Potter's Marsh Eagles

I went to visit my favorite eagles, only to find out that - gasp! - their nest hadn't survived the winter! Fortunately, they are most industrious birds and have already constructed a new monster of a nest a short distance away from where the old one was. See how hard this one is working, carrying sticks back to make the nest even better! Unfortunately, the new nest is positioned so that it will very, very difficult to see once the leaves come in. I guess it's a good thing I saw the eaglet last summer, because I don't think that will be possible now.

Break-up

You can always tell it's Break-up because the moose come back. This makes six that I have seen this week!

Eagles

Today I decided to get the tires switched on my car. I hoped to avoid the mad rush of the weekend before the deadline, but even so I figured it would be several hours. The lady at Car Care agreed with me, so I picked up some subway and walked on back home... only to be called to come pick up my car within 15 minutes of getting home. Turns out there were some cancellations and three mechanics teamed up on my poor little civic.

It wasn't all a waste, though! Thanks to my walk I got to see "our" eagles - the mated pair whose nest is less than a mile from my home. They're fairly elusive as eagles go, largely because their nest is much more hidden in the summer, particularly compared to the Potter's Marsh eagles. I think I'm going to try to find a good spot from which to nest-watch this summer. The nest is about a 1/4 mile off the road, right on Ship Creek. Maybe if I go along the opposite bank I can find a good angle.

Of course, I didn't have my good camera, but the little pocket one did a decent job since they were so close!

Only in Alaska...

Today, I had a revelation. I realized it would be easier to motivate myself to continue longer runs if I took a different route - one that didn't have me passing by my house every 1/2 mile, tempted to just call it quits. My change was successful; I ran for 35 minutes today without stopping! I figured I'd better cool down after that, and so walked the 1/2 mile loop my house is on. Or tried to. My cool-down was interrupted by this gal. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor (and eager to get my camera), I ran the rest of the way home, then immediately drove back with my camera.

Only in Alaska...

Equinox

Happy Equinox, everyone! The sun is back, days are longer than nights, and my sleep schedule has successfully been disrupted by daylight savings time. I have begun my goal, which is a photo merge of both Solstices and both Equinoxes, with this sunset merge of the spring Equinox. As you can see, the sun is setting behind Mt. Spurr. Just to give you an example of the dramatic changes at this latitude, the mountain towards the left of Spurr is Mt. Redoubt (recently erupted!). The sun several weeks after the winter Solstice sets several degrees south of Redoubt, near to Iliamna which is hidden by the clouds in this shot. At the far right is Mt. Foraker, neighbor to Denali which is just hidden behind the trees.

BBA #19 - Marbled Rye Bread

Wow! This bread is a winner! I was a little nervous after reading some other people's blogs on this bread, but mine came out fantastic! The dough was very supple and enjoyable to work with and the bread was quick - only five or so hours from mixing to pulling the bread out of the oven.

This rye bread tastes fantastic. It's not dry at all, and the hint of molasses is just the right touch to complement the rye flavor.

The coolest part of this bread is how awesome it looks with the marbling and swirling. This is accomplished by making two separate doughs. To my surprise, there was only one difference between the two, and that was a coloring additive to the dark dough. Caramel coloring was recommended, but since I didn't have any available I used an alternative - two tablespoons of cocoa powder dissolved in two tablespoons of water. Not as dark as I'd imagine it would be with the caramel coloring, but not bad at all.I used two different shaping methods and two different baking methods for these loaves, as you can see from the pictures. I'd intended to use a loaf pan going in, but the formula mentioned that free-form baking was preferred. My free-form loaf got pretty fat in the middle, but still quite nice.

The best part was marbling. For my free-form loaf, I went with the actual marbling technique, which consists of chopping the doughs into small pieces, mixing them together, and smushing them up into one big lump of dough. You can see the marbling results at the top of this post.

The second method I used was the swirl method. For this one, the light and dark doughs are divided in half (after being split in half for the two loaves, of course). Each piece is then rolled into an oblong. These are layered together, then rolled up lengthwise. The picture is a little blurry, but shows the swirl quite nicely.

A breath of tropical air...

I'm back from Spring Break in Guam! Unfortunately, my favorite pictures are still in Guam with The Husband, so you'll have to wait on the gorgeous palm trees and beautiful fish, since I wasn't willing to risk my camera falling into the ocean. I did take it with us in-land though, and found some lovely flowers. Lovely and huge! I love the color on this one.