Our work and vacation time in Alaska was wonderful. The newly built charter Waldorf school, Winterberry, was in its final stage of completion in Anchorage and all the work was tightly scheduled.  The principal, Shanna, who hosted us, participated in the ten day workshop while she managed to oversee plans for the move in date, which took place the day after we finished.  She also managed to coordinate the finishing work with the contractor, and prepare wonderful  meals in the evening.  We were fortunate to be there during the annual salmon run and we all enjoyed this great staple of the Alaskan diet.

There were three of us to lead the workshop along with Nika Dubmansky, who came  to participate and lend a hand. Nika often works with me on lazure projects and recently helped on the three month project painting the newly built Camphill Ghent community.  She was truly a great asset to our work. Diane Goetlicher came from CA and Martha Loving from Vermont to help lead the work. We completed nine very large classrooms, a teachers’ room, and a small office as well as two murals.

After the workshop we had four days camping and hiking in the southwest corner of AK in the areas of Homer and Seward. While we did not encounter any bears on the trail we certainly stepped over many scat deposits along the way.  We had a day out sightseeing on a boat from Seward where we saw many orcas and humpbacks as well as seals, sea lions, puffins and other sea birds. We floated close to an ice glacier and hiked near two others, one with a beautiful lake and floating forms of ice. We were all inspired to sketch and paint along the way and wished we had more time in this beautiful part of the world.