Posts filed under Photography

Fieldwork in Yellowstone National Park

Hi friends, it's Flashback Friday again

Yellowstone National Park

Being married to an ecologist has its perks. While we were driving from Alaska to Wisconsin we drove through Montana and Yellowstone. We needed a break and we also needed to check in on some of Ws fieldwork. Both W and I do research about fire, me in Alaska and he in Yellowstone, or jellystone as we sometimes call it. As always when me and W go somewhere, I fall behind because I just can not get enough of all the tiny little things I see, or all the awesome views.

Dalahäst

Before I moved to Alaska one of my best friends gave me a little miniature "dalahäst" which is a painted horse. Of course that one was with us this day too. Fires can be really destructive, but I think it's beautiful to see what can grow out of a fire.

Dalahäst in the burned forest

Old and new

New seedlings

Lodgepole pine

After the burn

Coniferous Trees

Coniferous trees are either serotinous, not serotinous, semi-serotinous or a mixture between the two first. In Yellowstone National Park the Lodgepole pine is a mixture between the two first examples and the fire can benefit the reproduction of the forest. Serotinous species are dependent on fire to open up the cones and "activate" the seed, and the opposite is true for species that are not serotinous.

Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt - John Muir

Hiking in Yellowstone

I love being able to walk away from the road system and feel like we are in the middle of nowhere. Yellowstone is so huge, and so beautiful, and if you haven't been there yet, its definitely a place to see. Just remember that walking off the main road will show you extraordinary places. I would definitely recommend to do a backpacking trip. However, please don't walk off the road in areas of hot springs...use a map and consult the backcountry office for permits and current conditions, carry bear spray and know your bear safety!

Leaving Yellowstone

When we left the park we used a new (to me) exit, the city of Cody, and the landscape changed drastically. I asked W if he still thought this was grizzly country, because I surely did not think it looked anything like it. Literally 5 minutes later, we see this grizzly below getting up on its hind legs as we approached with the car. He started to cross, before he changed his mind and we could see his friend in the bushes. One of the coolest things I ever seen. Didn't capture him/her getting up on the hind legs, but man that was so cool!

Have you ever seen anything cool on a roadtrip, or any other time for that matter?

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Posted on August 12, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Flashback Friday, Photography, The great wide open, Science, Yellowstone, Montana and tagged Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park National Parks Photography Details Flowers Lodgepole pine cone grizzly grizzly bear brown bear Forest Boreal Forest Burn Wildfire Fire Science Research ecologist roadtrip road trip flowers Summer Adventures Summer dalahäst Adventure Spruce Pine Nature Mountains Bears field National Park Fieldwork Rocky Mountains 2016.

Hiking Governor Dodge State Park in Wisconsin

Adventure Tuesday

Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park was the second park W and I visited. It is pretty close to the Blue Mounds State Park so we actually did both in one day. Now the main difference between visiting a park or hiking trail here in Wisconsin (so far) and Alaska is that there are a lot more people here in Wisconsin. Not too surprising I guess, but still, I like the less developed trails and areas that aren't so touristy. Within Governor Dodge State Park we went to the Stephens' Fall. Of course all of these State Parks have multiple trails connected to them. We have only explored a tiny bit of all that is accessible so far. We started at Stephens' Fall. I am actually not that used to waterfalls from living in interior Alaska, but they are definitely on my favorite list now.

Again, like the previous State Park we visited this one was very lush and green.

Cone, Governor Dodge State Park

Green Trail, Governor Dodge State Park

Trail, Governor Dodge State Park

The main attraction was definitely the waterfall. After that the trail followed a creek before we turned up to only deciduous forest and then some grassland.

We did run into some creatures, very small creatures though. Chipmunks are very new to me, and I was very excited about seeing them. Aren't they cute?

We ended up where we started, a field full of Lupine. It was so beautiful to see. Although, nothing beats a field full of fireweed! The field also had Wild Parsnip, which apparently is irritating to your skin. I did not know this, so very appreciating that they write a big sign about it :) It appears that the ants don't mind this plant though.

As always, I took the opportunity to take more macros of the nice wildflowers and all other details along the trail. W had to wait around a lot for me, as always. In the end I told him he could go ahead of me so he didn't have to be so bored :)

Flower mix, Governor Dodge State Park

Lupin Details, Governor Dodge State Park

Flower, Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park

Lupin, Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park

Wild Parsnip, Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park

Do you have a favorite wildflower?

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Posted on August 2, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Nature, Wisconsin, Photography, Adventure Tuesday and tagged Governor Dodge Governor Dodge State Park State Park Summer Adventures summer days Summer green lush chipmunk Adventure Trail Trails Park Nature vandra hiking 2016.

Let's get Fired Up - Fireweed

Flashback Friday

Fireweed

Last year I finally tried making fireweed jelly, and I can not believe I haven't done that before. Now, when I am not in Alaska, I regret it even more. Anyone who has ever ventured out in the far north has probably seen these majestic beautiful and colorful signs of summer, Fireweed. Although Forget-me-not is officially the state flower of Alaska, I personally think they should have picked Fireweed as the flower.

Preserving Summer

When you live in Alaska you become a different person, physically and mentally, weather you want to or not. Along with all the skills I have acquired comes the joy of preserving the summer. Summers in Alaska are so short, and you better catch it in a jar before it's over. They say, when the fireweed start to bloom, summer has official arrived. On a more sad point, when the last flower of the fireweed has bloomed, summer is officially over. Fireweed bloom from the bottom up and the top flowers are the last to bloom before they too fall off.

Fireweed in Bloom

Last petals

Summer's Gone?

Picking Petals

Before the end, the end of summer and short life of fireweed, you can take opportunity to pick the petals. It's tedious, but oh so delicious in the end, and they are beautiful. You want to pick the petals when the flowers are in bloom, which means that you'll probably start to pick the bottom ones. You don't want to pick the petals from the flowers that are already past full bloom, the flavor wont be as spectacular. You also don't want to pick the buds, of course, because they will give the jam/jelly a bitter taste. And YES, ONLY the petals.

Disturbance Driven

Fireweed usually appears after a disturbance, like a fire, and it grows really well, like a weed. Step one is definitely to find a place where fireweed grows, far away from pollution of course as always when you are going to eat something from nature. They grow all over Alaska, and of course the circumpolar boreal forest, including Sweden. The best would of course be to find a whole field full of fireweed, so you can spend some time at one location. After that, you just have to be patient.. As I mentioned, picking the flowers is very very tedious, but extremely relaxing.

Up North, Fireweed

After Fire comes? Fireweed

Fireweed

The Boreal Herbal

I have a gorgeous book named "The Boreal Herbal", that's where I get all my recipes that includes ingredients from the far north. I made quite a lot of fireweed jelly, and man it was good. That on a piece of cracker or bread along with some brie. YUM! I tweaked this recipe a bit, because it called for quite a lot of grape juice, and I didn't really want the grape juice itself to take all the control. Fireweed jelly is actually really interesting, you definitely get the flowery taste at the end. What you'll need is obviously a lot of fireweed petals, at least 2½ cups. You can also google the internet and there will be quite a few recipes of this, not many, but a few.

Boreal Herbal, original recipe:

2½ cups (625ml) of fireweed petals, fresh or dried
2 cups (500ml) of water
2 cups (500ml) of cane sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) of white grape juice
1/2 cup (125ml) of red grape juice
1 package (57g) of powdered pectin
2 tbsp (30ml) of rosewater (optional)

Day 1

You want the lovely fragrance to leave the petals, and to do this you have to:

Take about 2 1/2 cup of petals and put them in a pot.
Add at least 2 cups of water. If you do less the flavor will be more concentrated and more, well the flavor will be more dilute.
Add about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want it and also what type of pectin you will be using in the end)
Bring to boil, and reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes before you remove the pot from the stove.
Leave the mix in the fridge over night.

The flowers will change colors so don't freak out, they will become more bluish.

Day 2

Strain the mixture to leave out the petals from the liquid. Add the liquid to a pot, add the grape juice. I used less grape juice than what the recipe called for, about 1/2 cup in total of the white grape juice (If I remember correctly)*.
Add the pectin (here you need to follow the recipe on the pectin bottle, because it is important that you get the amount of sugar to liquid correct, there is a "less sugar" pectin you can buy too).
Boil hard for about 1 minute
Add the rest of the sugar and stir. (the recipe calls for a total 2 cups of sugar, you add some of this to the first step when you get the fragrance out of the petals, and the rest to the second step).
Boil the mixture for about 1 minute again before you remove it from the heat.
Test the jelly. Take a teaspoon of the jelly and put it on a plate, let it cool down and watch for "wrinkles" on the jelly, or rather is the jelly jelly like? You can continue to boil 1 minute at a time until you get the perfect jelly softness for you.

I did not add any rosewater to my jelly, so I don't really know how it tastes with it.

*The original recipe called for 1/2 a cup of white and 1/2 cup of red grape juice. Now, why grape juice? Honestly I never tried it without the grape juice, but I have tried the liquid, and it's very flowery. This is why you need to balance the flavor a bit. Now, if you try the liquid and like it, by all means, DON'T add the grape juice, add some water instead, but remember that it will dilute the flavor a bit. Yes, the grape juice will almost take over the flavor a bit, but after a few seconds in your mouth you'll get that wonderful flowery taste to it.

Canning

Sterilize your jars and lids in boiling water in a large pot,
while they are still hot pour the jelly into jars, not too much
wipe the rim and add the lids, screw on the screw top finger tight,
down into the boiling water again for about 10 minutes or so,
take the jars out, let them cool and wait for the magic "snap"

If you live in the north and wonder what cook book you should purchase next? Do you wonder how you can learn about everything you can make from the lovely boreal forest? These two books below are a must have: The Boreal Herbal and The Boreal Feast: