Crazed Ice

If you’ve been on this beachcombing journey with me for awhile then you know that I am easily distractible, and go bonkers over cool critters and neat patterns. The patterns of frost and ice make winter worthwhile, because snowmobiling and downhill skiing just aren’t my thing. Today’s musings are on ice patterns, ending up at a crazed lake at nightfall.

In late falltime the ice, freed from summer’s banishment, dances it’s way across puddles and ponds. These lily pads in a muskeg high up on a hillside were taken by surprise, lending their gentle curves to the exuberant expressions of skim ice.

But that was months ago. Winter hasn’t unfolded in layers of glorious beauty this year, which might have left me feeling a bit abandoned in the darkness of the season. So-o, SLUSH to the rescue! Yes, that cold, wet, goop that invades your boots, slops onto your pants, and slams you full-force when an inconsiderate driver goes by. That heavy, un-shovelable, bane of late winter brought me out of beauty starvation one evening. I was walking down the dock and there it was! Ribbons of slushy fun adorning the water’s surface and tickling my eyes.

 Water currents painted the surface slush into artworks. Falling snow added linear accents to the watery softness. I can only bring you a tiny part of the gallery.

“Salted Currents”_____ Medium: Water_____ Sold

Slush Storm on Jupiter _____Medium: Water _____$32,000.

Reclining Nude in Slush_____ Medium: Water_____ $48,000.

Recently some thin sheets of ice made me giggle. Really, who gets silly over bits of ice? Please, somebody tell me that you do.

So I set the ice on my jacket and took a few close-ups.

Isn’t this too much fun? How can frozen water, technically a mineral, be so organic?

Then there was the day that the love of my life said that we needed to go up to a lake after work. It’s still getting dark fairly early here, so we took off in the evening, hiking up through the woods in diminishing light. We climbed hard through the trees to see the crazed lake, arriving well after sunset but before full darkness. This was not the standard crazed pattern of a dry lake bed. Not the predictable pattern of crazed ceramic glaze.

Beachcombed, crazed ceramic shard with barnacles.

No, this was the shattered-mind pattern of a lake that just couldn’t handle one more freeze-thaw cycle.

An eerie mist settled onto the lake, the light left the sky, and we snapped our flashlights on to hike back down the steep trail through the forest. It was SO worth it. 

Wishing you joy in crazed visions,

Alaska Beachcomber

More wintery posts:

Frost Gardens

A Frosty Postcard

Playing With Ice

Frost Crystals and an Afternoon Owl

The Difference Between Robins and Seagulls

It’s winter, so I’m sorting through photos more than taking them. While doing that I noticed two photos that illustrate a behavior comparison of two bird species for me.

Robins and seagulls normally wouldn’t even be put in the same sentence. They enjoy different habitats. They don’t look anything alike or eat the same stuff. Both robins and seagulls fly, but that’s about it.

Robins are fun to have around. They are harbingers of spring, and seem to flit about cheerfully. Sometimes they even make a nest where we can see the babies get started.

A-a-aw, so sweet.

Seagulls can be enjoyable to watch. They’re graceful and pretty in the air.

But seagulls don’t have a great reputation.

There must be some more nice things that I can say about seagulls.

They……

Um-m…..

They……

Well, they had prominent roles in the movie “Finding Nemo”. They said, “Mine! Mine! Mine!” a lot.

So this is what I think kind of sums up the difference between the two birds:

‘nuff said,

Alaska Beachcomber

More bird brained posts:

Crows and Ravens Love Dog Food

Pot Fishing for Crow

Eagles

The Wonderful World of Wormwood!

I’m so happy that today you get to meet Larissa! Following is a guest post from her about a valuable plant in Alaska, but a little about what Larissa offers first. Her friendly blog at Alaska Herbal Solutions will give you great info on useful plants. She does serious research and brings it to you in a delightful, easy reading manner that also includes the technical goodies.

She even has a page of videos! And herbal how-to’s! Yep, this woman has it together. So enjoy this post that she gifted us with, and then check out her website.

Today Larissa is telling us about wormwood and its uses. She sent wonderfully illustrative photos of this herb. Wormwood doesn’t just pop up everywhere in Southeast Alaska, although I have read that it occurs throughout the area. I have found wormwood on gravel river bars up the Stikine River. It might be a good addition to your garden, so that you have a supply close by.

Here’s Larissa - enjoy!

The Wonderful World of Wormwood!

Hi there! My name is Larissa, over at Alaska Herbal Solutions . I live on the Kenai Peninsula and love Alaskan herbs and plants. In addition to teaching people about the food and medicinal uses of Alaskan plants, I make products of only ingredients that grow in Alaska. One day I was searching for an article about harvesting devil’s club and found Alaska Floats My Boat. After getting what I needed, I wandered around the website some more.

“This information is wonderful!” I thought to myself. So I contacted Jo to see if I could help her write an article about any herbs she didn’t have down in Southeast Alaska. The one she wanted was artemisia, or wormwood, so here it is!

Disclaimer: This article is informational only. The information is not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease or illness. Any information should be discussed with your doctor before trying.

Wormwood has a distinctive smell to go along with a distinctive leaf.

Wormwood is one of my favorite herbs and there are several different types in Alaska. The ones pictured in this article are Artemisia tilesii. The other two, that I’m aware of, are A. frigida and A. artica artica (yes, there are two “articas” in there). In the world, there are between 200 and 400 plants in the Artemisia genus - not all of them have the same uses. Here in Alaska, wormwood is also known as stinkweed, mugwort, Caiggluk by the Yupik, caribou leaves, prairie sagewort, and wild sage.

I tend to find wormwood in rocky outcroppings while I'm hiking. They seem to grow nicely in well drained soil if you're going to try to transplant them.

Another defining feature of wormwood is the silver underside.

Food Uses for Wormwood:

Wormwood is extremely bitter, so it’s best used as a spice. I like to replace regular sage with it when I’m cooking.

You may be thinking “Isn’t artemisia what they make absinthe out of?” Yes, and no. There is a specific strain called A. absinthium that is used to make absinthe, so if you were excited to go make some, I’m sorry to burst your bubble and tell you that it doesn’t grow up in Alaska. However, you can still use it in brews for beer and other alcohols. Other than that, wormwood is so bitter that it doesn’t make a good food source. Plus it also has some components that cause problems when it builds up in your system. I’ll go over those more in the cautions section.

Medicinal Uses for Wormwood:

Medicinal actions - Anthelmintic, antimicrobial, aromatic, bitter, emmenagogue, hepatic, stimulant, tonic, vulnerary, carminative. The genus name Artemisia comes from Artemis, the Greek Goddess of wild animals, the hunt, vegetation, chastity and childbirth. This is thought to be assigned to plants that helped bring on menstruation for women, which all of the wormwood that grow in Alaska can definitely help with. Drinking the tea during particularly painful menstruation or if it’s late (make sure you’re not pregnant) is very helpful.

One of my favorite uses for wormwood is as an insect repellent. This is especially useful if I’ve forgotten my bug spray. I take the leaves, crush and rub them between my hands to get the juices coming out. Then I rub the juices over all of my exposed skin to keep those pesky bugs away. You can also plant it on the perimeter of your garden to help keep pests away.

For colds, a tea can be made to drink or gargle. Combine it with yarrow, chamomile (pineapple weed), white clover buds, and spruce tips to pack a whammy against that cold! The volatile oils of it can also help clear up sinuses, so mix it with yarrow, spruce tips, and juniper in a steam bath.

Topically, it can be used for sore muscles, it works well with devil’s club or arnica. It can also be used on cuts and scrapes due to its antimicrobial properties. If you don’t want to make a salve out of it, you can add it to a bath.

As the common name suggests, a tea of wormwood can help get rid of worms in the digestive system. Drink a cooled down tea to get help your body expel them. Additionally, it can help with digestion in general.

There is also promising research that wormwood can be used to help with cancer. I wrote a whole article on it here if you want to read up more on it.

Here is what the flowers of wormwood look like in late summer.

Cautions:

Internally, wormwood should be used in moderation and small doses. Besides being in the asteraceae (daisy) family meaning you should avoid using it if you’re allergic to daisies, it also contains thujone in the leaves. Thujone, also known as absinthol, is the volatile oil that makes Absinthe dangerous (the A. Absinthium has the most from what I can gather, which is why it’s made from that strain specifically). It can build up in your system with use over time, which is why it should be used moderately.

A big thank you to Jo for letting me write this article for Alaska Floats My Boat. As a special thank you for reading my post on Alaska Floats My Boat, I have a PDF just for you! Sign up for my weekly newsletter here and you will receive a complimentary PDF about 15 Alaskan Weeds That Are Useful.

Thank you so much for reading this article, I hope you found it helpful,

Larissa

And a few related links from Alaska Beachcomber at Alaska Floats My Boat:

Food and Medicine from Nature index

Harvesting Devil’s Club Root

Devil’s Club Sun Tea

Making Devil’s Club Salve and Tincture

Wild Tea