We were at a friend’s house watching movies last night. Pink streaks of soft light brushed with gold appeared on the wall. At nearly 10 o’clock at night, that could only mean one thing–a beautiful sunset. The snow drifts in the foreground indicate where the ocean shore starts. The ice just below the drifts covers the beach. From there out to as far as the eye can see is the Chukchi Sea still locked in ice.
The sun is shining most days. The sun now barely stretches into the sky as we walk to school. It sets well after our bedtime. Somedays we have a taste of “spring.” Drips of melting snow and ice begin to trickle and drop from eaves. Then the temperature falls again. Minus 17 this morning. This step into spring and back creates interesting icicles. The snow drifts are still up against buildings allowing the children easy access to harvest these icy treasures. The icicles have been pouring down our eaves and also have been left as small presents by our young visitors. Sweet.
(Orange cookies with chocolate chips)
Time is flying by and the daylight is increasing at a phenomenal rate. After the dark lull around winter solstice, we picked up noticeable amounts of daylight every day. Now, the morning twilight is at about 8:15 a.m. and the evening twilight ends about 10:00 p.m. We’ve put foil up in our bedroom window so our cave is nice and dark and welcomes sleep.
Well, a big decision has been made. We will only stay one school year in Shishmaref and are now packing up. The best advice we read was as soon as you know you are going to move, start packing! It looks like we are heading to Anchorage. There are so many interesting places to live in Alaska. For our goals, Anchorage seems like the best fit for the next several years.
We’ve loved living in the village of Shishmaref. The natives are kind and friendly. The environment up here is amazing. I am glad that this experience has been part of my story.
Honestly, the school has been difficult to work in. The values of those who we work with and for don’t synch up with ours. There are so many things that could be easily done to improve the education of the children up here. Maybe someday I will be able to tackle that problem from the chair of the state’s education commissioner.
For now, it’s time to get ready to move from 22 miles from the Artic Circle to 350 miles from the Artic Circle.
The good, the bad, and the tasty this week.
The bad. We heard that every year about this time, there is a lice breakout. I don’t know enough about lice to know if the eggs hibernate until a certain temperature, or what happens. I have learned more about lice this year than I ever wanted to know! The only bugs that I have seen up here are flies and tiny red spiders that live outside. We missed the short window of mosquitoes in the summer. This has been an unusual year in the sense that there have been several outbreaks of lice. It has become such a big issue that they are shutting the school down next week, during our spring break, to thoroughly clean. It’s a bit of a drag for us because we shower and do laundry at the school. Fortunately, we have a friend who lives in a house with running water, so we’ll have a backup plan. Makes me itchy every time I think about it.
The good. We saw the most amazing display of northern lights last week. The lights, when visible, can be seen anywhere from 11 p.m. to 3 or 4 a.m. Those are sleeping hours for us. The first time we saw the lights, it was because someone pounded on the door to wake us. Last week, I was shocked awake by Jack jumping up out of bed exclaiming “the lights” as he looked out our bedroom window. Apparently, people were banging on our door and throwing snowballs at our bedroom…I didn’t hear any of it.
I didn’t bother taking my camera out because I didn’t think I could capture them. You’d think because we are so far north, the aurora borealis would be seen all the time. Because of the path of the lights, this has only been the third night this winter that we’ve seen a decent display of the aurora. Imagine looking up at the sky and seeing greenish swirls above and all around. By the horizon, we saw just a hint of purple in the lights. They traveled and moved swiftly. They are said to dance. They curved and morphed from streaks to bands before my eyes. Beautiful and amazing.
The tasty. The week ended with pecan turtle bars. A soft butter cookie base with a buttery, sugary, carmel-y layer covering chopped pecans. The whole cookie was then blanketed with swirled melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. They were cut in small pieces in order to enjoy one or two with less guilt. Oh, my!
My hat’s off to great bird photographers. Birds are difficult subjects. Watching us intently with expressive little faces, these fat McKay’s Buntings tolerated us getting within about 25 feet before flying away. Their feathers were fluffed up for warmth, making them look roly poly. Today was a gorgeous day to try and capture them: icy clear skies and 6 degrees above zero.
A few months ago, our school received kiwi as the fruit of the week. A surprising number of students enjoyed the kiwi. The ones who did not like their kiwi gave the fruit to their teachers. So, Jack and I took about a dozen fruit home. The kiwi were aging faster than Jack and I could eat them. I decided to try out the jam feature on our bread machine with the remaining kiwi. The jam has been sitting in our freezer waiting to be eaten. Honestly, kiwi jam didn’t really sound that appealing. It looks kind of interesting — bright green with tiny black seeds. Jack thought a blueberry tart with a kiwi jam layer would be good.
After doing a bit of research about what could be done with jams, I settled on a raspberry oatmeal bar recipe. I followed the recipe except for the type of jam…homemade kiwi! It came out terrific. The tasty bars are mostly sweetened by the jam and have the healthy properties of oats. Mostly, they taste delicious. After eating two, Jack suggested my next endeavor should be my own little bake shop. He says my baking is now that good. Thanks, Jack!
The cold bright sun causes changes in the snow and ice. As the light and temperature changes, there are more photographic opportunities to capture Mother Nature’s art.
I love the interplay of the shadows and the sparkle of the snow as this wave is seemingly frozen in time.
Eleven weeks to eat through the pantry…
Confectioners sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, flour, eggs…
Of course, chocolate brownie biscotti. Just enough crunch to keep me interested. Devilish chocolatey taste to keep my sweet tooth happy. Baking three times took more time than the usual baked treat, but it was totally worth it.
P.S. Jack says these were the best biscotti he’d ever had…ever!
Yesterday, it stormed so hard that school was closed. To put this into perspective, our school is never closed. One of the teachers told me throughout her past eight years she has been at Shishmaref School, there has only been one day closed for weather.
The wind is coming from the south, which means it’s warm. It’s bringing wet snow. The gusts strain to knock me over on my short commute to school.
No planes bring people in to town or take people away. No mail leaves or comes in. Everything stays still until the storm passes.
I remember snow days when I was in first and second grade. (This was in the state of New York) I remember excitedly listening to the radio and cheering when we didn’t have to go to school. It was bonus time. I don’t remember having to make up days to make sure we had the required number of school days. I was too young to notice. Maybe we did.
In Shishmaref, we make up the days. If we close school, then we make it up on the following Saturday. That sort of takes away the enchantment of snow days.
This kind of storm is dreary. It’s no fun to go out and walk. It’s no fun to look at the world through the veil of soggy falling snow.
So, I look at my photos of the beautiful fireweed from last summer. And I dream of the fireweed and chamomile I will harvest in the Kenai this coming summer. Maybe a cup of hot cocoa and a movie will help distract me from the soggy storm.
One of the big events out here is basketball. There are two outdoor basketball courts that are used in the summer. During the school year, the gym fills the need. Each school, no matter how small, has a basketball team. When the schools play, the community shows up to cheer them on. In what seems to be tradition out here, the natives cheer on the teams…our side or the other school’s. It’s a terrific social event. I like to visit with people I don’t normally get to talk to.
Today’s game is the first one of the season during the day. It was a great opportunity to photograph what the turnout looks like outside the school. Notice how the outside of the school is all parked up!
CutterLight 