Out of the Office

The view from Slaughter Gulch trail on June 20, 2020 in Cooper Landing, Alaska. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)

Out of the Office: Life on the Edge

Are you a planner? An organizer? A list-maker? I’m not. I love not knowing what tomorrow will bring, and when it comes to taking a… Continue reading

 

Out of the Office: In the midst of a pandemic, birds are constant

Scattered on my desk I have three journals: my bullet journal, the daily planner that sort of keeps my life in order; my bird journal… Continue reading

 

Out of the Office: Trails that wind, hearts that find

As with a lot of things, Alaska has been lucky to be far removed and largely untouched by the disastrous effects of the novel coronavirus.… Continue reading

 

Photo credit: USFWS A morel mushroom grows in disturbed gravel on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Out of the Office: Morels surge confidence

I’m writing this in the car on the drive to Anchorage. My boyfriend, Nate, and I are in the process of moving back to the… Continue reading

Photo credit: USFWS A morel mushroom grows in disturbed gravel on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Mills Creek on April 29, 2020 in the pass between Cooper Landing and the Turnagain Arm. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak)

Out of the office: Summer arrives

What was I doing? I asked myself that as a struggled frantically to wiggle my telemark boots into the bindings and continue down the miners… Continue reading

Mills Creek on April 29, 2020 in the pass between Cooper Landing and the Turnagain Arm. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak)
A painting by the author. (Photo provided by Erin Thompson)

Out of the Office: Painted blue

I went to Homer a few weeks ago to find blue. For weeks I had wanted to paint nothing but blues and purples, but I… Continue reading

A painting by the author. (Photo provided by Erin Thompson)
The view of Turnagain Arm, as seen from Hope Point in September 2018. Hope, Alaska, would be a good meeting place for a date once restrictions caused by the new coronavirus are lifted. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Out of the Office: Love in the time of corona

How do you find “the one” if you can’t even leave your home?

The view of Turnagain Arm, as seen from Hope Point in September 2018. Hope, Alaska, would be a good meeting place for a date once restrictions caused by the new coronavirus are lifted. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Out of the Office: Nature in a time of pandemic can heal

As I write this I am in my third day of working at home — or, as I like to think of it, an embedded… Continue reading

Out of the Office: Back to basics

What makes a successful season of Nordic skiing? Is it the miles you put in? How fast you go? Measurable improvement in technique? I’ve had… Continue reading

Out of the Office: Dropping a line

In my ongoing quest to shake off my Florida roots and achieve the illustrious title of “Real Alaskan,” I recently managed to cross an important… Continue reading

White Sands National Monument in New Mexico could almost be mistaken for a snowy hillside. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Out of the Office: El Paso or bust

It was minus 22 when we left for the Anchorage airport earlier this month. It was a sunny, beautiful drive north. The kind of bitter-cold… Continue reading

White Sands National Monument in New Mexico could almost be mistaken for a snowy hillside. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Out of the Office: From Florida to Alaska — A wild 40 years

Like true superheroes, every Alaskan has an origin story. The really cool origin story might involve being born a sixth-generation Alaskan from a sourdough ancestor… Continue reading

A bridge stretches across a fork of Tonsina Creek along the Tonsina Creek Trail on Dec. 8, 2019 near Lowell Point, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)

Out of the Office: Best laid plans

I’ve always been a planner. At age 4, you could find me bossing my father around a meticulously planned tea party — the water (you… Continue reading

A bridge stretches across a fork of Tonsina Creek along the Tonsina Creek Trail on Dec. 8, 2019 near Lowell Point, Alaska. (Photo by Megan Pacer/Homer News)
Photo courtesy Peninsula Clarion The author in his natural state — a newsroom.

Out of the Office: What Makes an Alaskan?

Here’s a philosophical question for the readers out there —what qualifies someone as being “Alaskan”? Is it strictly a matter of time spent living here,… Continue reading

Photo courtesy Peninsula Clarion The author in his natural state — a newsroom.

Out of the office: Best place on the peninsula

Tightness in the chest. Queasiness in the stomach. Physical longing tinged with antsiness. Like a sled dog left behind on a training run. It’s happened… Continue reading

Baked salmon with roasted turnips, brussell sprouts, carrots, beets, kohlrabi for dinner, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2019, near Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)

Out of the office: Summery salmon memories

Wednesday evening, everything on my dinner plate was either caught in Alaska or grown in Alaska. The last of the kohlrabi and turnips, a single… Continue reading

Baked salmon with roasted turnips, brussell sprouts, carrots, beets, kohlrabi for dinner, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2019, near Kenai, Alaska. (Photo by Victoria Petersen/Peninsula Clarion)
Michael Armstrong’s dog, Leia, waits patiently to go for a walk on the Homer Spit beach on Jan. 25, 2014, in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)

Out of the Office: Need an exercise plan? Get a dog — a really rowdy, rambunctious dog

Suppose at your latest physical you got a stern lecture from your doctor. Suppose she told you to start exercising more — a lot more.… Continue reading

Michael Armstrong’s dog, Leia, waits patiently to go for a walk on the Homer Spit beach on Jan. 25, 2014, in Homer, Alaska. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)

Out of the Office: Let’s pour one out for Mother Tutka

For the two years I’ve lived in Homer, I’ve managed just two trips across Kachemak Bay that haven’t been work related. If I keep up… Continue reading

The Swan Lake Fire can be seen from the East Fork Moose River bridge on Thursday, June 27, 2019. (Photo courtesy Robert Kuiper)

Out of the Office: Burnt out

The first time I reported on the Swan Lake Fire, I didn’t even mention it by name. On June 6 – 84 days ago as… Continue reading

The Swan Lake Fire can be seen from the East Fork Moose River bridge on Thursday, June 27, 2019. (Photo courtesy Robert Kuiper)
A pair of tents sits at the Infinity Pools above the Tutka Backdoor Trail across Kachemak Bay from Homer, Alaska, on July 9, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)

Out of the Office: Taking our time on Tutka Backdoor Trail

Twenty-one miles and 6,000 feet of climb? In four days?” The scene was the lobby of the Kenai Visitor and Cultural Center in mid-April, immediately… Continue reading

A pair of tents sits at the Infinity Pools above the Tutka Backdoor Trail across Kachemak Bay from Homer, Alaska, on July 9, 2019. (Photo by Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
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