Pretty Pictures

I love to see my pictures in print. So the other day I was flattered when a lady who creates newsletters and annual reports for various local Native Corporations asked for some more digital images to use in their creation. She has used my images before and I am very happy to supply her with some more. So for the last few days I have been roving through all my old pictures looking for pictures she might want. Needless to say, but it has been kind of cool to peruse through my pictures from the last few years.

It has also been eye-opening. I realized that I take fewer pure landscapes than I used to in the past. These days I always seem to try and put a person somewhere in the photo. Also my older point-and-shoot is WAY better than what I currently use. It may have only been 6 mega pixels but the quality far surpassed my current 12 mega pixel point-and-shoot.

Anyway, here are 5 of what I consider some of my best pure landscape photographs in the last 3 years - ones with no people in them. Top is sunset over Lower Olga lake. Second from top is the sunset over the tidal flats at the head of Uyak bay. Third is kayaking home from a successful deer hunt in Sheratin Bay. Fourth is a dreary day at upper Olga Lake. Finally, the last photo is of a pond at Old Afognak Village on Afognak Island. Patrick

Shy Stuey?

It has never really occured to me to call Stuey shy. At home he is not shy at all--but lately at dance class and at preschool I see the shy side of him come out.

It was first brought to my attention when his preschool teacher somehow found our blog. She said she liked seeing Stuey quotes, as he is so quiet in preschool that she enjoyed seeing what he said at home. I thought, "wow" he must really not be talking much at preschool!!

At dance class during Cinderella rehearsals I have once again seen Stuey's little shy side. He does this thing where he puts his head forward and his hands at his side and takes really small steps if he is being asked to do something. At some points the dance helpers (high schoolers) have to actually lift or carry him. Once the music starts and his dance starts going, he is good to go. There is something about the waiting in the groups of kids and older girls that makes him shy. Maybe its somewhat overwhelming...everyone waiting for him to do his little bumble bee moves--to be shuffled from one high school helper to another. I notice a lot of the girls say "Oh hi Stuey!!!" and he looks down at the ground and gets very shy.
Zoya

A few kid quotes

When reading our old blog posts, some of my favorites are of funny quotes from the kids. So, this is probably boring to most, but I must document here so their quotes can be archived. Our blog serves as their baby books... :) I write the quotes down exactly as they were said...

"How can this be? Going to preschool?!!"-Nora questioned this of me on my birthday. A serious injustice in her mind!!

"How do you get this fire away?"-Stuey as he watches the steam come off the top of his tea....waiting for it to cool down.

"How can them get back to their boat?" -Stuey talking about Sven and Balika--in reference to the France Spain canal trip we took. I believe he thought it was Sven and Balikas' boat we were on in France...or perhaps they lived on it here.

"Apples grow us tall" -Stuey, upon eating his apple. Referring to how I tell them fruits and veggies help them grow tall if they eat them.

"Daddy-it isn't winter."-Nora on May 9th, when Patrick is looking at internet weather forecast---complaining about projected several days of sun.

Zoya

Pictures are from the kids trip with Sara to Hidden Beach this afternoon. It really isn't winter anymore.

Mother's Day

No one believes in Mothers Day here at the Saltonstalls on Cliffside drive. I woke up expecting a little sleep-in time and was reminded that Mothers Day is a hallmark holiday. Oh well. I can't complain...considering I got to sleep in on my birthday two days ago. Nonetheless, its been a nice relaxing morning and soon we're going to head out the road for a little drive to a beach. Time to get some beach peat (ground up alder and cottonwood leaves mixed with eel grass and seaweed) to fertilize the garden.

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there!

Zoya

Stuey and Nora--Stuey doing silly faces
Nora and I on my birthday
The kids with Sara at the beach.

Birthday's Past....30th

Last night we were talking about our various 30th birthday, so this morning Patrick looked up photos from that celebration. What a blast from the past! My 30th was shortly before we started our blog, so I thought it would be fun to put a few of the photos up...especially since many of the people at the party have moved from Kodiak (sniffle, sniffle).
Mary Jane hosted the party and had a Margarita/mexican food theme. The cake was in the shape of a Margarita Glass! Too funny! Katie and Alisa were quite pregnant and I was just about to become pregnant with Stuey!
(I think Nora was at home with a sitter for the couple of hours, as I don't see her in the photos. She was about 9 months old then.)

Zoya
Photos: Includes....
Alisa and Mike, who are now making their second sailing crossing across the Pacific Ocean to Australia with their two young boys!
The Matt and Chris J., who moved to Seattle Recently.

Birthdays Present....35~

Yesterday was my 35th birthday--it began with 30 minutes of sleeping in (YEAH!!), followed by a 2 minute birthday recital by Nora and Stuey.
I took the day off from physical therapy, spent lunch with my mom-baby hour that I do weekly at A Balanced Approach. The weather was 59 degrees yesterday-the warmest its been all year!!
Last night Mary Jane had a few gals (and Patrick) over and we shared in some delicious food MJ made and everyone brought. Then we went to Jenny P. and Sara L. college Masters graduation party at a local art shop. It was a lovely venue with lots of people and delicious food. I rolled into bed last night...full from so much yummy food yesterday!! So fun! So far I'm liking 35...
Zoya

Seafood

This week it has been all seafood every night for dinner. On Monday I took the dogs and kids for a walk/bike down Cliffside and we ran into a neighbor who asked if I'd ever tried black cod 'collars'. I had not, and he went inside and came back with a bag of marinating black cod (A.K.A. sablefish or butterfish) collars and a slab of freshly caught halibut. I was thinking - cool now I know what we're having for dinner. And so we cooked it all up on the grill. Black cod collars are absolutely amazing grilled. Too bad you can't buy them at a store.

On Tuesday I bought and thawed some pacific cod acquired from a cannery in town and got home to discover that a friend had brought by some live weathervane scallops. Barbecue time. How do you eat live scallops? We tried eating them raw and cooking them on the grill in their shell. They were excellent both ways. We learned the 'guts' and male scallop milt are not so good either cooked or raw, but that the main muscle, 'clam strip', and female scallop roe are excellent both raw and cooked. Everyone REALLY liked the scallop roe - even better than the big muscle. And it's funny because the only part that people generally eat is the muscle - the rest is usually thrown away. Just think, Perhaps in the future we could create a market for scallop roe in Japan and sell the stuff for 30 bucks a sac? Having tried live scallops I just hope they start to sell them alive and in their shell. We'd certainly be buying them.

On the grill the scallops popped open after a bit and I flipped them and poured a drop of sherry inside. I think butter and white wine would've worked better. But scallops on the grill works really, really well.

On Wednesday it was the Powerhouse restaurant. Not much to say about that except it was excellent as always and included a lot of local seafood.

Finally tonight. Thursday night. Tonight we had canned salmon patties. I mixed up a jar of canned King salmon from last summer with finely chopped onion, chives from the garden, an egg, and one sleeve of Ritz crackers. This is a recipe from the Joy of Cooking. Homemade Tatar Sauce and life is good. Patrick

Melissa's Shower

Last weekend was the baby shower for my friend, Melissa. She is pregnant with her second child, due in late June. I gave her the quilt I made recently of the baby animals. The morning was lovely--the hostesses, Kate S, Anne O. and Katie O, had the most incredible spread of quiches (including a smoked salmon one), sausage, rolls, scones, fruit....There was lovely music, decorations, yummy coffee and drinks....I could go on and on. It was a fun event to take pictures at because the light was wonderful and everything was so picturesque!! :)

Zoya

Photos: Melissa and myself with her baby quilt!
Spread of food on the table.
Jenny M and Melissa
Melissa with the cake
The ladies watched on as Melissa opened her presents... :)

Recent Art Projects

Just a few pictures of recent completed art projects--a baby quilt for my friend Melissa's baby girl. This was my first experience with "fussy" cutting...where you cut the main attraction out of the fabric. I also did the quilting on this baby quilt, which went great. The last 3 quilts I've completed I haven't done the quilting, so it felt good to return to free motion quilting for this one. It went better than I could've hoped...

And a few baby burp clothes with fabric sewed on as an embellishments. Who says you can't make baby burp clothes somewhat cute?! :)

Zoya

Photos: -Front detail shot of quilt
-back of quilt
-Baby burp cloths
-Front of quilt

Last Skate Ski of the Year

I guess I could've titled this post 'Yet More Snow Pictures'. And Zoya does think I have posted too many skiing pictures of late. But today's a significant day - today's the day I put away my skate skiis. After work I went up to the pass and decided to try skate skiing for one last time. It froze hard in town last night so I was hopeful that the crust on the snow would be strong enough to hold me up. And it was - barely. The snow was very soft, wet and slow.

I had to hike a bit to get onto the snow and then it was a slog skating up to the high country because the snow was so slow. I had absolutely no glide. But I did get up there - see bottom 2 photos - and it was quite glorious. The snow is very deep up there and I have a bowl where there is a large area of fairly flat terrain (middle photo). The snow was a bit faster too, and I bombed around in the big wide open spaces and had a hoot.

Then it came time to head down. I angled down across a southeast facing slope that had warmed up in the morning sun, and sank in up to shins. I found if I went really fast I could stay on top but too fast and I could not avoid the alders and stream ravines. It was an exhilarating descent.

I came down onto a spruce tree covered plateau and bombed around a bit more. And then I made my mistake. Rather than heading directly southeast towards the road where the snow had melted out up high (I did not want to take my skiis off and hike if I did not have to), I angled around to the North facing slope and followed the snow down as low as I could go. Then I discovered I was a long way from the road and I had to bushwhack through salmonberries and cross several ravines to get back to it.

All and all it was a fun adventure, and the snow is still good up high. But the time has come to put away the skate skiis. From now on when I hike up the mountain I'll be carrying my downhill gear.

The top picture is a view of the pass from when I finally got back to near the road. The road is just across the creek and on the left. That's Pyramid looming up behind the cottonwoods on the left. Patrick

Yet More Kid Photos

Sometimes I get a little worried about posting too many kid photos. I don't want to slant our blog content too far one way or another. Sometimes I get a little worried about posting too many 'snow and skiing' pictures too. However, the blog is our family photo album and if we don't post good photos then they are probably lost forever. We print our blog every 3 months and also keep the photos we use in it in separate files. The photos that don't make are blog are kept in HUGE files and while edited aren't edited enough to make it worthwhile checking through them. For this reason, if a photo does not make the blog - it is lost forever. Not that that is a bad thing because the good ones do make the blog. In fact, I've actually contemplated heaving all the ones that don't make the blog. Why bother keeping subpar pictures?

Anyway, these photos are all from yesterday. This weekend Kodiak was blessed with sunny weather when it was supposed to rain. In the morning I took the kids for a bike down the bike path with the dogs, and then in the evening we went to Andy and Betsey's reception. The reception was at the Buskin Beach House and I took the kids down to the beach. I had not been there for a while and forgot how wide and sandy of a beach it is. It's a beach that most communities would import and dump sand to create. Patrick