OK by Alaska standards Sitka isn’t a small town, but it can feel like it. As one friend wrote in a song, no one uses turn signals because everyone already knows where you are going. Skagway, Alaska is really a … Continue reading Small Town 4th
At age 70 9PM becomes the new midnight. By that standard I have seen in the New Year every year since I reached the Biblical lifespan. The ball drops in New York, I sing “Happy Days are Here Again”, stay … Continue reading 2025!
On Thursday I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Rotarian Timothy Massawe from the Moshi Rotary Club in Tanzania. Our club is working with his to support a group of girls attending school. We do regular zooms with … Continue reading Sitka Shows Off.
For the last several decades it has been a little over 14 miles from one end of Sitka’s road system to the other. Over the July 4th weekend that became a little under 16 miles as the first section of … Continue reading Now it’s 16 Miles!
As Sitka waited for the dark, (as dark as it ever gets in May) we watched our glorious blue skies fade to dusk and clouds began to form. The forecast was for cloudy skies after sunset. Sunset is just after … Continue reading A Global Moment of Wonder
It used to be a regular event around Eastertide. But Sitka hasn’t seen it since 2019, the annual eagle release at the Alaska Raptor Center. The Center takes in injured raptors, nurses to health those it can, and releases them … Continue reading Fly Free!
…And a look at today. I’ve always loved Independence Day. It and Christmas are my two favorites. I love the sense of community that both holidays engender. At Christmas it’s community parties, singing, decorations and a feeling of celebration. The … Continue reading Flashback Fourth…
When some folks first hear that Sitka has a farmer’s market they say, “I didn’t know Sitka had any farms.” Don’t expect to see big John Deere Tractors or long rows of soybeans in Sitka, but, historically, Sitka has had … Continue reading A Famers Market in Sitka?
(July 2, 2023, 127 years later.) On an unseasonably cool July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee moved a resolution, before the second Continental Congress, declaring independence for the 13 American colonies. To get unanimous agreement Congress made changes during the … Continue reading Almost Independence Day
My music education was largely intellectual. I learned about scales, keys, meter, time signatures, tonics, and modes. It was almost like learning mathematics. I was taught that listening, particularly to classical music, was an exercise in intellect. But that’s not … Continue reading It’s The Emotion
(June 30, 2023) OK, I was feeling a little down. It had been raining most of the day, which is not unusual for Southeast Alaska, it was a Friday night in June and there was no music festival concert. The … Continue reading Surprise!
The first program Raven Radio produced was for the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. We produced it before Raven was even on the air. Suzi, the kids, and I moved to Sitka from Juneau in the fall of 1980 to help … Continue reading Jazz on the Waterfront
(June 19, 2023) “My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.” — Edward Elgar. Suzi and I were hiking … Continue reading Music on the Mountain
Okay, I admit it. I almost missed it. Today started out fairly nice with rain in the forecast for the early afternoon. Suzi and I had Saturday Breakfast at the Nugget. I dropped her off at home and headed out … Continue reading Sitka Pride Post
(June 17, 2023) OK, they are plastic, and they are not the ducks we’ve been picking up off the beach after a container full of them fell off a ship and broke open years ago. They are ducks used in … Continue reading Counting Rubber Duckies.
I am not sure why we need a special Kids’ Fishing Day in Sitka. This year in the Sitka Salmon Derby kids, not adults, walked off with the big prizes. A 9-year-old won $10,000 for the biggest fish, an 11-year-old … Continue reading Fishing Farm League
You are a new naturalist on an Alaskan excursion boat. You just came up from Outside, you’ve narrated a few wildlife tours and are beginning to feel a little confident and then… You are on a wildlife tour filled with … Continue reading Critters.
No, they performed no music written by Albanians and, as far as I know, there will be no Albanian musicians at the Sitka Music Festival but at the festival’s family concert my thoughts drifted to Albania. We watched the concert … Continue reading Dreaming of Albania at the Sitka Music Festival.
(May 21, 2023, The Ocean Wave Quilters annual quilt show.) Alaska is sleep deprived. As we approach the solstice nights get lighter. From Mid-May until the end of July Sitka has no real nighttime, only extended twilight. I normally go … Continue reading Melatonin Nights
(May 20, 2023) The pandemic was getting everyone down, isolation, masking, not seeing friends. In a rain forest, where there is less communal outdoor activity, it hit especially hard. In some ways we were fortunate. There are a lot of … Continue reading Sitka Porch Fest, 2023
(May 20, 2020) At 10 on a Saturday morning folks were lined up two or three deep on the platform above one of two large brown bear habitats at The Fortress of the Bear, a bear rescue center for orphaned … Continue reading Bear Aware Day
The little girl said a prayer over her fish before she released it into the Pacific Ocean. The baby coho, part of the Sitka Sound Science Center Hatchery class of 2023, had begun it two year Odyssey around the Pacific … Continue reading Swim Little Fishies, Swim.
Right now it is snowing, but it’s too warm for it to stick. Before that it was rain, hard rain and before that drizzle. It’s overcast with occasional bursts of sun through the clouds. It is 40 degrees but feels … Continue reading Herring Weather
Yesterday was a magic day. Our son, Brian, came to Sitka to visit and Sitka obliged. We were watching Jamestown Bay when a pod of whales exploded from a bubble net. Then there was a beautiful sunset, but the best … Continue reading The Camera You Have With You.