Beautiful Garden Thugs

In one of my favorite gardening books,The Undaunted Garden, Lauren Springer refers to Epilobium angustifolium, or fireweed, as a “beautiful rose-purple thug.”  Fireweed is known to be invasive, but I’ve put it in rather difficult little spot in the back, and so far it hasn’t proven too bad.  It is such a beautiful flower, and I have such great memories of seeing it all over in Yellowstone, Alaska, and in the Utah mountains.  My garden seems to be rather Darwinian anyway, so at least for now it stays. My mom even made jelly out of the flowers while my parents were still living in Alaska, and it was quite delicious. 



Below is a picture of a type of pincushion flower named Knautia macedonica.  I have had to pull these out in massive clumps because their prodigious reproductive behavior.  These flowers would truly take over everything if I let them.  But they are so beautiful that I put up with prolific ways. The original ones I planted were the deep purple-magenta color, but they have also spawned some lovely pink-melon colored flowers as well.



Here they are all together in my back yard, fighting it out for garden supremacy.

Alaskan ocean stroll

Sunday there was a short break in the rain so we went for a walk by the ocean. Orca Bay has this stunning rock mountain that juts out of the ocean and is covered by trees, bushes and moss growing in the cracks and crevices.

When it rains there are impromptu waterfalls that stream down the rocky wall.

We saw more sea otters and other sea life. We actually more otters and stellars sea lions up close yesterday, but alas, I didn't have my camera with me. Here's an otter peaking out of the water to survey the scene.


Here's a sea lion raising his head in the air.

Our vacation is nearing it's end. It's been great being here with family and getting a way from work and our everyday routine. Still, it will be nice to get back to our home, rejuvenated and ready to to get back to work and school.

Glaciers of Alaska

We had planned on going to the glacier on Sunday afternoon, but the weather on Saturday was clear, so went while the going was good.

The sun came out to illuminate the beautifully rugged Alaskan panorama.

On our way we saw these two brown bear cubs on the side of the road. Minutes later they followed their mom across the road. When we passed we saw one cub that was marooned on a little mound, while water swirled around him (it was on a flooded plain.) It was crying and whining so woefully. We hope his mom found him later.
The sun came out to show off the lovely fall colors.

We had a picnic and started a campfire. We had the cookies, graham crackers, and everything but we forgot the marshmallows. Dang! Ian roasted red licorice anyway.

After our little lunch we went over to Childs Glacier.

We spied an ice shark patrolling the frigid shore.

Here I am with my dad, who is a great tour guide and ambassador for Alaska.

The ice in a glacier gets compacted so dense that it reflects this beautiful bluish color.

We spent quite a while at the glacier and we would hear a periodic boom from the calving of the glacier. Big chunks of the glacier fall off and make an impressively loud thundering sound. It's quite impressive to see the ice crashing down into the river as well.

We passed over the infamous "Million Dollar Bridge" which was completed in 1917 for the transport of copper. A section of it collapsed in an earthquake in 1964. Just a couple of years ago they repaired the bridge. It is truly a bridge to nowhere. Two miles after passing the bridge the road just ends.

If you look closely you can see the new black section of the bridge isn't even aligned with the main bridge, necessitating the use of the yellow arrow signs.

This is a photo of Sheridan Glacier which we passed by as well. You can see the top of the ice flow in this picture.
Here is Miles Glacier. It was named after U.S. Army Major General Nelson A. Miles, but we don't know who he is, so we dubbed it Miles Glacier in honor of our very own Miles.

Fresh Alaskan salmon

Friday morning Dad took us out fishing on the river. It was a beautiful morning and we had a great time. We saw a bald eagle flying and then resting on the top of a tall pine tree. The water was clear and we could see all of the salmon rushing up the river. I didn't take my camera with me, but I did get some good pictures when James and Brooke took Miles, Ian and me up the river a couple of days ago.


Miles and Ian are eager and ready to catch fish.

It was a beautiful day out on the river.

James was our intrepid captain, steering us clear from dangerous sandbars.

James and Miles fishing on the shore.

Here's Ian reeling in a beautiful silver salmon.

Brooke was the first one to catch a fish and the first one to catch her limit. She is quite the fisherwoman!
We grilled up some fresh salmon that we caught yesterday and it was delicious. I'm afraid that being up here is turning us into fish snobs. If it's not fresh, wild Alaskan salmon it just isn't good enough.

Skiing with an ocean view

We had an e-mail server problem at work on Tuesday. Luckily they have a decent Internet connection here so I could connect remotely and fix he problem. I was able to run a repair on our e-mail database, but it took a long time so I was stuck in the house most of the day. It was raining outside, but I just had to get out and take a walk.

The city of Cordova is very picturesque has a lot of steep hills so it's a great place to walk and get some good exercise (as long as you don't mind doing it in the rain.) I followed the street signs and walked up to the the ski area.

Cordova Alaska has a population of only about 2,300 people yet they still have their own ski area, Mt. Eyak Ski Area. I don't think you could call it a 'destination ski resort' since there are no amenities at all.

The ski lift is an old one-seater that they got used from Sun Valley.

The mountain is very beautiful, though. I don't know if there are any other ski resorts that have an ocean view.

The ski area has variable hours, usually meaning weekends when conditions are good.

This is one place I will probably never end up skiing, so I'll just have to imagine how sweet it would be

Shipshape names

I've really enjoyed walking the docks in the harbor and checking out all of the boats. It's even nice to stroll in the rain (which it does a lot here) and just enjoy the marine air. I just love how all of the boats have their own unique names. Here are a few which I rather liked:

Like, I'm so sure. Whatever!

This one doesn't leave the harbor much, since it's neverready.

Eat your heart out Ms. Carey.

This is Per Nolan's boat, Terminal Harvester. He hosted Peter Jenkins while he was writing the Cordova chapter in his excellent book, Looking for Alaska.

This is where you end up when you haven't caught any fish for a while.

Don't mess with this boat!

This one was named after my little sister.

This boat is electrifying!

Oh my darlin', oh my darlin'...

If you're aboard the Zwerver you get fresh fish AND fresh salad!
This captain is a fan of Olivia Newton-John and ELO.

Intimidating!

This is the local mobile cosmetic surgery center.

By the looks of this one maybe they should consider renaming it unsound developer.

They have a hard time keeping this one tied to the dock.

And finally the Gnarly Macho! What more can I say?

Wild berries

We came to Alaska before during springtime. It's nice to be here in the fall to pick all of the wild berries. Its great; they grow everywhere! You can go for a walk and have a snack on the way. The blueberries are very tasty and the red/orange/yellow berries called salmon berries. They have a very mild flavor, but they are good.


Melinda picked all of these berries in the wild area just behind my parent's house. We've put them to good culinary use. So far we've made (or I should say Melinda has made):

• Blueberry muffins
• Blueberry pancakes
• Blueberry pie
• Salmon berry/blueberry smoothies
• Blueberry corn muffins
• Mixed berry shortcake

Tasty!