normal weather for now

It's finally cooled off a lot, back to 50's and light rain...like a good summer day in Haines. Inspiring enough to get back to the bead table where this fine gentleman waits for me. He's a scientific replica of an adult male skull I got ages ago in Ketchikan at the Ray Troll store. I was still working on the tour boats at the time so 130 bucks for a life sized skull didn't seem outrageous. He's been my traveling companion for a bunch of moves in and out of storage and various houses and apartments but I still haven't given him a name.

The new bead project is a smaller fish called a stickleback. A 3 spined stickleback to be precise. When the tide is really high, parts of the golf course where we walk most days floods and these wee fish get washed up in to the grass. There was one in a shrinking puddle one day, I either gave him a heart attack or he survived the sweaty-palmed run from the puddle to the stream. I have this idea that he was a little shook up when he hit the water and totally confused as to how he ended up in that stream instead of the one he came from!

fair hair

I got fair hair at the Southeast Alaska State Fair this weekend! Alaska is soooo big (how big is it?) we have more than one state fair. This is the smaller, more funky version of the agricultural fair in Palmer where they have those big-ass cabbages. I sold some stuff, volunteered a couple of days and got fair hair...in other words the hermit participated! ...and had some good fun. Hermit participation is a very good thing. Fair hair is a pretty good thing and chatting with a really interesting guy until all hours of the morning is REALLY good!

If any of my 5 followers are voters in Alaska, time to jump on the Bob Poe bandwagon (see Mudflats for more info on this potential governor dude). He was here for the fair, he campaigned some, bought coffee at the Market and had the patience to stand in the really long (local brew) beer line yesterday! Bob Poe for governor!

annoyed at best

One of our best weekend walks is a trail that goes from the end of the road above us to Allen road over closer to town. About 3/4 of a mile through the woods then back through a neighborhood, along the highway, up the hill then home. It's the only long walk that doesn't involve a lot of time walking along the edge of the highway. Summer road construction means lots of trucks carrying fill and asphalt are zooming up and down the road.

I have spent the past 12 years being as responsible a dog owner as I can, keeping her on her leash if there's a chance she'll get in trouble, picking up poop if it's where other people might walk, and doing my best to keep her out of fights. When Ceilidh was younger, she was a fighter but now she's 12 or 13 years old. Enter asshat "babysitting" a pitbull. As in pathetic plea "it's not my dog, I'm babysitting" when I screeched at him because the dog had just attacked Ceilidh as we walked up the road. I fucking hate that sort of helpless crap, control the dog! This morning it happened again, but I was carring a stick just in case. I hate to hit a dog, but I'll defend mine if he won't control the one he's "babysitting" from inside the house while it runs loose.

sunny still, distracted

I'm supposed to be getting ready for the Fair next week, good thing I had a shit load of earrings and a stack of cards already made! The sun makes me do stuff like scrape and paint and caulk and rake and weed and plant and (according to my bff neighbor) sit around and read all day.
A fine example of what I've been doing, see the board under the door that her highness is stepping over? There's a second one at the top of the door. These cover the huge gaps left by the rocket surgeon that did the remodel and just didn't see fit to actually finish the job! I'm finding more and more stuff like this, places where rain can get in and cause rot and damage. WTF?

Dad would have yelled so loud about how I reached the top of the door to screw and glue that board! Step ladder on the left...2 legs on the top stair, two legs on blocks of wood on the bottom stair. Can ashes roll over in their 'grave'?
A wee painting, 2.5 inches square, I'll sell at the Fair along with some earrings and lino cut cards.

yum.

My trip to Juneau was just what the doctor ordered! 3 days of fireworks, parades and sunshine all under the special glow of 'our governor is a quitter!'. Happy Independence Day Alaska, she quit!

Friday night was fireworks as seen from Frederick and Terry's balcony above my old apartment. They're done on the 3rd just before Midnight so Juneau can be the first capitol city to blow them up...I had no idea that's why they're on the 3rd, but there ya go. Lots of bang crash and sparkly shine, I love fireworks.

Saturday I watched the Juneau parade with Theresa, Carol, Chelsea, Dave and Chris. Blazing sunshine, no wind...the kids in the parade were wilting by the time it passed the 2nd time. Yup, long parade short route is typical Juneau, I love it. Mrs. Palin didn't show up for that or for the 49 star flag raising 50th anniversary celebration...even though she was in town. (quitter face) Stuart Sliter and some of the other Miss Alaska representatives were in the Juneau parade though! Much better image of an Alaskan woman than the former governor.

Traffic getting out of town was hell so we didn't go over to Douglas, just too hot and too congested. Chelsea and I drove out the C&C's in their truck while Chris and Carol tried to dodge traffic on their motorcycles...we got there first even after buying ice cream down town!

Lots of beer and bugs at Carol's repeated again Sunday. Big wide grin spending days with friends.

Joab and I hung out a bit, he had some of my furniture to give back from when I moved south (hated it). He was also on his way to pass through here (yesterday) so he brought the rest of the stuff. He's been having a tough time, Natasha got hooked on oxycontin and then heroin! He's helping her through it with some sort of shots...methadone? Poor kid, poor Dad!

Ok so (catching up)...I went to pay the water bill today. Crappy water big bill...but nice folks. Anyway...I go to pay the bill and what do I get?
Seriously, can you believe it? About 1/2 a gallon of fresh strawberries! They've got a big garden that was a homestead and the strawberries are running amok... run this way, baby!

4th of July

I may just have to go to Juneau for the 4th of July celebrations. I just read that the community across the water from Juneau is going to have Miss Alaska 1958 as their Grand Marshall. She's the mother of one of my high school friends...a friend that died (she "drank herself to death") in her early 30's. Jill was always obsessed with her weight and physical beauty...I didn't even know her mom was Miss Alaska. I feel like I should honor Jill's mom, I can't imagine having a child die a sorrowful death.
Here is Miss Alaska, Stuart Sliter, getting Casey Stengel's autograph when she did a tour of the states when she was the reigning queen. When I knew Mrs. Sliter, she was the wife of a commercial fisherman, mother of 3 kids and usually hosting a party of some sort. Their house was a lively, rough and ready place that I loved to visit.

a little solstice

We all walk in the same places. It's been a few weeks since these tracks showed up down by the golf course, Ive been meaning to get a picture to share before the rains come. Small moose, small bear and average woman feet.The cabbage before.

Nancy Pearl shushing the cabbage that is overwhelming her.

A potato flower! Now that there are flowers, the tubers are forming under the earth...magic.

a rose is a rose

Most of the edible berries in southeast Alaska are roses of some sort, the rest are the Vacinnium family like blueberries and bog cranberries. The roses have big showy flowers the Vacinnium little bell shaped flower.
This is the flower from a raspberry in my yard, 5 petals, many stamens, flowers on last years' cane and has prickles.
This is a Thimbleberry flower, 5 petals many stamens, flowers on old cane and no prickles. Fruit is like a raspberry but in my mind the definition of pithy. Mushy and little flavor. Great big palmate leaves (like a maple) Aggressive pain in the ass weed that spreads in a sneaky underground rooty way.
Salmon Berry flower...see a pattern here? 5 petals, many stamens. Fruit is raspberry like but sometimes red sometimes yellow. Colors might be an adaptation to keep birds from eating the ripe fruit, the yellow ones don't look 'ripe'. Some people (thimbleberry lovers?) don't like the fruit, it can be watery and sort of flavorless if it's not ripe.
Last but not least by a long shot is strawberries. Everyone else in this story is a tall showy plant that flowers on old woody canes. Strawberries live close to the ground but have that same 5 petal flower with many stamens. The only fruit I know of with the seeds on the outside...and oh so tasty!

I'll snag a picture of the wild roses that grow around here, generally called Sitka or Nootka rose, they have the same flowers but a wonderful rose scent that the others don't have. Bees frequent the Sitka rose and the strawberry, but usually it's flies on the other flowers.

Some bead pictures to share

The doll is on high quality cotton, with leather 'boots' and leaves from the silk flower department at a Joanne fabric store.
The beads are sewn to pellon dyed green then the whole thing is sewn to hand dyed wool felt.

Yukon road trip

Just back from a short road trip to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon (territory/province?). I sort of forgot how close Canadian Tire and a movie theatre (it's Canada, ya know) is to Haines. At least close in the summer months, the road is passable but scary in the winter. It took me about 5 hours to get there even with miles and miles of slushy snow falling.

Part of the trip was to meet up with my sister and part of her family at Takhini hotsprings. 2 days of bobbing around in a swimming pool full of hot water...very nice. Weekend camping during the warm months in Canada is, however, not peaceful, not nice. I forget how inconsiderate people are and how just plain LOUD campgrounds are on the weekends. Friday night it was drunken teenagers with fireworks. If you looked at the Wikipedia article, you'll note that the area is essentially an arctic desert...fire danger levels high all summer. Saturday night it was a site right next to ours that included the thundering feet of small children running laps around our site as well as an unending supply of modern country "music". Must remember not to camp on the weekend at Takhini, no matter how nice the water is it can't make up for noisy sonsabitches.

The other part of the trip was the visit to the city...specifically Canadian Tire to buy a reel mower for my grassy grass. I'm pretty sure the gasoline powered neighbors wonder what the hell I'm up to with my push mower in the summer and my hand operated shovels in the winter. Bob cat dude did come over and cut down the forest of dandelions in my front yard while I was push mowing my way through the side yard. But, ya know...the first mowing of the forest was going to be seriously hard work, I appreciate the help summer or winter!

On the drive back, I saw a black phase red fox. Very cool animal, all charcoal black except for a white tip on it's fluffy tail.