Guest Post by Ela's Mum: "A View from the Oceanside Cafe"

Things have been quiet on this blog for the last few days. That's only because I've been busy spending time with a very special visitor with whom I have all too little time in person. My mum is a self-proclaimed nervous traveler. If you look at her actions, however, she is intrepid. Not to mention her earliest years in Iraq and her formative years in Israel before settling with my dad in London, she's been as far as India during her studies to become a homeopath. She's been to visit me in California twice. She's been to visit me in Hawai'i. Now, she ventured all the way to the subarctic to spend time with me. I mentioned recently how having a guest can remind a person of the extraordinariness of her surroundings which have come to seem normal. Having my eyes reopened by my mum has been a tremendous privilege. Her constant openness, her constant awe, her observant nature, her plucky willingness to be exposed to new experiences from clam chowder to wearing booties indoors to raking up seaweed on the beach for garden beds has been a joy to be around. And of course, I've learned a lot about my own self and where some of my habits and pieces originate.

I give you Rachel Harrison.

Like you guys, I have been reading this blog now and then and marveling at it.
The content of the blog is often so unusual and exciting, I wanted to see what it's really like to live where Ela lives.

So I have been here for 10 days now, and I am still awestruck.

Ela's cabin is about 20 ft away from the edge of a 400ft sheer cliff with breathtaking views.
If the tide is out and the beach visible, walking  people down below look the size of dolls. 
Here is a unique panoramic view of the vast Pacific Ocean which is always changing.

This is a kind of paradise on earth and yes, it may be too cold for my liking later on in winter, but right now it is fine.
It is luscious green, and autumnal colors are just appearing.
Things grow in abundance and are everywhere.
Phil and Ela's garden yields mammoth size cabbages, lettuces, rhubarb, potatoes, chives, many herbs and  chard, we eat them all!
Can you imagine getting Alaskan salmon for free from the ocean? People do here.
They get to hunt bear and moose and eat it (not I, or Ela). 
You can pick coal from the beach for free for your stove, a kind of paradise in the cold.

I picked blueberries with Phil 45 miles away in Ninilchik.  For me this was an experience in itself.
I have failed to grow blueberries in my garden (in London).  I have tried giving the plants acid soil and sunshine as advised, but I only got 10 berries at the most.
Wild blueberries in Alaska grow on mounds of sphagnum moss which is soft and moist with beautiful autumnal colors.The berries are hidden, tiny, dark blue, and their juice is dark red with special tangy flavor, this speaks for their high antioxidant and bioflavonoid value. I watched Ela turn them into raw blueberry jam. Phil loves it. I did too!  

Yesterday she made rhubarb bread, donning a mask so as not inhale gluten from the flour, she looked funny, but the bread was delicious and was quickly devoured!!

We sit to a breakfast of bright red gently stewed cranberries, blueberries, all picked from the wild by us, and some filberts from Phil's family's farm in Oregon. We have this with porridge, or toast.
Enjoying this fresh delicious food while watching drama unfold on the ocean waves. It begins with a dull blue sky touching the far horizon creating a thin silver line with the ocean. Then the clouds clear gradually and a golden sunshine pours on to the ocean, the light is very powerfully bright and it gets warm! Contrary to what people told me, it is not cold here right now, but really pleasantly bearable to a coldie like me.

Yesterday as we sat to another delicious lunch (salmon caught from the ocean and vegetables from the garden (and Ela's smoothie)) there was suddenly a rainbow, as if rising out of the Ocean, it seemed to be standing perpendicular to it and shimmering in its bright 7 colors.
This was mesmerizing, as we looked it started decomposing and vanishing right in our gaze, the lower part of it reappeared and disappeared few more times and then the magic ceased. That was a great experience, we are the lucky bystanders.

Nowhere on earth could you enjoy such an expansive, dramatic and beautiful view while eating a fresh, live, tasty meal. This is the best Oceanside Cafe on earth, in my view.

Ela and Phil's cabin is a neat, small and well designed structure. I sleep in the loft on a very comfortable bed and can see the ocean lapping from this perch. 
Almost each night I have to reassure myself that I will not be tipped into the ocean when the stormy winds shake the cabin and the rain beats at the windows and wakes me.

This place is peaceful and silent, if no wind storms and rain, you hear the ocean's hum, it contemplates its own existence.
The people in Alaska live a different pace, they have space and time to talk and be friendly.
They are kind and generous, thoughtful and artistic yet enterprising.
It has been great to visit a wonderful place on this planet and to meet these good people.