On a Lifelong Journey to Learn my Place
Cross Mountain (Cupola Peak on the maps) is a distinctive peak rising out of Silver Bay near Sitka. It’s been a subject of photographs for nearly 100 years (and perhaps more). My history taking pictures of it only goes back about 20 years, but I know of at least one E. W. Merrill photo featuring … Read more
A prominent feature at the north end of a long sandy beach, Yax̱latit Noow looks out over the northern lobe of Sitka Sound Over the past few years one of my side projects has been to try and learn to speak/understand Tlingit. There is an active group of enthusiastic learners and teachers of the language … Read more
A couple of days ago when I saw the forecast for the clear and cold weather that is now upon us, I reflected on the fact that we hadn’t yet had a cold snap this winter. It seems like in most years we get some cold weather in November or December (though I think most … Read more
This fall and early winter it has seemed like few days on the water very nice, and as a result I’ve been thinking that this year’s weather/sea state has been worse than last year’s which, for some reason, I remember as being reasonably mellow. After commenting on this, I decided to look up the buoy … Read more
(follow-up with corrected precipitation totals) Recently Sitka’s precipitation totals have been in the news as part of the on-going issues related to relatively water low levels in Green Lake and Blue Lake, where the vast majority of our electricity comes from in this community. As a result, the electrical department has been utilizing diesel generators, … Read more
Earlier this year, I stumbled upon a paper in an 1898 The Auk that reported on an ornithological trip made to Sitka in the summer of 1896 by Joseph Grinnell. I found it very interesting to read; mostly because it gave me some insight into the birds that were here over 100 years ago (and … Read more