Standing Into Danger: January 2024

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Ten Below! Time to go!

We fled Colorado on January 14th.

When we left our house at 6:15 am, it was 10 below:

-10ºF or -23ºC.

Definitely time to go!

A frigid Dawn At DIA

Denver International Airport

January 14, 2024

Terry hates the winter cold, and I don't blame him.

Touching his hands and feet is like touching ice.

He's usually huddled under blankets or standing by the fireplace,

and he often wears fingerless gloves around the house.

Every night I put a heated rice bag under his bed covers.

"I hate winter!" is his constant refrain.

So at ten below it was time to go!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Denver International Airport

January 14, 2024

Our morning flight from Denver was originating in Portland, Oregon,

but a bad snowstorm was pummeling the city,

and winter weather was canceling flights and scrambling schedules all over the US.

Terry made a midnight decision to change our flight,

and if he hadn't, we wouldn't have made it to Hawaii on the 14th.

He chose a flight originating in Dallas, Texas,

and that was the flight that made all its connections on time.

Whew!

Denver to Long Beach to Honolulu!

Prepping for a Long Flight

Long beach Airport

Long Beach, California, USA

January 14, 2024

The only downside was I'd be passenger 169 out of 175

boarding our full flight to Hawaii.

And Southwest has open seating.

I girded myself for a hellacious seat.

Snaking Aboard

Long beach Airport

Long Beach, California, USA

January 14, 2024

But luck was with us! Terry and I found two awesome seats

at the front of the plane that everyone else had breezed by.

I slept the whole way, after being up most of the night.

The Runways at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport

Long beach Airport

Long Beach, California, USA

January 14, 2024

In no time we were settling into our condo at the Royal Kuhio on Waikiki.

We haven't killed each other yet in our 445 square feet of living space ~ lol!

Still Under a Blanket!

Royal Kuhio

Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 14, 2024

Since then we've been taking it easy, enjoying the warmth and sunshine.

Terry has been playing a lot of pickleball, and I've been lazing around.

We have a heated swimming pool at the Royal Kuhio, and that has been wonderful!

Here are photos of things I've enjoyed seeing.

Beautiful Diamond Head

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 22, 2024

Red Hawaiian Ginger

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January16, 2024

Black-Crowned Night Heron

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 22, 2024

Waikiki Food Hall in the Royal Hawaiian Center

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 17, 2024

Enjoying the Afternoon at Tommy Bahamas

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 25, 2024

Outrigger Canoeists

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 25, 2024

Window Shopping #1

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 24, 2024

Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 25, 2024

Window Shopping #2

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 24, 2024

Tropical Breezes

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 24, 2024

Female Mallard

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 22, 2024

Royal Hawaiian Center

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January17, 2024

A Man and His Dog Enjoying the Day

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 22, 2024

A Wonderful Sand Sculpture at the Sheraton Waikiki

Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 24, 2024

Jeremy, One of the Great Bartenders at the Hideout

Hideout at the Laylow, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

January 21 2024

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date Nicole's Friday Face Off and Tom's Aloha Friday

Two Happy Faces

Honolulu, Hawaii USA

January 25, 2024

I Hate Winter!

Aurora, Colorado CO

October 12, 2023

Have a great weekend! 🌺 Aloha!!! 🌺

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be soon! 🤞

On the Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

Thursday, January 18, 2024

You're Seventy-three. You Don't Need a Platypus!

"You're seventy-three. You don't need a platypus!"

Terry said as he watched me snuggling a plush puggle

in the Taronga Zoo's gift store in Sydney, Australia.

He knows me too well.

Taronga

"But when I buy something,

it helps Taronga's work for platypuses

and other wildlife conservation efforts."

"Charity begins at home, Babe."

Like I haven't heard that before!

Less than an hour before I had experienced one of the most magical moments of my life:

I had seen a real, live platypus, a puggle named Tilly.

And she captured my heart in a nanosecond!

Tilly, on the Cover of Australian Geographic

November.December 2023

It was a dream come true, something I had promised myself I'd do

when I was a small girl in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada,

and my mother read to me about the duck-billed platypus.

I had finally seen this perplexing creature: an egg-laying monotreme

that was a mixture of a duck, a beaver, and an otter.

The platypus was such a weird and improbable animal

that the first western scientists who examined them thought they must be a hoax.

In 1799 zoologist George Shaw was sent the pelt and the bill of a platypus from Australia,

and he became the first western to describe the strange animal. (atlas obscura)

George Shaw’s Illustration of a Duck-Billed Platypus (1809)

George Kearsley Shaw

Wikipedia

Platypuses are monotremes or egg-laying mammals.

"Mono" refers to single and "treme" to hole so monotreme means "single hole."

Along with four species of echidnas (spiny anteaters),

they are the only mammals to have a cloaca

or single hole for peeing, defecating, mating, and laying eggs.

But platypuses' unusual characteristics don't end with egg-laying and cloacas.

Adult platypuses have no stomach or teeth.

Although they hatch with teeth, platypuses lose them when they start eating solid food.

The teeth are replaced by keratin discs at the back of their jaws which grind their food.

The platypus digestive track includes a small expanded pouch

containing Brunner's glands instead of digestive acids or enzymes.

These glands produce a thick fluid to help the platypus absorb nutrients.

Feeding Platypus

Wikimedia ~ Brisbane City Council ~ License

Platypuses are carnivorous and hunt live prey:

insect larvae, crayfish (yabbies), small fish, and worms

on the bottoms of rivers, lakes, streams, and ponds.

They eat 20-50% of their body weight in food each day.

When hunting in the water, the platypus closes its eyes, ears, and nostrils,

and relies on an unusual aquatic sense, electroreception.

Platypuses are one of a very few mammals known to use electroreception to find prey.

The others are echidnas and the Guiana dolphin.

As a platypus swims, it moves its head quickly from side to side

and locates small electrical signals from its prey.

Thousands of receptors lining its bill pick up the electrical signals.

(Some platypus sources refer to electrolocation, others to electroreception.)

Infographic of Platypus Electrolocation

Wikimedia ~ Chiswick Chap ~ License

This National Geographic video shows a platypus hunting for prey.

YouTube

Platypuses have other unusual characteristics.

Male platypuses are one of the few venomous mammals on earth.

The venom is produced mostly during mating season

in crural glands that are connected to hollow spurs on their hind legs.

The venom can paralyze small animals.

It won't kill a person, but it causes excruciating pain

that doesn't respond to morphine and can last days, weeks, or months.

The Venomous Spur on the Hind Leg of a Male Platypus

Wikimedia ~ License

Females platypuses are unusual in that they lack nipples to suckle their young.

Instead, their mammary glands secrete milk which collects in grooves in the mother's skin.

Baby platypuses, or puggles, lap up the milk or suck it from tufts of the mother's fur.

Female platypuses usually don't breed until they are four years old.

After mating the female builds a nest in a burrow located near water.

Following a three-week gestation period, the female lays 1 to 3 eggs.

She will incubate the eggs for about 10 days by pressing them to her belly with her tail.

When the babies hatch, they are the size of a nickel and weigh 50 to 80 grams

The fragile and vulnerable babies remain in the burrow for three or four months,

until they can swim and forage on their own.

australian.museum

Mother with Babies

Tilly, the puggle who captured my heart at the Taronga Zoo,

cannot have been on her own for very long when she was found

under a bush on the Central Coast of New South Wales.

She was weak, severely malnourished, and covered in ticks.

This made it difficult for her to swim and survive,

because her waterproofing was impaired.

She couldn't remain buoyant, dry, and maintain her temperature

properly while she was in the water.

Tilly at Taronga's Wildlife Hospital

Taronga Conservation Society

Tilly was about four months old and weighed only 280 grams

when Taronga’s Wildlife Hospital admitted her in April 2023.

She began to recover under the expert care of Taronga's platypus team

who fed her by hand 6 times a day for 2 months.

She was named Matilda after Australia's beloved women's soccer team,

the Matildas, which placed 4th in the FIFA Women's World Cup in 2023.

When I saw Tilly in November she was about 10 months old and weighed over 700 grams.

taronga.org.au

When Terry and I visited the Taronga Zoo on November 10, 2023,

the first thing I did was go to the information desk and ask about the platypuses.

An enthusiastic young volunteer told me to go see Tilly.

"She's a real show girl! And she loves people," he said.

Then he told us Tilly's story and how she hunts using electrolocation.

We headed her way to the Nguwing nura or Nocturnal Country exhibit,

a place for nocturnal animals which opened in September.

Three Spinifex Hopping Mice

Nguwing nura, Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia

November 10, 2023

Tilly was the last animal in the Nocturnal Country exhibit.

At first we could see nothing, and suddenly there she was swimming in figure eights.

She was so small!

I had always imagined platypuses to be about a yard in length,

but Tilly was barely over a foot long. I was shocked!

(I later learned that adult female platypuses are 1.2-1.8 feet/37-55 cm long

and weight 1.3-3.7 pounds/0.6 -1.7 kg). Australian Museum

Tilly knew right where we were on the left side of her habitat.

She kept swimming in figure eights, and she'd stop right in front of us

and jump straight up and down four or five times,

her bill and head launched perpendicular above the surface of the water.

I felt a powerful connection with Tilly which is what made the experience magical.

After five minutes Terry literally dragged me away.

He thought Tilly was cute,

but the Seal Show was starting soon and he wanted a good seat.

Tilly Starting or Finishing a Figure Eight (Black Spot, Lower Left)

I literally could not see her fast enough to get a good picture with my iPhone

Nguwing nura, Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia

November 10, 2023

The seals were great fun, but I'll take Tilly over them any time.

Spectacular Tricks

Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia

November 10, 2023

I will never forget those magical minutes with Tilly.

They literally were one of the highlights of my life.

Thank goodness for all the people and organizations working to preserve

platypuses and the other amazing Australian animals.

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date and Nicole's Friday Face Off.

For Rain's TADD, I am sharing a piece of public art in Sydney

known informally as "The Big Matchsticks."

The matches were sculpted by Australian artist Brett Whiteley

who named his creation "Almost Once."

The sculpture is a reflection on life and death

with the burnt out match representing a life well lived.

He gifted it to the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1991,

shortly before his death in 1992. cultureshock-adventure

Almost Once

Art Gallery NSW, Sydney, Australia

November 9, 2023

For Nicole's FFO, I'm sharing the face of the animal my brother

Roy most wants to see, a Tasmanian devil.

A Tasmanian Devil

Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Australia

November 10, 2023

Have a great weekend! 🌺 Aloha!!! 🌺

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be soon! 🤞

George Shaw’s Illustration of a Duck-Billed Platypus (1809): General Research Division, The New York Public Library. "Duck-billed Platypus." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1809. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-5117-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Friday, January 5, 2024

Contemplating 74 in '24

I'm looking forward to 2024 with a sense of hope and optimism,

although I'm in a different frame of mind than I have been in the past.

I more keenly feel how fragile and fleeting life is,

and I am aware that a lot of my life is behind me and less before me.

I'm not in a morbid or anxious state of mind because of my age.

Rather, I am grateful and looking toward more experiences and adventures.

Waiting to Start a Big Challenge ~ Climbing the Coathanger

Sydney, Australia

November 9, 2023

Last week a friend asked me how can I be cheery and hopeful,

given my age and the health issues I have faced since mid-2021.

I said every day is a gift, and I am grateful for each one.

The odds of me existing, being born, are incalculable.

Restart time at the big bang and I would not be.

How can I not be cheery and hopeful? I got to be.

I Get to Be!

with My Parents, Sara and Donald MacBeath

Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada

Shorty After March 18, 1950

I think about things I'm grateful for every morning when I wake up,

and I'm extra grateful when I go out into the kitchen and see Terry making coffee ~ lol!

Terry's First Chore Every Morning!

Aurora, Colorado

January 4, 2024

I've been contemplating what to focus on in 2024,

and I've chosen two words to help me in my quest to stop chasing my tail ~

Definitely something I want to accomplish this year!

The first is the German word eigenzeit.

It means the "time inherent to the process itself"

or allowing things to take the time they take.

I am always trying to do things faster, and I repeatedly get frustrated

and stressed when they take longer than I think they should.

Oliver Burkeman, in his book Four Thousand Weeks,

referred to his two-year-old toddler several times.

He said that, like it or not, you're going to move at that toddler's pace,

because there is no hurrying a toddler who doesn't want to hurry.

(I suppose you could toss the kiddo over your shoulder

and drag him or her away, but we all know how that ends!)

Moving at Jackson's Pace (See people waiting the background).)

Point Prim, Nova Scotia, Canada

July 29, 2023

My second word is incrementalism.

It means working through a project by using

many small steps instead of a few large ones.

I've been a binger all my life.

I've spent countless all-nighters pushing to complete some assignment, paper, or project.

Can I change my behavior at this point in my life?

After reading Oliver Burkeman's book

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals,

I believe I can do it. You're never too old to learn.

In his book, Burkeman refers to a conclusion drawn by psychology professor Robert Boice.

Boice studied the writing habits of his colleagues throughout his career

and concluded that the most productive and successful writers

were those academics who made writing a smaller part of their day.

This made it easier and more convenient for them to tackle writing daily;

and over the longterm, they produced much more. (Burkeman, p. 181)

Boice's conclusion interests me as a writer, but it can be applied to anything.

It's incrementation at work.

On a Binge Fueled by Coffee

Aurora, Colorado, USA

October 15, 2015

Another thing I've been thinking about is my long walk,

where I'm currently circumnavigating Greenland.

I started walking on June 9, 2011, three days after I retired,

and from the beginning I recorded the miles I walked and plotted them on maps.

Over the past 11½ years, I've made adjustments in how I calculated my miles walked,

especially when I've had to walk in the house because of bad weather

or even in the hospital because of medical issues.

If I walked 50 feet dragging an IV machine, I recorded those 50 steps!

As of Tuesday, January 2nd, I have walked 8866.9 miles.

Doggedly Determined

Aurora, Colorado, USA

Date Unknown

I walked from my home in Aurora, Colorado

to St. Anthony on the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula in Newfoundland.

Then I turned around and walked through Labrador to Killiniq, Quebec.

I crossed the Labrador Sea in my "Jesus boots"

and hoofed it to Prins Christianssund in Greenland.

Then I about-turned and started walking clockwise around coastal Greenland,

heading for Ittoqqortoormiit (an idea my friend Pat Hatt had put in my head).

But I fell seriously behind recording the miles on my map.

On Tuesday, when I finally caught up, I discovered

that I was 789 miles past Ittoqqortoormiit and had reached Tasiilaq!

I only have 420.8 miles to go to reach Prins Christianssund again.

I'm going to make it this year!!!

Ittoqqortoormiit and Tasiilaq, Greenland

(Prins Christianssund is just left of the SW corner of the London rectangle.)

Flying Home from Reykjavik, Iceland, In-flight Map

September 25, 2018

This walking project over the years has kept me fitter

and allowed me to indulge in my love of maps, geography, and learning.

Who knows how far I'll get before I croak?

So, you see, I have lots of reasons to feel hopeful and optimistic in this new year!

I'm linking to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date and Nicole's Friday Face Off.

I have one funny face to share with you this week, my great niece Ella's.

Her mother Jeannie captured Ella giving her best impression

of an inflatable Christmas yard decoration.

Photo by Jeannie MacBeath

Have a great weekend!

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue

My next post will be soon! 🤞

Books Read in 2024

"5 Languages of Love: The Secret to Love That Lasts" by Gary Chapman
"At Home in the World" by Joyce Maynard
"Cockroaches" by Jo Nesbo
"Death's End" by Cixin Liu
"Eruption" by Michael Crichton and James Patterson
"In Darkness" by L. Diane Wolfe
"In My Time of Dying" by Sebastian Junger
"Nothing to Fear" by Julie McFadden, RN
"The Bat" by Jo Nesbo
"The Dark Forest" by Cixin Liu
"The Frozen River" by Ariel Lawhon
"The Last to Vanish" by Megan Miranda
"The Montauk Monster" by Hunter Shea
"The Road to Character" by David Brooks
"The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller
"The Twist of a Knife" by Anthony Horowitz
"The Uninhabital Earth: Life After Warming" by David Wallace-Wells
"The Women" by Kristin Hannah
"Where the Crawdads Sing" by Delia Owens
"Writing the Shadow" by Joanna Penn

Pages

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Ten Below! Time to go!

Thursday, January 18, 2024

You're Seventy-three. You Don't Need a Platypus!

Friday, January 5, 2024

Contemplating 74 in '24