'Alaska' Category
A Humpback Tale
I’m having trouble with images, but I thought I’d share this:
We had an amazing humpback whale sighting on the two-hour boat ride out. The whale was skimming the surface of the water with its head out, presumably filtering krill from the water. Its mouth was open and we could see the baleen through binoculars. The […]Adventure Time!
Things might get quiet around here for a time. Or not. We’ll see. I am here:
This is Aialik (say “eye-AL-ick”) Bay in Kenai Fjords National Park. Alaska Wildland Adventures is building a new lodge, the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge, and I am going out to cook for the crew, move rocks, haul water, etc. for […]
A FiberArt Fence?
Well, no. Not really. Not at all. However, one or more of the newborns has been squeaking under the fence twine and tramping through both the strawberry bed and the main garden beds. It doesn’t eat anything, it just squishes its hooves in the soft dirt.
Today I put up more string, especially down low. I’m […]Bird Song
‘Tis the season for birds to sing, right? Would it surprise you to learn that one of the bird songs I hear here in inland Alaska is that of gulls? We’re only about 50-60 miles from the ocean, so maybe that’s not unusual, but there are gulls in Denali as well. I wasn’t aware of […]
A Perfect Storm
Okay, the “storm” part of this is a judgment call. I’m relying on the concept of “brain storm” since the dictionary won’t bear out my preferred definition. I think I can have a storm of joy, but the dictionary seems to think storms are negative–enemies storm the castle, bad weather, etc. Well, if something good […]
Butterflies in Alaska
I know very little about butterflies and moths, but it’s time to learn. I see a ton of them around here in the spring and summer. It takes time and patience to get a good look at them; they flit about, and it’s hard to get close.
There’s a yellow swallowtail that I see regularly, […]Alaska Gardeing 102
We are past the June 1 okay-to-plant date, but it continues to be chilly and often windy. At 8 a.m. this morning, the temp on the deck still hadn’t reached 50-degrees F. As a result, I’m still lugging the tomatoes and herbs into the house at night.
To help with the wind/temp issue, Mike cobbled […]Alaska Gardening 2008
If you haven’t yet, please read yesterday’s post. It’s important. I hate to cover it up with new posts, but I don’t want to stop posting, so this is my compromise.
For better or worse the 2008 garden is pretty much in. I have a book this year to help me out: Alaska Gardening Guide, by […]“When it’s springtime in Alaska…”
“…it’s forty-below.” So says the Johnny Horton song (number 6–you can hear a sample and read lyrics).
When I get up in the morning it’s generally 40-above these days. It’s been a chilly spring, though, and things are just beginning to get green. On Tuesday, I spotted this (yes, on the way to the mailbox):This is […]
Mike Weber Photography
All those random nature and wildlife photos that pop up on this blog are Mike’s. As a professional photographer, he’s spent hours, even days, waiting for perfect shots. We’ve both hiked miles of rugged terrain, schlepping gear that weighs as much as WWF wrestlers. We’ve tiptoed barefoot over crusty snow (shhh!), crawled on our bellies […]
