July 2010

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seattle

July 29, 2010 in Uncategorized | 8 comments

I’m in Seattle. All alone–for four whole days and three whole nights. There are days at home when the idea of such a nice break sounds heavenly. But honestly, I’m a little lonely. I really miss my family! Funny how that happens. I am trying to enjoy myself though. It’s certainly a nice, quiet time for me to refresh and get some perspective.

I haven’t been in a city since we moved back to Juneau in December. It’s crazy how shocking it is to be around so many people in one place again! I didn’t realize how accustomed I had become to being in the sticks. I do love a good city though: the culture, the anonymity, the sounds… and all the options. As long as I have the ultimate option of going back home to the wild.

I am not entirely here for pleasure but I do plan on a little shopping, a little museum hopping, and some serious eating of fine cuisine. Not to mention a whole lot of sleep in my hotel room. Sleep? What’s that!?

it’s a double complete rainbow!

July 26, 2010 in Uncategorized | 8 comments

You just have to watch this.

I can’t stop laughing. I want to meet this person… and I have to admit that I would probably be just as enthusiastic. My favorite part is when he asks, “What does this mean!?”

This rainbow appeared as we were driving down the highway during a crazy storm in Montana last summer. It was probably one of the coolest rainbows I’ve ever seen.

cropley lake

July 26, 2010 in family, friends, hiking | 10 comments

It was my brilliant idea to take my family and some friends up the Cropley Lake Trail yesterday. It’s a trail I’ve been wanting to do for awhile… my trail guide book says that it is 1.5 miles with only a 550 foot elevation gain. No biggie. I guess I should have paid attention to the part that said “the trail has not been maintained”.

Think Vietnam, as in the trail hasn’t been hiked by anyone since the war; and that it was very suggestive of what I imagine hiking through the wet, muddy jungle, climbing over falling trees and forging streams, would have been like. We were all soaked and muddy from the knees down from trudging through the mud, and soaked everywhere else from falling a whole lot.

Despite the nearly nonexistent trail, we came upon some beautiful meadows (Carrie, I thought of you and Bella and Edward). We saw some great alpine plant life, including some incredible spots full of Alaska cotton and the gorgeous, deadly monkshood. The lake was pretty neat, too. It was nice to look at while we wrung out our socks.

Was it worth it? I think it was one of the best hikes I have taken in awhile. Thanks to my beautiful family and friends for putting up with me and my ideas. I hope you still love me. And I just have to say, my kids are troopers. Seriously.

spawn till you die

July 22, 2010 in Uncategorized | 7 comments

I love salmon. They are good to eat, fun to catch, and fascinating to study. At this time of summer, the chum (or dog) salmon are spawning in Juneau. The streams are swollen with fish; so thick in the water, they are like spunky stepping stones across.

This would be a new sight for my Texan kids this year, so we pulled on our rubber boots, braved the curious binocular and umbrella-clad tourists, and went out into the wetlands of Gastineau Channel (right off the highway and near the hatchery).

Swollen was the stream. And stinky.

Mighty totally did not get that he couldn’t just reached in and grab one to take home and eat. After all, we have been unsuccessfully trying to hook a salmon for months now. I think once he saw the flesh decaying off their live bodies, he got the picture.

Our journey lead to all kinds of interesting questions. Mainly, the boys just could not comprehend how Pacific salmon return to the place they were born, after traveling thousands of miles, only to lay their eggs and die. They were curious to know why some species just don’t stick around to raise their young. And why does their flesh start rotting? All very good questions to which my answers were very rudimentary and I gave them the disclaimer that we’d do further research this coming week at the library.

Equally impressive as the spawning salmon were the hoards of bald eagles feasting on the abundance of readily available delicacies. Most of them were juvenile eagles, with their feathers not quite transformed to their familiar regal adult colors, with the bright white heads.

There really is nothing in this world that makes me catch my breath more than watching the eagles up here. I am stopped in my tracks every time I see one, which could be dozens of times in a day. It is such a treat and oh-so-magical.

When we returned home, the boys hadn’t gotten enough fish-watching, so they continued to observe their own little critters in their aquarium. Coincidentally, they noticed that one of our platies had babies! Sure as the sun sets, there are three little baby fishies swimming their tails off to stay alive. I need to make a trip to the pet store tomorrow to see how I can keep these little ones away from their carnivorous parents. Any ideas? I only remember my valiant attempts as a kid to raise hundreds of baby guppies… that always failed miserably.

————

If you’d like to know more about the sustainability of Alaska’s wild seafood, check out the ASMI website. Alaska’s wild salmon habitats are being threatened by the farmed Atlantic salmon varieties, which are escaping from farming enclosures along the Pacific coast.  Support our fisheries by insisting on only wild salmon. Not only will you be helping in protecting our pristine environment, you’ll support the hard working fisherman that are such an important and enriching element in our society. As they say up here in Alaska, “Friends don’t let friends eat farmed fish!”

If you want a retro Ray Troll “Spawn Till You Die” t-shirt, you can buy one here from his fun store in Ketchikan.  :)

morning on the water

July 19, 2010 in harbors | 6 comments

A quiet walk on the dock this morning with Bird. I love the colors there on a grey day. The smells and sounds bring me peace.

I called Brian to tell him I wanted to sell everything and live on a boat.

in time you need to learn to love
the ebb just like the flow

armchairs–andrew bird

a whole lotta nothing

July 16, 2010 in home skillet, summer | 10 comments

I forgot that it rains here for long periods on end. Most of June and especially July have been a major bust. After our awesome winter and spring… it seems we’re paying for it now. I hesitate to say this because it still seems so early, but summer seems over. Then again, I haven’t experienced a Juneau summer in five years; maybe this is normal.

I definitely have home body tendencies, but options are also nice. When the kids run to the window to check for the elusive sun every morning, it makes me a little sad. And soccer practice has left some miserably wet and shivering children. Oh bother…

We’ve all been doing our share of reading and lounging. Trying not to watch tv–but it’s definitely on too much. There’s a lot of dancing in tutus and playing “Baby Isaac” (the boys’ made up ninja game…I know, Melody, I know). And way too much baking happening. I wish I had the energy to do something productive like sewing new pajamas or working on one of the many other projects I have going… but nope.

I think I’m just not ready for this waning of the season. We didn’t get enough frolicking in the icy surf or hiking in the mountains in just yet.

Please, Summer, come back. I’ll sit with you on the beach and tell you how much I love you. I’ll drink wine on the porch with you, even when it’s super buggy. I’ll send the kids out to pick the wildflowers that come alive in your presence. I’m not asking for anything long-term. I just need to get you out of my system before I make the commitment to Hibernation.

blueberry season

July 9, 2010 in alaska, recipes | 5 comments

I felt like a total whiner making that last post, but now I’m so happy I did! Thank you all for sharing your comments and support. It’s enlightening to be real and I’m going to do it more here. But, I do love using this space to reflect on happy, pretty things. The truth is, I do see a lot of beauty around me! And it’s equally real as the bad. Obviously, that balance goes one way or the other on any given day. Especially with three kids. It’s amazing the power they have to swing the pendulum. They inspire and they make me want to pull my eye lashes out all at once.

It’s a tricky thing–this whole world wide web. I sometimes get depressed that I’m not SouleMama. There, I said it. And I’m totally laughing at how ridiculous that sounds. Life is good when it comes down to the heart.

So anyway, I’m not good with the deep stuff, so I’ll just talk about blueberries.

Blueberries!

Aren’t they splendid? And we have some growing around here these days. Lots, as a matter of fact. Some of them have worms (isn’t that a life metaphor for this post?). The first time I made pancakes with the wild blueberries, they were crawling with worms. I think that was just a bad worm year. We picked quite a bunch this morning and a small sampling didn’t turn up a single creepy crawly. Awesome.

Don’t you want to make muffins now?

Here’s our favorite blueberry muffin recipe. I’m not sure where I got it. It’s one of those dirty old printed sheets that I’ve had for years; probably since the great worm bake of ’98, as it now goes down in history.

Health Nut Blueberry Muffins

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup quick cooking oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 banana, mashed
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350°. Prepare muffin cups.

In a large bowl, stir together the two flours, sugar, oat bran, oats, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Gently stir in the blueberries and walnuts. In a separate bowl, mix together the mashed banana, buttermilk, egg, oil and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and mix just until blended. Spoon into muffin cups, filling all the way to the top.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the tops of the muffins spring back when lightly touched.

**the first photo above is from the A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.  This version has the most gorgeous turn-of-the-century illustrations and it’s definitely one of my favorite books to read to my babies (after we’ve read the Very Hungry Caterpillar 26 times).

not to shatter your illusion or anything

July 5, 2010 in family, parenting | 16 comments

It’s been a crappy day.  I mean CRAPPY.

At dinner, I was talking with Brian about blogging and flickr and how it creates this illusion of a peaceful, hunky dory utopia. Well, it made me think that I should make a disclaimer:

The jams I make are an attempt to make my life look sane!

In reality, my life is horribly chaotic! Right now, my boys are jumping off tables pretending the floor is lava while they’re eating blueberries that are flying everywhere and more than likely smooshing into the carpet and making big purple stains. Bird is jump roping with my iphone cord while she chews on one end. I’ll wonder why it’s broken next time I go to use it.

I just had two margaritas because we had a flat tire out the road and had to call a tow truck (after we walked to a place that had cell phone coverage) because we couldn’t get the spare off due to the fact that we have failed to fix the hatch in my truck which has been broken for months. Bring out the credit card.

I cried all day long over Hachi, the Richard Gere movie about a loyal dog we watched last night that just made me s.a.d.

It is so loud in this house that I think I need to invest in ear plugs and I just almost got impaled with a rocket launcher flying through the air. In addition, this blog post was just interrupted for reasons that I can’t even explain because I really am not up for using this space to embarrass my children. We found some cool bones on the beach today but I can’t figure out how to post it here since flickr has changed it’s format. Oh, and my dog has garbage gut.

I just thought I’d throw that out there. Now I need to get some kids to bed (after I make all three beds because they were all peed last night) and watch me some Don Draper on Mad Men. Hopefully tomorrow, I’ll be back to biscuits and gravy.

Cheers!

field trip

July 1, 2010 in art, drawing, exploring nature, music | 3 comments

On Sunday, I went on a field outing with my drawing class to the Jensen-Olson Arboretum, which is just Out the Road in Juneau. What a spectacular setting! The former residence of a master gardner, it’s now run by the city and open to the public. It’s placed in the middle of a small cove with a cozy beach and has some wonderful views of Shelter Island. The sun even made an appearance for us and added even more to overall loveliness of the place. Aside from being completely inspired myself, it was really fun to see what each classmate was drawn to record in their sketchbooks.

I took way too many pictures to pick and choose… so if you’re patient with me, I’ll post a horde of them.

This last photo was taken from where I was sitting to draw, under a lilac tree. This idyllic scene obviously made me think of one of my favorite Jeff Buckley songs. If you didn’t think I was a schmaltzy romantic before this blog post… ta-da!