will mark the loyal, damaged servant as a tool of the miraculous, and trap him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation, and death

4. Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal, Translated by Harold Augenbraum

In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, “The Noli,” as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province.

5. America is Not The Heart by Elaine Castillo

Three generations of women from one immigrant family trying to reconcile the home they left behind with the life they’re building in America.

How many lives can one person lead in a single lifetime? When Hero de Vera arrives in America, disowned by her parents in the Philippines, she’s already on her third. Her uncle, Pol, who has offered her a fresh start and a place to stay in the Bay Area, knows not to ask about her past. And his younger wife, Paz, has learned enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. Only their daughter Roni asks Hero why her hands seem to constantly ache.

Illuminating the violent political history of the Philippines in the 1980s and 1990s and the insular immigrant communities that spring up in the suburban United States with an uncanny ear for the unspoken intimacies and pain that get buried by the duties of everyday life and family ritual, Castillo delivers a powerful, increasingly relevant novel about the promise of the American dream and the unshakable power of the past. In a voice as immediate and startling as those of Junot Diaz and NoViolet Bulawayo, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful telenovela of a debut novel. With exuberance, muscularity, and tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave home to grasp at another, sometimes turning back.

6. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk W. Johnson

A rollicking true-crime adventure and a thought-provoking exploration of the human drive to possess natural beauty for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief.

On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London’s Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin’s obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins–some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin’s, Alfred Russel Wallace, who’d risked everything to gather them–and escaped into the darkness.

Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man’s relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man’s destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.

7. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

An unforgettable memoir in the tradition of The Glass Castle about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes and the will to change it.

8. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 7 and 8 by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, André Lima Araújo, Matt Wilson, Kris Anka, Jen Bartel

In the past: awful stuff. In the present: awful stuff. But, increasingly, answers.

Modernist poets trapped in an Agatha Christie Murder Mystery. The Romantics gathering in Lake Geneva to resurrect the dead. What really happened during the fall of Rome. The Lucifer who was a nun, hearing Ananke’s Black Death confession. As we approach the end, we start to see the full picture. Also includes the delights of the WicDiv Christmas Annual and the Comedy special.

9. Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads

Mister Miracle is magical, dark, intimate and unlike anything you’ve read before.

Scott Free is the greatest escape artist who ever lived. So great, he escaped Granny Goodness’ gruesome orphanage and the dangers of Apokolips to travel across galaxies and set up a new life on Earth with his wife, Big Barda. Using the stage alter ego of Mister Miracle, he has made quite a career for himself showing off his acrobatic escape techniques. He even caught the attention of the Justice League, who has counted him among its ranks.

You might say Scott Free has everything–so why isn’t it enough? Mister Miracle has mastered every illusion, achieved every stunt, pulled off every trick–except one. He has never escaped death. Is it even possible? Our hero is going to have to kill himself if he wants to find out.

10. The Band, #1–2

Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best — the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.

Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk – or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay’s door with a plea for help. His daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.

It’s time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld.

PHEW. Did you guys read any of those books? Did you like them? Hit me up!

The books I read in 2018:

Okay, thank you for reading. Keep a weather eye out for the next post, hopefully very soon.

My Ten Favourite Books from 2018 It's been a whole year since I posted last. Part of me wants to apologise for being gone so long, but mostly I'm just glad that I'm here.

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ask-de-writer · 6 years ago

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SEA DRAGON’S GIFT : World of Sea : Part 71

SEA DRAGON’S GIFT

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

140406 words

written 2007

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights. They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact. They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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New to the story? Read from the beginning. PART 1 is here

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Looking back, Sarfin could see the open fore-deck of the Dark Dragon and the monster catapult being readied. Around him he could see the catapults of the Soaring Bird being unlimbered from their hunting locks and readied for combat. The ammunition being stacked beside them was nothing that he would want to see aimed at any ship. There were shot designed to rip sails and destroy rigging, and others designed to scatter many small, deadly darts to clear decks and rigging of opposing crews.

Just seeing them made Sarfin shudder. The sight of men and women matter of factly handling such devices and getting ready to use them brought home to him just what war was really about. Something that he had known intellectually became sickeningly real.

It was to the credit of the Council’s representatives that they were also disturbed by the deadly preparations. Captain Urson put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the decks. “Is this,” she gestured widely at all the orderly preparations for destruction going on about them, “really necessary?”

Sula looked her straight in the eye and answered, “Because I have seen many times that it was, even more than you, I hope that it is not. There is no harm if we are ready and do not have to fight but many lives, even ships can be lost to unreadiness.”

Sarfin turned to Sula, who was now watching the Soaring Bird’s crew, without apparent emotion. “How can you ever get used to this kind of thing?” he asked, taking a deep breath to steady himself.

“You don’t,” she replied stonily, turning to face Sarfin. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. “You do what you have to do and pray to the Dragons that you don’t have to kill again. The one thing that you can’t do is let your own folk be the ones who pay the price of unreadiness.”

In a lighter tone Sula went on, “Now, we are guests. Let us pay our respects to our host, the Honored Huld.”

Crewmen guided Captains Urson and Farrol away to guest quarters.

Sula led Sarfin to a companionway amidships. As Sarfin followed, he said, grateful for a way to change the topic, “Something has been nagging at me since we first met. Why do you call Captain Huld ‘Honored’?”

Sula smiled at the thoughts and memories that the question brought up. “That’s a bit difficult to explain. He is Honored because in his whole life, whatever the difficulty, he has never done anything unethical or dishonorable. His decisions in matters of honor and ethics between others are considered to be absolute by the Council that meets on the Wind.”

“OK, now I’m just as curious as before but confused as well,” said Sarfin. “The Council that meets on the ‘wind’?”

“You will have to take my word for this one. The Barant fleet Council is in continuous session. The Captains meet in a way that they call talking on the Wind. It allows them to communicate without misunderstanding, no matter the distance between them. Since I learned of them I have also been a part of that Council. Not only can you not shut them out, you don’t want to. It is possible to ignore them for a while sometimes, especially when you think that you are right --- Even if you’re not.” Sula pushed open a sliding door and escorted Sarfin into a cabin.

“Shouldn’t you have knocked first?” Sarfin asked as he entered.

“No need. I told him that we were coming and he invited us to tea,” said Sula lightly.

“Tea?” said Sarfin curiously, “What is that?”

“It’s a Barant ceremony involving a hot water drink made with especially prepared seaweeds, dried and flaked. He is doing this to give you honor before his crew,” Sula knitted her brows as she tried to explain. “By Barant fleet standards you are not a Captain, and neither was I until a short while ago. According to their rules you have to be able to talk on the Wind to be a Captain. This ceremony will let his crew know that you are worthy to command in spite of your disability. That is the same status that I had until recently.”

Sarfin looked around the chamber and realized that it was both of Spartan simplicity and one of the most harmoniously prefect cabins that he had ever seen. The walls had tall scroll-like paintings of ships and boats on the sea with cloudscapes behind them. They were done in monochrome gray inks on a material of startling whiteness. Each ship was unmistakable, yet it had been artfully reduced to only a few lines and some shadows. Among them, he recognized his own Dorton. It was hung just back of Huld where he sat cross-legged behind a low table. The floor was covered with a soft matting that was made of long narrow strands of material tied together into bundles.

“Welcome are you, Council Master Sarfin, Sula – Captain and friend.” He placed both hands palms together, fingers down and bent his head toward them. Sula repeated the gesture and sat on the floor next to the table. After the briefest of hesitations, Sarfin did the same.

Huld serenely said, “North we go as swiftly as sail will carry us. Let us now the time spend to know each other. Share tea, share self. Barant way it is.”

He picked up a bow-drill kit and with only a few quick strokes of the bow, had smoke curling up from the tender of fluffy, dried brown seaweed. A small puff of breath brought a tiny flame which Huld applied to the wick of an oil lamp. He set the lamp under a small Hag skin pot of water to heat it.

Altogether, the ceremony and its attendant small talk took over an hour. As they emerged from Huld’s cabin, Sarfin said to Sula, “That tea was amazing! I’ve never tasted anything like it before. Do you know how I might get some?”

“Certainly,” said Sula promptly. “I have a few hundred pounds on the Dark Dragon that I’d be willing to sell.” She smiled. “Can’t sell too much or I’d have a mutiny — and I’d have to join the mutineers. We count it as one of our basic stores.”

“I can see why. We’ve never had flavored water in the Naral fleet. . . Um . . . Where are we going?”

“Visitor’s cabins. We don’t need a guide because Huld and I have been working together for a long time. We know each other’s ships well.” Soon they were settled into adjoining cabins.

At the pace that the Soaring Bird was making, they would be in the vicinity of 00 West, 800 North by what ought have been early to midmorning. In those latitudes, at the present time of the year, the sun did not fully set at all. It only got low in the sky. Sarfin found it disturbing to have no nightfall.

Sarfin spent as much time as he could studying the Soaring Bird and the way that it was run. This kind of vessel was truly new to him. At first he thought that the big lobster claw sails were simply exotic looking. A short talk with the Soaring Bird’s sail lofter taught him the error in that assumption. They were, in fact, the most efficient sails to be found on all of Sea.

Aboard the Grandalor, Darkistry stood at the steering tackle, making small adjustments to keep the Longin approaching from directly downwind. She was so careful that it appeared to be completely accidental.

While the ships were closing to hailing drum range, Thunderhead came soaring up from the south directly over the Longin and plunged into the water between the ships. Shortly, he surfaced in a splash of spray and made a take-off run. He had a fish in his beak. Now that he was back, his family had to be fed.

Skye leapt from the nest and swooped to greet her mate. They did a short aerial ballet, sweeping past each other and spiraling tightly, so close that wings gently rubbed. The dance ended above the nest and Thunderhead dropped into it, casually checking his fall at the last moment with widespread wings and tail. He perched on the rail and began the process of dividing the fish, sharing it out among youngsters now ready to begin flying. That done, he flipped off the side of the rail and dropped on a long angle to land solidly on Tanlin’s shoulder, where he rubbed his beak along her jaw in greeting.

“Glad t’ see ye, too, T’under’ead,” said Tanlin as she reached up and scratched him in his favorite spot under the wing. “Ugh, ye’re all wet. Let m’ get t’is ‘arness off. Ye did good, ye ‘andsome ‘Awk, ye.” She unbuckled the message harness and gave it to Arnat, who was standing near.

“‘Ere, Arnat. Stow t’is in our cabin. Ye know w’ere ‘t goes.” As Arnat scampered off to put away the harness, the Longin began to signal with her Hailing Drum.

“Return the prisoner Kurin to us and surrender to Council Justice!” the drum demanded imperiously.

“That’s not Master Clard’s hand on the drum,” said Kurin worriedly. “It sounds more like his apprentice Degan. Now I’m sure something is wrong.”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS NEXT==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

#SEA DRAGON’S GIFT #World of Sea #Written by De Writer #Part 71

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jkottke · 6 years ago

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The 2018 kottke.org Holiday Gift Guide

As I've done for the last five years, I've spent the past few weeks scouring the internet for the best 2018 gift guides and pulled a few of the most interesting items from each. Think of it as a curated meta-guide for your holiday giving. Let's dig in.

Charitable giving always tops this list. Check out GiveWell and Charity Navigator to find organizations that will put your money to the best use. (Read up on big charities like Red Cross and Salvation Army...they are often not the best use of your charity dollar.) GiveDirectly sends money directly to people living in extreme poverty around the world. I always recommend Volunteer Match to find local volunteer opportunities but they force you to log in now, so just an FYI. Alternate sites for volunteering are the AARP's Create the Good and United Way. If you're giving to the local food shelf, skip buying food yourself for the donation bin and set up a direct debit or CC payment instead...that will put your donation to better use.

If you're looking for great gift ideas for kids (and/or Toys for Tots), the best place to look remains the excellent The Kid Should See This Gift Guide. I use this almost exclusively for all of my kid-related holiday and birthday shopping. This year's stand-out items include The littleBits Space Rover Inventor Kit (littleBits stuff is *huge* in our household), The Atlas Obscura Explorer's Guide for the World's Most Adventurous Kid (got this for my daughter for her birthday), SET (a pal also recently recommended this game), and a set of four board books including Quantum Physics for Babies. And whoa, the Harry Potter Coding Kit from Kano? Accio Coding Kit!

The Accidental Shop is a collection of products I've previously linked to on kottke.org. It is heavy on books...I'd particularly recommend Emily Wilson's The Odyssey, Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, and Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin. Oh, and I'm flying through Madeline Miller's Circe right now...what a read!

For those of you into food, you've probably already have an Instant Pot and Anova Sous Vide Cooker, so check out the gift guides from Eater, Food52, Serious Eats, Kitchn, and Ruth Reichl. Among their recommendations are a Korean fermeting crock (for making kimchi), the Five Two double-sided cutting board, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, a Taco Passport, Anita Lo's well-regarded Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One, and aged fish sauce (!!).

I love my Kindle Paperwhite and there's an updated version this year that's waterproof, lighter & thinner, has Bluetooth for audiobooks, and has more storage.

I've seen several gift touting so-called "inexpensive" gifts and then going on to recommend $50 bars of soap, so Slate's The Good Enough List is a welcome effort. They've recommended a bunch of items that are almost as good as the best available options but more affordable. My favorite pick is their rec for a $7 pedometer over a Fitbit or Apple Watch. They also highlight the Gulliver crib from Ikea, which I have taken apart and put back together approximately 30 times. It's a basic, durable, simple, and fantastic crib.

The kids and I have been playing two games pretty heavily this year: Sushi Go Party and Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle. I really like Hogwarts Battle because it's cooperative -- all the players play together against the villans on the board and it's fun to strategize how to allocate tokens and hearts to get everyone through the danger areas.

The 2018 Engineering Gift Guide from Purdue University is full of "gift ideas that engage girls and boys in engineering thinking and design". Their picks this year include Duct Tape Engineer and Kiwi Crate's monthly subscription service for project kits (which a friend also recently recommended).

The Astronomers Without Borders OneSky Reflector Telescope is probably the best $200 telescope you can buy. I got one this summer and it's been great for looking at the Moon, planets, and even some nearby galaxies.

My kids would flip out if I bought the family a Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe but I don't think it's going to happen. [crying emoji]

Whenever I need to buy something for around the house, Wirecutter is the first (and often only) place I go for recommendations. From their Gifts We Want to Give in 2018, I found Blue Planet II (the *perfect* family holiday entertainment), a Carhartt tool bag, fleece blankets from Uniqlo, and a pack of Blackwing pencils.

Remember Viewmaster? Now you can Create Your Own Reel Viewer.

The 2018 Christmas Catalog from Tools & Toys is blissfully heavy on the nerdy stuff. Their picks include an instant photo printer for your iPhone, the Field Cast Iron Skillet, these enamel steel signs from Best Made, and this clever magnetic wrist band for keeping track of errant screws and parts while you're doing projects. And Lego has a Voltron kit? Holy nostalgia.

Every year I "recommend" this 55-gallon drum of personal lubricant because why would anyone actually buy this? (Have any of you ever bought this? Report back, please!)

I recently did a round-up of Adult Nonfiction Adapted for Younger Readers, including The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Howard Zinn's A Young People's History of the United States.

Recommended this last year but gonna repeat: a Christmas storybook based on Die Hard. Self-recommending. See also this sequined Jeff Goldblum pillow.

Some friends of mine love this Ooni portable pizza oven...it can cook a pizza at 932°F in just 60 seconds.

I'm lucky to know so many people who have written books or built companies that sell great products. Here are some of them: This Book is a Planetarium, Legal Nomads, 20x200, Tattly, The Bloody Mary, SDR Traveller, Cora Ball, Austin Kleon, Happy Cooking Hospitality, you think you know me, Gracie's Ice Cream, Kingston Stockade FC, Storyworth, The Aviary Cocktail Book, Chris Piascik, Salty Avocado, Hoefler & Co, Tinybop, Fat Gold, Hella Cocktail Co, Storq maternity wear, Milkmade, and Field Notes.

From The Colossal Shop, multi-colored toy soldiers doing yoga. See also this maddening puzzle...the pieces change colors depending on how you look at them.

My daughter endlessly rereads her Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls books (sequel). I Am A Rebel Girl Journal is their newest product and just might be under our family tree this year.

Socks inspired by Eric Carle's Very Hungry Caterpillar? Yes, please. And they make them for adults too! The same company makes all sorts of book-related products, from Harry Potter t-shirts to Kurt Vonnegut necklaces.

From the NY Times' collection of gift guides, a US National Parks annual pass (I put mine to good use this summer), a phone mount for your car (I got one of these this summer and love it), and these Jabra wireless earbuds that the Wirecutter rates as better than Apple AirPods. Oh and Bananagrams.

From Curbed's 21 holiday gifts for people who like nice things, this ramen puzzle and a radio designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1946 but was never produced (until now).

More gift guides: Cup of Jo, Canopy, Engadget (tech), The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Daily Nous (philosophy), Tom's Guide (tech), and Red Tricycle (kids).

My gift guides from the last few years have yet more ideas: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

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