Teri J Pieper

Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Scenes from Isabel Segundo

Isabel Segundo is the bigger of the two towns on Vieques. It is the place where most business gets done; the post office is there as is the ferry dock. Some of its buildings date back to the 1800’s! Everything seems to be made out of concrete. The humidity, rain and winds are hard on other materials. The colors are amazing. I really enjoyed the local color palette. Dogs and cats freely roam throughout the island and are very noticeable in town. Streets and roads are narrow and not in very good shape overall and the cars reflect that.

Downtown Isabel

The produce market. Fruits and vegetables arrived from Puerto Rico three days a week

Starfruit

This produce seller told us how to cook taro

Fishing skiffs

Fish market

This fish seemed to pretty to eat

Grouper

Enormous lobsters!

An old bar that faces the town square

Decorations in the town square

Meow

Keeping cool

The tree is overtaking the sidewalk

Lovely old architecture

A coral cairn

The view from a pocket park overlooking the water

Stuff grows

This was a very old house

Color

Love these colors

We didn’t know what this meant.

Getting There

Vieques is a long ways from here. In case you don’t know, it is part of Puerto Rico; an island a little bit east of the main island. To get there, we had to drive from Twisp to Sea-Tac, fly to Chicago overnight and then to San Juan. At San Juan we flew on a much smaller plane to Vieques.

It looks like a lot of stuff

Driving over the Cascades can be a challenge

A rainbow greeted us in San Juan

The plane held nine passengers

The Caribbean

Our first view of Vieques

Cute little airport

Our first sunset

A Change of Scenery

Weather at home has been cold, frigid even with temperatures in the single digits and below. I missed that. Nine days ago four of us left Twisp traveling for 25 hours; first by car to Seattle, where we met one more friend, flying to Chicago and then to San Juan Puerto Rico and then a short flight in a tiny plane to Vieques. There we met our yoga teacher for a week of yoga practice, snorkeling and some really terrific food. It was a wonderful experience. Just yesterday I saw my first iguana, cuckoo, and sea turtles and I spent much time snorkeling.
Here are just a few images as I await a connecting flight at JFK.

(this did not upload before our flight so today, at home, I finally got it online. Sorry for the delay)

November is Over

December 1, 2013 – 8:06 pm
Posted in Puppy
Tagged Christmas tree, clarks nutcraker, fireworks, labrador puppy, pygmy nuthatch, Winthrop
Comments (1)

Snow fell last night and turned to rain and now it’s snowing again. Some of us feel that the snow is a little late this year. The pass out of here to the west closed this afternoon and it might not open again. So that brings us to ‘the end of the road’. Winthrop celebrates this during Thanksgiving weekend with Christmas carols, bonfires, Santa’s arrival and my favorite – winter fireworks! We watched last nights pyrotechnics from one of Winthrop’s pedestrian bridges and enjoyed their reflections on the Chewuch River. Friday we went to the mountains to get Christmas trees with our friends and we also found snow. There are few birds around these days. The local wintering species are few and far between and the interesting migrants from the north haven’t arrived. Well not at my house, anyway. And the puppy keeps growing.

She might be a good tumbleweed retriever?

Clark’s Nutcracker

Sky puts the sneak on Luna

Playing

Pygmy Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee. Most of our chickadees are Mountain.

Little dog likes big sticks

What was that?

Scott got a lovely tree, not the Charlie Brown kind.

Sky helps. Not.

Ken hauls our tree down the hill. Don and Mary already had theirs.

A successful Christmas tree hunt shared with good friends.

After the dry and sometimes gray November it is time for a change of scenery.

Frozen Rainy Lake

November 28, 2013 – 7:14 am
Posted in North Cascades
Tagged alpenglow, ice skating, labrador puppy, North Cascades, Rainy Lake, snow
Comments (1)

Once winter really settles in, the passes out of the valley to the west are closed to traffic and we find ourselves near ‘the end of the road’. So far this year, we haven’t had too much snow but it has been cold enough to freeze many of the lakes. On Sunday we took the drive up to Rainy Pass and walked through the snow to frozen Rainy Lake. Ken took his ice skates and I carried my cameras and we took the dogs too. Of course. It was mid-afternoon by the time we got up there and the sun had dropped behind the North Cascades but it was warmer up high than down here in the valley. This is a weather inversion and has caused a bit of air pollution in some places. It was a fun walk and Sky’s first real experience with snow! Nothing seems to slow her down. We did try to keep her from going to far off-trail for fear she would get stuck and we’d have to rescue her. The ice was pretty rough for skating and Ken thought it might be a little soft too but he gave it a try. The dogs loved running on it and I just tried to keep them all away from each other. Walking back to the car, the alpenglow light on the high peaks was amazing.

We are ever so grateful to live in this beautiful place.