June 30 2016: Alex's Day and Dragonflies

This day looms large for us because it is the anniversary of the accidental death of our beloved Alex.

This is one of my favorite photos of him, in his yellow life jacket, sheltering his friend the dragonfly that had just landed on his middle strap. You can see his brother David on the left of the photo and Josh, another brother/another son, behind him to the right of the photo.

Today, I decided to try to look at the world with Alex's eyes. He had a fascination for tiny things and he loved the tundra. I went out with my camera to get absorbed in the tundra. Here are the photos that came from that.

I grew up calling this "snake grass." I don't know if that's a real name for it, or if it's one of those little kid things. I do still like how it separates at its seams, kind of like a building toy.

The tundra is covered with different types of berries. I never heard about any being poisonous. Our favorites were salmon berries and blueberries. But there were also blackberries (tart little things) and cranberries. I don't know what these green berries are, unless they are an unripe version of blueberries (and if so, I'm coming back here).

Here is a ripe blueberry in the foreground. They grow on a plant with rounded leaves. If you look past the blueberry, you'll see some blackberries. But not the kind we're used to seeing in the grocery store. These grow close to the ground on a plant with something like evergreen needles for leaves. They start out green and then turn red before they ripen into black.

I also don't know what kind of berries these are. They don't have the leaf of blueberries or the needle of blackberries. Maybe they'll become cranberries.

Here is a better shot of a blackberry, complete with its little evergreen needles. These berries lie close to the ground.

So, what are these? Could they be pre-blackberries? They have needles, but they're really a different kind of needle. These are the needles from the plant my mom used to call "Russian Tea." Do those plants have a flower? Looks like it, but I haven't noticed it before. (Which might be Alex's point.)

This one, I know. My old friend salmon berry. I think some people call these cloud berries. Once these open, they can be eaten. But yow! They are tart at first. I always preferred to wait until they were really ripe - soft, squishy, and ripe. Debby always preferred them tart. That means that if she were not such a nice sister, I never would have gotten any berries. But she didn't eat them all when they were at her preferred stage of ripeness. She left plenty for me. That's a nice sister.

This is our tundra cotton. Some years it's thick; some years thin. Gramma Nicklet used to say, "Lots 'o cotton; lots 'o fish," but I've seen quite a few exceptions. And this year, the cotton is spotty, so I don't want her to be right. Last night, a small wisp of it floated into the cabin as I was telling Oksanna about this anniversary and about the meaning of dragonflies related to this anniversary.

And finally, our brave little tundra daisies. My favorite flowers, so cheerful, hardy, and patient. They grow out of the cliff and out by the lake. In groups, and alone. Even when they lose petals or a bug eats part of them, they still stand up there and encourage us.

I baked bread today - 4 loaves, plus 1 1/2 loaves went to maple bars. As I walked over to make sure Jeff and Oksanna knew they were ready, the dragonfly I've been waiting for flew in front of me and landed on the walk. It was a shimmering blue. Another was flying in front of the window this morning as I made pancakes for the crew. Oksanna had to point it out.

When Alex died in 2012, I couldn't leave my cabin for a few days, even though we were still fishing. David bravely took the crew out for several tides, and they just covered for me without a word. Finally, I was ready to go out again with them. When I came back in at the end of the tide, the bird that had been singing to me all season long from the peak of my cabin's roof flew down to the clothesline as I walked past and sang at me, hard. I remember sort of dismissing the bird, saying, "Yeah, yeah, he's free as a bird now. Well, it was never birds - it was dragonflies." And with that, I retreated into my cabin. The next day I went out again and this time when I returned to my cabin, a dragonfly was flying around me - in front and in back. The only dragonfly I saw all season. Oksanna told me that after I told her that story last night, she found herself in a group of dragonflies.

And Jeff just told me that when they were coming back for the maple bars, a three-winged dragonfly landed on Oksanna's finger. They carried it back toward the crew cabin, but when they got to the crossroads with my cabin, it flew off toward my place. They thought it might have been broken, having only three wings, but it was actually just resting, or visiting. I don't know what it all means, but I'll take what I can get.

In equipment news: the white truck seems to be down again. Sigh. Someone left the lights on, and they were unable to get it started with our little portable batteries. I bought jumper cables earlier this season, so we'll dig them out and try to jump it off ol' Red. Ol' Red is a keeper, rotted out bed and all.

In fishing news: we get to fish tomorrow!! The escapement into the Naknek jumped from 74,000 yesterday to 130,800 today - that's enough of an increase to permit a 7 1/2 hour period from 8:30 am to 4 pm for setnets. Drift fishermen may be allowed to fish as well, but the earliest for them will be 10 am tomorrow. Wish us luck!