11.07.2021 Rome - At last

 It is hard for me to believe that I had not visited Rome in the past. My trip was scheduled in 2020 was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. But finally, the opportunity arose and I had a wonderful visit. I was able to visit 6 of the 7 pilgrimage churches of Rome, see the Pope twice, visit the Vatican Museum, the catacombs, and the colosseum and enjoy the street and river walk scenes and some good food. I always say, one needs to leave one thing to do so you can go back. I will need to return to see the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem (don't let the name fool you, it is in Rome!). While I was at that seventh Church, they closed it for the afternoon just as I arrived and I just did not have time to return. Next time, for sure.

I arrived on a beautiful Autumn morning with clear blue skies and a very comfortable temperature. A really nice driver Maurizio picked me up at the airport and pointed out the important sites - both on my way to the hotel as well as on the way back to the airport at the end of the trip.

This is my first view of St Peter's Basilica, taken from the top of the driveway of the hotel where I was staying. The hotel was run by the Pallottine Missionary Sisters and is located at 7B Viale delle Mura Aurelie. They were wonderful, helpful and delightful. Take a look at the cupula - I climbed to the top. That was an adventure on its own!

Swiss Army Guards. People are people everywhere - cover your nose! We had to show our CDC vaccination cards at most sites (Green Pass is the European equivalent). masks were required and an N-95 mask was required to take the Scavi Vatican Tour to see St Peter's burial site.

Pope Francis from the balcony overlooking Vatican Square.

St. Peter's Basilica outside view and view of the interior and Michelangelo's Pieta. The church is absolutely beautiful and the paintings magnificent. I decided not to add photographs of every church or paintings that I viewed as you can find them online or in books. But I did want to add these as they are quite special. I visited the Basilica twice, was able to see a wedding and attend two Masses and go to confession by a Jesuit priest who served in South Boston. These experiences made for a very special trip. Look at that cupula again and imagine I am up at the top!

Rome is not a very big city, but it can involve a lot of walking. Buses and trains are readily available and I did use them regularly. I loved walking along these ancient streets and people watching. Well, shall we say dog and bird watching, too.

Beautiful bride at St Ignatius Church.

Was able to visit the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain, and see Largo Argentino and took two train trips out of town, one to Orvieto and the other to Assisi.

Mass at Saint Jerome's - a Croatian Church, on the Sunday afternoon of my arrival.

View of Vatican Square from the cupula.

Cannot go that way, even if you are a visiting nun! Swiss guard in a blue uniform.

  

The colosseum and a relative of Fionnegan and Gunnarr?

  
Typical cuties.

 

St Patrick's well in Orvieto - If I can climb up to the top of a cupula, I can climb down to the bottom of a well.

Cathedral of Orvieto. Beautiful.

Another animal photographer!

Funicular in Orvieto.

Rooftop.

La Pergola, a very good restaurant. had wild boar - excellent.

Papal audience in the auditorium.

  

       

Assisi with the setting sun.

She was a character, singing and dancing at the Assisi train station.

Statue of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Chapel inside the church - location of his death.

Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi.

Just up the road from the hotel - a great parrot hangout! 

Birds and a puppy - what a great morning stroll.

   

Of all of the magnificent churches visited, my favorite is the relatively unadorned old church. It was beautiful in its simplicity, complete with organ music and a cloistered nun singing.

  

Fun signs in a cafe.

 

Vatican museum. 

No photographs allowed of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. So I have just one. Lucky shot before getting told no pictures.

Museum guard. Everyone is texting. Rodin's The Thinker.

   

Spiral staircase.

St Anthony. My Dad was named after this Saint. So it was important to visit this Church.

Protests against mandatory covid vaccinations. Just like home but more balloons!

Even included the statue of St Francis.

Walk along the Tiber River.  This was my last day, had to pick up my covid PCR tests to board the plane back home, so took the time to stroll along the river. It was a beautiful day, sunshine, birds, and boating on the river. If I go back, I will spend more time walking along the river, the river walk was safe and broad and it is good for the soul!

Another pink kayak - looks like mine!

My favorite view of the Bridge of Angels.

The end!

It was a great trip and I could have easily spent another week there wandering around the city and visiting the countryside.

Until next time, please say well.

09/19/2021 Day tripping in Maine

 It is an annual adventure, sometimes two to three times a year. But I do my best to make time for a Maine road trip to a favorite beach or two. It is an easy round trip to the Kennebunkport area - not too far to drive up early in the morning, walk the beaches, visit the town, have lunch, then head home.

This trip started with a visit to Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge. It is comprised of 9125 acres along the coast of Wells, Maine, dedicated to the environmentalist Rachel Carson. Its purpose is to protect the salt marches and estuaries for migratory birds. 

Every time I visit I see something new and different. The refuge is along the coast, but no easy beach access. The trail meanders through the woods and along the Little River.  I am still reading her book "Silent Spring", at some point I hope to finish it. She had a lot of insight about the environment and the need for all of us to do our parts to protect it. With the exception of the updated information we have now on chemistry, you would have thought she wrote it just yesterday. Her observations and concerns still exist today. The initiatives to save the planet did not start with the current generation but is a continuum of a lot of work done by many people past and present and hopefully in the future. We all need to be mindful of our role to protect all creatures and the environment.

A nicely positioned bench to allow one to sit and contemplate the meaning of life. Or to contemplate why there are so many mosquitoes here and why are they biting me. Only my face and hands were exposed and I had bites on the palms of my hands as well as face. 

A motorboat anchored off shore. Maybe doing a little fishing?

A nice and peaceful salt river, ebbs and flows with the tide.

My next stop was to one of my favorite beach walks in Kennebunkport. Before dogs I would stay at a little inn along the coast and walk along the promenade at sunrise. The inn has since changed hands and the beach is now zoned for locals or  you pay $25 (very steep price no doubt to discourage nonlocal visitors), but I found one parking spot a bit away and seized the opportunity to walk along the beach for a while.

It was low tide - a wide variation between high and low tide beach access.

Next stop was to the Franciscan Guest House where there is a grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. These are peaceful and pleasant grounds and I enjoyed the quiet time.

  

It was lunch time and the sign at the White Barn Inn said wanderers welcome. So I stopped there for lunch as I had often thought I would like to try it. Lunch was pleasant and the atmosphere is interesting - an inside of a barn, compete with replicate barnyard animals. Perhaps the best part was reading an old book on agriculture that was used to hold open the windows.

Since there was no parking at my favorite Parsons beach I ventured up the coast to Goose Rocks beach. I walked for four miles along the shore, a very pleasant walk indeed.

 An inviting colorful umbrella. Take note, the woman is on her cell phone. Just cannot leave them turned off, can we?

The last time I was here there were a lot of terns and dunlins and of course sea gulls. Not many shore birds here except a few seagulls. This one was very patient with the photography session!

This fellow was having a great time splashing in the water.

Roses are still in bloom

And the beach was not too crowded. Everyone could find a little space for themselves.

The next stop was an impromptu stop at a new location for me. What a pleasant surprise and a place I will definitely return. It is the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve.  It is an active farm and has many trails, including one down to the beach at Drake Island. So off I followed that trail.

The beach was beautiful and there are signs posted so that we do not settle down on the "private" part of the beach.  But there is room enough, especially when no one else was there! It might be few people want to walk that far (0.6 miles) or it might be that it was at the end of the afternoon and everyone was heading home. But I had the place to myself - lovely!

Beautiful estuary.

Apple trees lined the trail.

A scenic rock in the estuary.

Sunflowers in the garden.

And a mockingbird to sing for your enjoyment. If you look at its left leg,  you will see that it is banded.

There were more coastal roses in all stages of bloom.

A great blue heron - painted along a building wall.

And wild flowers growing along the trails and parking lot.

There were more trails to hike and I definitely will return and enjoy the nature and scenery. Maybe will even pack a lunch next time and spend a bit more time along the beach.

What a lovely day. The weather was perfect, I had my lovely walks along the shore in a few different places, was able to find a new site and was totally refreshed as I returned home. yes, indeed, a great day.

Hope you all are well and have been able to enjoy some quiet time for yourself.

Until next time...... And yes, the boys are doing well!

09.05.2021 Wolf Hollow Ipswich Massachusetts

 A couple of years ago an acquaintance told me about a sanctuary for wolves near Boston. That did come as a surprise as we tend to think of them in a much more rural setting. The facility was essentially close during the covid pandemic and has recently reopened for public tours. As luck would have it, there was one ticket left and I snatched it!

A gray wolf.

They are truly beautiful animals. However, we must keep in mind that these wolves at the sanctuary have acclimated to humans and do seem more like pet dogs in this enclosure than wild animals. 

The visitors are protected by two chain link fences which enclose the habitat of the wolves.. There is a pathway in between the fences for the workers but not for visitors. This double enclosure did make it a bit challenging for photographs, but I managed a good photograph  or two. 

We are greeted by a gentleman who is inside the enclosures and directly interacts with the wolves and one wolf-dog hybrid.  He was very conformable with them and as important, they were very playful with him.

The hybrid dog-wolf arrived from New York where the shelter there quickly noticed he was more than a dog on the basis of his demeanor.

They like tummy rubs, too!

Look at those yellow eyes!

They also play like puppies! They seemed to like the attention of the visitors and when we turned our attention to another enclosure they started chasing each other - a true attention getting ploy.

Look at those teeth!

This following information is adapted from the web page of the Wolf Hollow, Ipswich, MA:

The North American Wolf Foundation (NAWF) was founded by Paul C. Soffron in 1988. To this day, Paul’s original mission is to preserve the wolf in the wild, through education and exposure and remains the cornerstone of the work they do everyday. Within a year from being established, NAWF broke ground in Ipswich, Massachusetts and during this time our current directors, Joni and Zee Soffron, acquired behavioral and animal husbandry training from leading wolf experts at Wolf Park, a world renown wolf research facility in Battle Ground, Indiana.

By 1995 Wolf Hollow had become an established member of the community of educational conservation organizations for wild canids in the U.S and, in November that year, Wolf Hollow hosted the Northeast Wolf Recovery conference with representatives from 16 organizations. Their  achievements coincided with our nation’s milestone project of the recovery of the gray wolf in the lower 48 states centered around Yellowstone National Park.

As early as 2002, we began to see the start of a political tug of war that has the North American wolf, yet again, caught in the crosshairs. In May 2011, Senator Jon Tester (D) - Montana, inserted controversial language into a standard federal budget bill. Slipped in as a rider, mostly unnoticed by the general public, federal protections for the gray wolf, granted by the Endangered Species Act of 1973, were removed in 6 states (ID, MT, WY, MN, WI, and MI). Further language inserted into the rider attempts to ban citizens, as well as court systems, from challenging the wolf delisting decision while simultaneously preserving anti-wolf litigation.

 Over the last few decades we, as a community, have made great strides championing for the protection of the wolves in the wild. Though we may have won many battles... the war is far from over! Now, more than ever, Wolf Hollow is committed to our mission to protect the gray wolf and it’s habitat.

Chicory - one of my absolutely favorite wild flowers.

If you wonder about Shorty and Fionnegan and Gunnarr - they are still really good boys. But unbeknownst to any of us, we have a leopard in the tree. According to Fionn, there is a leopard in our tree. May not be as far fetched as it seems, there is a mountain lion in our town - someone photographed it in their yard. So why not a leopard!!!!!! To read about this fun story about Fionn and his view of the world, go to Shorty's blog: mydogShorty.blogspot.com.

  

Until next time.....Stay well.