Ah. We have arrived at the best season. The Seuss like nature of this Fireweed makes me happy. The reaches of cotton and peddles curve around the cold air like fireworks in the July sky, but here I find you against the low-ground foliage, more permanent than the imitation, but still so ephemeral that I should not breathe. 

Well someone else in the neighborhood does. At sunset, we heard another Conch symphony that led into what I can only describe as a Conch Off. We aren't proud. 

In the last moments of fall we savored the final crunches of our CSA from Arctic Organics. 
Here we have a Butternut Squash Soup and Salad. 
Thank you, Erika, for the homemade napkins.

This summer was busy in the best possible way. Here is a look back at the glorious simplicity of an Alaskan summer. It's difficult to put words to and the pictures hardly suffice. As they say, you simply had to be there. 

Heather and Joe hosted a family/friends get together in Homer the weekend before they tied the knot. At some point I found myself at Captain Patty's restaurant on the spit, which has been my go-to stop for lunch for years. It's perfect to stop in for a table for one, to get a bowl of chowder, 6 oysters, and a glass of white wine. I brought my journal to take in the moment, writing a few words so that I can savor the scene months later. 

Amber Lake, the place my mom and dad call home, now, in Alaska. This place is vast, wild, and green in a way that I know no other place to be. The memories we talk about when we find ourselves at the cabin are of mosquitos, tarp tents, mud, grass, and wilderness. Today we can be on this minuscule 6 acre plot of land and stay dry, warm, and clean. However, a canoe trip around the lake is a quick reminder of the reaching, grasping, swallowing tendrils of the wild. 

Adam and I got some time to play golf this summer. Last year we managed to get three games in a day. Why you ask. I don't know. This year, Adam envisioned 4 games in a day. Why you ask. Because it can only be done in Alaska. We did it. We started at 7am and got off the course around 10:30pm. Three rounds on the Creek Course and one round on the Hill Course made for an epic day. Only in Alaska, never again. 

Also, we played with Laura and Shane when they came to town for Matt's and Kathy's retirement party. Their engagement golf round, if you will. 

From Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself"
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? . . . . . . I do not know what it is any more than he.

It's official, we been getting eggs for about 4 weeks. At first, I was in mild disbelief at the first egg. Actually, they had been laying for a few days before we realized what busy girls they are. Now we are getting about 4 eggs a day. Here they are eating up spent grains from Adam's ginger stout beer.