August 2010

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hello rainbow

August 22, 2010 in alaska, weekends | 4 comments

As if I didn’t see enough beauty on our evening walk yesterday (glaciers, waterfalls, wildflowers, smiling babies, swimming puppies, bald eagles and barn swallows… the list goes on), this beauty appeared out of the looming black clouds on our drive home in a downpour.

My very own double complete rainbow! And it was a giant: stretching from one end of the Mendenhall Valley to the other. It’s as if the universe knew how much I would appreciate this sight. I know Yosemite Bear would have been loving this up right along with me. Can you dig it?

And the splendor continues… this is what I woke up to this morning when I walked into the living room:

My mom and dad are coming to town today! I hope the skies continue to show their glory.

Photo props to Brian for the first two photos.

noticing autumn

August 21, 2010 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

The weather has turned back to typical August grey skies. Nights are cooling down more. I’ve even noticed that the Mountain Ash trees are starting to turn yellow. Is it really the brink of autumn? In Texas, I welcomed fall with all my being. Here… it’s great… but knowing that winter is right around the corner… um? For some reason, all I can conjure up are images of snow shovels.

As much as the thought of the looming cold, dark winter does not appeal to me, I am really enjoying sitting back and noticing nature’s transformation into it’s fall splendor.

We walked out to Point Louisa yesterday for some beach-combing. There are subtle differences in the land and wildlife. The colors are more orange now. The moss and lichen are going crazy. The snails are covering the seaweed by the thousands and the geese are flying in formation. South already? All the fireweed has turned to seed but the fields of clover are making the air smell heavenly.

We had an impromptu nature scavenger hunt, went tree climbing and found treasures for sketching. Bird did lots of bear hunting. Her favorite book right now is We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, and she loves to quote it: “swishy, swashy, swishy, swashy!”

My two favorite finds were a small green sponge and this strange piece of seaweed (?) that had the same exact texture of snake skin. I have no clue what either of them are. Any ideas? So cool! Also, check out this little piece of the ocean that looked just like a tiny brain. Slimy.

The boys were calling the long strands of kelp “whippie hippies” and tying them to their arms and legs. It was pretty darn funny to watch them–they looked like sea monsters!

Of course, the best part for me is sitting down to draw what I found. The kids walked around the small point with their notebooks and drew for at least an hour, coming back to show me their works of art every now and then. It makes this mama really happy to see her babies so inspired by the natural world. I hope they never lose their enthusiasm.

After our walk, we went by the school to see what teachers the boys will have this year. It turns out Mighty will have J’s wonderful first grade teacher for kinder! And J will be in class with some of his good buddies. We’re looking forward to the new school year as we welcome autumn.

summer’s end

August 16, 2010 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

I spent all weekend laying on various beaches in the sun. It was hovering around 80 both days–and it’s continuing today. Rapture! What an amazing send off to the last week of summer. The boys both start school next week so we are going to be out soaking up as much of this remaining warm sun as possible and having all our last minute fun. We have a big day of berry picking planned today: blueberries and raspberries!

mad craftin’

August 13, 2010 in crafty, home skillet, sewing | 8 comments

We have this room downstairs. It’s kind of like a basement and has become the catch all for everything that has no place in the house. I was finally inspired to clean it out last week, in an effort to create a kind of studio space.  It’s definitely not cute and just kind of pieced together with what I had… but everything now kind of has a place.

before (GROSS!)

after

I’m actually really digging my lockers that I scored at the state surplus, now a vibrant Longhorn orange (hook ‘em) (sorry, I’ve been watching too much Friday Night Lights on Netflix and I am totally into football for the first time in my life–just when I leave Texas).

I was actually able to put my new “studio” to use for the first time with a few simple projects. I’ve been so uninspired to create anything with fabric this summer, so I had to go back to the real basics and make some good old bandana pants for Bird. The boys were jealous of her new threads so we had to dig up two of their new school t-shirts and have some freezer paper stencil fun.

And now (to make this post even longer…) I have to tell you a story. Bird was totally obsessed with a strange video on YouTube about a cat named Burger and Fries. He’s super mad because he has the stupidest name for a cat. Ever. For months and month, every time we turned on the computer she asked to see Mad Kitty. I couldn’t check my email without watching this loathsome video. What made it even worse, is that it became a game in which my kids all tried to act like mad kitties. The noise generated was something on par with real cats in heat. seriously.awful. Anyway, Mad Kitty kind of took on celebrity status in our house and that’s how my new label was born. I can see a faint glimmer of  Mad Kitty’s name in stars (just please don’t call it Burger and Fries).

Here’s the video, but be leery of showing it to your toddlers for fear Mad Kitty will take over your life.

smoked

August 10, 2010 in canning, in the kitchen | 5 comments

I have big plans for my kitchen adventures this fall. Ok, I only have one but it’s awesome. And it was actually Brian’s idea. He put the first step into action for me this weekend. Ok, so he started something on his own with an entirely different idea to use it and I decided that I’d hijack some of his bounty and use it for my own personal ambitions…

In any case, he made smoked sea salt. It smells sultry and heady and it’s look is downright sexy–like I’d wear a dress adorned with this salt. I almost said sparkle-licious but that is just too cute for this very mature and complex mineral. He used both alder and mesquite in our Big Chief smoker to achieve “a little bit of Alaska and a little bit Texas” flavor blend. It’s tres chic. He’s thinking steaks, I’m thinking chocolate. I’ll let you know how they both go. We have enough to get crazy with the possibilities.

Completely unrelated, I picked some huckleberries off the bush I found on my walk with J the other night. I laid them out out to freeze in a single layer on parchment before I packaged them up in a bag (a helpful trick so all your berries don’t clump together in the freezer). I can’t bear to part with the beautiful polka-dotted parchment with which I am now left. The huckleberries, on the other hand, are super tart. Whatever I make with them will have to involve much sugar.

date night

August 7, 2010 in Uncategorized | 7 comments

J and I took a walk out to our neighborhood beach last night. He held my hand and we chatted about life. We collected the most beautiful oyster shells–ones that we’d never seen before but seemed to be in great abundance on this day. We found a giant red huckleberry bush and a gooseberry bush that we plan to go raid tomorrow. He pointed out neat things for me to take pictures of (like the beach grass that Daddy likes).

My boy is growing up. He rolls his eyes and says “whatever” when I tease him now. He has great ambition to play hard until school starts in two weeks. The house will be sadly quiet when that happens (though part of me is counting the hours). Sigh. As my dad would say (and back before that, I believe it was My Fair Lady), “He’s a good boy, he is.”

I’m lucky. And I realize how important it is for me to connect with all three of my kids on an individual level. On the rare instances that it happens now, I learn so much about their unique perspectives and quirky ideals. So much fun.

some folks never see a bear at all

August 5, 2010 in alaska, exploring nature, wildlife | 13 comments

I haven’t been around my usual haunts lately (flickr, here). Aside from my trip to Seattle, I’ve really just been hanging out with the family, leaving the camera behind and enjoying things at face value. I get way too caught up in taking pictures sometimes so I’m taking a little breather.

My solo trip to Seattle was very restful and mostly pleasant. I got to meet Lecia (finally! hi Lecia), went to the Seattle Art Museum, saw a great old friend and her new beautiful home, and did lots of eating, shopping and walking. The reason for my trip was a totally out-of-the-blue medical scare that could not be dealt with in our small town. Luckily, all has turned out fine, but was completely frightening in the throes of it all. I’m breathing a big sigh of relief and counting my blessings now.

I did manage to sneak in a few shots (though really terrible as the light was fading fast) of a young black bear we saw about 10 feet from us at the Mendenhall Glacier a few nights ago.  The sockeye salmon are in the creek there now so it’s bear heaven. We watched this guy (girl?) with about 40 other people so we didn’t feel too threatened that he’d turn on us and mistake us for food. It was the kids’ first real bear encounter and they were thrilled! I do worry now that they will think all bears are this chill and not use as much caution as they should. We’ve been talking a lot about this.

This bear really didn’t give a lick that there was a crowd of people surrounding him just a few feet away. We were more or less standing over him on a platform so that gave us a (completely false) sense of security. However, it was just a little unnerving when he’d look you straight in the eyes. Fun to see regardless. When he would finish his catch, he’d walk down to the creek, grab another fish, and bring it right back to his cushy spot in the grass for us all to watch.

So there’s my bird’s eye view of our new little friend. Brian managed to get these next two, which are not so sharp but much lighter than mine. Isn’t he a beauty?

Ever since our fairy tale encounter with the bear in the woods, I have had Lyle Lovett’s Bears song on repeat in my head. And each time I go for a walk at the harbor, I have to sing to myself, “If I had a boat, I’d go out on the ocean. And if I had a pony, I’d ride him on my boat.” It’s like Lyle wrote the soundtrack to my life. Some days that seems really awesome… and some days that makes me feel extremely boring! For the record, Lyle, Texas didn’t want me (or so the stars have shown). Maybe I should be looking for some new theme songs. Ideas? I’m thinking I need to liven things up a bit.