August 12, 2012: Day 3 of the 3-Day Golden North Salmon Derby in Juneau, Alaska...

August 12, 2012:

Day 3 of the 3-day 

Golden North Salmon Derby

in Juneau, Alaska...

Backing out of the slip
at Tee Harbor...

On step,
heading for the derby grounds...

No luck catching an elusive fish today,
although we had wildlife viewing opportunities ~
here is the first whale we encountered...

We later were lucky to view this mother whale
and her young one ~
schools of herring were everywhere...

Mergansers (seaducks) are often known as "sawbills"
because of their serrated bills to grip slippery prey,
such as the young herring they are feeding on
along this shoreline of Tee Harbor
when we were docking our boat...

This 2012 derby has come to an end,
and we now are looking forward to participating
again next year...

June 21, 2012: Welcoming sunshine making an appearance in Juneau, Alaska...

June 21, 2012:

Wild and domestic plants 

alike welcoming 

much-desired sunshine in Juneau, Alaska...

Raindrops like glass
on a blade of tall decorative grass...

Vibrant wild purple flower opening to the sunshine -
it's just too bad it's an invasive species...

A couple of mosquitoes drinking the raindrops
on the tall decorative grass blade before they evaporate... 

One of many wild ferns transplanted
to my flower garden slowly uncurling in the sun
when I captured this photograph...

Raindrops
mostly evaporating now...

Another stunning red columbine
blossoming to life reaching for the sun...

Four full-sized meyer lemons
in various ripening stages
on my indoor dwarf citrus tree basking in the sun - finally...

Two bearss lime babies (the one on top is a bit more mature),
which are among about 40 in total just now,
although only approximately 5% have made it to
full-ripening fruition on the dwarf citrus trees over the past years,
so I'm frantically working to improve those statistics...