Sharatin Squall

Sunday afternoon Nora and I went skiing with the cousins on Sharatin Mountain.  It started out as an absolutely gorgeous sunny and calm day, and I sort of assumed it would stay that way.  It had frosted hard over night so we waited until around 11 before we left to give the snow time to soften up.

Nora decided she wanted to make a loop out off the trip.  So we planned on climbing up the mountain on one trail and going down on another, and had to shuttle a car to the other trailhead.  And then up the mountain we went.  It stayed sunny until about the time we got on the snow and started to use sunglasses.  Then we saw snow squalls on all horizons.  But they looked innocuous.

Then the sun clouded over and it started to snow.  We quickly ate lunch and skied down to the start of the other trail.  And good thing we did turn back.  When we looked back up the mountain it was all socked in with clouds.  It would have been a total whiteout up there.  We hiked down through the spruce trees to the other car and trailhead, and just as we reached the other car it started to rain.  We drove back home in a pretty serious storm.

Then back in town the clouds cleared off and it got sunny again. All the mountain tops had a new coat of white snow. I took the dogs for a walk in the park in the sunshine with the birds singing.  Kodiak in April!
Patrick

Nora waves at the floatplane - on occasion she babysits the pilot's child

Somehow the camera's light setting got set to 'underwater mode'

'No Pictures Please'

On Thursday night St Mary's had their annual 'spring musical' event.  I was all excited to take some pictures of the kids singing their hearts out with all the other children on stage.  But while helping Nora with her paper route she informed me, 'Dad, no pictures please - it's embarrassing'.  I thought, 'isn't holding an iPhone in the air funnier looking than holding a camera?'  But then again in this day and age maybe not.

So I went to the event without a camera or any sort of picture taking device and watched all the kids, all wearing their St Mary's informs, take their turns on the stage singing songs and playing instruments.  There were large, colorful paper pinwheels stuck to the wall behind the stage, and I thought, 'what a great picture'.  But I also thought, ' isn't it nice just to watch and not take any pictures?'

Nora played the flute and Stuey the drums.  Although when I asked him about it he informed me that he was 'percussion'.  All the other parents waved their phones in the air.

So the pictures from today are from my evening walk in the park.  On the hike I tried using my camera with a zoom to create close ups from a far of the blueberry and salmonberry blossoms.  This technique created a different sort of blurred background.  Anyway, I suspect in the future there will be more flower and landscape pictures and less of the kids.  But that's alright - when I was their age I sort of remember demanding the same sort of thing of my dad and his camera.

Patrick

Nascent Blueberries

Yesterday at the park I tried to take pictures of the blueberry and salmonberry blossoms.  But rather than just focus on the flowers themselves I tried to work the blurred background into the composition.  I gather the blurred 'light dots' are known in photography circles as 'bokeh'.  My goal was to use the background bokeh to make a pleasing composition.  So when taking the photo I used the Manuel focus to focus on a particular flower and then moved around until that particular flower was in the exact right place against the background - then click.  The hardest part was actually getting the right focus, and I found I had to use the Manuel focus because the auto focus kept on focusing on the wrong places.  Anyway, I thought I got some good results.

I also noticed that the blueberry blossoms are past their prime and that the white petals are starting to fall to the ground.  If you look closely (the bottom photo in particular) you'll notice little nascent blueberries where the petal has fallen off.  The flower stamen is still there and it is sticking out of what will become the berry.  So there are baby blueberries on the bushes already!
Patrick

Helicopter Survey

Last Wednesday I got to do one of my absolutely favorite things - an archaeological survey by helicopter in a spectacular coastal setting.

As I wrote last week (click here) there are different types of archaeological surveys - some are more intensive and focus on a small area while others cover lots of ground but are more of a reconnaissance.  Surveys also vary by method of transportation.  The most complete surveys take place entirely on foot - hard to miss stuff when you are walking over it.  But I've also used kayaks, motorboats, cars, planes and, like this past Wednesday, helicopters.

Archaeological surveys also vary by 'content' - sometimes the area is so rich that you know you will find lots of cool stuff.  Other times it is test pits every 100 meters along a road corridor with no hope of ever finding anything.

Last weekend I got to do the ultimate type of survey - by helicopter, in a spectacular coastal setting that is full of archaeological sites.  Best of all, it was a sunny day.  This one will be hard to beat - ever.

That said, helicopter surveys are very quick and intense (click here for one from last year).  You find and check on lots of sites really quickly and it is hard to keep up mentally and take good notes.  It is archaeology at 150 miles per hour with a chopper 'whoop whhoooop whoop' soundtrack.

We found and saw spectacular stuff - villages on top of cliffs and sea stacks, lots of wildlife, and even found a 5000 year old site.  But the main purpose of the trip was to check on the condition of known archaeological sites.  How are they doing?  Are they eroding or getting damaged by animals?  The Old Harbor Native Corporation owns the land we surveyed and they wanted to check on the condition of their ancestral settlements.  This is the sort of information that will better help them to manage their land and help protect the sites.  Patrick

This sort of reminded me of the surfing scene in Apocalypse Now

Chiniak Island Survey

The last 2 weeks have been insanely busy for me - lots and lots of archaeological fieldwork.  The museum has more archaeological fieldwork planned for this summer than I can ever remember having on the slate in the past.  They are mostly short surveys, and for this type of work it is best if the sun is shining.  Hence with the recent good weather we got out there and surveyed while the weather was good.  Made hay while the sun shined.

Last Monday the tides and weather aligned and we took a boat out into Chiniak Bay to survey all the islands and sea stacks that belong to Leisnoi Inc.  This is another survey that is part of a larger land survey program - just like the Azimuth Point survey described in an earlier post (click here for post).

I had never been to any of these islands, and they were a lot of fun to explore in the sunshine with the gulls all wheeling and crying overhead.  Eagles too.  On a headland I came upon an eagle making a brand new nest.  He/she had put down just a few sticks in a large circle.  I did not want to disturb the eagle and so quickly left without taking a picture.  You can see this particular eagle in the top left of the top photo in this post.

I was also amazed to find that all of the islands had resident deer living on them.  I wondered where they took shelter when it gets super stormy.  I guess they just go and bed down on the lee sides of the islands.  Patrick

Nora

This past week Nora won student of the month in her class at St Mary's.  This made me so proud!  It was a good week for Nora.  Over the weekend she got to go skiing in the sunshine on Sharatin Mountain and then wins an award at school.  Athletic and smart!

Proud Dad

Negotiating an icy section

Spring Skiing

Sunday afternoon I climbed up Sharatin with Nora, Dicky and cousin Zeke.  It's a low snow year, but Sharatin still has plenty of snow.  We encountered deep snow before we even left the trees, and it was patchy and brushy enough that we could not put on our skis.  We would come to snow covered glades and have to posthole across them.  Nora sank down so deep into one snow patch that I had to help her out.  We were very happy to get to where we could finally put on our skis and from then on we skimmed across the snow surface - no more post holing!

As usual it was gorgeous up on the mountain.  We did not quite have enough time to make it to the summit.  But we got pretty high up on the mountain and had our late afternoon snack.  I even brought a thermos of hot tea for Nora.  And it was a long 2 mile ski run to the bottom of the snow and trees where we took the skis off.  We went as far as we possibly could on skis to keep the potholing to a minimum.

Beautiful day!

Patrick