I live and write on Lingít Aaní, and gratefully acknowledge the past, present and future caretakers of this beautiful place, the Jilkaat Kwaan and Jilkoot Kwaan.

It is now four weeks since Chip’s surgery, and we are all settling in, in one way, and moving forward in others, and there is progress, all positive, but healing bones takes time and patience, and certain amount of creative thinking, like a lot of good things do. My neighbor Maor Cohen had an opening at the museum Friday for her exhibit of blue and red abstract paintings about grief and hope that look a little like the ocean and sky and move from dark to lighter moods as she painted  and processed the loss of a friend. She spent all winter preparing for it. The paintings will be up for six weeks. Also, in another kind of artistic endeavor, on the way to the museum we all saw Jim Szymanski launching the Three Pearls, a stunning, sparkling white gillnetter he’s been building for seven years up in that big quonset hut behind JR’s house, and was slowly moved down the hill to the harbor before slipping into the water at high tide. (“It floats” was his wife Randa’s announcement.  Rumor has it that there’s a bath tub in it for her too, but that may just be fiction, although it sure would be fun if it were true. )  Saturday evening the sun came out for Reed’s wedding up on the old Fort Seward Parade Grounds. The mayor’s daughter married a man from Long Island. It was fun to talk to his very New York-y parents. While we all see Haines as a work of art– and the greatest place on earth to live even, and are often a little sorry for people who live elsewhere (especially in the summer with fresh salmon and garden kale and strawberries)  they were puzzled when I told them I grew up on Long Island and have been here 30 years now. “Really? Why?” His father said. “Did you have to stay for work?”  His mother did say Haines was pretty, in a “rustic” way. Perhaps it is a work in progress and improving? (She looked across the lawn at the crumbling hundred year old barracks building, and I explained that  the good news is that it is on the endangered list of Alaska historic buildings, so maybe it will be repaired before it falls down?) That may take longer than Maor’s paintings or Jim’s boat, though. And certainly Chip’s bones will be healed before the lights and heat are back on in there. Still,  If you have some smaller works in progress, better get ’em done if you want to enter them in the Southeast Alaska Stare Fair. The deadline for arts and crafts is Friday, July 25. Crops and garden stuff is August 3. Grab a Fair book (they are all over town), check out the web site, or call the office at 766-2476 for details. Also, the Hospice of Haines Pies to Die For booth is always happy to have donations from talented, creative bakers.