Fairbanks salad, and portraits

The current Salade Niçoise, a little different from the Winter version:

This one is almost all locally-produced. The zucchinis and peas are from my own garden, the lettuces, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes are either from the farmer's market or from the "Alaska-grown" section of Freddie's, and the eggs are from the farm where Autumn and Linden grew up. Only the tuna and the olives are from Outside.

Here is Linden looking very Linden--silly and cute.


Autumn and me:


Linden and her paw paws:


Autumn and her paw paws:

All kinds of miscellany

The wildfires continue to burn, there are lots of whales in the SF Bay area (how cool is that?), and here are some a lot of photos.

On and around Wickersham Dome:





Rock cairns mark the trail above the tree line:


A few early blueberries:




And a few shots of my garden:

Peas:


Alpine strawberries I bought from Ann. She says they will over Winter.


Lots of little zucchinis:


All four of the tomatoes I started from seed have flowers now. The ones I got as seedlings from Ann already have little green tomatoes. Today is hot enough to drive away the mosquitoes, so I did some pretty ruthless pruning.

Early girl. Looking good, but not as good as the others.


4th of July. Looking the best of the four:


Northern Exposure:


Good 'n Early. This one didn't start out so hot, but it was the first to put out flowers.


My Lakota squash is going crazy:


All of the squash are, actually. Here is the Sunbeam:


Squash blossom:

Extreme Autumn

This is Autumn squared. Her name escapes me at the moment, but she's an autumner Autumn.


Autumn is sweet and lovable. This dog is a ball of goosh. Autumn is calm and thoughtful. This dog is probably working out a Middle East Peace Plan in her noggin'. Autumn often hangs her head with a "woe is me" expression. This dog could stand in for Eeyore.

Hot

Yesterday was the hottest day in Fairbanks in 15 years.

I'll confess I'm not exactly comfortable, being dusty and sweaty and all, but I'm pleased that my garden is doing so well. My squashes are exploding, my basil is delicious, and I have my first green tomatoes.

Burnin' burnin'

The fires are continuing to burn, making the air smoky and hazy:


Here is today's "weather":


Fortunately, for now, the fires are not near any populated areas!

In other news, I have zucchinis on the way:


Oh, and here is some fireweed on campus:

A haze in the air

A hazy 4th of July, but a nice picnic all the same. Hope you readers are enjoying a good one!

Some garden photos

The basil is looking good. I wish I had done more. I'm going to finish all of this in two meals:


Peas:


Lakota squash:


Zucchini:


Sunbeam yellow squash:


Butternut squash:


A hybrid red tomato that I bought from Ann as a seedling:


Yellow cherry tomatoes, also started by Ann:


Good n early tomatoes:


Northern Exposure tomatoes:


4th of July tomatoes, supposed to bear fruit before the 4th of July (hah!):


Early Girls:


Potatoes:


Just for the record, my totally unscientific experiment indicates that of all of the tomato seedlings I started, the 4th of July and the Northern Exposures do the best.