Moose at the Window

   

   

#52

02.21.10

   

Photo

   

Earlier this morning I was enjoying the paper and breakfast when Q noticed a moose resting near our garage entry window.  I took some shots (see below), and even wrote out most of a blog entry to go with it.  The thing was almost done when Q came up to me and said "Dad, that moose keeps staring at me."  So I went in to the living room, and sure enough the little thing had come around the back of the house and was eating our wintering shrubs and bushes, taking the occasional glance in the house.  So at that point I took what is now the featured shot above, and a few more to add below. 
  
What a relief!  I have been pursuing the poor moose within the Anchorage bowl like an ill-bred paparazzo ever since starting this iPhone photo blog.  The moose are just so crafty that everyone has the same experience: when you try to find a moose, it is next to impossible to do so.  When you aren't looking for one, they'll show up right outside your window.  I've taken at least 20 moose photos over 4 or 5 different sightings in the last few months... but usually the lighting or focus made them unacceptable for posting here.  After all, I'm trying for "beautiful and/or interesting".  So it makes me happy that this creature decided to end my pursuit on peaceful terms today.
  
Today's moose looks like he's not even a year old, so I would have thought his mother would be around.  She wasn't, at least that I could see.  There's a regular mother with two calves in our neighborhood, and I think this little fellow is the one who spent most of Memorial Day 2009 hanging around our house.  He's always welcome here!
   
Here are a few extra shots also taken with the iPhone camera:
    

 

       

 

My boy and the moose.

      

Compare this iPhone shot with the Canon shot down below.  It is the photo I was going to feature, and I am much more pleased with the one I finally got.  Which is not to say I don't love my Grandma Abby; our almost-14 year old Himalayan shown spying on the moose.

      

    

 Well, hello there!

     

Now here are some shots taken with the Canon Xsi:
  

 

A similar shot to the almost-featured photo...

  

  

I just adore this photo.  Abigail has been such a lovely member of our family.  She is our first pet, and she's been with us since 1996.  She'd keep T company in our tiny Philadelphia apartment / home while I was away in the evenings, and then she would keep me company while T was sleeping and I was up studying late.

  

Music

 
It surprises me that I am up to post #52 and just getting around to featuring a track by one of my very most favorite folk bands, Fleet Foxes.  Well, calling them folk is admittedly my own classification.  They refer to themselves as crafting "harmonic baroque pop".  It is true that they have amazing harmonies, and I think their sound is more full and realized than a band they are often compared to - My Morning Jacket.  It's totally a question of taste, many or most probably like My Morning Jacket more, but the Fleet Foxes have my ear.  (I think this is the second time I've dissed MMJ in this blog... but don't worry, I like them and will feature them down the line too.)
 
Would it irk or bore you if I mentioned they are from Seattle, and play for the Sub Pop label?  It is just so amazing that the Seattle area, the Pacific Northwest really, has put out such amazing music for two strong decades.  I have featured so many of them here you'd think I was born and raised there.  Maybe that's why I choose to live in the Pacific NorthNorthwest now.  (Or is this the 'NorthNorthNorthwest'?)
 
Ragged Wood is the third track off the wonderfully complete self titled album 'Fleet Foxes'.  The song has nothing to do with moose, but there's an uplifting vibe that I thought would go well with the happiness a young visitor at the window can bring on a weekend morning.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
 

Parting Comments

 
I happily awoke this morning to my boy Q feeling much better from the 48-hour stomach bug that he likely caught from me earlier in the week.  Sadly, I also awoke to my wife T in the initial horrific stages of the same... Sigh.  Aren't these bugs supposed to be passed from the kid at school to his parents?  I feel terrible that it was me who started this round!  I phoned my family in Utah to make sure none of them are sick yet, and for now they are not.  
 
I can just see it now... Geraldo Rivera standing in my yard surrounded by camera and production crews, yelling at our home through a megaphone: "Come out!  We demand answers!  We know it was YOU that started the worldwide pandemic... the Arctic Flu!  You, you Fiend of the Planet!"  Hmm... on second thought, if he does show up it would give me a chance to legitimately take a shot at his forehead with my pellet gun (I've been fantasizing about that since I was a teen; which probably began during the "Al Capone's Vault" fiasco of '86, I think).
  
Until tomorrow... thank you for looking, listening and reading.  CCE