FAMILY TIME, PAWS AND PETUNIAS.

Saturday, daughter-in-law, Laurie and I walked and rode the trails of PAWS, Performing Animal Welfare Society. All of the animals that come here are in trouble, have been abused or tied up for years, confined in zoos, and so on. PAWS gives the animals freedom near the end of their lives. It is a great charity. The sad part is how awful some of them have been treated before they arrive at PAWS. Tigers, a black leopard, and lions, were off somewhere in the bushes and trees enjoying their freedom and space except this barely visible lion who took a liking to a nap on a platform next to the fence.

We saw four active  Black Bears. They have red or black fur.
Protective fencing makes it tough to photograph them. The camera wants to focus on the fence.

Laurie is an elephant lover and has never touched one and felt their leathery skin. She has a vast collection of elephant items that started when she was in grammar school. She hopes someday to ride an elephant. It is pleasant to view them out in the open enjoying a spacious range. PAWS has 2300 acres for the animals to roam.

This is Nikolaus, a young bull. PAWS is the only sanctuary to take bull elephants.

He wanted to be playful and stay where all of us were gathered.
He rested his heavy trunk on the bars and seemed to say, "Isn't anybody gonna throw me a carrot?"

We bused past Asian elephants grazing in a flower filled field.

These two African Elephants rummaging for something good to eat next to an oak snag. r
A couple of females were grabbing everyone's attention as they staged themselves by the fence close to a road stop.

They came from a performing background and were obviously begging for goodies, though no one but staff is allowed to feed them anything. One kept tooting funky elephant calls with her trunk, and tossing dust over her head. The other would crowd the fence, step on the steel cord as though to say, "I could bust through this flimsy fence if I wanted too."

Of course, they can't.

We returned to the bear sanctuary and then had lunch in town. (PAWS is located in San Andreas.) If you plan to attend an event, contact them through their website and read the stories and see good pictures at this link. It was a fun time in on a nice day at PAWS.
http://www.pawsweb.org/
Sunday, Mother's Day, Laurie and Ken hosted a salad lunch and dessert.

Laurie is a stellar cook and loves to try new recipes. The salads were varied and different. She made deviled eggs with avocado as the binder instead of mayonaise. They were good. Of course, before the salads, we munched on all the snacks. Is it a habit to eat before we eat?

Lauries's sister, Michele brought carrot cake, Virginia made berry cobbler, and Laurie made a really good key lime pie also with avocado as part of the ingredients. Avocado makes it a healthy dessert.

Someone took all we mother's picture. I don't have a clue what we were laughing about. Laurie, Michele, Virginia and Me.

Then we trooped over to my brother, Clark's house for Mother's Day Dinner with a whole new set of mothers. Clark, with his future Mother-in-law, Sue.

Sue's sister, Jean.

Clark's father-in-law to be with their daughter, Tammy.

Clark's fiance, Theresa, on the right conferring with Laurie.

Theresa's daughter, Whitney is unmarried and has no children.
Theresa's daughter Courtney, with the newest member of the family,  seven month old Tyson.

Courtney with husband Josh, the baby,  and two of the cutest sisters who dote on baby brother.  Theresa has a third daughter, Lindsey who was unable to attend. Clark has a daughter, Melissa, who lives in Texas.

Tammy's son John, has two dogs. No kids.

Clark allowed each woman, and the grand-daughters, to pick from the bouquets of flowers hanging on the patio covers. Cammi picked this one because it matched her dress.

Her younger sister went for contrast, black and yellow petunias. Beautiful.

This is the gang, but everyone moves around. Somehow, I missed Matt, Tammy's husband. We had a good chat, though.
Baby Tyson is the new apple of Grandma's eye.

My brother Bill and Clark live near each other, that is makes three of us in Calaveras County. We said our goodbyes, and waddled off home, each of us with a huge bouquet of Petunias. Theresa, too, is a marvelous cook and we can't seem to help but eat. All of us decided we prefer family time to dinner in a restaurant, even if it means a lot of cooking.

MORE ABOUT PAWS.

I spent a frustrating morning trying to print out visas for Turkey, yesterday morning. After four hours, it turned out to be my credit card. Changed card and the embassy accepted it. YAY.
After the adoption certificate arrived I signed up for PAWS newsletter. I should have done it years ago. They have great videos of what they do. Check out the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwZ5vf1R6Ns&feature=youtu.be

I visited the ARK in 2010. Here is a link to that album if you are interested:

10-17-10-PAWS

SCIENCE TERRIBLY WRONG, GRATEFULLY RIGHT.

This scientist once approved the killing of 40,000 elephants to cure overgrazing in Africa. He knows now he got it terribly wrong.
In this astounding video presentation, his mistake made him careful and he answered a question that puzzled scientists for many years. It has great portent for all of us sharing a finite planet and may be the most important solution to reversing climate change. Don’t miss this video.

http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change.html

ELEPHANT COLLECTION

One of the fun things about staying at my son and daughter-in-law's house is bumping into a herd of elephants. Not too many people have a self-portrait of themselves hanging above their fireplace, but in this case the portrait of Suda the elephant was painted by Suda the elephant. A unique piece her youngest son bought for her while visiting Thailand.

Many of her elephants are unusual as this small wooden elephant bowl.  Laurie always tries to make her elephant collection usable, thus they fit in everywhere around the house and garden.

This one holds matches in the kitchen.

A basket by the pool holds sunscreen.

A mirror in the hallway.

These two hold tea on a shelf above the stove.

A pencil box near the phone.
Book ends.

Here the elephant's trunk holds up an elephant ring.

A small watering can for the houseplants.

She has musical instruments, swizzle sticks, cups, tea pots, walking sticks, letter holders, salt and peppers, serving trays, candle sticks, jewelry, knickknacks, drawer pulls...I didn't count them, but approximately 175 elephant objects. Unique and interesting.

Her collection started as a gift when she was in grammar school.  She no longer has every elephant she collected. Some have been broken, she lost key chains, jewelry and so on, but the supply is never-ending. And, of course, she never for-saw the day her son would visit Thailand, ride an elephant, and bring her a portrait painted by one.

THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI

Today is a travel day, heading north for Kanchanaburi through lush river country. Our goal the famous bridge over the River Kwai. But, traveling with OAT (Overseas Adventure Travel) is so much more. Panu points out the salt flats, where ocean water is piped into clay pads. Salt is made only in summer. With the intense hot sun, ten inches of water can evaporate in one day. The farmer uses the salt for pit toilets, house use, preservative and to put in the soil to sweeten the mangosteens and coconuts. When the rains come, the same flats are used to raise fish and shrimp. They produce fish sauce for sale. Thais have used windmills for years to pump water and are now experimenting with wind power.
Panu stops at a fruit stand and buys for our tasting pleasure, Longan, Mangosteen, Pomelos, lychee, and tangerines.
Our second stop is this amazing woodcarving company that ships beautiful pieces all over the world. Oh, how I wanted the bench above with its bird arm rest and pheasant back piece. Gorgeous. The pieces are drawn on paper and deeply chiseled to produce a dimensional work of art. The piece is drawn on a paper and pasted to the wood. The carver below is nearly finished.
Next stop a coconut processing plant. Its a family affair, not for export. People in the region produce for their own use and barter with neighbors. Transportation was made easy by the canals built by the king before good roads were built.

It was absolutely fascinating to realize this wok is boiling coconut milk into a syrup using the coconut shells to fuel the stove. The foaming sugar boils up but instead of boiling over onto the stove, it seeps through the bamboo slats and drips back down into the wok again. So clever.
This photo shows ground coconut meat fried until it releases its oil. Then the oil floats and is separated. A tool called a rabbit is used to remove the fresh meat from the shell easily. We tasted, fresh, juicy and delicious. I learned that coconut milk is plentiful in a green coconut. When the coconut ripens, the meat gets thick and is taken for oil and food. This family allowed us to traipse through their house and see how a typical,middle class Thai farm house looks inside. People here live simply and spend much time out of doors. Can you imagine us allowing 10 people to roam through our house?

Our next stop was the floating market, kind of carnival in atmosphere. This farmer augments his income by bringing his elephant to town. People pay him to have their picture taken with the elephant. It is against the law to have an elephant in town, but in this country place, the people seem to ignore the law. Most Thais have no refrigeration, or traditionally had no refrigeration and they bought their daily food each day from the market. Everything transpires here on the canal. Goods brought to town from outlying farms, they cook on the boats, eat, sleep and socialize. At one time they threw all their garbage in the canal. The king beseeched them not to do that and a market place on land as well as on the canal developed. Toilets and washing places and garbage containers helped take the stink away and what is left is a fascinating, wonderful place.

This woman is cooking and arranging her wares on banana leaves.
Fruits and flowers of all types are available as well as dry goods like hats and pots and tools. In recent years, souveniers as well.

When your shopping is done you can sit in the Gossip Cafe for a sip and a treat.
Or, have your picture taken with a snake.
We finally reach Kanchanaburi. Above is one of the original Japanese steam engines used on the rail over the River Kwai.

At lunch, we view the new Bridge over the river Kwai. We walked the bridge and could see a small remnant of the original bamboo bridge that was blown up by the Brits.
Later we visit the War Museum and War cemetery with graphic pictures of the Allied POWs and the Asian conscripts forced to work themselves to death on the infamous railway.

200,000 Asian laborers and 61,000 Allied POWs built a 260 mile stretch of rail in abominable conditions. For every half-mile of track, 38 POWs died, 700 Americans, 13,000 Aussies, 18,000 Dutch, 30,000 Brits. If a prinsoner had no solid feces, they were made to catch 2000 flies a day before they died. They actually counted the flies.

The Chinese cemetery.
Flat Stanly managed to hook a ride on a wooden elephant at the market before we got to our hotel and dinner.