All aboard!
Posted: January 13, 2008 Filed under: Lotsa Lhasa Info 1 CommentYour second stop, as you Armchair Travel, is Chessler’s Books. Specialing in mountaineering, rock climbing and exploration, they carry a lot of books about the Himalayas. Several months ago I ordered an out-of-print book and discovered they’re located right here in Evergreen! This is Micheal Chessler’s tribute to Sir Edmund Hillary:
Ed Hillary on his deck in August 2007, holding the
Simond Ice Axe he used on Mount Everest in 1953.
The symbolism of that achievement was instantly apparant to people all over the world, as proof that humans can overcome any obstacle, even those that the experts say are unassailable, and become as infinite as man may undergo. Hillary at first felt that the adulation and awards heaped upon him were misplaced, and that he was a simple man who was just in the right place at the right time.
But the act of being called a special person had an amazing effect on him, as he became what people thought of him, and even more than what they thought, because he was real, he did his work on his own terms, with utter honesty and lack of guile. He tried to devote his life to one thing, helping the people of Nepal who had given so much to the visiting climbers. And by doing that, he had the effect of causing all of us to realize that he was a selfless man who used his fame only for doing good works, and not his own enrichment. He became a symbol of the good that one person can do for fellow man, and perhaps gave us a glimpse of what the meaning of life itself is.
I had the honor of knowing him, as we met with him every few years when he would autograph books for us. To avoid the time constraints of meeting with him in the middle of his busy travel schedule in hotels in big American cities, in 2001 we started visiting him in New Zealand where we could work leisurely. We made sizeable donations to his foundation, the Sir Edmund Hillary Himalayan Trust, and over the years we are proud that it amounted to many tens of thousands of dollars.
The last time we met was August 2007, and we could tell his health was failing, but he was still in good spirits and invited us to visit even though he was getting weaker. On Wednesday January 9, 2008 his wife June and I exchanged e-mails, as I inquired about his health, and she told me he was in hospital, but was feeling better and was coming home in a day or two. Sadly, that was not to be as he died in his sleep that night.
Michael Chessler
Zeke and Sadie in their Christmas haircuts
Posted: January 13, 2008 Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos 2 Comments
Sadie’s Transformation
Posted: January 13, 2008 Filed under: Art and Photography, FFT Lhasa Apsos Leave a commentI took this photo National Specialty week 2007 in Oregon, as the early morning sun filtered through the window. It captured Sadie’s essence. Sweet. Light.
Created before I knew anything about depth of field, composition or capturing the subject, it’s one of those photos that works…for precisely those reasons. Depth of Field. Composition. Capturing the subject. The website is designed around a color palette of black, white and red. I wanted to use this photo in a prominent place, so I changed it to black and white and designed the What’s New blog header, which you see at the top of this page.
Not long after Sadie went to live with Katy and Ken, Katy asked, “Would you mind sending me a copy of that beautiful Sadie pic that you use as a banner for the blog? A large size, about 1024 x 768 pixels, if you have it that size. I want to paint her. And, having had a chance to become acquainted with her sweet, quiet, dignified temperament, that photo, indeed, captures her essence so well!”
Armchair Traveling
Posted: January 13, 2008 Filed under: Apso Aficionados Leave a commentI’ve added a new feature to the blog. Look down the left hand column and note Armchair Traveling. People often share really cool sites with me, which I’d like to share with you. Here’s a glimpse of what’s inside Helen Thayer’s site:
Three Among the Wolves: A Year of Friendship with Wolves in the Wild
In the summer of 1994, Helen Thayer and her husband Bill, hiked above the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Yukon Territory to live for six months one hundred feet from a wolf den to observe and document their daily lives. They returned in the winter months to interact with and document the lives of wolves and polar bears on the frozen polar sea and the vast Mackenzie Delta in Canada’s frozen north.
This remarkable book is a result of those unique experiences. The key to Thayer’s acceptance was Charlie, the author’s Inuit dog of magnetic North Pole fame. Following Charlie’s lead the Thayers’ discover the complexities of wolf family structure, including the alpha male and female, care of the pups, hunting and survival skills. This book is both a natural history of wolves and adventure tale. Far from being the viscous killers of popular imagining, the Thayer’s found that wolves form loving family bonds in a world that offers them neither safety nor understanding.
Finalist at the Banff National Book Festival 2005.
Sister Act
Posted: January 12, 2008 Filed under: FFT Lhasa Apsos Leave a comment
Mary Anna sent this great photo, taken several days after Gracie’s first birthday in September. Several days prior to receiving this in the mail, Toshimi had sent me photos of Koyuki right after her bath, commenting how much she looked like her sister Edie. The only photo I have of their other sister Sophie (I remembered her name Julie!) is from the cover of a magazine, where her owner is holding her. It really is amazing, their resemblance to each other!
As you’ve heard me say for months…or has it been years now…it’s my intention to scrapbook a page for each dog in the Gallery. While the pages aren’t ‘done’, I do place photos, etc., for each dog on each of their pages. To see photos of the Sister Act and/or each sister, hit the links which will take you to the developing pages.
And, I’m on countdown today. I’m signing up for an online organization photo/scrapbooking class, 16 weeks long, designed to help get pages done and things at my finger tips. Registration starts at 2PM, my time and is limited. Keep your fingers crossed!
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 