Thoughts For The Day From Papa ‘a

Good Morning All!

Here’s to Cheryl Fletcher and Celeste Culora (mother of our beloved Sarah), who celebrated their birthdays yesterday (July 18th)!  I hope you enjoyed your special day of celebration.  The world is a better place because of you two!  And Happy Birthday today to Sarah’s brother, Nate Culora, and to our friend Bill Sweigert.  Have a great day today on your birthday and lots of good wishes go with both of you!  And Happy Birthday to actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who turns 43 today; to singer Vikki Carr, who is 79 today; to singer/musician Commander Cody, who turns 75 today; to rock singer/musician Alan Gorrie of “Average White Band” fame, who is 73 today; and to rock musician Jason McGerr of “Death Cab For Cutie” fame, who turns 45 today….here’s to all of you!

Well, it was quite a trip to Iceland with family!  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I would have spent time in Iceland, of all places.  Well, it just goes to show that when you get an invitation from family (kids and/or grandkids) to travel with them, are you going to say anything but “YES”?  And what an adventure it was!

Among the many highlights was getting to see the elusive Arctic Fox in the wild (courtesy of my daughter, Andrea (Andy), who had a keen eye out for an Arctic Fox sighting as we traveled from the fishing village of Flateyri in the Westfjords area of Iceland to Dynjandi Waterfall, an amazing waterfall (one of many in the Westfjords) located in a remote fjord with a view out to the ocean.  One of the greatest features of the fjords in Iceland are that they all stretch out majestically toward the ocean…but more on the fjords later…I was so thankful that Andy had the sharp eye out for the Arctic Fox, as that was one of the main things I had on my bucket list for our Icelandic adventure.  And we were not disappointed!  It was located along a hillside not far from the highway.  It had black/brown (bordering on a blueish tinge) coloring and wasn’t very big…Arctic foxes are a bit smaller than North American foxes (i.e. red foxes).  They are known to be extremely shy, as our foxes in general, so to see one in the wild was a real treat.  Thanks, Andy, for keeping your eyes out for the little fox we got to see.  He remained within eyesight for a brief while…enough time to get some good photos of it.  I’ll try to share some photos with you when I figure out how to post photos on my blog!  I’m still learning “new tricks!”  Come to find out the Arctic fox primarily hunts seabirds and bird eggs in the fjords area of Iceland.  Most are located in the coastal areas of Iceland, as the one we got to see…others live in the tundra areas of Iceland (in the interior).  They feed on voles and other below ground creatures.  Arctic foxes are the only mammals native to Iceland.  Other than Icelandic sheep and horses, there are not many other animals on Iceland (Arctic foxes are known to hunt newborn lambs from time to time).  The Arctic fox comes in two main color morphs….brown (termed blue) and white.  “Blue” foxes keep their color all year long but the fur bleaches at the end of winter so they look blond.  The white foxes are bi-colored in the summer, greyish on the back and dorsal parts of the body and whitish on the belly and ventral parts.  The face is a mixture of grey and white pattern with a “teddy bear” appearance.  The one we saw definitely had a cute face!  As was the case for us, it is more common to meet the “blue” fox.  The genetics behind the two color morphs are well known, the blue is dominant and the white is recessive.  Consequently, “blue” parents can have white cubs but white parents can oly have white cubs.  Living for the Arctic Fox is not easy in Iceland.  The conditions are harsh to say the least in the fall & winter months and, even though Arctic foxes can have large litters, many of the cubs die early due to lack of adequate food sources for the mother and the threat posed by adult males.  If you ever get to Iceland, you’ll want to stop by the Arctic Fox Center in Sudivik.  It has lots of info on the Arctic Fox and currently has one orphaned Arctic Fox in captivity there.

Another highlight for me was visiting Dynjandi Falls in the Westfjords…it’s a spectacular waterfall tucked into the head of a remote fjord…the water travels down a unique geologic formation of a tiered outcropping of rock which gives it a distinctive fan look with a thin layer (a veil effect) of water cascading over the rocks.  Truly magnificent…you can stand up close to it and feel a cool mist envelop you!  A must see if you’re in that neck of the woods!

Among the many special places we visited in Iceland, was “Skrudu”, one of the oldest gardens in Iceland.  It’s located in a remote fjord called Dyrafjordur in a place called Nupur.  It’s a sweet spot in the world, for sure.  Lots of native plants & flowers grow there…amazingly so given the harsh conditions of the winters there…it’s tucked into a sheltered spot along the fjord, which may be the primary reason for it to have prospered over the years.  It was started by Sigtryggur Gudlaugsson, who at age 43 became the parish priest at Nupur.  He brought with him an enthusiasm for growing vegetables and a general interest in horticulture.  One interesting aspect of Nupur is that it was the site of a secondary school for many years, where students from all over the region attended.  We visited the school grounds which has a couple of dormitories that are now used as vacation rentals.  The school closed around 1980.  The parish priest there, Gudlaugsson, saw an opportunity to start gardening in connection with the school there.  In his writings, he stated that the garden had three main purposes:  1) to assist the teaching of botany & horticulture, especially the cultivation of trees (which is quite a challenge in Iceland, given it’s year round climate); 2)  to show the students which plants can be grown in Icelandic soil, even if infertile, if care and precision were the guiding lights and local weather conditions were taken into account; and 3) to introduce the students to different types of vegetables  and teach them to appreciate them as a necessary part of a healthy diet.  The garden plot we visited was laid out in the summer of 1905, and work was begun on the building of the walls.  Several kinds of vegetables were grown the first summer and precise records were kept (e.g. of quantities at harvest time).  Skrudur was officially opened on August 7, 1909, which coincidentally was approximately 150 years after the first potatoes were planted in Icelandic soil.  From what we could see in our travels around Iceland, the only vegetable crop grown is potatoes (i.e. the limited farmland that is dedicated to a crop other than hay).  We asked the locals about how they obtain other vegetables (i.e. carrots, lettuce, etc.) and fruit and they said that most everything has to be imported due to the short growing season on Iceland.  Skrudur is definitely an oasis in the middle of the Westfjords and a lovely place to visit and spend some time enjoying the flowers, plants and trees here.  Truly a unique place in the world!

Stay tuned for more on our Icelandic adventure in future blogs…

Here’s the funny comic relief for the day…it comes from one of my favorite cartoons, “Dilbert”:

Dilbert’s boss:  “All of you should be more like Asok.  He is in the office before I arrive and still here when I go home.”

Asok:  “That is because housing costs are so high that I live here in the office and sleep in a bathroom stall.”

Dilbert’s boss:  “That still leaves a lot of stalls for the rest of you.”

Here is the fact for the day:

Wildfires have already burned 332,791 acres in the U.S. this year (as of July 1, 2019).  There is an average of 200 wildfires in the U.S. every day.  Those fires burn about 19,000 acres of land every day.

This is according to the Arbor Day Foundation.  If you are interested in joining the effort to promote the replanting of trees lost to wildfire, visit the Arbor Day Foundation’s web site on the internet and/or if you’re interested in becoming involved with creating a “Firewise” program for your neighborhood/community, please visit the Firewise web site on the internet.  You’ll be glad you did!  I’m involved with the “Firewise” effort in our community in Montana (where our place “The Tana House” is located) and the “Firewise” program has made a big difference in helping prepare property owners make their homes and surrounding forest areas more “fire resilient.”  I’m also happy to answer any questions you might have about these programs.

I came across the 1969 Topps Football Card for Mike Lucci of Detroit Lions fame…Mike was born in 1939 at Ambridge, Pennsylvania and played linebacker for the Cleveland Browns for three seasons from 1962 to 1964 and nine seasons with the Detroit Lions from 1965 to 1973.  He played college football at the University of Tennessee and the University of Pittsburgh.  He was a 6’2″, 230-pound middle linebacker known for his ability to play through injury.  His football card describes him as follows:  “The powerful linebacker is a reliable performer with speed and natural ability.  Mike is pretty good at picking off an enemy pass if it’s in his territory.”  Lucci’s defensive coverage abilities earned him a total of 21 career interceptions with Detroit.  He returned four of those interceptions for touchdowns.  He was voted by this teammates as the Lions’ Defensive Most Valuable Player from 1968-1971.  He was named to the Pro Bowl following the 1971 season.  Lucci had something to do with the end of Joe Namath’s football career, as Namath blew out his knee in a 1971 pre-season game trying to tackle Lucci after he had intercepted one of Namath’s passes.  After retiring from the NFL, Lucci became a successful business executive and entrepreneur.  He was the former president of Bally Total Fitness, which at the time he was its President, Bally was the largest commercial of fitness centers in the United States.  He currently divides his time between homes in Michigan and Palm Beach County, Florida.  He was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.  Here’s to Mike Lucci and all of you Detroit Lions fans out there!

Here are some thoughts for the day:

“I practice recovery shots because I know I’m going to be in the trees.”

—Ryan Stasik, bassist for the band “Umphrey’s McGee”, as quoted in Golf Digest, August, 2019

“What I’m fighting for now in my work…for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks…poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project.”

—Gwendolyn Brooks, American poet (1917-2000)

“To have Faith in Christ means, of course, trying to do all that He says.  There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice.  Thus if you have really handed yourself over to obey Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him.  But trying in a new way, a less worried way.  Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already.  Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside of you.”

—C.S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity,” as quoted in C.S. Lewis’ Little Book Of Wisdom:  Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature (2018)

Here’s to a great Friday and lots of love always!

Press on,

Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)