Bears predominate large last month in Alaska , but there was more danger lurking for a scrapulation . * near quarter and too much kinsperson togetherness always make for a menacing vacation menace . Rose , my daughter Molly , granddaughter Story and I spent ten days aim around south central Alaska . I ’m happy to report that there were , from beginning to end , no dust - ups ; no car doors slamming and no , “ I ’m outta here ! ”
We had a corking prison term .
What ’s up with that ?
Ruth Glacier, Denali National Park.
A few compromises were called for .
Ruth Glacier , Denali National Park .
I was bounced as the principal equipment driver on the first day . I could n’t even drive the Miss Daisies . Molly took over . fast-growing Alaskan machine driver and caravans of RVs would not get the salutary of my girl .
Fireweed mural in Old Town, Homer, Alaska.
This mean I could n’t hog all the sentence , either , with my drug abuse of insisting that we pull over every 20 hour , whenever I ascertain something in bloom or in fruit .
I did n’t give up much , though . My Daisies sleep with flowers , too . Rose and Molly are gardener . And Story , who is seven , could be a poster child for thenational effortto get Thomas Kyd off their asses and out of the house .
Not long ago , Story came bounce into our menage and said , “ Babu , allow ’s sow some seeds . ”
Say what ?
How had a fry , then five , reached a point in her immature life where sow in seeds could , in any way , be considered suitable or fun ? She ’s pass much of her living outdoors and is a shining cross of geneticsandnurture .
Imagine if a poll were taken of American simple schooltime kids with the simple question : “ Hey , tike , would you wish to sow bean semen after school today ? ” There ’s little doubt that the response would be an overwhelming NO ! The fact that Story askedmeifwecould sow seeds would run to suggest either an empirical unusual person or some delightful evolutionary advancement .
I collect come from the garden and the wild all season . usually , I have seeds salt away in various places . I save seeds to spread around or send in pocket-sized envelope of promise to Jelitto Perennial Seeds for test . ( I ’ve sire seeds of dianthus , asclepias and allium to clean this week , for instance , before I ship them to Georg Uebelhart , myJelittocolleague . )
I could n’t find anything for fib in the house . I put some pebble in a seed package , gathered the eager young nurseryman , and out we went to the garden . She eyeballed the contents and order , “ Babu , these are careen . ”
“ They ’re fine , ” I severalize her . We sow the pebbles .
I hold up to the hardware store the next day and bought some kale seeds to plant with the pebble . The loot sowing exhibit the promise of a splendid youthful crop but was cut short by slugs .
Fireweed wall painting in Old Town , Homer , Alaska .
Alaska delivered in full on great vistas , glaciers , whale , moose , bald eagles and sand hill cranes . Even with fall in the aviation , there were some lingering August wildflowers . I never grow shopworn of wayside patch of the boreal pink - blossom rosebay willowherb , Epilobium angustifolium . Watermelon Charles Edward Berry , peat bog rosemary , crowberry and sweet gale were all in fruit .
We did n’t see any bear until our last day , and we had to devote to see those . Grizzlies and black bear , we were tell , were gorging in the wild on blueberries and busy stalk the rivers for sockeye and chinook salmon .
A long winter ’s hibernation was a few weeks away . Nothing will be sleep in Story ’s retention .
- We have a groundhog hunter who render - up on our farm periodically with her Jack Russell terrier . The hotdog , whenever they go into a hole , meet the varmints and get into what she describes as “ a scrapulation . ”
