Henkimaa

St Nicholas of Myra Byzantine Catholic Church, Arctic Boulevard, Anchorage, Alaska. 1 May 2005.

In the dark of the year, it’s sometimes good to recall spring. I took this photo on a blustery Anchorage May day — on May Day itself, in fact — just walking hoome from Sunday writing at Kaladi Brothers at Title Wave.

Café Felix, next to Metro Music & Books, Anchorage, Alaska. 20 Nov 2005.

Café Felix has become one of my Sunday writing venues. Great organic coffee, tea, & food — all their coffee is Fair Trade, too. Besides, it’s just a wonderful place to be, colorful & relaxing at the same time. This was just a hip shot of a cart & stool near where I was sitting yesterday, with a couple of café patrons tucked away in the corner.

A sidewalk along Benson Boulevard, Anchorage, Alaska. 20 Nov 2005.

In the past few days we’ve had snow, followed by freezing rain, followed by snow (lots of it!). And so our sidewalks are becoming… interesting. Sometimes impassible, at least for some classes of pedestrians; but in this case, just interesting, as tracks made in snow transmuted as conditions changed into tracks crystallized into clear ice.

Near Glen Alps, Chugach State Park, just outside Anchorage, Alaska. 19 Jul 2003.

This is Aconitum delphinifolium, a species native to Alaska. There are numerous monkshood species around the world. Also known as wolfsbane, monkshood is deadly poisonous — full of the alkaloid aconitine — & from ancient times has commonly been rubbed on spear tips & arrow tips for use in hunting or war. The name of the alkaloid comes from the same Latin root as its genus name Aconitum.

No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf’s-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine….
— John Keats, “Ode on Melancholy”

Westchester Lagoon, Anchorage, Alaska. 12 Feb 2005.

Winter is not so spare a time of year as one may be tempted to think, when there is beauty like this to be seen. Follow this photo to the comments on it in Flickr for a photo of what field mint looks like in summer.

Westchester Lagoon, Anchorage, Alaska. 12 Feb 2005.

One very cold afternoon last February, Rozz & I took a long plant walk around Westchester Lagoon (the part between Spenard Drive & Minnesota). This is Rozz’s glove tip.

Homer Spit, Homer, Alaska. 3 Jul 2005.

It makes me feel great just to look at this photo, because that’s me standing in that water, & I know what surrounded me on this beach walk, & I love my fireweed tattoo, & I love how the water blurs my left foot, or the sense just by looking at the pik that I’m there, that it’s summer & my feet are cool, & the cool breeze is blowing in me.