Sunday Night Dinner

It's "Screendoor Sunday" here in Alaska and we have a nice hunk of red salmon ready to cook over a wood fire in the backyard.

Denny went dip-netting on the Kenai River Friday and brought home two red salmon for the freezer. We saved out half of one to have fresh.

He found a simple marinade on-line that consists of lemon juice and olive oil with rosemary sprigs. We substituted dill weed for the rosemary. The fish was tender and juicy but I thought a tad bland. (Barbeque sauce helped there.)

Maybe next time we will try the recipe with the rosemary.

Foliage and Flowers

I am always surprised by how fast and how tall our local plants can get in just three months. Many wildflowers and native plants are perennial--they store energy in their roots from one growing season to the next. It seems to be a successful strategy to cope with our brief summers.


Nootka Lupine


Nootka Lupine


Paintbrush

Feels Like August

The air is warm and breezy but the humidity is reminiscent of our autumnal storms.

The vegetation has reach its peak growth and the seeds and fruits are ripening. Harvest comes early this far north.



Fireweed is spectacular--tinting the hillsides a purplish-pink. But their flowering spikes are the fuses of summer--when the flowers are spent, autumn will be here.

Summer Haze

I started noticing that particular summer haze about a week ago.

It is normally made up mostly of pollen, dust and--this year--volcanic ash being blown about bystrong day breezes then hanging suspended in the high-pressure dome that has built over Alaska. This year, the haze is fortified by numerous fires throughout our state.



In the past week, our air has become thick and summery.

Arctic "Thiller"

Summer's Jewels