In Cordova, there’s no mail delivery to houses, so we all get our mail at the post office. Yesterday, when I picked up my mail, there was a little key with a number on it in the box and a tag that said: “Return key after using.” I took the key and went to the box indicated and pulled out a package. From Potter Craft:

An early preview copy of my book! Of course, there was no one I knew in the post office, so no one would understand why I was jumping up and down, so I kept my celebration to a minimum. I did run off to The Net Loft, our lovely local yarn store and showed Dotty, the owner, who has done a lot make me feel welcome here, but tonight is Tuesday, and if I were still in Maryland I’d be bringing it to SSK at Adega where many of the amazing hands who made the book possible by stitching the samples will be knitting. I miss you guys!

Yesterday I gathered fireweed again with my friend Shelly as well as clover blossoms to make her recipe for fireweed “Honey.” It’s a sugar syrup flavored with the fragrant blossoms. (We substituted cream of tartar for the Alum in the recipe linked to here, since I didn’t want to use Alum–the it worked great and produced a nice clear syrup).

Of course, we had to try it out, so I made pancakes for dinner (oh, if you use that recipe, you can cut the baking powder in half). It was very yummy–it is thick like honey when cool, but thin enough for a pancake syrup when warm.

On Saturday, we spent the day exploring the Copper River Delta:

We had a nice view of Scott Glacier:

and had lunch al fresco:

We saw moose tracks, coyote tracks and bear tracks, but no actual wildlife. On our way home, look what we saw in the high school parking lot:

It seems like I get to the end of each day here and I can’t believe how little I’ve gotten done. The process of settling in is slow and I have a hard time being patient. Selma has started school, so her routine is underway, and she is happy with it. Jay’s preschool doesn’t start for a couple more weeks. He’s still a bit out of sorts and asking periodically to go back to Maryland. I’m hoping once he’s in school too, I’ll get my own daily rhythm and I can get more done.

This is fireweed. It grows everywhere around town. The other day I went berry picking and we collected about 5 quarts of fireweed blossoms. Shelly, who was our guide for the day gave me recipes for Fireweed Jelly and Fireweed “Honey” which is a sugar syrup flavored with fireweed and clover.

I soaked the blossoms overnight as Shelly instructed, then I drained them, rinsed them, and boiled them in a little water and lemon juice (about half as much water as blossoms). Then I strained the juice in a mesh strainer and then through a cheese cloth. (The cheese cloth was a good idea–I strained out some dust and tiny critters that way). I froze the resulting juice and I’ll make the jelly later when I’ve accumulated some canning supplies.

We picked berries that day too, but we ate practically all of what we picked so it will take another trip if we want to can some jam or make pies.

These are Alaskan Wild Blueberries–they are a bit more astringent than regular blueberries but they have a nice fragrant flavor.

This is a Salmonberry. It is a little more tart than a raspberry, and it’s bigger and more fragrant. Also, the bushes have far fewer prickly parts. Salmonberries grow everywhere around here. The ripe ones range in color from yellow to dark red, you have to tell by plumpness an feel rather than color. Selma wants to can a batch of orange salmonberry jam if we find enough of them. Melissa is willing to climb steep banks to get the ripest berry:

Berry picking is not something folks are encouraged to do alone because the berries are bear food and you don’t want to get in between a bear and his snack. Most people find that having a gaggle of kids along with you on a hike discourages any wildlife from coming too close.

We’re still here! Just digging our way out of boxes:

It’s great to be in our house, but I can’t wait until things are put away.

As fun as it looks, even the kids are getting sick of boxes. Their rooms are unpacked; it’s a bit like Christmas finding your toys after a 1-month separation from them.

Since there’s nothing to show you yet in the interior of the house, I’ll leave you with some pics of our back yard. (You can see more on flickr).

Lost.

One of the things I love about moving is getting lost. When I’m exploring a new area, I love to wander around back roads feeling my way and learning the area. I had thought that it wouldn’t be possible to get lost in Cordova, but it turns out there’s plenty of roads to loose my way on (even though, locals say “out the road,” as if there’s only one, whenever they’re talking about things away from town), and each one seems to offer a better view of mountain or water or rainforest.

Found.

Things in Alaska are expensive, things in Cordova, are about twice that much. In the general store, a bag of potato chips regularly costs $8.99. I was relieved to find a small Salvation Army store on the main street here in town. Yesterday we found an old electric piano there that Selma bought for herself for just a few dollars, and when she was trying out the piano, the cashier said, “are you a Suzuki student?” It turns out she was two about 10 years ago, and her teacher still lives in town, but stopped teaching when she had children. We called the teacher, and she’s going to take Selma on as a student.

Our first day here we got a call from Kristy (flickr), the wife of the Engineering Officer on the ship saying that there was a gathering to plan the upcoming weekend’s Coast Guard Day picnic. It turned out to be an impromptu craft session as well with knitting and crocheting, quilting and one new friend Pam (shown here hand quilting a beautiful stained glass quilt) showed us her handmade paper collection including some made from dryer lint! (We’re all going to start saving ours asap). Kristy is the unofficial photographer of the group, and she took this shot:

Finished.

When I was planning our x-country journey, I fantasized about not having work projects to do, and using the travel time to finish up UFOs. Well, I ended up taking on work instead, but I did get to work on a couple of small projects some washcloths to give as hostess gifts, and a shawl for a friend–this is my Antique Lace Shawl worked in Malabrigo’s new silk and merino yarn.

Returned.

James was due to return with the ship this morning. (The last time we saw him was the morning of June 11th). Last night at about dinner time, I got simultaneous calls from James and the ship’s ombudsman saying that they were coming in tonight instead. The family members of the ship’s crew gathered at a point along the sound to wave to them as they passed by, then we jumped in our cars and drove to the pier to greet them.

Delivered.

Our household goods arrive tomorrow, so I may be buried in boxes and off the computer for a while. I do not like unpacking, so hopefully, I’ll power through and get it over with quickly.

We’re here. All the way to Cordova. Finally. After a month of moving, house sitting, traveling, seeing relatives, and spending time with gracious friends who hosted us in Maryland and Seattle.  We can’t wait until Wednesday morning when James returns with the ship.

We found Interweave Crochet on the newsstand in the Anchorage airport today during an extended layover. I took that as a good sign–Alaska seems to be a crafty place. Here in Cordova, we’ve arrived on a Sunday evening, just in time to get to bed, but on the way to the hotel we saw to fabric stores and the yarn shop.

Honey.

My friend Lisa hosted our cat Honey for a couple of weeks while we were travelling, and while we were in Seattle, she made all the complicated arrangements to send her out to us. Honey came via air cargo to Seattle, boarded at her old Seattle vet for a few days and today flew coach with us to Cordova. Tonight she’s sleeping in our new house, while we are crammed in to a tiny “staff” room in Cordova’s only real hotel due to an overbooking fiasco.  Honey’s 14, and she’s over all the moving, having done it about 5 times. Our other kitty, Inca is still staying with my friend Hillary in MD, and we’ll be arranging her incredible journey soon.

Fleeced.

On Thursday we went to Portland to visit my Aunt Barbara. It was great fun to see her and stay at her house. She took us to a Portland Goodwill where we bought some warm clothes. It was a good thing because it’s in the 50s here in Cordova (not a-typical for summer). Selma and I are lying on the bed in the hotel now (waiting for Jay to fall asleep so we can turn on the TV) wearing our new (old) fleeces because we’ve opened the window to get some air.

Tomorrow we’ll explore the town. I’ll bring the camera.