Mushrooms, Foxes, Anxiety, and More

It's time for this month's update!  Let's get right into it!

Here at the lodge, every weekend we have a bird specialist from Bird TLC (Treatment and Learning Center) come up and give a presentation on a bird.  I've only made it to two of the presentations.  The first was an owl, and then the last one was a peregrine falcon. They've also brought up eagles and on the Fourth of July they even released one of their eagles from our back deck. (I was in Talkeetna and completely forgot that was going to be happening.)  Anyways, Peregrine Falcons happen to be one of my absolute favorite birds (second only to quails), so getting to see one up close like this was a real treat.

Look at that face!  I just want to stroke him and hold him and keep him forever.  You can see in the top picture that one of his wings looks a little funny.  This guy was brought to Bird TLC while he was considered still a juvenile.  What they believed happened was that he lost control while diving for a smaller bird and smacked himself into the side of an overpass.  He won't ever be able to get released back into the wild, because he can't fly anymore.  So now he's an "education bird."  Sometimes I think I should've been an ornithologist or some sort of naturalist, but then I remember that I have no self control and would most likely end up getting my fingers torn off by some adorable bird of prey.

Moving on, I'd like to mention one of my favorite places around where I'm living.  We call them "The Rocks."  It's these two big boulders just a little ways down the road from the lodge.  On a clear day you have an amazing view of Denali, and even on a not clear day you can still see the Chulitna River and all the great scraggly mountains in front of Denali.

Now we pause this blogpost to bring you an important message concerning Alaskan wildflowers:

And now we return to our regularly scheduled program:

One of the recent adventures I went on was walking to Mary Carey's McKinley View Lodge.  It's about 3-4 miles down the road from us.  Walking there was awesome because you have to walk along the highway.  I felt like such a vagabond!  And if that weren't enough, Mary Carey's itself was well worth the trip.  The food we had at their cafe was some of the most delicious I've ever had, and for dessert: brownies and ice cream.

I suppose I should probably explain a little bit about who exactly was Mary Carey.  During the 60's there was something called the Homestead Act.  I'm not totally knowledgeable on all the details, but the way I understand it, you could come to Alaska and settle on a plot of land.  Then, after you'd lived on and worked that land for so long, the government gave it to you for free.  Well, Mary Carey had intended to take advantage of this Act with her husband.  His untimely death didn't delay Mary's departure, however.  She moved to Alaska on her own and eventually made her way up here where she set up her Homestead.  In the years to follow she had all sorts of crazy adventures, one of which involved being wheeled across a half finished bridge in a wheelbarrow while in a full-body cast.

Mary Carey passed away some time ago, but her lodge and gift shop are still being run by her daughter, Jean: an incredible woman who we could've talked to for days about just about everything you could think of.

On our way home from Mary Carey's we took a little detour to try and gather some flowers to press.  Well, then we discovered a little stream and had all sorts of adventures.

I found some Fireweed!

This is our makeshift bridge in order to cross the stream.

Megan had her own adventure and brought back several birch bark rings.

Pink Yarrow

Now I think we need another wildflower break (with a bonus dragonfly!): 

Fireweed

And that brings us the Fourth of July.  I somehow managed to get the day off, so my friend Danielle and I went to Talkeetna for breakfast and to see the parade.

Funky Yellow Car

Part of the parade line-up.  Sorry for the artsy black and white filter.  I was messing around on my computer and found I really liked the look of this picture in B&W.  It makes it seem old and, as the kids say, "vintage."

Look at this happy old man!

 These moose are a pretty big part of the Talkeetna parade.  Just about every establishment makes one and puts it in the parade.  At the end they auction them all off as some sort of fundraiser thing.

Our very fashionable bus driver.

Back at the lodge, we put on a little parade of our own for the enjoyment of both guests and employees alike.  Here are our naturalists, Jay and Lavina, dressed as a bear bell and unsuspecting hiker.

The gift shop's theme was super heroes.  Here's one of my coworkers dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  He's even got the pizza and everything.

Danielle and I went as Batman and Robin.  I've always wanted to do this duo, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.  Also, this is quite possibly my favorite picture of me ever.

Holy Independence Day, Batman!

And now we come to the part of the blog post where I talk about art.

Some smaller doodles on art tiles.

My proudest accomplishment recently has been this piece above.  This piece actually began with a little doodle from high school.  I even remember the circumstances that inspired it.  I had been unexpectedly called on in class.  I wasn't prepared and I suddenly felt everyone looking at me.  I wasn't in trouble and I was able to provide some sort of decent answer, but inwardly I was getting bowled over by waves of anxiety.  I felt as though I had sprouted hundreds of new limbs over which I had no control.  I felt, even though, I was sitting firmly behind my desk, I was about to knock everything over and wreak havoc on anything and everything.  In hindsight, it's actually a sort of amusing image.  So, I wanted to illustrate it.  Well, nearly a year ago, I got to thinking about this idea and I wanted to revisit it.  It took some time, but somehow, here in Alaska, I finally managed to make something of it, and I couldn't be more pleased with the final result.  Hopefully someday I'll find a good scanner that I can use to upload better quality images with.

Now, back to Alaska.  One of the perks of living in the wilderness is all the neat things you get to see every single day.  Because I'm here for a whole season, I also get to watch things grow, live, and die.  On a regular camping trip, you see something in the woods and you think that it always looks like that.  However, I'm beginning to realize that things are always changing here.  One flower blooms one week while another wilts away and dies the next.  One morning, on my way to work, I spotted this flash of red in the normally green undergrowth.

And what, to my wondering eyes, did appear?  But a tiny mushroom, the most perfect I've seen.  It looked completely unreal.  It's even got those little white feta cheese looking things on top.  And that color!  Could it be more perfect?  I believe it's called "Amoneta" or something like that.  Luckily, I got a picture when I did, because it only lasted for a few days before it shriveled up and disappeared back into the earth.

Lastly, before I go, I had another amazing wildlife experience.  I was heading down to lunch one day, when this fox pup comes out of the bushes next to the trail.  He walked ahead of me for a little ways and then stopped on this sunny patch of concrete to lie down.  He was so adorable!  I could barely contain how excited I was.  He spent most of the afternoon around here until some other employees used a box to relocate him to another area of property where a mother fox had been sighted.  I hope everything turned out alright and the little guy has a family again.

Until next time!