Val Monahan

@valymonahan

Northerner. Stuff I like: birds, food, fishing, social equality.

70 Folgt548 Follower6.395 Posts

Instagram Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir valymonahan.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 9d

Sunday brunch: wheat bran blueberry pancakes with cranberry bison sausage, stewed rhubarb and maple syrup. #food 🍜

Ceramic plae with a red "paid" design around rim. There are five small, well-toasted pancakes with large, blue-black blueberries visible. A cut up sausage is brown/pink with a fat cranberry sticking out of one slice. There is a big dollop of bright, dark pink, glossy stewed rhubarb. The pancakes have shiny spots of maple syrup on them.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 10d

Fish cakes from leftover canned sockeye salmon. My fish cakes are "Maritime" style (half cooked potato), with other seasonings: fish sauce, soya sauce, lime juice, sesame oil, pepper, thyme. Served with bok choy dressed with fried garlic and oyster sauce, soya, sugar, cooking wine. #food 🍜

On a black ceramic plate, five soft-looking, pinkish, but browned fish cakes take up half the plate. They have dollops of green pepper sauce on them. The other half of the plate has bright light and dark green sauteed bok choy. It was cooked with fried garlic and a dark sauce, which you can see.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 10d

@brianhills.bsky.social here's our last campsite on the same trip from 2023. Just Sam and I that year. This year we will have five: Sam, Me, Morgan (the artist formerly known as Claire), Sam's sister Pat and friend Kent (up from NB).

Tiny tent on an island in the middle of the Yukon River, south of Dawson City. A big pebble "beach", but patches of sand (tent is on one). Bright green grass, willows/alders on another island dead ahead. The shores on both sides of the visible channels have spruce and poplar trees. There are several hills in the distance and the sky is hard blue with lighter areas along the horizon. A fallen tree has a hard, dark shadow due to the evening light.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 11d

Friend's gift of canned sockeye. So good! We ate half the jar on crackers with strong cheese, apple and blueberries. Plan to make fish cakes with the other half jar. #food 🍜

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 13d

That Far Side cartoon with the two polar bears and an igloo. One beaar is standing watching the other, who has started biting into the igloo. The caption: "Oh hey! I just love these things....Crunch on the outside and chewy Centre!"

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 15d

Obligatory.

Street light in front of a construction zone. Sign on the lamp pole: “De Grassi St”.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 15d

Eating solo in a restaurant is one of the great joys of travelling! #food 🍜

Ceramic dish pretending to be a grass basket full of Thai food: spring rolls and a dish of dipping sauce; crispy pork belly with long beans, bamboo shoots, peppers and holy basil; mound of steamed rice. There is a beer can and glass of beer, a water nalgene, an open book with a pair of sunglasses. The food is in the shade, but the beer is lit up by the sun coming through the window toward the table for one.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 22d

Turmeric lake trout. Fish chunks marinaded with ginger, turmeric, cayenne and oil. Fish fried in hot oil, then heated through with a paste of caramelized onion and fresh green chili and garlic ground together with demerara and lime juice. Fresh dill wilted over fish on rice vermicelli. #food 🍜

How it started: 19inch female lake trout on a weathered log, next to the gold/red spoon lure that caught her. The fish is dappled: dark grey/black body with small creamy white spots with hints of pink/blue. The same patterns over her face and on her fins/tail.

Black ceramic plate with a big layer of white, rice vermicelli noodles. On top of the noodles: chunks of pinkish fish, made golden from turmeric marinade and browning. There is a big tangle of just wilted fresh dill stems/leaves on top.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 24d

Views at our weekend cabin ate pretty sweet!

A weathered, carved wooden bird on a deck gazes out over dense, mixed forest to mountains with grey alpine and remnant snow. There is a hard bright blue sky. A few clouds cast dark shadows on the alpine.

A young snowshoe in brown, summer clothes sits on a gravel driveway. Its hind feet are whiteish, light shines through its pink ears. It is VERY alert.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 24d

Caught a pretty lake trout! 19 inches.

A gorgeous fish, like a mosaic: grey-black with little pearly windows of cream/pale between. Same pattern on its fin and tail. It lied on a weathered log next to a gold and red fishing lure and small woiden-handled filleting knife.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 26d

Kiddo shared the latest page from the graphic horror novel they are currently writing/illustrating. I love their work!

Inked page of a graphic novel with five panels. There has been violence, a character has a serious head wound washes it in water. Another character has been fishing in the same water.

Same page in full colour. Lots of details (plants, the sunset) are more elaborate than the inked panels. The water is rendered in ink-black and bright, light blue. Quite a bit of blood, from one character's head wound.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 27d

The fluffening is upon us! It's 2wks lateish. Many years, the western balsam-poplar/black cottonwood throw their "cotton", around, or on Canada Day.

A deciduous tree branch covered in blobs of white cotton-like material: the seeds of the tree, at intervals, along a branch. Behind them, you can see smallish tree trunks, tree branches and lots of green leaves.

A backyard strewn with western balsam poplar/black cottonwood "cotton". Blobs of white fibre sit amongst fireweed and dandelion plants, but, really, they cover 85% of the ground. They are piled up on logs/timbres lying on the ground. There is a brown and white metal shed, with a moose antler on it, left frame. In the back you can trees (more cotton-producing ones!). The "cotton" is newly dropped, so looks bright white and super fluffy, like little bits of unflavoured cotton candy. The way they lie/pile up suggest (accurately!) that they are heavy.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 29d

A gorgeous evening.

View of a light grey/yellow clay cliff from height. You can see poplars in the foreground, lit up by golden light along with bright pink flowers. Below the cliff, streets of a residential neighbourhood with lots of trees. The top of the cliff has a line of trees. Further along, the slope is treed from top to bottom. A single mountain peak can be seen in the far distance. The sky is light blue with wildfire smoke hazing the horizon.

View from the top of a clay cliff look out to a promontory. The exposed ground is yellowish grey, with light green sage, grasses and low poplars. The sun is hitting the near ground and the left side of the cliff. The right slope, which fall away vertically, is in shadow. There are spruce trees at the base. Below is a flat flood plain, occupied with industrial buildings, big box stores and some condo high rises. A dark blue river curves through it with several channels and tree-covered islands. More clay cliffs mark the other side of the flood plain. Behind them, densely treed hills and a line of dark mountains, along the horizon. The sky is light greyish blue hazy with wildfire smoke.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· 29d

Pot of pork adobo to freeze, for my river trip, in August. #food 🍜

Inside of a Dutch oven: chunks of brown pork sit in a rich brown stew-like sauce. You can see green bay leaves and whole black peppercorns.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 11

Witness me! Assembled wire frame shelf unit used to tame (some of) the outdoor gear. Very satisfying. Should also help with river packing. Identified mis-matched stuff (stuff sacks, tent-poles) so they can be matched up to make a complete set of something, or chucked out.

A storage closet. There is a built-in cheapo white dresser with six drawers. On top, a wire frame shelf unit is crammed full of thermarests, sleeping bags, and inflatable pillows. Life jackets are stacked on a hanger hanging from a metal pole over other camping gear. Paddles and snowshoes are leaning against a wall, a tote of tent poles and a collapsible bucket are hanging on the wall.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 11

Suddenly hot day calls for a quick/hot-weather supper: pork strips marinaded with fish sauce, onion/garlic, sugar, then grilled. Pork served on rice vermicelli with fried scallions, roasted peanuts and local cucumber. Chilli-garlic paste and nuoc cham as well #food 🍜

Black ceramic plate covered with white rice noodles, browned, but charred strips of pork, fried peanuts and bits of scallion (they are small and crispy, hard to see). There are long sections of raw, juicy-looking cucumber and a shiny dollop of bright red chili-garlic paste.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 9

Quartz wetland was hopping, this morning: newly fledged red-winged blackbirds chasing a parent, hysterical sparrow fledglings (Lincoln's?), the usual crowd of short-billed gulls and a beaver.

Photo of back channels of the Yukon River with lots of morning glare from the sun. The nearest channel has sparkling ripples and a dark head in front of a sparkling wake can be seen: a beaver. Behind, willows and grasses, another channel with similar vegetation behind, then a third (main) channel with a dark, spruce treed far shore.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 8

River trip memory: our late pup Zoe, on bear duty while the humans load the canoes.

A medium-sized black dog with a white paw and chest is wearing a bright orange life jacket. She sits on a huge pebble/mud beach looking away from the photographer. Behind her, the curve of a big river, a green mid-channel island, the "near" other shore with reddish-brown cliffs and spruce trees and the "far" this shore with another green channel island, high open slopes, green trees and areas of new(ish) wildfire burn. The sky above the rolling hills is bright blue with some small, puffy clouds.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 8

A memory of Qikiqtaruk (aka Herschel Island). View at 3am.

View across a flooded barrier beach. Dead beach grass and standing water pools one after another. In the distance, looking a bit like a fort, a camping shelter made from driftwood logs, set upright/tilting against an interior structure. It is reflected in one of the pools. Behind that, ocean and tundra with remaining patches of snow below a sky that is grey at the horizon and bright blue above. The middle ground (including the driftwood shelter) is illuminated with warm, golden middle-of-the-night Midnight sun.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 8

Yukon summer is a hothouse flower, precarious, gorgeous, weird, short-lived. Grab it everyway you can, friends.

Spruce beetle! Monochamus scutellatus, aka white-spotted sawyer, oil-sands beetle (Alberta). A large black beetle is emerging between weathered deck boards. Behind, you can see the black-painted edging board, of the deck with a red-brown painted deck vertical board. The beetle's antennae are at least three times the length of its half body (what it has squeezed up, between the deck boards). It is turning toward the photographer. Its black shadow, behind, is super sharp, slightly larger. You can see the larger base of an antenna, you can see the change in size, of its legs. The gap between the boards is a black line, going down to hell. What will emerge next?

A White woman's hand on hard-packed grey silt/sand next to a crisp, newly-made wolf footprint. Hand is pink, with visible veins/tendons and splayed fingers. The wolf print is approximately the size of the woman's palm, with visible claw indentations.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 8

More memories of Qikiqtaruk (aka Herschel Island).

Looking east from the historic site on Qikiqtaruk (aka Herschel Island) to the far mainland. In the foreground, dead grass, drift wood and pools of water that flooded in, past the barrier beach. Past that, the barrier beach is piled high with weathered driftwood of varying sizes, including large logs. The Beaufort beyond has whitecaps and the mountain of the mainland look dark underneath a grey and blue sky.

Looking east on Qikiqtaruk (aka Herschel Island). A dark brown, pebbly beach covered in weathered driftwood curves to the right, as far as the eye can see. The driftwood is lit up, on one side by the late night sun (around Midnight). The Beaufort is relatively calm, small waves hit the beach, leaving foam. The sky is bright blue at the top, with denser cloud white, then grey approaching the horizon.

Looking south, from the historic site (beach front) on Qikiqtaruk (aka Herschel Island). In the foreground, dark brown pebble beach with some driftwood. You can see a small, peaked roof, modern raw wood building with a woodstove chimney: a bath house. The water of Pauline Cove is dark brown, with rolling waves and lots of foam. The far shore of the bay is rising tundra, dark green with some areas of brown slumping along the erosional faces. The sky is huge, with cloud along the horizon and above, dark blue with large, puffy clouds.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 7

Shameless promotion of the family band. Yukoners, you can catch them this Saturday, in Whitehorse.

Show poster for The Compassion Pills 'Round Back at the Guild Hall Theatre July 11th. That info is on three sides of the image, in black print on a beige background that looks like old, acidic paper. In the centre is a side view of three White people playing instruments on stage. The people have an eerie blue light on them. All are dressed in dark clothing.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 7

Made turmeric/dill fish from yesterday's grayling. #food 🍜

Black plate covered in rice vermicelli noodles. On top: chunks of bright yellow, fried fish, bits of fried white onion, chunks of fried green onion, dark green wilted dill, a handful of roasted peanuts. At the edge, thinly sliced cucumbers and a dollop of chili-garlic paste.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 6

Brunch for dinner: prosciutto, a jam of cooked down local cherry tomatoes, sauteed onion, garlic, brown sugar, fresh basil and hot paprika; white fox cheese, toasted on fresh, Montréal-style, wood-oven sesame bagel halves. Olive oil fried eggs on top, with Cholula green pepper sauce. #food 🍜

Two loaded wood-fired bagel halves on a black ceramic plate. The edges of the bagels are toasted. You can see a layer of red tomato jam, underneath melted white cheese. On top, eggs are toasty, from frying in olive oil, but look (and are!) soft in the middle, with runny yolks. There are dollops of green hot sauce and sesame seeds across the plate and on top of everything.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 6

Got out fishing this afternoon: beautiful, not too hot, enough breeze to deter mosquitos, but allow for easy casting/observing fish activity. Caught this beauty 14 inch grayling. Tomorrow night's supper. #food 🍜

A large male Arctic grayling lies on leaf litter next to a fish rod reel and a few bunches of bright green grass. The fish is dark blue-grey with darker fins. Some of its body scales have lavender iridescence There is a dark bronze line running parallel to its belly. . It's large dorsal fin looks like a little sail and has pale blue dots in lines from its back to the fin tip.

View across a stream inlet into a small lake. In the foreground, left, the brown bottom/stones at the bottom of the stream are visible, due to the clarity of the water. There are some spruce trees on the other side of the inlet, blocking some view of the lake shore. Middle distance: the lake has ripples making it look silver. Near the far shore, a green mountain is reflected in the calm lake water. The far shore has bright green grass/water plants, varied green trees and two mountain peaks. The more distant one is tall enough to have some alpine tundra. The sky is bright blue with white cloud wisps and larger cumulous clouds. They are making dark cloud shadows on the distant mountains.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 5

Lots of great BC blueberries around, now. They are farmed, but have the not sweet/a bit smokey flavour I want, as someone who grew up eating wild blueberries in NS. #food 🍜 Wheat bran blueberry pancakes with honey-garlic sausage and maple syrup.

Black ceramic plate with five smallish well browned pancakes jammed-full of big blue-black, fresh blueberries that are glistening and bursting out. There are two links of browned sausage by the pancakes. At the "bottom" of the plate, a pool of glossy maple syrup. There are drizzles of maple syrup across the pancakes, also.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 5

More memories of Qikiqtaruk (aka Herschel Island).

View across the entrance to Pauline Cove to the hills on the mainland, probably 1amish. The water of the bay is mirroring the sky: dark grey, with a section of bright light/cloud. The distant hills are black with wisps of fog.

Close up of a hen eider duck, on her driftwood nest. The wood is grey and brown. You can see part of the duck's body, flecked black, dark grown and grey/white, her dark eye and her black bill, which she is resting on a piece of wood.

The remains of the Anglican Mission House. It sits alone, away from the other buildings. It was stabilized, but has had no restoration work done, beyond that. It's not a priority for park partners: Inuvialuit, who co-manage the site with Yukon Government. The building is a peaked roof, grey wooden building missing doors and windows. It is surrounded by salt marsh/dead grass. On one side is a huge, driftwood covered beach, on the other, the ground rises up to a green tundra bluff. The sky is bright blue with tiny white cloud wisps.

White square plate with big, thick chunks of char that was rolled in panko then fried in butter. The fish is crispy brown (panko), but you can see silvery blue skin on one piece and that the cross-section is bright pink. This is def. in my top five of best fish I have ever eaten. The Rangers caught it with gill nets the same day we ate it.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 3

Two summers ago, at this time, I was on Qikiqtaruk (aka Herschel Island). It was gorgeous.

Two early 20th century one-story buildings with peaked roofs on wooden blocks on a sandy beach. One is white painted wood the other tin clad. one tin clad up on wooden blocks. Both have unpainted wooden steps up to open doors. The tin-clad one has "CANADA CUSTOMS WAREHOUSE" painted onto the tin above door. The white one has "NORTHERN WHALING & TRADING Co." painted in white on a black sign above the door and two small glass windows. There are large driftwood logs on the beach in front of the buildings. Behind is more beach with grass and distant ocean. The sky is bright blue. There are noticeable dark shadows from the logs and buildings. The light has a golden tinge. It is approximately midnight.

View from a bright green tundra hill over a calm blue bay. There is a large dark permafrost slump at the crest of the hill. Behind the bay is a barrier beach. Far to the right, more tundra with large slumps and remaining patches of snow and show ice. The sky is bright blue with clouds over a line of dark mountains barely visible.

A restored early 20th century building on wooden blocks sits on a gravelly beach on the right of the image. You can see across a calm bay to a rising hill of tundra with numerous permafrost slumps (brown in the green). The shallow water nearby is full of jagged and rotting pieces of pack ice, some white, some pale blue, with areas of reddish brown mud and dark gravel/dirt. There are pieces of driftwood, including the base of a tree lying on the beach. Water between the pack ice mirrors the bright blue sky with some grey clouds. The light on the building is golden. It is approximately midnight.

Close-up of a bright red jerry-can with a black plastic screw-cap sitting on a wooden boardwalk next to wet grass. Someone has written "Outhouse fuel". on the can with a black "sharpie" marker.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 3

Growling noises.

View across the Yukon River on a dark morning. You can see several shades of light and dark green trees/plants. The water mirrors a large spruce tree and the grey sky. On the horizon, partly hidden by low cloud, the tallest peaks have bright, new snow.

View across a back channel of the Yukon River. Willow and poplars in the foreground are bright green. The far shore has marsh grasses, more willows and a hill of mixed conifers and deciduous trees. Behind, The May (aka Grey Mt.) is dark with a dusting of fresh snow. The sky is light and dark grey.

Val Monahan@valymonahan· Jul 3

So cold, today! +5C, with rain (snow, in the hills around). This is a standby recipe: Asian pork chop (from Woks of Life), with jasmine rice and broccolini sauteed in the same pan, then steamed a bit with a pinch of brown sugar. So good! #food 🍜