#samawareh

[syrianamericannaturalist]

The Arctic Tern has a summer ground here in Alaska near the Mendenhall Glacier. These fascinating creatures can migrate anywhere from 12,000 miles to 57,000 miles. Talk about Stamina.

“Art is the most intense form of individualism the world has ever known”- Oscar Wilde

Arctic Terns are perhaps one of the most intense forms of migration the world has ever known!

#ArcticTern

[syrianamericannaturalist]

Black bears are so fun to watch! I got to see a sow and 2 cubs near the Mendenhall Glacier. The mom was foraging while the cubs were having a blast climbing on the trees.

[syrianamericannaturalist]

Here in Alaska, as anywhere in the Spring, a stroll almost anywhere is like walking through a crayola box; multi-colored crayons on green stems.. and your heart sings in bursts of rainbows.

[syrianamericannaturalist]

This is Alaska

Some places are where you think stories were birthed. This is one of them. In the Northern tip of the panhandle of Alaska is Juneau, a place that you can only get to by plane, boat, or birth. Ive heard some argue that its an island, although it is landlocked. It is surrounded by the Gastineau channel on one side, and mountains on the other of which behind it is 1,500 square miles of ice fields that feed into many glaciers, including the Mendenhall and the Taku Glacier. John Muir, who visited Juneau in 1879 and witnessed the Auk Glacier, which he named after the Auk Tlingit people, who lived near the glacier, said that clouds here “fondle” the mountains. This is true. The “Auk Glacier” was later changed to “Mendenhall Glacier” in 1892 in honor of the dude who surveyed it. Those that make the rules and the “class” that they tend to want to associate with naming things tends to take over naming as it is a thing of privilege and power.

John Muir described the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range as the range of light. I would describe this place as the range of liquid light. As a place where deep and true magic lives and moves through everything. It is no wonder that so many amazing stories were told and passed on about the animals and plants in this area. This is true of course of any place in the world where people inhabit, but here, perhaps because of the way the clouds weave themselves in and out of the mountains, or maybe its because I want to believe it more, or perhaps its because of how mystical it is to see a pod of Orcas or a congress of Eagles or an unkindness of Ravens socializing. Or because maybe, just maybe each time you think you have seen all the beauty you possibly can, another layer is opened deeper into the universe. This is Alaska.

[syrianamericannaturalist]

Of Ravens and still clouds

Well. Here I am in Alaska, the Last Frontier. It makes me happy to know that John Muir came here in the late 1800s. His quote on his experience here sums up my life perfectly and at this stage in my life:

“But out of all the cold darkness and glacial crushing and grinding comes this warm, abounding beauty and life to teach us that what we in our faithless ignorance and fear call destruction is creation finer and finer.”

Here, Ravens watch you. They talk about you to other Ravens and they let each other know what is going on.

Here, the glaciers carve out beauty. Forest succession starting with Moss which can create its own soil, makes way for the rest of the plants: Alder, Sitka Spruce, and Western Hemlock. Each element makes way for the next.

Here, silence is louder than music, and Raven echoes fill the walls of air.

[syrianamericannaturalist]

In the Tom BROWN Jr. Style of making cordage, I began weaving the brown trio needles into a long piece of cordage, which I later jerry rigged into a loose basket. What you see in these photos are cordage made from pine needles. If I wanted to make the cordage stronger, I could have doubled them. So remember folks, cordage is around… all we need to do is see the potential. I guess the same goes for opportunity.