I'm onna BOAT!! The Alaska State Highway system ferry MV Columbia. Columbia is named for Columbia Glacier, which is named for Columbia University which is named for the personification of the North American Continent. Generally seen in assorted art of the mid-1800s glorifying Progress and Science and other high-falutin' concepts, Columbia was generally shown in sisterhood with Europa and Britannia, although sometimes separate European countries were identified with their own personifications as well.

The lovely people at the gift shop at Castle Hill requested some extremely local pieces, which I am happy to oblige. They look like this - a collection of seasons.

I keep wanting to spell that (k)new knee, but it is a different word and thus a weirdly pointless joke. It was done a little over 8 weeks ago, and I am sporting a fabulous scar, and some stiffness, but I am walking around, and I can see how it might be going to hurt less that it did before I got cartilage-free bone swapped out for titanium.

I'm thrilled with all the things showing up in the garden. I ordered a lot of bulbs from the amazing Fedco and they arrived while I was in the North. My generous offspring planted them for me, and we have all been awaiting the results. Here are the frilly goth tulips, the not-peonies tulips, the frilly and flames yellow tulips and (of course) the vibrant red tulips.

Working on new coasts - can you recognize anyplace? If you guessed Woods Hole, Rockport, Plum Island or Isles of Shoals, you get a sticker! Woods Hole Massachusetts, is important to me for many family reasons. Plum Island because I have a thing about sandbars and longshore transport. Rockport has that great breakwater, and I don't think anyone has seen Motif #1 quite like this before.

Having the laser cutter installed and working feels like a huge milestone, and I have been celebrating by cutting things. The first thing I did was make some miniature magazine holders to hold the Field Notes notebooks. I love these things, but I had to cut myself off because I was acquiring them much faster than I was using them. Right now they are used for logbooks - keeping track of materials and settings and hours logged on the laser, reminding myself of ways to use QGIS, so I can go back and repeat a process that works (or avoid a process that does not work) and keeping track of my thread inventory, so I don't get three of a particular blue and completely forget I am out of two different browns.

After a lot of help from friends, I can start making work in my studio. The laser is focused, and vented (thank you Jared! all your climbing about on the windowsills, and your cheerful gargoyle impression) and fabrics are unpacked and sorted and filed into bins (thank you Cathy! your suggestions are still on my desk and sorting goes so much better with you) and the rest of the boxes are unpacked and put away (thank you Jeanne!

There were stars and aurora that night too, around sunset and after supper. We all stood around on deck with our heads craned back staring at the sky and pointing to different parts of it, and exclaiming. We moved the ship around a corner from the active front of the glacier – there was a LOT of ice moving away down the fjord and towards the sea.

After that very blowy day the wind eased some over night, and the following morning we set off. Because the wind had blown us completely around we had to untangle the anchor chains, which required some clever use of the anchor winch. And we were off, wending our way down the fjord (Murchinsonfjorden) and out to the open ocean. The sky cleared some, and the sun was visible, and we raised some sails, and then opened up all four big square sails since we were going dead downwind, and we really sailed – turned off the engine and everything.

Friends, I have to admit that a couple days into the trip time started to go entirely wonky on me. I can almost trace out our journey on the tourist map of Spitzbergen/Svalbard (the entire archpelago – the town(s) are Longyearbyen and assorted others) but the days are only loosely connected to the trip. So I am pulling sections from my journal of things that stuck out to me.