exploring nature

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valentine’s day love

February 15, 2012 in exploring nature, family, valentines day, winter | 2 comments

I’m not really a Valentine’s Day girl, but I do love a good sunset. And a good meal (and chocolate and flowers!).  And the color red is pretty fabulous, too. On second thought, Valentine’s Day just may be the perfect holiday! I spent a lovely day with my family. Watching the sunset on the beach and doing some silly pink and red crafting and eating lots of sugar. Since a fancy date was not an option, Brian and I put the kids to bed early and made a most amazing Indian feast. Chicken in cashew sauce, curried coconut cauliflower and even homemade naan. So.Good. Can’t wait for lunchtime leftovers.

The sky was full of love for the occasion.

The British Soldiers are going nuts out in the sun right now. I love the perfect red bursts in an otherwise not-very-colorful month.

Jonah, explaining the cycles of the moon to me

Getting ready for dinner… finally getting a chance to use our bull kelp chutney from Simple Pleasures (we made a trade at Public Market, my print for her jellies, and we’ve been LOVING all of the amazing Alaska flavors). 

I have been seeing some amazing photos of the Northern Lights from last night! We didn’t ever see them out here, but I did see Mars glowing the brightest red I’ve ever seen, I think just for Valentine’s Day. Hope yours was full of love.

light

February 8, 2012 in exploring nature, winter | 3 comments

I could not be happier about the return of daylight. We’ve started our after-school beach walks again. By no means is it warm yet, but we’ve actually been able to take our gloves off to pick up shells and climb trees. It’s not very spring-like… but it’s coming.  That was something hard to imagine a month ago.


sunday walk

January 30, 2012 in exploring nature, weekends, winter | 8 comments

Walked through the luminescent powder, middle of the street, up to my calves before the plow came. It was quiet and the air was not cold, just perfect with the smell of wood fires burning. The trees shed their burdens in a giant whoomp!, snow falling through the air louder than the crash into the soft ground. The street turned to beach and the insistent tide lapped at the snow, dissolving a neat new line with each swell and fooling me to think the water might be warm. Walked home, able to face Little League registration and the wherewithal to keep a schedule for another week.

ancient playground

January 17, 2012 in exploring nature, little bird, mighty, winter | 4 comments

Oh the cold!  It’s COLD.  Really, really cold.  But I’ll take it if it means crystal-clear bluebird skies.  The forecast calls for 35 below wind chills all this week.  I’m fairly certain Lola and I will just hang out inside, make granola and curl up next to the window to watch the pretty sky, she with her sock monkey, me with my book.  Not a bad life, no.

We’ve been watching a lot of movies lately, with the darkness and the cold. One can only play so many Scrabble games… so they say.  I haven’t reached my limit yet.
Another Earth: mildly depressing, but interestingly twisted and unique.
The Debt: Helen Mirren.  She is hot.  That is all.
Cowboys and Aliens: don’t laugh… it really was good! As Brian said, why can’t aliens visit any time period they like?
The Future: quirky, but my kind of movie.  And I love the talking cat (I however will not recommend The Beaver–psychotic talking puppet!).
McCabe and Mrs. Miller: recommended by a new friend, I can’t believe I lived my whole life without seeing this movie. A soundtrack by Leonard Cohen and the dark, damp mood of the Gold Rush days. Seriously good.

Perhaps I have mentioned this before, but my favorite movie of all time is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Did you know there was a sequel? I’m a little slow when it comes to all things that cable television tells people.  I didn’t know. Turns out I didn’t miss much because Blackthorn was a huge disappointment. There is really nothing like an original (and who can hold a candle to Paul Newman or Robert Redford?).

Totally unrelated except to prove that I have also spent a good amount of time not watching movies, these pictures are from a little exploration we took in the woods on Friday. Mighty was still home “sick” (though his fever broke the night before and he was dying to go climb some trees).  This was before the deep freeze, with little wind and a warm sunny, winter glow.

sensory

January 10, 2012 in exploring nature, little bird, snow, winter | 4 comments

I had a moment over the holidays where, out of nowhere, I was overtaken by the smell of a memory from my childhood.  It’s a familiar smell that returns easily, but this time it struck me that I could single out all the nuances and hints of this and that. The flavors that make up the whole.  The crunchy, dry magnolia leaves littering the sides of the walk in the backyard. The beach brought into the basement, carried in by toys, towels and the glittering mica stuck to wet feet after a barefoot walk in the sand. My grandma’s lipstick.

This moment has been with me since and I am enjoying dissecting more little memories that randomly strike.  It also has me noticing more in the present. My current experiences and the pieces that make them good or bad. It’s a fun little exploration of the senses and the ego. I like being an observer.

Lola and I went for a walk yesterday. There was very little to explore by way of smell as it was incredibly, bone-chillingly windy. The cold wind was too much and had me holding my breath for fear of the chill the air would bring to my lungs. So we both relied on our other senses to develop the adventure… and it was a beautiful day to see.

 

 

humpies at the harbor

September 2, 2011 in exploring nature, harbors, salmon, wildflowers | 1 comment

Yesterday brought us a very unexpected and very welcomed day of sun. Oh sun!  At this time of year, that encounter is like sipping on a glass of honied Kentucky bourbon. You know that feeling.  Just warming. It’s is still high enough in this Alaskan sky to cozy everything up in its brief appearance.  I’d planned to clean out the basement… but yeah, that didn’t happen.  Micah and Lola took me for a late afternoon walk at Statter Harbor.  This is what we saw…

Lots of pink salmon. Also called humpies (which makes me snicker for some silly reason) because of the big humpback the males develop during the spawning migration. These are near the end of their journey. It was incredibly beautiful.

And some bonus sunny harbor pictures. Kind of reaffirms why I love it here so much.

looking toward Mt. McGinnis and the majestic Mendenhall Towers

throwing salmon roe to the fish and seagulls

Today it’s back to grey, wet skies. Guess the basement will get cleaned after all.

summer in flowers

August 23, 2011 in exploring nature, summer, wildflowers | 13 comments

Thanks for all the lovely comments on my fireweed post.  It’s comforting in a sad time to know there are sweet people in this world.  As summer was flying by around me this year, everything seemed emotionally straining and rough… but looking back, I realize there was a lot of beauty happening around me, too.  That’s why I love taking pictures. It forces me to stop and see things in a new light.  Even when I’m a complete disaster, I become pleasantly distracted by the way the light hits the mountains or by a sweet moment shared between my kids.  I don’t know that I would be so aware of such instances if I didn’t love to take photos.  Even if I don’t have my camera or I choose not to take a picture, I notice and I remember those little snapshots of time and they bring me great joy.

If you ask me, summer is officially over in my book.  Though we technically have a month left on the calendar, school started today… the boys are gone and the house is way too quiet… and the rains have set in here BIG time.  Despite the rain, I love fall.  The colors and the settling in after a summer of manic activity.  So, in an ambivalent farewell to summer, I’m posting a wildflower catalog of sorts; or a tribute to the relics of a bygone season.  Starting a new chapter beholden to the earth for sharing its bits of beauty that appear every year just for me (and you).

roseroot

lupine

shooting stars, northern rice root, western buttercup

rocket weed on the hillside

oxeye daisies + forget-me-nots

beach peas

wild beach carrot (?)

sitka sedge (?)

white clover

red columbine

wild carrot (queen anne’s lace) + grass

sitka burnet + yarrow

northern geranium

thimbleberries

yellow mountain-heather

self-heal

mountain monkshood (extremely poisonous)

common harebell

robin’s egg found in a patch of foamflower near ebner falls

maidenhair fern

forget-me-nots (the alaska state flower)

arrow-leaved groundsel

fireweed

(I’m no expert here, so please correct me if I’m wrong on the names!)

camping on the sand

July 15, 2011 in canning, exploring nature, family, foraging wild edibles, summer, weekends | 6 comments

We discovered a new favorite camping spot last weekend.  We went out to Boy Scout Beach and camped right in an open field of wild peas and fireweed.  And to top it off, there is real sand on the beach. It’s not the typical rocky Juneau tideline.  Sand!  Like you can walk barefoot. That never happens here!

The beach is located off a very accessible 1.5 mile trail that runs along Eagle River (very appropriately named as we were literally swarmed by bald eagles). A friend and I packed in with Lola in the stroller while the boys and Brian biked. Because Brian pulled the bike trailer, we were able to bring along a bunch of stuff that we wouldn’t normally be able to pack in.  Like a real campstove. I’m not good at packing light.

We have walked out to the beach for day excursions before, but this is the first time we’ve actually made a weekend trip out of it. The icing on the cake is that the weather was gorgeous. It makes me happy that my kids were able to stay in bathing suits just about the whole day. Much like the happy camping trips of my youth in Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona.

Wild critters and wild edibles were at every which turn. Unfortunately, the strawberries weren’t quite ready but we did manage to scavenge a few handfuls of ripe blueberries. And how adorable is this bunny! She was still as a doorknob until she took off in a mad dash.

Did I mention the sand? And the sun?

Sand is fun to play in. We made up games, like stick-tac-toe. And created beach creatures.

And of course, we did some fishing. Catch and release this time. Lots of pink salmon and double uglies (sculpin) brought in. Jonah also brought his Red Ryder BB gun to practice shooting at targets. He’s a waaaay better shot than I am.

And then there were my favorite things about camp: campfires, camp snacks, and black coffee.

This weekend will be a little different… the boys have their first soccer games of the season tomorrow and we have a few fun social activities planned. Also, king crab season is opening for just a few days so we hope to go out with a friend to pull pots and see if we can have ourselves a crab feast. Ah summer… seems like you’re going by too fast.

 

little feather

July 8, 2011 in exploring nature, foraging wild edibles, in the kitchen, mighty, summer | 12 comments

There’s an abundance of little feather growing on the beach near our house. Or, if you prefer, old man’s pepper… or perhaps, more commonly known as, yarrow.

We drink a lot of tea in our house and yarrow is one of my favorite flavors. Not to mention, it is great for allergies and colds–both of which I have been suffering from all summer long. Yarrow has the same properties as aspirin for reducing fevers and historically was most commonly used for regulating blood flow. Achilles carried yarrow with his army to heal battle wounds. One article that I read suggested that when consumed in large doses, “…you may notice a shift in the color and intensity of light around you. For artists or photographers this photosensitiser can sometimes provide a useful shift in perception.” Wild! A yarrow high made for photographers!

Mighty and I went on a harvesting walk several nights ago and brought home enough to preserve for use throughout the year. We mixed fresh leaves and flowers with mint leaves from the garden and made a delicious cup of tea, with honey as sweetener.

**I’m totally not an expert but everything I read about yarrow said not to use it while pregnant or nursing… just fyi.

fish creek

June 8, 2011 in drawing, exploring nature, little bird, summer | 4 comments

Fishing season is here again. Us girls tagged along with the boys to the creek, but not to cast a line… we chose to frolic in the wildflowers, do a little creating, and watch the clouds move across the sky.

I’ll be heading into the wild with Jonah and about 100 other boys for Boy Scout camp over the next three days.  We are staying in cabins close to a perfect beach and having meals made for us. Kind of sounds like a vacation. Except for maybe the mass amount of energy that I imagine will be sparking in the air with all those boys.  Wish me luck!

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