Rainy Days and Mondays...

Alaska is beautiful in August. Usually. This year it has rained a LOT. My tomatoes will probably not turn red. However, today the sun us shining (at least this morning) and there is a light breeze, so it is indeed lovely. The birch trees are starting to turn yellow, and the fireweed is blooming closer to the top, which makes me a bit melancholy. The summers here are all too short. It's also getting dark just after 10 p.m., which is a bit startling. I guess I should enjoy all of this, as next year we'll be somewhere else. The boys start school on Wednesday, Ephraim at Weller Elementary, and Gid, Ammon and Ben at Lathrop High School. Sophia and Noah start preschool on September 2nd. What this means for me, besides grocery shopping ALL BY MYSELF, is that I'll be able to get to my sewing machine and jewelry table after a long non-creative period! I do look forward to that. I have several quilts-in-progress that need some attention. I have found a new outlet for my jewelry. There is a new little shop in "downtown" Fairbanks called The Stash. It's all locally made art and crafts. The ladies that run it are very funny--they offer classes like "Yarn n' Yoga" (knitting) and "Intuitive Drawing". Very New Age, I guess. But they only charge 30% comission instead of the 50 % that the other galleries charge, so I'm excited about that! Vince has his nose back to the grindstone (did it ever leave?) and is living at the hospital again (still). He and Ammon went to Anchorage (for a meeting, of course) and took a couple of salmon fishing charters last weekend. So we now have a freezer full of Silver Salmon. If you come to see us, we'll feed you some. Vince picked low bush cranberries for jam (delicious!) yesterday, and went "mushrooming" with my friend Nancy. Now all he has to do is shoot a moose or caribou and he'll think he's set for the winter! (Alas, I still have to live off Fred Meyer and Safeway.) I spent Saturday with my friend, Kelley Kelley (she really married a Kelley!). We went to the Farmer's Market and shopped around town all day. It was refreshing! Well, I guess this is three in a row, so TTFN!