First Snow!!

Yesterday it started - hail/rain so fierce that by the time I pushed my cart from the grocery store to the van, I was soaked. But by the time I got to the top of two hills and our house, it had turned into a beautiful snow storm.

And when we woke up this morning, it was official - the first snow of Winter 2009.

Cedar Bark Basket Weaving

I'm taking a two week course (every night from 6-9 PM) on cedar bark basketry. It's taught by Diane Douglas-Willard (that's her gorgeous rattle top basket pictured) and it's held at the Totem Heritage Center in the middle of town. We - all 14 of us including one man! - sit around a large conference table and weave. (The bag of Halloween candy in the middle supplies us with energy if we feel sapped...)

After we soaked the cedar, we began by connecting eight "spokes" of red cedar with two ends of a long cord of yellow cedar. Diane is a great teacher because as I watched her across the room patiently showing two classmates, I was positive that it would be incredibly complicated to learn. It isn't at all - in fact, it's somewhat simple. The technique starts with two ends of the weaver, a right and a left. The left weaver goes over and under the "spokes," and is snugged up tight. Then you begin again with the new "left" weaver which used to be the right weaver.

The difficulty lies in making the weaving uniform - very hard to do - and also in adding the additional "spokes" or spider legs, as I like to say. You need to have 60-90 of these spokes which means you're adding every other or every two or three spokes.

After two classes, I am nearly finished with the bottom of the basket. Tonight I'll take photos to show you.

CRASH! CLATTER! ROAR!

It finally happened. It's been almost happening for about a month now. By that I mean that we'd awaken around 1 or 2 AM to the clatter of our neighbors' trashcan being pushed over by... bears. We'd rouse ourselves with the hope that we'd actually be able to see one. We'd peer out first the bedroom window, then the dining room window, then the living room window. Nothing. Once or twice, we even ventured outside to the deck, a safe place because it's a whole story above the ground. No luck, no luck and more no luck.

But last night, it was finally different. There it was - a huge, maybe 800 pound large black bear dragging a trash bag into the woods. We could even see its nose in the light from the street lamps.

Back to bed, but then up again in about 30 minutes as it had returned, just as huge and hungry as before.

Who needs Netflix with bears outside your window??

I'm BACK!

I have to apologize for being away so long. June happened and then July and then and then and now, October is just around the bend. I'm going to try hard to blog at least once a week.

In July, we took a ferry trip up the Inside Passage to Skagway, Juneau, and Sitka. I plan to put up posts of each leg of the trip.

But in the meantime, fall has arrived in Ketchikan - no blazing New England foliage, just the yellow of the aspens and red of some isolated maples. But the air is crisp, and any day now, I expect to see snow at the top of Deer Mountain. I remember riding my bike last fall to the rec center, rounding the corner and there it was - gorgeous white peaks stretched against the sky.

Last Saturday was the season's first Torchlight Cultural Arts presentation. Robert and I walked to the bottom of our hill to the high school where we saw Maya Soleil, an Afro-World Fusion Music and Dance group. They were terrific.

Boiling

Last night at around 8 PM, I looked at the thermometer outside the kitchen window. True, it had the sun baking on it, but remember, this is Alaska. ALASKA.

It read 90 degrees! It was boiling. Fortunately, most of the living areas of the house are in the back where it's much cooler at night. Still, one bedroom, my study and the dining room are all doubling as saunas. If this keeps up, we'll definitely have to invest in a portable air conditioner.

I have set up a deck-top garden of tomatoes, herbs and lettuce. They are all wilting. I should figure out how to drag the outside hose up to the deck so I don't have to carry pot-fuls of water to revive these sad plants.

The weather report for the weekend predicts a high of 62, so I could be eating these words. But I don't think so, because I really, really like it cool and do not like the heat. Yes for the beautiful sunshine and bright blue skies. But let the temp hover - at the most- in the low 70's and I'll be happy.

You see, the water around here is about 400 feet deep, right off the dock and is probably a toe-numbing, frostbiting 45 degrees. Really. So if you can't swim to cool off, then bring on the low temperatures!

Salmon Derby

Last weekend, the annual Salmon Derby began. We drove out to Knutson Cove to check out the activity. I was hoping to see a fisherman come in with a king salmon and watch it being weighed. No such luck.

We did, however, have some yummy fries and a great view of the marina. Then we drove about 3 miles north and took a hike on the Lunch Creek Trail which goes into the forest but has great views of a waterfall and also steps to the beach.

Root Canal in Anchorage

Yes, the title of this post is correct. I'm in Anchorage and have just survived my first root canal. Not as bad as the term implies, in my opinion! The whole situation evolved quickly and before I knew it, I was booking a reservation on the "milk run" to Anchorage. In plain language, that means you hop from small town (Wrangell) to next small town (Petersburg) to bigger town (Juneau) before you actually get to your destination. The whole trip took 6 hours. It IS 800 miles away from Ketchikan, but next time I think I'd do what many people do and take a direct flight to Seattle, get off the plane (which you can't do on the milk run) and then get back on and fly direct to Anchorage.

I'm staying at Elmendorf Air Force base which is great - the galley is stupendous - it looks like a deluxe ski lodge restaurant. I snapped the bear photo above as I was getting off the plane - apparently they roam through the airport. Just kidding! It's a stuffed one - maybe you can tell by the glazed look - and part of a cool diorama in the airport lobby (only in AK!).

The other exciting part of this unexpected trip is seeing an old friend from PA whom I haven't seen in over 15 years. We met for dinner Wednesday night and then she was my tour guide as I attempted to buy jeans, books, and unusual cooking gadgets I can't get in Ketchikan.

The root canal went well - I won't get into a long tired description but I will say that the view from the office window of Mt. Susitna (aka The Sleeping Lady) and of a distant and fogged in Mt. McKinley was incredible. The mountains here are much different from Ketchikan. There are more snow-covered and much rockier. The Ketchikan ones are all covered with trees which means, I think, the snow melts faster.

Tomorrow, it's back to the island (but only two stops this time - Juneau and Sitka). I've loved being here in the "big" city - Anchorage is easy to get around and great - but I'm also ready to hike up and down hills (very flat in town here) and get back to my island life.

Plus, now that it's finally warm, I need to get my plants for the deck garden I plan to start. More later!