Buckner Building: The Winter Palace

During the middle of last winter i was contacted by a Canadian author. He was interested in a picture from my Buckner Building Post a few years ago. In particular, he was interested in calcite formations leaching out of the concrete ceiling. He was working on a book related to that subject. Unfortunately, i didn't have a full resolution file of the image he wanted, in fact, I didn't even take the picture, Maree did, so i told him i'd just go take a new picture of it, and look for similar items of interest while i was in there.

The Green Room

It was the dead of winter, early February. I had never been to Whittier in winter, because..... well.... there's absolutely no reason to ever go to Whittier in winter. But i got lucky. The timing worked out so that when i was able to go out we had a freak warm front complete with Chinook winds. The temperature that day was about 42 degrees, delightful!

Since the Buckner Building is condemned, the snow plows ignore it. There are no nice shoveled entryways, you have to climb up out of the street and find a way in.

 This was the first room i entered from the outside. Looked like a cafeteria.

The warm weather of course made the ice roads in Whittier extremely slippery, I was wearing some grippy springs on my shoes (they were a lifesaver) but i hadn't accounted for the amount of snow Whittier gets in winter. They had over 5 feet of snow when i arrived. Many of the first floor rooms had snow ramps coming in through the windows, and i had to use one of these to get inside.

 I believe this was part of the adjoining kitchen area. Beyond this room it was very dark for a long time of searching.

These rooms divided by the the joints were cool because the snow on the ground in many of them was so clean. The room would generally be very dark and the light would be coming down through the joint illuminating this very pure looking snow.

As i've mentioned before, much of the Buckner Building is flooded. I wondered what it would be like in winter, and, as i had heard, it was very slippery. There was about two inches of solid ice in the flooded areas, and the warm weather had melted a few millimeters on the surface. This made the ice a mirror under the right lighting conditions. It was pretty cool.

 This time i found the rumored jail! The jail had some very tall, narrow cells in one part of it.

In a dark area of the building this single wall was illuminated by a joint in the ceiling. Some very strange stuff was going on with this wall. It looks blurry but it's not. On the right are calcite formations and everywhere else are strange ice formations.

Deeper in the jail. I brought a remote flash that i was playing with. All these half open doors are frozen into the floor.

From that point on i spent the next few hours looking for the calcite formation. I couldn't find it anywhere. After about two hours of wandering around i heard other people. I ended up coming upon them in a large dry area on the third floor.  They were doing some kind of teenage goth fashion model shoot. We talked a little and i could tell they were familiar with the building, but they had never seen what i was looking for.  Eventually i had systematically explored the first 4 floors of the building and it was almost sunset. The last place i decided to check out i found it!  Maree's description, from what she could remember, was off by 3 floors.

Some jerk left the door open to the high radiation area.

Also of note: I found the floor where the elevator is open. No way was i going in there. The sign inside says "Off Limits To All Troops."

This is what all the effort was for. It might seem strange, but it's really pretty rare to see a door with a complete calcium column attaching it to the ceiling. I was glad i brought the flash because it was pitch black here.

 In a nearby shower room i found these light fixtures. If you look close at the distant one you can see..... 

A light bulb encased in stone! That's not wax or paint, it's calcium carbonate. I don't know what's crazier, a light bulb inside rock or an unbroken light bulb in the Buckner Building.

So i got my shots and had to run back through the building to get to my car in time to make the next tunnel opening. The light would be gone soon and i didn't want to be stuck in Whittier in the dark. The fashion shoot guys got out right before me. I was stuck behind their truck the whole way back to town. It was a good time.

On last look before i headed back through the train tunnel. It turned out to be a nice sunset that day.

The Magic of Winter.

Snow descends upon Earth from the Buddha realms cascading softly to surround the bustling humanity in tranquility. Methodically it falls, bringing with it the silence of a morning meditation at a mountain temple. Winter offers the jewel of reflection, which allows us a vivid and stark yet peaceful reminder of impermanence. The snow doesn't ask why it falls or why it melts -- It is at peace being snow, water or vapor. May peace be upon you regardless of the moment.

~Peace to all beings~

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! We're having an especially white Christmas this year. After a week long period of ice fog we finally had a good snowstorm for a few days. We were left in a winter wonderland. Here's a few pictures from around town and of Marees underwater themed Christmas Tree.

Blogger has changed the way their editor works. I'm still trying to figure it out, so i'm messing around a bit on this post.

Foggy Temple Morning Haiku.

daybreak fog swirls

temple candlelight twinkles
bell welcomes daylight

-by james r. ure

~Peace to all beings~

Winter Green Haiku.

winter sun bathes plants

green light glows through hungry leaves
flowering smiles

By James R. Ure

Blue Jay in Winter Haiku.

powdered snow hugs trees

shrieking blue jay breaks silence
looking for peanuts

By James R. Ure

PHOTO CREDIT: Larry Hennessy on Flickr

~Peace to all beings~

Sparrows Haiku.

sparrows burrow in

they carry home on their wings
winter spares nothing

By James R. Ure

~Peace to all beings~

Spring is Reborn.

Sometimes the concept of rebirth is hard to envision because it seems like a mystical, supernatural idea that is hard for our limited minds to understand. And to be honest, I don't know for a fact that we will be reborn. I have faith that rebirth is a reality but I don't dwell much on the concept and constantly worry how I will be reborn and what do I need to do to be reborn into a "good situation," whatever that means. I do not think that this kind of attention is helpful to us because it only brings us anxiety because we are attached to something that is impossible to figure out in this moment.

I have personally found it more skillful to focus on the present moment at hand where we have the best chance to liberate ourselves from the suffering that we bring upon ourselves by wasting that moment obsessing about what happens upon the death of the body. Each moment is a chance to be reborn anew giving us another precious moment to live mindfully which enables us to transform habit energy into something more positive and more helpful in our ultimate goal of achieving full liberation from samsara. It is ironic that we refer to it as liberation when it is more like remembering, remembering our essence which is nothing short of Buddhahood.

Being fully present in being aware of our surroundings we see the beauty of rebirth in a direct way all around us. We know and see the change of seasons in many areas of the world and with mindfulness we see that this process is a reflection of the reality of human life. In the spring we are born, we grow up in the summer into adulthood, in the winter we begin to age and in the winter we die but the process continues. On the coldest days of winter it seems that life is gone and so is the beauty of existence but there is joy to be found even in that season of death. The coldness is not unlike the cold feelings that we experience when a loved has died and is a reminder to us to make the most of each moment.

The snow in the world shuts down the known and conditioned brain's "preferred" beauty of blooming trees, plants, flowers and active animal life. To our blinding sensory desires we miss the artistic way that snow sculpts itself into delicate and stunning formations. We miss the creative way that icicles form and accent the sky. We often miss the beautiful contrast of green pine trees dusted with fine layers of white snow.

If winter in your part of the world means rain, we miss the beauty of the cleansing nature of water and how without water the rebirth of life sustaining plants would never be possible. The winter monsoons drive people indoors for days at a time and it is easy to resent the rain because it prevents us from doing the things that we love outside. However, seen in a more mindful way it should be seen as a blessing because it gives us time to be mindful, reflect on our lives and allows us ample time to meditate.

All is being reborn here in my part of the world, flowers are growing, trees and budding and birds are looking to usher in new life. This is another chance to enjoy the beauty of change. So often we only see suffering in change but like with all experiences there is beauty and joy to be found.

So do not worry over enlightenment, Nirvana and the Pure Land for they are all present in the here and now. The total liberation in the scriptural state will happen when we are ready and our karma has ripened. In the mean time, the bliss of Nirvana can be seen in the beauty of delicate flowers re-emerging right before our eyes and even in the dark cold days of winter. All is present to us if we but relax our minds and allow ourselves to just be. We are apart of Buddha's enlightenment and therefore Buddha's to be, what a wonderful thought!! What a wonderful heritage we are apart of!!

There is nothing that is not divine for all is as it can only be. We can not do anything else but go with the flow of the vast river of pure being. Resistance is the path of suffering.

May we all realize joy in the rebirth of each breath. Present moment, wonderful moment, only moment. I leave you with the words of my precious teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh:
~Peace to all beings~

Winter Flooding

Video Still from KTUU News, Anchorage, AK

This week some people who live on the Kenai Peninsula had a super disaster. If you think a river flooding into a neighborhood would be a disaster, imagine the same thing happening, in the middle of winter. Imagine if the river was frozen over in ice several feet thick, and all that ice breaking apart and being swept into the the side of your house, snapping trees along the way.



Then, if that wasn't bad enough, imagine what it would be like, if, after your home was flooded, it was still cold enough to freeze all that water, encasing your property, home, and vehicles in solid ice, with no chance of getting them out until the ice melted!

If it was me i wouldn't live in a place where that was ever a possibility, but some people take the risk.

Like the last flooding post, i didn't take any of these pictures, but i imagine the rest of the country isn't hearing much about this news so i thought i would put them up.







Skilak Lake, fed by the Harding Ice Field, historically floods once in a while in winter. It's frozen over and apparently some kind of ice damn forms near the mouth of it. When the damn breaks due to pressure it releases a torrent of icy water which flows into the Kenai River, the major river in the area. The surge of water breaks up the ice, but there are areas along the river that are narrow, and when the suddenly moving ice flow is choked in those areas it can cause an ice jam. The ice jam has the effect of plugging up the river and that causes the flooding. In this case the flooding was 20 feet over normal water levels. So that's something to think about when buying river property in Alaska. In fact, you should always try to find out what sorts of winter considerations you need to keep in mind when buying even even urban residential property up here. Things are just that much different in winter.