So my husband and I are on a road trip from Kodiak Island to the big city of Anchorage, Alaska. Our journey involves a 10-hour ferry ride followed by a 5-hour drive through winter wonderlands you read about in story books.
Every morning at 6 AM, our public radio station wakes us up with Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. If you haven’t heard the podcast narrated by Keillor, it’s a wonderful, 2 to 3-minute, “this day in history” snapshot, followed by
A recent snowfall found me in a nostalgic mood, so I sat down to watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the animated story narrated by Burl Ives as Sam the singing snowman. While tapping my foot to
It’s almost Thanksgiving and your assignment is to bring dessert. Eee-gads, what can you create that’s different, but something that even cranky Uncle Ralph will like? Allow me to share my favorite holiday pie recipe: Northern Lights Pumpkin Pie.
Have you ever arrived in a community and felt hugged? That was my first impression about Edmonds, Washington, my sister’s town. As we sipped coffee, sampled toasted cheese sandwiches, and strolled along the high tide mark looking for beach glass, I thought, “Wow, this is one of the most
As I sipped my coffee, a large BC Ferry made its way through the narrow, granite-lined channel in front of the bed and breakfast we were staying in on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. It was October 11, a soft, overcast day; the day before Canada’s Thanksgiving. Our hosts who lived upstairs, had loaded the fridge
I was photographing at Butchart Gardens in Victoria, BC recently, bedazzled by the amazing display of dahlias. I was having a lot of fun composing the sea anemone-like shapes, textures and
Perhaps more than anything, LIFE magazine and National Geographic influenced my love for photography. Even before I could read the captions, I found the stand-alone images mesmerizing. The black-and-white
My humblest inspirations seem to occur in the autumn when I’m putting the garden to bed. It’s fall and the garden says, “I am growing old.” The potato vines are limp and the tubers huddle underground in their rough, weather-proof skins, waiting to be dug. Is there any greater treasure hunt than digging for
Eagles around Kodiak are plentiful as crows during the winter. Perched shoulder-to-shoulder with their fellow raptors, they haggle over fish scraps, those leftover bits that fall below seafood processor radars.
Okay, this photo of cake batter might look scary and unappetizing, but trust me, the finished product makes the best fudge cake that’s ever tiptoed across your tastebuds.
Just when you think you’ve tried all the rhubarb recipes on the planet, then comes… Oh, sure, you can find rhubarb pickle recipes online, but I found most of them to be impractical, with silly ingredients and silly instructions. My motto is to keep it simple, tasty, healthy, and quick, which I tried to accomplish in
In coastal Alaska, it’s traditional to celebrate the season’s First Salmon, usually around May 15. Well, we live in coastal Alaska (and love salmon), but we celebrate another “first”: The First Rhubarb.
Portraits and landscapes make up the majority of images we see. They’re also the most difficult to take. Why is that? I have a theory.
On a rainy Sunday morning, I had a waffle epiphany: If I can add kale to smoothies, why not add it to our favorite oat-bean waffle batter? After all, kale is king these days,
As I left the greenhouse and walked toward the house, I heard a loud puhhh-HUP behind me. I twisted around and took two steps toward the ocean, just in time to see an orca whale’s black, dorsal fin disappear below the surface. I’m always humbled by gifts like this; surprise snippets of life. Like this morning:
Don’t you just love wriggling your toes in soft, green grass? Me, too. Until the day I went to a park and watched kids playing frisbee. They leaped high to snatch the frisbee and then touched down on the grass. Barefoot. I cringed because I knew the lawn had been treated with chemicals.