meet our evening visitors~

we've always had a group of deer wandering around the woods surrounding our house. they weren't around much after our neighbors cut down all their trees (i am still bitter and they still haven't gotten the xmas fruit cake from me since.) during the winter they returned to the neighborhood and i'm loving how at home they've made themselves in our yard. they are smart enough to not visit until after gerry is asleep. i think they can pick up on the vibe that the man sees anything with fur and four legs as a potential meal.

 there are five in the "family,"  three does, who are the shy ones in the group, a beautiful buck, and this little guy~ i call him tippy. his little hoofs click on the driveway, sometimes that's how i know they're here. i think he is a yearling. he lost his spots finally, but he still has that cute baby face. and look at that belly!

tippy's not very afraid of anything, he and my pal duffy the small white dog are working on a type of friendship that involves a lot of you-chase-me then-i'll-chase-you around the back yard. duffy takes it as long as he can then comes in and guards his food dish. you never know, tippy might be able to fit in the doggy door...

look at this guy! isn't he handsome? i took all these photos out of my really dirty windows (i can't reach to wash the outsides of them on that side of the house...and our ladder is old and scary) so everything is muted by the dust. but he really is beautiful. he follows along behind tippy every night while the gals have some girl time down back.

i'll be sad when the grass greens and they move on for the summer.

time flies...texture tuesday already~

this week kim shared a beautiful texture she named "silence."

(i love silence, pure calm quiet. i have enough rattling around in my head all the time without adding extra sounds to it. lately my pet noise dislike is the rapid-fire tic-tic-ticking of my youngest son's texting. might as well be fingernails on a chalkboard....)

the day i took this photo was a wonderful calm day, no breeze, not even a seagull cry.
just a bit of splash as the slack tide slapped on the rocks.
the next day it was blowing 50 and pelting snow...

we live on a wondrous island.

i used two layers of silence, 100% soft light & 42% multiply.
 i also blurred the whole image with a gaussian blur at 27%.

visit all the other texture tuesday participants here. you will be amazed...

texture tuesday with ms. kim

i took this photo last spring at the oregon coast. i'd never seen anyone fish into rolling surf like this before.

 i watched him for about an hour. never did catch anything.
but it was a beautiful day.

i adjusted the hue/saturation levels and added two layers of kim's warmsun texture;

one at softlight, 100% and the other at multiply, 73%.
check out all the other amazing texture lovers here!

beating the blogging blahs~

i've been in a crummy slump lately. i don't really know why, but i just haven't felt like doing a dang thing. not even cooking has been fun. (thank goodness for a freezer full of venison burger and boxes of hamburger helper at times like this...) (and nope, you won't be getting daily posts from me as i follow julia childs' cookbook...)

as i read blog posts from folks all over, it seems the joy of spring has hit in full force everywhere. i'm just not feeling it yet.

at this point i would be remiss in not taking notice of the plight of those in japan right now. long time kodiak residents can certainly relate to them, sans nuclear nightmare, having lived through similar tsunami devastation after the earthquake of 1964. i hope we all continue to pull together to help these people regain their homes, their lives.

whether i'm able to romp through cherry blossoms or not, it's time to get myself out of this rut. the whale fest art show is less than a week away *gasp*. as i type this, sitting right next to me staring in it's eyeless sort of way, is my naked halibut tail, ready to be turned into a work of art for the 3rd annual KIVCB halibut tail auction. it needs to be done...soon.

earlier this week i did manage to go through all my sweatshirt pockets and the ashtray (used only for beach finds) in my rav for the little baggies of sea glass i've been collecting with my pal duff on our morning walks on the beaches. i perked myself up enough to get a bunch drilled and fashioned into jewelry:

Note to local lurkers: (i know you are there) you can now purchase these and much much more at Emerald Isle Framing, 334 Shelikof St next to the brewery, open T-Sat from noon. 907-486-0884. if you are not local and interested in my sea glass jewelry, please email me!! i haven't been keeping up my etsy store, but am happy to work with you on a custom purchase.

yesterday i hit the spring cleaning. right down to throwing open all the windows and doors and scrubbing and waxing the floors on my hands and knees. i know, who does that anymore? i have to admit it felt pretty good going to bed last night knowing every surface in the house including the toilets and the top of the fridge had been slapped with a hot rag and bleach. and when i got up for coffee this morning i was touched by my pal duff's little love notes to me in the form of perfect little muddy paw prints across the kitchen...we had a chat about feet wiping and the meaning behind the phrase "tan your hide."

{and if you are reading this devon, happy 20th birthday. we miss you and love you.}

i love my jug of sourdough starter

my family doesn't understand my deep attachment to my jar of sourdough starter. i can't explain it to them. it's taken me years of training to get them all to the point of understanding that if the jar is on the counter behind the sink, leave it there. if it's on the ledge behind the toyostove, do not move it. if it's on the bottom shelf in the fridge, don't bump it trying to make room for your sunny d. they all finally understand the basic sourdough rule: do not touch the jar. every summer i wrap it up and hand carry it with me on the boat ride to the lodge. the boys tease me that i should strap an EPIRB on it.
i don't know that i understand why i am so attached to it. it's not like i'm ma ingalls in a sod house in the middle of the prairie~ i can pick up a loaf of bread at safeway lickity-split. maybe it's a nurturing thing.
my friend veronica gave me a cup of her starter several years ago so i could get mine going. a friend of hers shared a cup with veronica long ago, with the story that it originated from relatives who carried it with them over the chilkoot trail in the 1890's.
i don't know if that is a valid fact or not, but when veronica handed me my jar of gooey, yeasty history, i felt a certain obligation to keep that starter alive. so far so good. i feed it, stir it, keep fumbling hands away from it. in return it turns out amazing muffins and sourdough french bread. and last night, a fantastic batch of pancakes. i wonder if they could be called vintage...

why i don't listen to the news~

i've been thinking about my middle son devon a lot today. i haven't seen him in over a year now. well, thanks to skype i have seen him, but you know what i mean, i haven't touched him, or fed him, or done his laundry for him.
i showed you him going off to air force boot camp, and let you know he made it through with flying colors. since then he's been sent to texas for training, over to florida for more training, and now is stationed at seymour-johnson air force base in north carolina, where he is a crew chief and engine specialist on F-15 fighter jets. two days ago he texted me a photo of himself in his dress blues, right after he received his second stripes. they are beautiful, and he looks so good...
it's been an emotional journey having him choose this path for himself. mostly i have been filled with pride, seeing him follow in his grandfather's footsteps, hearing his pride in himself over the phone as he met each test & obstacle over the past year. i know he loves what he's doing. i know he's being taken care of and that he's going to the dentist and eating meals. i know he still has a few months of tests and things before he is "deployable." i've chosen to focus on feeling the pride and telling myself he is on the ground fixing the jets, not flying in them...

and then i read the news this morning. two u.s. air men shot and two wounded, in germany. one of devon's best buddies from boot camp was recently stationed there. the air force base in germany is home to the only F-15 fighter wing in europe, and it's on devon's "wish list." my heart is heavy as i wait to hear from him. i can only imagine how his friends' parents are feeling.

pride can only carry a mom so far.

i see the person who did the shooting is 21. so young.

devon is 19. his 20th birthday is the end of this month. and i'm thinking if i would have talked him into college, he would have been worried about what he was going to be doing for spring break instead of doing the final pre-flight check on a fighter jet engine...

bless the families of those four boys.

hot off the deck

yesterday i completed our last assignment for kim's skinny mini photoshop ecourse. i can't believe how much i've learned, she is a fantastic teacher. i can't wait to take her essentials course now.
in between snapping photos and manipulating them (gosh i love being manipulative) i managed to finish one project i can check off my list...
i found this funky little table/lamp unit a few weeks ago at a friend's yard sale for $2. i'm not much for wrought iron, but one can never have too many lamps in a house in alaska in the dead of winter...

...before....

(i just realized i'm showing my really ugly mud room to the world...great...)

...after...

i decided it would make the perfect "knitting at night" table. i spray painted the base "tomato soup", what a great name, huh? i stitched up a quick bag for the bottom to hold my numerous unfinished knitting projects...slapped some fabric scraps on an old lampshade, and popped a full spectrum bulb in it. after sanding down the table top i painted away, then gave it a few coats of sealer and put it all back together. it's bright & happy & keeps the boys out of my stuff. all for under $5. i'm feeling so frugal...

wow~

 

i think the only thing photoshop can't do is fill up my gas tank.

i know how to wield the magic eraser tool.

no one need ever know what a horrible photographer i am again.

thank you kim klassen.

it's a software miracle~

i've been working on kim klassen's skinny mini ecourse for photoshop elements this week. ms. kim is nothing short of amazing. in a series of well executed videos and homework, she has managed to unlock the mysteries of layers, blends, adjustments and textures. she's a great teacher, and so generous to offer this class at no cost. if you've been intimidated or discouraged by this software, i really recommend signing up for one of kim's classes - just click on one of her buttons i have over on the right to see some of her work.

look at the difference!

swap-o-rama

linda at a swap for all seasons hosts the best swaps ever. her latest swap challenge was to create a 5x7 fabric collage piece, simple & sweet, inspired by something our partners liked.
my partner was nancy from the vintage dresser . we share a common like of vintage kitchen linens and old stuff. and the colour green. (she has a couple of great tutorials posted for mini note pads and a sweet mini album made from coffee filters (!) go check it out!)
so, here's what i came up with for her:

the image of the fairy princess is courtesy of karen the graphics fairy , who keeps us supplied with wonderful images to use however we will. i printed her out in sepia (the princess, not karen) and freshened her up a bit with coloured pencils.

a couple of the background fabrics are actual old feedsacks, the rest are reproductions. the linen trim on the left edge is a precious piece from my memere's sewing stash, as well as the old buttons. am i the only one who has stashes of these things and finds it incredibly painful to actually use?? i don't know why, even my memere used to say "c'est tout simplement" which i think was her way of saying "it's all just stuff", and i always like the way everything looks when i'm done...

i gave it a bit of machine quilting and added a jar of pixie dust so she could sprinkle her 3 wishes around. it was very hard not to sew a binding on to this....but we were supposed to leave them unfinished for our partners to finish as they like. i mailed her off to nancy today, hope she likes it.

linda has set up a link here to all the finished pieces, go have a look, there are some beauties!

happy valentine's day!

can you find the heart?

look close.... it's on the cliff below the leaning spruce tree,

by the furthest breaking wave...

have a great day!

sunday sunshine

eat your supper....

today has been a really windy, rainy, cold cold day. gerry has been working out on a boat all day, so i know he will be frozen and wet when he gets home. the perfect day to make turkey pot pie for dinner...
i get his call to let me know he's on his way home. great timing as the pie is done. i set the table, then do the usual clean up of the counters, etc. when i turn around to get the plates, this is what i see...

never turn your back on a small white dog.

an important safety notice for kodiak residents

this is my youngest son, cullan.

he turned 16 last weekend.

he is usually the quiet one of the family, not prone to public displays of emotion of any type. what's that he's holding, you ask? that would be his still-warm-from-the-laminator

alaska driver's license.
ergo, my public warning.

this is his vehicle, so you all have a visual.

if you live on the mainland, you should be safe for another couple years.

(all kidding aside, he has thus far proven to be a pretty consciencious and safe driver. i am again grateful for the "no passengers" provision. i'll post updates should he ever venture off the island )

knitting on the dock of the bay

i would rather be here (on my sad little crumbling dock at our cabin) doing this (knitting) than anywhere else on earth. this was one of those days i will carry in my heart forever. it was sunny on the bay, and shirt sleeves warm. there was the nicest slight breeze that kept the loathsome flesh eating no-see-ums away. i hadn't yet started work at alpenview, so my time was my own. really really my own because my husband and son had returned to town the day before, and i was all by myself for the first time in a very long time. didn't have to stop and make a meal or find a hammer for someone. didn't have to start the generator or put gas in a 4 wheeler or listen to classic rock (thank you sweet clouds in the sky.) it was bliss. i spent the whole day on that dock knitting, reading, watching jellyfish float by. not a sound except for the gulls and the water slapping on the beach. it was bliss. it smelled warm and green and sea-weedy.

it was this moment in time that i kept with me during the past week. i had jury duty all last week. i've served on a jury one other time, years ago. it wasn't a messy trial or anything horrid. it was pretty cut & dry. the biggest thing i remember about it was that i had a 4 week old baby girl jury duty was keeping me from, and that enraged me. it messed up our schedules, our feedings, our everythings. but we made it through.

this was not one of those trials. we had to sit and listen to icky details. we had to relive lots of angry emotions. we had to quietly observe lawyers guiding and picking and wheedling. the entire situation left me feeling nauseous and unclean and unsettled. it wasn't black and white, and i resented being put in the position of having to make such a monumental decision about another beings' life. i don't think any of us felt like we left the jury box as better people for having fulfilled our civic duty.

i kept my day on the dock in my heart all week long.

i love my country, i understand the importance of our judicial system and all it entails.

but i really hope i never have to go through that again.

i am looking forward to tomorrow, monday, and a clean, creative week!

what i did this summer...viewmaster style

i need to confess when it comes to downloading, editing, and generally trying to make my photos look better, i have a severe lack of patience. i thought a new camera would help me overcome this problem, but all it has done is enable me to take even more photos which then have to be dealt with. so i am trying this, a photo mosaic. which i think is probably really really cheating, but in what i hope will be viewed as creative cheating. i took hundreds of photos this summer. i'm looking at this as a summary. a dim sum of many beautiful days on ugak bay.

it was a great summer. alpenview lodge hosted clients from all over the globe. it was fun to meet such interesting folks, and watch them enjoying all our home has to offer. we had pretty good weather, with a few delayed switch outs, but for the most part everyone got to where they needed to be almost when they needed to be there. the fishing was great, with the halibut and rockfish covering nicely for the late silver run.

as always it was hard to leave and return to town. we really are looking forward to the time we can retire, and snuggle in to the cabin for good.

(i think you can click on the photos to enlarge them...if i did it correctly...)

invisible me...

i guess i've kinda fallen off the blogging map...whoops.

once back in town, life kicked backed in. it's amazing how easy it is to get sucked up into the "hurry up and get all this stuff done, and oh don't forget about this and that" mode. every year i swear i won't fall into the holiday busy busy busy trap, and every year i still do. (next year i am not going to...)

now xmas is all packed up. school has started again. my daughter, who got to come home for christmas, is gone again, much too quickly. my air force son, who did not get to come home for christmas, is showing up in some pretty entertaining photos on facebook.... i'm glad to know he wasn't alone for the holidays, even if he isn't glad to know i lurk on facebook.

it's very quiet at home, time to get to work on all those things i've been very good at setting aside. we're having some pretty nasty weather which makes it even easier. now i'm off to finish the xmas cards that have turned into the new year cards...

then i'll have a clear conscience, and can get back in the blog groove.
wishing you a peaceful and warm 2011

hello! i'm back!

hi everyone, if you are still there... i am back in town after another incredible late summer on the bay. it's always hard to step off the boat and dig back into the real world. everything moves so fast, is so loud and just plain old complicated.
it's so easy to slide into the life of the fishing lodge, i never take for granted the slower pace, the absence of all things technical (although i keep my ipod close at hand... josh groban really does make cleaning the smokehouse go so much faster.) the days are long, the work is hard, but the stresses are easier to handle...instead of having to be three places at once i only have to figure out how to make my last 4 eggs into a breakfast for 12 clients....piece of cake. there is no wondering which shoes to wear in the morning. most of the time it's the xtra-tuffs. easy-peasy. choosing evening entertainment? a cinch - by the time i'm done in the kitchen i'm pooped - a quick walk down the beach and it's time to hit the hay. 4:45 a.m. comes around really fast. i love everything about this simple time of my year.
i will admit to missing my youngest son, who has to head back to town for school several weeks before i'm done. but he and dad managed to get to the first day of school fine, made all the swim team practices without me reminding him, and kept the house reasonably clean. now i just have to remember i'm only cooking for three, not eight to ten...
i have lots of photos to post as soon as i get them downloaded. it was a beautiful sunny summer for the most part. a few good foggy rainy days which delays some client switch-outs, but it wasn't too bad. so now i look forward to catching up with the blog world...and my laundry...

why i want to be an oyster catcher

oyster catchers are a striking seabird i just love watching. they are solid black, with a glorious lonnngg orange beak, and they play a great cat and mouse game to keep you away from their nests, which they tend to create right smack on the beach, just out of reach of the tide line.

so, how easy is housekeeping for an oyster catcher?? check it out - let's just scatter some broken shells and lay our eggs! jeekers! no twigs, no fluffy stuff. obviously there is no pampering for baby oyster catchers. looks like they have to break the shell and hit the beach running! i'm going to point this out to my children the next time they think they have life rough.

i found this nest a couple weeks ago when we took the skiff over to long island, just a quick 20 minute ride from town. it's taken us 8 years to talk my mom into going on the boat with us, but we finally did it:

she just turned 83. she had a blast on the ride, but made me promise not to post any of those photos because her hair was messy. it was a beautiful day, the kind that reminds you why you love living on an island in alaska.

my pal duffy loves to be the navigator. he frequently dives in and swims along. we let him go until we see the sea lions snort, then yard him back in.

we were babysitting duff's sister snickers for a week, she also loves a good boat ride. gotta love her coast guard approved life jacket!

see what i mean? the perfect place to live.

and every morning when i wake up i say a thank you prayer that i no longer have to stand on the back deck of a seiner, piling corks and getting slapped in the face with jellyfish. you should too. you should also be sure to find out if the salmon you are eating is wild alaskan salmon, because if it is farmed fish, it is taking away the livelihood of fishermen and their families like the folks in the picture above.
with that soap box moment, i will say my goodbyes, as i am leaving tomorrow for ugak bay. i can't wait to get back to the lodge, meet new folks, and cook! having all that fresh seafood to work with is incredible. i sure wish chef ramsey would drop in for a visit, so i could wow him with my fresh crab cakes - ha ha. if he ever did show up in my kitchen i would be cowering in the corner...

at any rate, there is no internet at the bay, so i'll be snapping photos like mad to share with you when i return in early october! all of you take good care! and if you are in one of those places that is sweltering in temperatures i can't even imagine...this photo is for you. it's my front yard at ugak bay. just visualize yourself there for a quick cool down.

my spankin' new remodeled workroom!

for the past, almost 2 months, i have been working on redoing my workspace. what a journey. what a bunch of stuff i have. i thought thea had a mess of stuff. i have a mess of mess. or had. i have been purge~ing, organizing, cleansing. i have scoured organizing magazines, blogs, and websites. i have thrown things away and then panicked and pulled them out of the dumpster. i wonder if there is a medication i could benefit from.

in the end, my inner feng shui master and i came to an agreement. i think it all worked out okay. i painted, changed my mind and repainted several times. i now rest easier knowing there isn't a single spider in my workroom. all the cracks & dings in the drywall have been patched. i have good lights. i've put all my awesome old wooden fish egg boxes to great use.

all my stuff is in its own special spot, and yes, the walls are the colour of pea soup, as my youngest son pointed out. i really like pea soup. i'm not a frilly person, but darn if i don't like my pink shelves. when i asked my husband if he could make me a simple workbench tall enough for me to work at without getting a neck ache, he made me the Ferrari of all workbenches, that 3 elephants could dance on. i won't be moving the workbench around anytime soon.

archie and edith, my super wonderful new washer & dryer, are thrilled to have a room befitting their status. i am thrilled to have 3 separate work areas dedicated to my different medias. my fabrics and sewing machines are housed in my son's old room for now...with the door closed so i don't start in on that room yet...

it's a great feeling to be finished. sadly, i won't be able to dig in and use it as it's time for me to head out to ugak bay for another season of cooking for the fishermen, but i will be smiling knowing my room, which has been taped off to keep they boys out while i'm gone, is waiting for me.

you may have noticed della up there in one of the photos. let me just share with you she wasn't a whole lot of help with this project. she got pretty testy when i mentioned she might put down the egg beaters and pick up a paint brush. but, i have to hand it to her, she does know when it's time for a nice glass of merlot.