Tuesday, July 3, 2007

After The Storm & A Movie

We had a bit of thunderstorm weather roll through the area this evening. Our neck of the the woods only had a little bit of rain (farther west they had straight line winds and north of us had torrential rains). I'm please to report that I got about 4 sections of weeds pulled from the garden after supper and before it started raining.

After the storm moved through, the clouds outside were very unusual and quite beautiful. The sunset trying to shine through these clouds gave everything a strange pinkish hue. It really was quite lovely as were these storm cloud pictures taken shortly after 9 PM.



We have a Netflix subscription at our house that gets somewhat neglected during the summer months due to long hours of daylight. However, with the rain tonight, we had the opportunity to watch a movie. We have 3 movies here right now, and I tend to choose mostly titles I'm interested in (because Rick has a tendency to doze off during any movie watched in the evening). I let him pick the movie from these 3 choices: An Inconvenient Truth, Rent, and Grizzly Man. He chose Grizzly Man.

This was an interesting documentary about Timothy Treadwell. Here's what the movie description says: "Renowned nonfiction director Werner Herzog chronicles the tragic and untimely death of outdoorsman Timothy Treadwell, who devoted his life to studying grizzly bears living in the Alaskan wilderness -- only to have one of them maul him to death. Pieced together mainly from Treadwell's own video footage, this fascinating documentary goes deep into the wilderness of one man's mind to uncover how he spent his final days." (It was rated "R" for some scenes with liberal use of the "F" word.)

This was a very interesting movie with some fabulous footage of bears and foxes he encountered and befriended while living in Alaska. Timothy truly cared about the bears and their welfare, although his concern was misinterpreted by many people who didn't understand why he was doing this. Do any of you remember the story of Timothy Treadwell, his work with grizzly bears, and his tragic death? Apparently he was featured on Dateline NBC once and he also spoke to schoolchildren on many occasions.

10 comments:

Ruth said...

Lovely sunset pictures! Thanks for sending the rain our way. We need it so badly. I rarely watch TV or movies. No time! (that's OK though)
I have never heard of Timothy Treadwell.
Ruth

Jayne said...

Breathtaking photos Ruthie! Yes, I remember hearing about Timothy Treadwell... I suppose he died loving what he was doing... sort of like Steve Erwin. It's a risk you take with wildlife.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I remember Timothy Treadwell and his study of grizzly bears, that is the chance you take when you study wild animals, they are wild and can turn on you and kill. The cloud pics are beautiful and we also had rainbow skies after the storm, no one could begin to paint those colors, only pics can do them justice.
MOM

RuthieJ said...

Hi Ruth,
I'm glad you're getting some rain. I had never heard of Timothy either before watching this movie. I also don't watch much network TV, but do enjoy watching a movie while knitting or crocheting in the evening.

Hi Jayne,
I thought of Steve Erwin also as the movie was starting. Timothy had blonde hair and kind of resembled Steve a bit.

Hi Mom,
After the park service killed the bear that killed Timothy, they found that it was not one of the familiar bears he had been living around, but rather another large grizzly heading towards winter hibernation area.

Mary C said...

Hi Ruthie - I remember hearing about Treadwell when it happened. Funny we all thought about Steve Erwin, too. I think that is because the Crocodile Hunter was more widely known thanks to television.
Those are beautiful photos - gorgeous colors. It kind of reminds me of days I lived in the Albuquerque area, especially during the summer's monsoon season. We would have clouds roll in, it would thunder and lightning, but seldom rain. And that would be the evenings we would have the most magnificent sunsets.

Larry said...

Those clouds are like paintings at an art museum-I used to have netflix-loved it.-I was able to get movies that I wouldn't be able to find at a movie rental place.

Mary said...

Happy 4th, Ruthie! I do recall Timothy Treadwell with sorrow. I don't watch TV movies. As a matter of fact, I don't watch TV much at all, other than local and world news (and American Idol).

I prefer non-fiction and I think I would have enjoyed the movie although I tend to get emotional with this type. Romantic comedies are my favorites :o)

Making progress with the gardens, huh? Good going!

LauraHinNJ said...

Those sky colors are just breath-taking!

KGMom said...

I remember Treadwell. The one thing I recall is that he was an amateur biologist. Most experts would have sternly cautioned him against his efforts to be close to the grizzlies. Apparently he was convinced the bears would not hurt him. I think I read some theory that the bear that did kill him was a "rogue" bear--whatever that means.

RuthieJ said...

Hi Mary C,
Timothy died in Oct. of 2003. I wish I could remember what I was doing then to figure out why I never heard his story.
Glad you enjoyed those sunset pictures.

Hi Larry,
When I worked at the art gallery, I used to call sunsets like this "Thomas Kinkade sunsets."
I really like Netflix...I've seen more movies in the last year than in the previous 10! Some have been real duds and spouse and I always say we would have felt really bad spending $15 to go and see such a dud in the theater.

Hi Mary,
I checked into getting Timothy's book (it's on Amazon). Some of his thoughts in the movie are so similar to what I think about nature and wildlife.
I like romantic comedies also, but occasionally throw in some sports or macho movies the spouse might enjoy. We watched Invincible (a football story) a couple weeks ago, and I actually enjoyed that movie--featured lots of good music from the 70's too.

Hi Laura,
Glad you enjoyed those sunsets... we don't often have colors that intense all over the sky.

Hi Donna,
From what I gathered in the movie, he really thought he was helping the bears. He knew the dangers these bears presented and I believe he thought if he was killed by a bear that wouldn't be the worst way to go. The unfortunate thing is that his girlfriend was with him and she was also killed by the bear.