GRIZ VIDEO IS UP!!!-GOING GREENER-Free Entertainment

GRIZ VIDEO HERE!!! Scroll to bottom of post!

We did pretty well in the Free Entertainment department this past week, putting this Going Greener commitment to use.

The Scottish Highland Games & Gathering of the Clans:

(Thanks to free tickets from our friend, Nature Lady-the sewing master) Last weekend we joined our fellow clans in some Celtic celebration at the Scottish Highlands Festival. The highlight of the festival is the games, or traditional athletic "Field Events". These consist of really big muscled men in skirts throwing, heaving, lifting, pulling, tossing, swinging and tugging a variety of large and/or heavy objects. My personal favorite is the caber toss. A caber is a 16-21 foot long wooden pole weighing in around 100 to 150 pounds. In this event a kilt clad guy will pick up the caber from the bottom of it's light end and balance it on his shoulder.


Carefully running forward, he then attempts to throw the caber upwards and end over end to have it fall straight away from his body.

Whoever "turns" the largest caber wins. Other field events include the Stone Throw, Scottish Hammers-swinging and flinging a 50 inch 16-22#hammer, Weights for distance/Weights for heights-more swinging and tossing of heavy stuff, Farmers Walk-an attempt to carry two 168! pound weights a certain distance,

and Tug-o-War. The strength and skill showcased here are quite impressive!

Intertwined throughout the festival grounds one can also find vendors of both Celtic and non-Celtic wares, food, music, dancing, educational centers, kid games,




drumming and piping competitions, and a kickin' Celtic-rock band. Along the way one can mingle within the gathering of the clans-various booths representing different clans and/or offering information on heritage and tracing your Scottish or Irish ancestry. Now that I have traced my own ancestry back to some Irish and Scottish names(McNamara, MacDonald, and Hogue) I look forward to learning more about assembling a family tree and which main clan I belong to. As an adoptee, I am grateful for this festival and really enjoy the feeling of belonging and connecting to a history and people of the past that I have always felt a strong kinship toward.

IRELAND...
I've long had an obsession with it. I once read about a man who circumnavigated Ireland in his sea kayak. He wrote of the concept of cellular memory-the idea of having tangible memories of your ancestors kind of "imprinted" in your biology. This is why many experience a sense of coming home or having been there before when traveling to a particular place. I haven't been to Ireland yet but I have had similar feelings when hearing Irish music, seeing pictures, hearing an accent, etc. As a child I dreamt of the Cliffs of Mohr before I ever saw a picture or heard about them. Pretty surreal stuff. I'm definitely pulled THERE.


Someday.....




Theater in the Park- Pantomime:


Thursdays at noon in Peratrovich Park located in Downtown Anchorage one can usually find a large group of parents and kids as well as summer campers eating a picnic lunch and enjoying an hour of Theater in the Park. Throughout the summer there is a mix of Juggling, comedy, improv, and more -always inviting the audience in for interaction and participation. This week's special was pantomime. The first half of the hour consisted of a series of cute and classic skits by a one woman performer. For the second half, the mime "broke face" and using her voice, revealed the basic premise behind pantomime. Pantomime is storytelling without words where one uses their body to tell the story. Teaching children to pantomime encourages imagination, creative thinking and problem solving, and a deep understanding of stories and concepts. Pantomime also gives children a chance to explore their bodies and creative movement. Children are already natural actors and this group was eager to participate in the lesson in pantomime!

Shy at first, Lo was quick to join in the group in following the mime's impromptu movements. Thinking pantomime also comes naturally to children, I was surprised to see that Lo and many of the kids her age had some trouble at first. Using just her body without speech and toys to convey an idea was not a concept she was familiar with. It was interesting to see Lo making that mind/body connection. A child her age can imitate as well as imagine and create a scenario for play, but has difficulty creating pantomime unless given a "script".

After the brief lesson, some children(and a camp counselor!) were given the chance to act out a short skit with the direction and narration of the mime.


Then another group performed the same skit with no narration(and only a little direction!). The kids did a great job and Dea and Lo enjoyed this unique afternoon in the park.

On another green note, Huz has decided that he is going to bake all our bread himself! He was a baker and pastry chef for over 20 years and is THE MASTER of BREADBAKING. Oh. My. God. was this sooooooooooooooo yummy!!!



I'm gonna get fat.....

HAPPY 4TH and other good things

HAPPY, SAFE, and CELEBRATORY 4TH of JULY to ALL!!!

Here's to hope, renewal, and revitalization(OBAMA!) within our country in the coming year.

Yahoo! My work is being featured on the cover of the current issue of Alaska Women Speak Magazine!

"AWS prints the writing of women from Barrow to Sitka. The viewpoints are from individuals who are part of a rainbow of cultural, ethical, racial and social backgrounds - all with the experience of living in Alaska. Some women grew up in Alaska, many did not; add a dimension of growing in different parts of Alaska or any state or country - and yet we call ourselves Alaskan.
Alaska Women Speak has a Theme for each issue. The theme or topic serves as a catalyst for the writing. Each person brings their experiences and Alaskan perspective to each journal resulting in articles of great variety.
Since 1992 much of the history of AWS as an organization is the wonderful women who have been involved in this volunteer-based magazine."

One of the editors is a client and she liked the painting that I had in my session room. She asked if I would be willing to put it on their cover. Not my best work-it really was just a liitle something to add some color to my room. They had asked me right at the deadline to come up with an artist's statement/bio-they needed it right now! I had never even thought of an "artist's statement" and had no idea what to write. So I pulled this weirdness from out of the recesses(and my blog bio):

RunninL8 is a mommy of 2, massage therapist, evolving artist , seeker..., toymaker, tree hugger, outside playing, warm rain and soil under her bare feet loving, Celtic Zen Gnostic Neo-Eco-Pagan Syncretist Silly-ist. She has been creating as far back as she can remember. Her artistic expression has taken many forms: photography, drawing, writing, watercolor painting, jewelry design, fiber art, acrylics…-and is indicative of the environment and emotions surrounding her and within her own inner landscape. She recently introduced herself to acrylic paints and they have been exploring and playing ever since.
This piece, Virksha Dance, is one of her first tentative approaches and was created to bring a bit of color and whimsy to her massage session space. It is a reminder of the dance between working both grounded in the physical and suspended in the etheric.
Her writing and photography can be found weaving in and out of daily life at http://www.mountainpulse/



blah, blah,blah.




'Tis exciting!

LADYBUG, LADYBUG

We know there are LADYBUGS here in Alaska but they are one of those insects that we seldom see. Beloved, especially by children, this attractive, docile, and easy to catch little creature has always been a welcome addition to our yard. It was when Lo discovered her first ladybug at the age of 2 that my disdain for daycare really hit home, prompting me to be much more publicly vocal about my feelings toward it. We were at the park when one flew onto her arm. Usually sensitive to creepy crawly types, Lo was instantly enamored, allowing it to crawl all around her arm and hand. She punctuated her many questions about it with "awwww!"s and "so cute!"s. It was also the day she first discovered her shadow! I was so grateful to have witnessed this.





I felt sick at the idea that had she been in day care I never would have been apart of this and who knows when she would have noticed that shadow beside her or felt the tickle of a ladybug on her arm. How could someone pay another person to get the honor and pleasure of experiencing these things-and all the other great milestones and discoveries?!?! I was once one of those paid people. Those mommies and daddies have no idea what they missed...

But I've digressed.

In order to really enjoy observing and experiencing ladybugs we have to buy a box of them from the greenhouse and/or make our own! Last Summer while using utensils to cut and make designs in our Sculpy dough, a fun way to make ladybugs-or any beetle- revealed itself.

What you will need:
Sculpy dough
various sized spoons
toothpick
leaves with nice hard veins
Acrylic paint

1. Warm up a nice ball of Sculpy and use thumbs to push and mold Sculpy into bowl of spoon.
You don't want a lot to rise above to "rim" or spill over the sides so you may have to experiment with how much to use.



2. Carefully lift an edge of the Sculpy so that you can then pull the rest from the spoon. This is the ladybug's body.


3. Smooth out any rough edges.

4. Take a small ball of Sculpy for the head and press onto one end of the body. (Our heads tend to be bigger than a real ladybug's but we like the character it gives them!)


5. Using the toothpick, score a line from head to rump to delineate the wings.



6. Now it's time to go find some richly textured leaves. Ones with thick hard veins work very well.

7. Roll out some Sculpy with a rolling pin-about 1/4 of an inch thi

8. Press the underside of the leaf into the Sculpy and gently roll the pin over it a couple times.


9. Peel the leaf off of the Sculpy.

10. Using the toothpick, "cut" out the leaf shape.



11. Place ladybugs and leaves onto baking sheet and cook in the oven per instructions on the Sculpy box. *You can bend and curve the leaf to give it some definition or just leave it flat.


12. Once baked and cooled, paint your ladybugs and leaves with acrylic paint!

Have fun! Lo and her Friends have incorporated these cute little guys into their play for the past year. They are great sturdy additions to any dollhouse, gnome fort, or other imaginative play. They are also a wonderful companion to carry tucked away in a pocket!

Here's our finished results. Lo decided to make a very colorful ladybug and I also made a longer shimmery colored beetle. Lo included her bee and a multicolored ladybug!

I can't decide whether to hatch our own ladybugs with a kit to learn about their lifecycle or buy a box to set free. I'll look into it and see. For now, our Painted Lady butterfly caterpillars arrived yesterday and we are looking forward to witnessing their metamorphosis again this summer.

Did you know?

*If a Ladybug is held in the hand while making a wish, the direction that it flies away to shows where your luck will come from. ;)

*Ladybugs chew from side to side and not up and down like people do.

*Ladybugs make a chemical that smells and tastes terrible so that birds and other predators won't eat them.

*In some Asian cultures, it is believed that the Ladybug understands human language, and has been blessed by God, Himself.

*If you squeeze a ladybug it will bite you, but the bite won't hurt.

*According to a Norse legend, the Ladybug came to earth riding on a bolt of lightning.


*During hibernation, ladybugs feed on their stored fat.

*In the 1800's, some doctors used Ladybugs to treat measles! They also believed that if you mashed ladybugs (ewww!) and put them into a cavity, the insects would stop a toothache!

*One might think a ladybug's coloring would make it an easy target for predators. Actually, it serves as a beacon to let a predator know that the ladybug tastes terrible!

FISHIN' on the RUSSIAN RIVER

We're back!

(Handsome guy enjoying view from boardwalk)

...from an amazing and all too short 4 day fishing/camping trip on the Russian River. The Russian is located on the Kenai Penninsula about 110 miles from Anchorage. From the river's origin, Upper Russian Lake in the Kenai Mountains, this Clearwater stream runs 13 miles long, flowing down to Lower Russian lake and draining into the glacially silted Kenai River. There is a stunning contrast of milky blue/green and clear grey/brown where the two rivers meet. The confluence, located right off the Sterling Highway, is considered an angling hot spot. Or, to some, Combat Fishing Hell.
Although it’s not as remote as Alaska's more glorified, and logistically/monetarily more difficult to reach waters, the Russian is one of the most popular red salmon fisheries in AK. The river is most heavily fished on it’s lower 3 miles. Each summer there are two runs of sockeye/red salmon and one of silver salmon. As with the dip netting, one can find the masses rushin’ to the Russian when the runs are peaking. The river can be jam packed with combat fisherpeople at all hours of the day. Suicide runs(driving in from Anchorage after work to fish well into the night, catch a few Z’s and be back to work in the morning)are quite common. With combat fishing, fisherpeople, with about 5-8 feet between them, line the banks of the river for miles.

Fishing lines with bright flies whiz above their heads, plunk into the river for a 10 second ride downstream until SNAP! Flies leap out of the water to loop gracefully back around fisher heads for another go. Some lines will suddenly tighten-rod bowed in an arch. There are shouts of “Fish ON!” to announce that the fight is on. Sockeyes are said to be the hardest fighting and most acrobatic of the salmon. After the ensuing struggle, some folks are lucky enough to land the fish and still other’s fishing lines go suddenly slack-just a wisp blowing in the breeze-the fish broke away and most likely took the flies or whole leaders with them! When the fish are heading up river in droves it’s such an active exciting time. It feels great to walk out of the river with your limit for the day-which is 3 per family member. But on slow days most people can be seen just standing in the river, rod at the ready with a searching, disillusioned look on their faces. We had both kinds of fishing experiences on our trip.

We took off Saturday afternoon for the Russian River taking a couple stops to eat lunch and visit the Moose Pass Solstice Festival, a little gathering of artisans, musicians, and music on Trail lake up on a mountain pass.

It was a beautiful day to browse around and eat ice cream by the lake before heading to camp.

By dinner time we had settled by a crackling fire in the Russian River Campground with our next door neighbors, their kids, the grandparents and three dogs. It’s a beautiful place to camp, situated in a spruce forest with views of the mountains.

It’s right off the Russian and you can just throw on your waders and head down the trail to the river. All the kids had a great time going for walks and bike rides. I cringed when I found out that Grandma had set up a Wii in their RV, though!!! But that’s for another post! Lo and I had a fun time exploring from the get go! The woods seemed like such a magical place filled with dwarf trees, moss, low growing cranberry, much lupine and other mountain flowers. We decided it was a perfect place and time-being the solstice-to make a fairy house for the fairies! What a whimsical little dwelling we created! Can you make it out in this picture?! It blended in beautifully and is sure to be a lovely surprise for anyone lucky enough to stumble upon it! In turn for building such a warm and welcoming home, the fairies left little gifts inside for Lo to discover each morning. A sleepy baby made from felted wool , and wood bead with an acorn cap. A citrine gemstone and a shell. There was a fairy in the house the day after that, much to my own surprise! (It was made by our neighbors daughter from fishing tackle stuff-so sweet!) And on the last day, a handful of jewels(blue glass beads)!

One morning we collected and laid out various flowers, leaves, rocks, and twigs on construction paper to make some sun prints. By the time we returned from fishing in the evening the color of the paper had faded around the objects from the sun, leaving soft images behind!

Another fun campsite activity was making texture stones from some of the nature items found around the site. Just lay the items on a flat surface and press a warm ball of sculpy on top. Peel item off and you have a nice print-or “a memory of camping here” as Lo put it. We added a little color to them when we got home to bring out the more delicate prints. We definitely learned a lot about Alaskan flora on this trip!

Our first day of fishing just rocked! It had rained in the morning but was cloudy with a refreshing breeze by the time we got to the river. The conditions were perfect for allowing easy viewing of the fish heading up river. And they came in droves! No sooner had you cast your fly and a fish was on! Most fish were lost that day- which is frustrating and exciting all at the same time -but we all managed to catch our limit.

I had never seen such action on an Alaskan river!

I was like a junky!

Even when a *grizzly bear meandered by on the boardwalk that spans the first couple miles of the river, I kept on casting! Dea was in the river next to me and Huz grabbed Lo and waded out into the river as the griz passed by, so it was all safe and good! I wanted fish! I actually managed to pull out my video camera between casts while keeping one eye on the bear and the other on the fam. However, in the chaos I didn’t hit the record button and got nothing! We had another visitor a couple hours later. *The biggest black bear I have seen yet came down the embankment on the other side of the river to look for fish carcasses to munch on. There are several fish cleaning stations set up right in the water where you can clean and filet out your fish. Head, guts and tails, etc. just float down the river. It’s the safest and most eco-friendly way to handle your fish in bear country. And the bears enjoy scavenging for carcasses or catching the occasional live one. It’s not uncommon to have people and bears fishing in tandem -people on one side of the river and bears on the other! We all watched in awe as this bear snagged his carcass and lumbered back up the embankment.
As we headed back down the boardwalk with our fish that evening, we we’re warned along the way that another grizzly was “sitting up in a tree right next to the board walk!” Sure enough, there he was! Lounging up on a branch without a care in the world! I managed to get some video as we passed under him-much to Huz’s chagrin.

Just amazing. I felt no vicious vibe from him and wasn’t really worried as we hurried on by. He looked content to sit there and lazily watch. Must have had a full belly!

I know you're all jealous of me in my fetching and oh-so-slimming fishin' waders. Get over it.

Fishing the next day was dead. *See explanation of combat fishing above. We ferried Lo across the river to a nice rock bar where some people were fishing and we spent most of the time exploring and playing. We searched for minnows and practiced casting on Lo’s little fishing rod. We took a walk and gathered some flowers to identify in our native plant book and gathered other flora and a “Y” shaped branch to make the Alaskan version of an aboriginal weaving. This was one of the crafts I researched for Winter Craft day at Dea’s school. The kids had been broken up into 4 groups, each studying a different country. This one was hard for the little ones but they did ok with a little help. Lo and I scrounged up some old fishing line from the rocks and wound it back and forth tightly between each prong of thebranch. We then weaved in long grasses both fresh and dead, a couple interesting sticks, long and short stemmed flowers, spruce branches, lichen and moss. On our last day of camping we left it sticking up from a hole in the picnic table for the next family to enjoy. I set up a circle of big rocks along the rock bar to help contain Lo’s little wooden boats. She had a great time splashing and playing in it. We did have one casualty though. A boat “managed” to break through for a voyage down the river. Huz and some of our friends who were downriver a bit actually saw it float on by! “Hey! There’s one of Lo’s boats!” They were unable to retrieve it. I think Lo was just dying to see it float the river!
Our friend the ginormous black bear came for another visit, this time on our side of the river and heading toward the cleaning station where Huz and another guy were dealing with their fish.

Everyone yelled and whistled loudly at the bear and he eventually ran back up the hill. Trying to hold Lo out in the river made it impossible to get a picture. Bummer. He was really magnificent!
You may think we’re nuts to be out there but there are so many people around and if you make a stink the bears will take off. They really just want that salmon and don’t have much interest in us. As long as you’re cautious and respectful you can enjoy a fishin’ symbiosis with the bears. Even though it was not a productive day fish-wise, we thanked the river and salmon for what they did provide. We thanked the bears as well for allowing us to view them and learn from them.
Huz and the guys woke up at 5AM the next morning for one last try at fishing. Dea and I woke later to start packing up our things to go home. Dea actually stayed on with her BFF who will be camping until tomorrow. All in all, we pulled out of there with 15 glorious salmon, one rainbow trout, new knowledge, and some amazing visuals forever emblazoned in our minds. As much as we adore our home, we were all definitely NOT ready to leave the tranquility and freshness of being in a different environment. We’ll need to get back out camping very soon! Next up…DIPNETTING!!!!!!!!

* Video of griz and black bear coming as soon as I figure out what the heck I'm doing...
**Combat fishin photo taken by TobinPhoto

NATURE TABLES

From spring...

...to summer

I love this wood lifecycle of the butterfly set: from eggs on a leaf, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly!

Needle felted caterpillar and cocoon. For caterpillar, simply wet felt some little balls and string together. Sew buttons for eyes. You can also cut a little mouth. For the cocoon, I followed these directions but used a rock instead of a plastic Easter egg.


I love to collect Goddess rocks. Here's one with her baby!
She represents both mother Earth and the goddess, Litha.

FRIDAY'S Word/photos:AENEOUS

(Update on the Love Letter...)

The first thing that pops into my head is that Aeneous was a Greek god. Sadly, I remember this because when Huz and I were reading D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths to Dea, we would snicker like Beavis and Butthead whenever we said Aeneous. "Heh, heh,heh, you said ANUS!" Let's check the Dic, shall we?....

...Not even close!

Aeneous-adj. Brassy or golden green in color.

THURSDAY Word/photos:DAEDAL... and recipe

Do I have the spelling wrong or does dae/daed mean "God"?

So, Daedal=God-like.
Let's go see!

Nope!
Daedal-artistically skillful or cunning; ingenious

Not that I think that highly of them, but the above pieces are mine.

THURSDAY'S RECIPE- Lavender Linen Spray. YUM!!!!

Using natural lavender scent, this delicately scented linen spray will make you naturally feel a little tired. Or...just use it as an air freshener.

1 cup distilled water

8 - 10 drops essential oil of lavender(or any other oil you may like. Combos are great, too!)

spray bottle, with a fine mist setting

decorative label

Pour the cup of distilled water into the spray bottle. Add the drops of essential oil and shake very well. Cap the bottle, and allow to sit for a few hours before using. Shake the bottle before each use to evenly distribute the scented oil throughout the water. Use the label to describe what sort of product is contained in the bottle. And be sure to use the fine mist setting on your bottle, so the spray will be nicely distributed.

To use: About ten to twenty minutes before going to bed, spray your pillows and linens with the spray. Let the scent mellow slightly by allowing the ten to twenty minutes to pass before lying down. When you do lie down, the pillows will smell wonderful! But an even greater benefit is that lavender is a natural relaxant, so this wonderful spray may actually help you fall asleep easier, and sleep better.

It's also wonderful to spray it on wet sheets that are hanging out to dry. The gentle scent with waft around the yard...zzzzzzzzz....

Gotta love fresh breeze-dried sheets!