Dog at midnight

Cooper at midnight:

I can't believe we're halfway through the "summer" (which here counts as June 1 - August 31, the period when on average we don't have frost at night). It is starting to get darker at midnight.

My attempt at creativity

At the last moment, I signed up for a four-day class at UAF summer sessions - a four day landscape painting class taught by David Mollett. I really like his art. The class has ben fun. I am a complete novice. Oh well. I have enjoyed it, so that's what counts. (Even if I get a D since I realized the class is actually graded... not just pass/fail. :)

(my attempt)

(closeup of the scene, the fast way)

It has been great to see how others do it, apparently so effortlessly, mixing the colors, arranging the pieces - like this japanese student whose name I won't try to spell. It just amazes me how all of the elements in his picture look exactly like what he is painting.


It has also been wonderful to watch David Mollett paint.

The only bad part is that while I love oil paints because they don't dry out (so if I mix a color one day, I can still use it the next), our car now has some colorful smudges exactly because the painting does not dry in a timeframe that I am used to. (So, Martin, be prepared for some extra color in the car :)... just an advance warning so you're not too shocked when you come back from Yakutat.)

Mom, you know what I like more than salami?

Mom, you know what I like more than salami?

No, what?

Lena and Kasper!

That was after we spend the evening with Kasper and his mom and their friends, completely by chance - we went to the Tanana river to eat dinner on the beach, and there they were. The days have been hot and smoky. All the kids loved the water.

(Lena is Sonja's friend in Switzerland, with whom we spend many fun moments last year in Switzerland, as well as several days during our trip to Europe two weeks ago.)

Sonja with Kasper


Emilie with Cooper

Smoky

The smoke came on the 4th of July. Surprised me - we have had some good rain in the last two weeks, and I thought things (forests) were sufficiently damp to not burn (much). I sure hope that the summer of 2004 won't repeat itself - we had some bad smoke then, for days on end.

(view this afternoon of the Tanana River some 3 miles away, from Friar's Way)

Fun on the porch

Beautiful and hot day yesterday, beautiful though somewhat smoky today. We ate dinner on the porch both days. Kids loved it. Especially the little plastic pool with water. And the bubbles. The joys of summer.



What pool? The one that Emilie has a stroller in... next to the doors that used to be our front door and the back door until last December - we'll have to move them out but they are heavy. For now, they make a nice background to the pool and all the other junk on our porch.

The last couple days have been wonderful!

Swiss airplane

With Emilie we got back to Alaska two weeks ago. It was obvious that we flew from Switzerland - the plane featured beautiful goats and boys in the mountains:


Martin and Sonja should be arriving tomorrow. We can't wait! I will have to ask them whether they saw that plane in Frankfurt also... even though they themselves are not flying swiss airlines.

Strawberrie are ripe!

Here is what happens when you put an empty plate in front of (hungry) Emilie and ask her to put some strawberries on it for her dinner - our own strawberries, picked this afternoon.