The sun finally broke through for a nice mid winter Sea-totem walk through the rain forest.   Continue reading A Mid-Winter Sea Walk and Totem Walk

To Northerners like me the Solstice is an essential holiday.  For me Solstice marks the New Year more than January 1.  I have rituals to mark the turning of the season.   This year it was a bonfire, a swim in … Continue reading Here Comes the Sun

The Sitka Whale Fest, sponsored by the Sitka Sound Science Center, is a multidisciplinary feast.  It mixes a science symposium with an arts fair, contests of ocean knowledge, music and dance performances, poetry, eating, and getting out on the water … Continue reading Sitka Whale Fest 2014

The 18th Annual Whale Fest is going on right now in Sitka with science, art, food, music and whale watching.  On this Saturday’s whale watch we found three groups of whales while we rocked and rolled in a storm surge. … Continue reading Whales, Rainbows and Sucker Holes, Sitka Whale Fest 2014 Whalewatch

To most Americans Guy Fawkes is the hero of the graphic comic and film “V for Vendetta,” represented by a smiling mask with upturned moustaches.  But in England he is the arch traitor.  In 1605 he was caught under the … Continue reading Remember, Remember ! Sitka Style

There is more to Alaska Day than the parade.  Here are pictures from the Fire Hall Open House, the Transfer Re-enactment, the Coast Guard rescue swimmer demonstration, the Russian Bishop’s House Tea and some other scenes from “Our Day.” Continue reading Alaska Day 2014

Alaska Day is our day.  Sitka goes all out because this is where it happened on October 18, 1867, when Alaska moved from Russia to the US, from one side of the dateline to the other, and from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.  The forecast was for high wind and lots of rain.  The rain held off until after the parade and the lowering of the Russian and raising of the American flag on Castle Hill.  Then it came, and let it come. Sitka loves its holiday.  My day started with, I think, the best loved tradition of the … Continue reading Alaska Day Parade 2014

(*With credit to Leandra Baker for that parody of “Autumn in New York.”) Today after I got off the air it was nice so I grabbed a lunch and went to the top of Harbor Mountain.  I watched the mist form over the sound and, just as I started to eat, a gentle rain began to fall.   By the time I got off the mountain it was mostly sunny again with no rain.  Someone posted on Facebook that Southeast Alaska didn’t have fall colors.  It’s not New England or Minnesota’s St. Croix Valley but the combination of Alpine tundra … Continue reading Autumn in Southeast “Is often mingled with rain.”*

Three weeks ago we flew out of Sitka on our way to New Jersey to visit family and attend my 50th High School Reunion.  It was the tail end of summer.   Today I see snow on Mt. Edgecumbe.  Three weeks ago the weather in Sitka was fine.  We took off toward the Northwest heading into more good weather, did a 180 over Sitka Sound past Edgecumbe and headed Southeast and into a wall of overcast. Continue reading Flying out of Sitka, September, 2014

Anila Mitri in Albania and I had a Facebook conversation about totem poles.  I tried to explain that poles are not items of worship but are memorials to people, tell a story or a history.  I have been waiting for a fairly good day to get to Halibut Point State Recreation Area where a memorial pole to Japanese Wildlife photographer Michio Hoshino has been raised. Michio Hoshino’s memorial totem pole sits across from Magic Island.  It honors Michio Hoshino, a Japanese photographer who was killed by a bear in Kamchatka, Russia.  Master carver Tommy Joseph carved the pole.  It was … Continue reading Michio Hoshino Memorial Totem Pole, Sitka, Alaska

Earlier this summer I posted several pictures of totem poles from Sitka National Historic Park (Totem Park.)  This prompted several comments from friends abroad.  Questions of where the poles came from, how old they where, and questions about their role in religion. The original poles were gathered in the park after the 1906 St. Louis World’s Fair.   (The meet me in St. Louis, Louis fair).  As they aged they decayed, and would have fallen back to the earth (as they are meant to) but in this park they were preserved, some older poles are on display in the visitor’s center.  … Continue reading Sitka’s Totem Walk

This has been a strange summer.  Perhaps stranger than last summer, which was dry with record heat.  This summer has been warmer than usual, and with both more sunny days and more rainfall than normal.  A lot more rain, record … Continue reading Rain Forest Walks, Sitka, Alaska

Each year salmon return in the millions to rivers and streams in Alaska.  In a way it is, like the wildebeest migration in Africa, a great biological machine that moves nutrients around the ocean and returns to enrich the streams … Continue reading Salmon Run, 2014

I posted the following on Facebook last week. Suzi and I went out to take some pictures of The Michio Memorial Totem Pole. It is a pole dedicated to a Japanese wildlife photographer killed by a bear. On our way, … Continue reading Bear Cub Fishing