I am in Alaska. Not as a tourist. Not on a temporary basis like last time. I live here now. I am an official resident of Alaska with an AK driver’s license and plates to prove it to myself. Who’d a thunk this would be my future? Definitely not me.

I’ll tell you how I feel about this: at once intensely excited and scared. Add to that the complexities of the pandemic which is still not over (in my mind) but so many people seem to think it is: nary a mask; very few observing distancing; and lord knows how many people are still practicing vigorous hand-washing. I am so confused. Cognitively and emotionally, it’s all so exhausting.

Suffice to say, transitioning from my life and work in New England to that of living in Alaska – the largest state in the nation, filled with jagged-topped volcanic mountains, arctic tundra, how many different islands, all the national and state parks, grand wilderness, bears(!), and a host of new-to-me habitats to explore with my sketchbook – is a little overwhelming right now.

And the birds. Oh the many, many birds! Alaska’s impressively large regions are nesting territory for so many species of birds it’s nearly incomprehensible. For me, Alaska offers an ideal breeding ground to birth a new book, one of bird migration. I have so much to learn, so I hope to visit all parts of the state to study, observe, write, and draw birds.

That, and one other book, I have decided will be my focus. I need a hook. I need a purpose while here; something different than what I have spent the last 25+ years doing. I’ve long wanted to write a book or two. I have an opportunity to honor that now.

Vividly I can recall a feeling of uncertainty and excitiment, long ago, when I decided it was time to honor a persistent need to explore art, maybe biology. I timidly stepped out of the environment I had been growing up in towards becoming something.

Sometimes I still step timidly. This seems one of those times that I cannot defy the path in front of me so, bravely yet timidly, I’ll step forward.

Stay with me on this journey, won’t you?

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Common Murre *Uria aalge*
Homer, AK

Six months later....