I have been writing a weekly outdoors column in the Anchorage Daily News for the past five or so years. For me, that’s a lifetime, and sometimes I blank on what I’ve already written about. 
This week I went ice skating on the glorious, fleeting natural rink that forms under just the right conditions. It is literally ice skating a riverway, and the feeling is as magical as it sounds. I thought: I must have put this to words already…right?
I searched my folders for “skating” and the answer is, yes. So this week, in celebration of solstice and the light beginning to return, I’m sharing this column I wrote last year about the first time I tried nordic skating on natural waterways. This kind of high from a sense of discovery is what continually inspires me to push to try more, including in paintings – AND as you can see from the photo in the ADN piece, art imitates life!
Enjoy, and happy holidays! I’ll be taking a break over the next week and will start back up again in the New Year.