Everything's going to seed these days… all those unpicked blueberries are bloated with rain and tasteless now, bursting and spattering their little seeds onto the vegetation below, menziesia pods drying and curling, and these two bog/wet forest plants whose seed capsules I find particularly enchanting-looking…
Tag Archives: sketchbook
Oregon Trees
Traveling in Oregon now, visiting family, and it's fun to see the variety of tree shapes… Much bigger than in Alaska! These are my best guesses on species…
Sea and Sky in Hoonah
Spent yesterday in Hoonah at what used to be Cannery Point; now a tour destination with restored cannery buildings housing cafes, exhibits, and souvenir shops. It was warm for September, with cloud-chased sunshine and occasional stutters of rain. Port Frederick was so calm, so quiet that we could easily hear the breath of a lone humpback whale in the distance…and, every so often, the thrilling calls of the sandhill cranes skeining overhead.
Contorta contorta
Here in Southeast Alaska, lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) grows in its "shore pine" (P. contorta contorta) form. It's well-named: no lodgepole-straight trunks here, just endless variations of twist and turn, forced into beautiful cantilevers by countless winters of heavy snow. A shore pine with a trunk with the diameter of my arm may have 300 microscopic growth rings in its heart. I love the way the branches reach out; they offer up their clusters of needles with such grace.
Autumn Storm and Autumn Fruits
Northern Southeast Alaska was battered by a muscular Pacific storm yesterday– all eerie light and buffeting wind, with purple-gray swaths of rain hitting Stephens Passage so hard that the ocean water seemed to be jumping up to meet them in mid-air. I walked through the storm to the beach, listening to the wind moan and hiss. Collected these late fruits on the way back. Crabapples are among the few native shrubs here that show any fall color; in yesterday's wind their leaves were spinning on the branches, flashing red and orange, flying through the air like bonfire sparks. Down below, bunchberries hugged the ground, slick with rain.
Abby
Abby was a "problem dog" (she liked to wander, and wouldn't come when called). Some friends adopted her from the local animal shelter last fall. Now that she gets enough exercise and training, she's becoming a model canine citizen. I love her big, broad Labrador head; like the head of a seal. I enjoyed doing this sketch–I wanted to capture the way she curled so snugly into a sleepy, contented bundle.
Big Little Discovery
So back in July, we were surveying for American dippers on a creek
near Juneau. We hiked to the top of a cliff near a waterfall, at the
base of which we knew there was a dipper nest. As I topped the cliff, a
small brown bird burst out from a ledge below us and zinged downstream.
The bird's size, field marks, and style of flight–plus the
greenish-blue speckled egg it left behind in a hollow of moss–identified it as a marbled murrelet.
Murrelet nests are hard to find (just over 50 have been found in
Southeast Alaska, where these little puffin-cousins are among the most
abundant seabirds). We were thrilled to have found it, but very concerned that we had caused the birds to abandon it.
But they hadn't. So for the past several weeks, we've been checking
in on the single chick in the nest. Today it is looking pretty ready to
depart, so it may be gone by tomorrow…
Fall Colors
It's a gorgeous day today–a welcome relief from the sogginess and high winds of the past couple of weeks. But it's clearly no longer summer. Fireweed fluff is bursting from the pods as the sun dries them, the shadows are distinctly chilly, and reds (from blazing cadmium to cool maroon) are standing out in the foliage. Here are a few leaves (and one thrush wing feather) found on my walk today.
Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale), goat'sbeard (Aruncus dioicus), fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), and trailing black currant (Ribes laxiflorum); primary feather from a varied thrush (Ixorius naevius). Watercolor and colored pencil on hemp paper.
Muskeg Ants
Went for a walk yesterday evening on the muskeg above the house. Lots of berries this year, and signs that somebody has been digging for ants again: little excavations in the sphagnum. Birds? Dextrous bears? The sight reminded me of a sketch-page investigation of the muskeg ants:
Katherine Hocker 