whale talker

 I’m going to try to post this today, which is The Winter Solstice. If not, well here’s some pictures you may enjoy. Happy Solstice for sure!

                       

                   

Had to have a sunrise bonfire, even jumped over a part of it….old Viking tradition.

This was my Solstice morning layout – Medicine Wheel, central stone with Viking tablet of the Ægishjálmur on it (the helm of awe), Solstice Stone with Estonian sword from the Battle of Muhumaa (the last battle fought in the north country to preserve Paganism and resist the Judeo-Christian-Muslim one god). In the left background is an Inuit “Inuksuk” to aid in the hunt. Rock with yellow top is the Equinox stone.

                  

Speaking of Paganism check out the Celtic God over my head. This was in 1992 when I had the whole island of Innisfallen to myself and I found this early Celtic monastery to roam.

                  

In my most recent post I announced my 71^st birthday and had some pictures of myself. Thought I’d throw this one in – 1966, graduate school and the beginning of my political/environmental radicalism, serious, no?

                                

 Every now and again there are some real wonderful things to be proud of as a human being. For me, many of them are in regard to our space program. Voyager I, that we sent out in 1977, is now 11 BILLION miles from the sun and is STILL sending back information. Please just chew on that a bit. We had no idea it would be able to withstand the rigors of space that long - now that’s technology I honor, and am willing to pay for.

                

Voyager I - beautiful, elegant, sophisticated, functional

I was able to go kayaking out to The WZ three times in one week and it was delightful. No encounters but the tranquility I feel when drifting on Grandmother’s bosom is beyond description. One time I just did not want to come in, I would have been completely satisfied to simply become part of her and drift into the world of pure spirit. Another day I went out with my buddy Alan, drifting, talking (always a treat with Alan), feeling, laughing and sharing our love for the sea. The next evening we went to our local cantina and watched the 49er’s beat The Patriots, saw the international space station fly by and conversed again under a sky filled with stars (the Andromeda galaxy was visible even with the naked eye). Chased two HBs the third day but no luck with an encounter but so good to see them coming back.

                      

These were not the two whales but a couple from a year ago that I followed in my kayak.

 A couple of days latter I went down to the beach for my workout and was gifted with a “bird day”. As I worked out on the beach all these beauties showed up to share the morning. When I look at birds and realize that they are the evolutionary descendants of The Dinosaurs, I am awed and love them even more.

Yellow Footed Gull

                             

                                                               Great Blue Heron

                            

                                                                Turkey Vulture

                              

                                                                 Great Egret

                              

                                                                          Osprey

                              

                                                                       Brown Pelican

                         

                                                 Belted Kingfisher        Tom Munsson    

I had my annual meeting with Jorge Urban at The University in La Paz on the 13^th. I turned in my 2012 IDs and data and we discussed whale world. I have mentioned before that Jorge is arguably Mexico’s main whale man and I am honored to be working with him – he’s also great fun to talk to! Some topics: the MMPA continues to look good and could be implemented in the next few months, good numbers of humpbacks registered for 2012 and we expect a good 2013 season, my son’s adopted whale “Odin” is an anomaly in that he has returned to my grid four times in five years – very rare and finally a whale I saw while kayaking a few weeks back did turn out to have been a Fin Whale which I have never seen before.

I gave a power point presentation in Los Barriles on the 17^th, 30 people showed up, sold some books, 3 whales adopted (117 have been adopted thus far) and got lots of strokes. Thank you to Pam and the other folks at Baja Land and Homes Realty who sponsored the evening.

                 

Jorge had this up on Face Book last week. I have swum eyeball to eye ball with six of these critters, the top one was indeed large…hoohah!

This also from Jorge. Unfortunately dead but this is a Pygmy Right Whale, thought extinct for 2 million years. Anybody want to look for some Plesiosaurs?

          

                                                           Pygmy Right whale

On to a new year, eh! Hope your trip will remain long and strange!