Dave and I finally got out for a hike by ourselves this Saturday – the first time all summer. It was so nice to take the day off and enjoy each other and God’s beautiful creation. We went to one of our favorite hiking spots along Bear Creek, 2 years after my first hike there. Big blue sky, bright sunshine and lots of wind. Blueberries for the picking. Lowbush cranberries will be next. No large animal sightings. A little nap and snacks on top. A very good day.
Is it possible to be tundra chic while hiking a mountain in the Alaska Range? I mean really – at what point does one sacrifice comfort for looking cute? First, there’s no way to get around the large, boat-like hiking boots. It really would be crazy not to wear them – they’re great shoes, much better than my holey running shoes, and they cost so much money. A gal would feel guilty for not wearing hers especially when her husband doesn’t have any (because they broke after 10+ years) and has to hike in Vans. It was the first hot day we’ve had in over a month – around 80 degrees – so I decided I HAD to wear shorts. But I responsibly chose my “long” shorts which I could roll up when I got hot. I brought some Target knee socks to protect my legs while hiking through the brush. BIG MISTAKE! The underbrush – mostly dwarf birch trees – was thick and violent! When I bent my legs as I climbed up, I had at least 5 inches of exposed skin around my knee – and every square inch was covered in scrapes and scratches after the 5 hour hike. And every scrap and scratch was accompanied by a yelp and/or groan. So although I love to soak up as much sun as possible when it’s shining on the tundra, I am going to have to figure out another way. Pants are not an option when trudging through wild Alaskan underbrush. Basketball pants/shorts perhaps? The kind where you can zip or snap off the bottom half to have instant shorts! I’m sure Patagonia or North Face makes something semi-stylish and overpriced that I could buy. I doubt Sierra Trading Post would be selling it though…
So moving up…I opted for my bright tie-eyed Gap tank top because (I think) I look best in bright colors. Who doesn’t? I was hoping to get rid of my short-sleeved farmer’s tan I acquired in LA. Again, the elements were against me. When hiking through the trees and underbrush I kept my long-sleeved shirt on for protection. When we got out above the tree line, the wind was blowing so hard I was cold and wore my long-sleeved shirt most of the time. Even Dave was cold – he smartly brought his Patagonia long underwear top.
So the question is ladies and gentlemen – how does a gal dress properly (because scraped knees are never cute) for an outdoor excursion, yet still look tundra chic? Oh yeah, and without spending a fortune…
I’m looking for specific suggestions here!
During my trip to LA in June, I was reminded of a very important fact: every gal needs a little bit of princess in her life. My friend Lily’s house has the perfect touch of princess. The most perfect being this extraordinary pendant lamp in her bedroom – an online steal snagged at Neiman Marcus online. Under the soft light of that gorgeous lamp, a woman feels, looks, acts and falls asleep like a princess!
Just look at all those crystals – a true sign of princess.
I had to show you, though, that the light really isn’t orange, it’s a normal tungsten light (your normal indoor light bulb) which just looks orange against the daylight when captured in a photograph (my camera cannot do multiple white balances like our eyes). Isn’t it pretty? Of course it certainly helps that the rest of Lily’s boudoir is princess worthy!
Regardless of what your home looks like or where you live (like the tundra!), every woman’s home needs a touch of princess. So start with one thing – like this beautiful lamp – and stay or go from there. I, of course, vote for keep going! And if you ever move, don’t forget to take your princess light (or any princess item) with you! It’s not every day one finds a light worthy of a princess.
As my husband and I sat down to dinner tonight (Rachel Ray’s Well-Dressed Salmon with Crispy Mashed Potato Cakes), we delightedly realized that we grew or caught EVERYTHING on our plate (minus the condiments, cream cheese and sour cream)! This was a first for us!
Cucumbers – Fresh from our greenhouse – our first one! I did have to rub off the little pricklies first.
Chives – Snipped from our garden seconds before using them – their smell and taste were amazing!
Potatoes – Dug by Dave from the garden – we used just what we needed!
Greens – Picked from the garden, washed and dumped in a bowl! No swiss chard tonight…
and last but not least…
Red Salmon – Caught by my manly, bring-home-the-salmon husband 2 days ago in the Copper River! And “cooked to perfection” by me according to him. I’ll take that compliment every day please. Thank you.
The meal was terrific – much better than when made with store-bought ingredients. I’m so proud.
I’ve never been a big gift wrapper. I appreciate pretty wrapping, but I’ve never gone beyond wrapping paper and peel-and-stick bows or the occasional ribbon (as those are very difficult to tie!). In fact, I often lazily go for the reusable gift bag – no one will notice a few crinkles here and there…And even though I have always appreciated beautifully wrapped gifts which I have received, I never really thought that anyone else did – at least not enough to merit me going to all that effort!
But then I watched my friend Lily wrap some gifts for me to give to my friends. They weren’t even from her (okay, one was from her too, but still!) and she took such joy and care in wrapping them! She pulled out all of her gift wrapping boxes (straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog) and eagerly got to work selecting the perfect package, decorations and tags.
I loved this candy bouquet she selected to adorn the packages. No detail is too small for Lily. She goes the 100 extra miles to make sure each of her gifts is lovely, unique and special so that the recipient feels loved, unique and special. Watching the joy and love Lily put into wrapping the gifts gave me a much deeper appreciation for the art and gift (for it is part of the gift to the recipient) of gift wrapping. She certainly made me want to do a better job with my gifts. It makes sense really. After I spend so much time trying to select the perfect gift for someone based on his or her likes, personality, and background, why would I just toss that perfect gift into a bag I haven’t given any thought to?
Let’s be honest, everyone judges a book by its cover and the same goes for a present. And I’m okay with that.
p.s. Men, you too can glean some lessons from this story. Many stores offer free gift wrapping. And you can afford to purchase a new, in-season gift bag for your sweetheart, which she can then regift…with some added peronslization and beautification of course.
My garden is really flourishing! For at least the entire month of May I worked my tail off (seriously, it’s good exercise) buying, weeding and planting. I laboured for hours under the sun every day for days on end! Dave was astonished by how dirty I was! He claimed he had never seen my dirtier – ever! I suppose that’s what happens when you move to the country…
However, once all the planting had been completed and the weather became increasingly gray, cool and rainy, my interest in my garden waned. Picking weeds on a cold summer day was not exactly first on my to-do list. Although, it should’ve been much closer to the top than it actually was…My hometown honey humored me for a little while – perhaps even a month – and then kindly reminded me of my attention-deprived garden outside! Even though the tending is tedious, it is exciting to see all the plants grow, flower and begin to produce veggies!…
Except for maybe this swiss chard. It’s unstoppable! I can pick 75% of the leaves one day and they’ll be back the next! There’s only so much chard a girl can stomach! It’s especially untasty raw. We’ve already blanched and frozen some. And in the meantime, I’m always looking for chard recipes. Two winners so far have been: 1. Sauteed chard with olive oil and garlic – 2lbs of chard shriveled down to 4 side servings for dinner – woo hoo! 2. Chicken enchilada pie (or mexican lasagna) with chard – very tasty!
My sugar snap peas are delicious! As soon as they’re plump and ripe, I pick them and eat them! I absolutlely love picking just the amount I’m going to eat with lunch or dinner so everything is as fresh as can be – and nothing goes to waste.
The snap peas also have beautiful flowers!
But the most fruitful area of my garden (no thanks to Elphie the cat of course) is the bed right up against the south-facing backside of our house – it gets bright sun all day long! As you can see, Elphie is even less interested in gardening than I am.
My subarctic tomatoes are doing awesome! All those little blossoms will turn into delicious tomatoes (I believe that’s right)! These are definitely my cash crop. I plan to make lots of creamy tomato basil soup (oh heaven!) and canned tomato sauce to use all winter long.
But watch out tomatoes – the broccoli is trying to eat you! Never fear, I pruned the broccoli plant to give Mr. Tomato more room. I’m a much bigger fan of tomatoes than broccoli. Oh how I wish we could grow more fruit (other than berries) up here! I really am a fruity kind of girl!
To be fair, the broccoli is rather tasty and tender – much different than the store bought kind. Of course, I also let it start to flower before I picked it – which you’re not supposed to do!
Speaking of man-eating plants. Check out my herbs – they’re gigantic!
This is a mint leaf! I don’t know why I grow mint – it takes over the garden and all you can really use it for are Mint Juleps and tabouleh. So I made some mint syrup the other day. Maybe I’ll give it away to my cocktail loving friends.
And this is the parsley! It’s ridiculous!
And inside my greenhouse…the veggies are growing! Like tomatoes…
And bell peppers which the tag says are supposed to ripen red but shows a photo of green peppers. So I’m not quite sure when they’re actually ripe. Any suggestions?
And in closing, a pretty shot of the lovely purple chive blossoms.
So yes, I do love my garden. And I like working in it – when I feel like it. It’s like a child or pet, I suppose, you can’t neglect it and you have to show it some TLC. It’s been pretty good to me, so I think I’ll give it some love.
I couldn’t resist that title for this photo shoot. I mean, how many one-year-olds do you know who can read?! (I think at one point she was reading to her parents.) And who balance work and play time so diligently? This little girl has grown up so much in the past 6 months! Now she can crawl, swing, tease, joke and turn it on for the camera! She must be a genius! One thing is for sure, she’s fast and fickle (what one-year-old isn’t?) and downright fabulous!
I loved her in her yellow Easter dress and white cardigan – too cute! If she were my daughter, I just might have to put her in that little yellow dress every single day. Do baby girls really have any need for pants or shorts, anyways? I was reading Gone with the Wind today and was thinking how nice it would be to wear a dress everyday. Obviously, I’d have formal and casual dresses – ones I could get dirty in the fields and forests. I think I’d feel so feminine and pretty and minus the corset, more comfortable. Just food for thought.
I finally remembered to bring my camera and snap a few photos of beautiful Creamer’s Field on my way home from church. I was hoping to capture this scene under a brooding dark gray sky, but I’ll gladly settle for a bright blue sky and plenty of sunshine!
This is why Alaskans love the summer. And why Fairbanks is totally better than Anchorage.
If I could only pick one flower for the rest of my life it would have to be the peony – especially if I’m living on the tundra. They grow so big and beautiful up here. And they smell almost as good as they look! This one is from my mother-in-law’s garden. I copied her and displayed my blossom in a vintage teal mason jar, which I absolutely adore.
Next spring, I definitely need to transplant some peonies to my garden! Goodbye potatoes, hello beautiful!
My second day in Los Angeles, I found a little piece of food paradise in the California countryside. I have a wise girlfriend who once enlightened me with her travel philosophy: “I like to plan my trip around good food and everything else falls into place.” Well said. Well said. My perfect food day began at the Underwood Family Farm in Somis where you can pick your own blueberries. Three girlfriends and I plus a bunch of enthusiastic kids walked around the fields for hours gleaning and, yes, grazing the perfect berries. Despite my idyllic hopes, we did not all get to grab a colorful handwoven basket (modeled in navy and pink by my beautiful friend Lily above) to put our freshly picked berries in. No, you actually had to buy those! Who would’ve thought?! If I ever own a blueberry farm, everyone will get to pick their berries with pretty baskets free of charge! (Coincidentally, the Homegrown Market in Fairbanks sells those same cute baskets!)
Pretty basket or not, the berries were delicious! Big and plump and sweet as can be! The little lady below can certainly attest to that!
The farm also had a fruit stand brimming with fresh vegetables and fruit – and my lovely friend and soon-to-be mommy Becca! Now that I’ve seen her in person, I actually believe she’s pregnant! It was her perfect food day too – seriously.
In the fruit stand, they were selling fresh figs. I’ve always wanted to taste a fresh fig, but have never seen one at a grocery store. So I seized this golden opportunity. Could it really be better than the newton?….
Oh yeah, baby! They’re sweet like a fig newton, but plump and juicy and bursting wiht flavor! Forget the newtons, give me fresh figs!
So what could top off my perfect food day? What else but a trip to Chick-fil-a! Rather than eating at the Mexican restaurant right next to the farm since it was after 1pm and we were all starving, we decided to drive 10 miles in the wrong direction (away from home) in search of a Chick-fil-a. Thank you iphone. Only for Chick-fil-a would 2 moms with 6 famished, exhausted kids plus an 8+ month pregnant lady agree to go on a 30-minute wild goose chase through the country to eat lunch at a fast food restaurant they’re not completely sure is actually there!
It did not disappoint. I got the #1 meal and instantly drifted a little closer toward heaven. Plus I had the special joy of introducing my friend Lily to Chick-fil-a! I’m not sure she was totally convinced it was worth all the effort to get there, but give her a year and a few Chick-fil-a cravings and she’ll come around.
Oh yum. I’m homesick.
Little House on the Tundra 