Shock horror! A quick google of royal wedding dresses reveals Princess Anne looking lovely in her finery standing on a polar bear hide at Buck House. Isn't this the women whose dad was a one-time head of the World Wildlife Fund? 

A hiatus while I went on hols. Now back and discouraged to read this in the Alaska Dispatch about soaring demand for polar bear hides from Russia and China. While I'll always champion the idea of the Arctic being a great plethora of places, all very different from each other, it seems clear that the circumpolar region needs regional controls in some environmental areas. This is one of them. The laws on polar bear hunting differ wildly from nation to nation (US has banned sport hunting of bears whereas both Canada and Russia allow it) and even within nations (Nunavut in Canada issues quotas, whereas Quebec does not) which leaves some bear populations much more vulnerable than others and could potentially decimate discrete populations in regions less regulated, which has implications not only for global populations but for a healthy gene pool in the less regulated, and thus more intensely hunted areas. 

I've been thinking about food even more than usual. Arctic food in particular. In my notes from a recent trip to Alaska I came across some extracts from The Yukon Cookbook, which was lying on a shelf in my host's house in Nome, Alaska. Of particular interest: Stuffed Moose Hearts ('Open up heart, place stuffing inside'); Pot Roast Ground Squirrel ('recipe may also be used for hoary marmot or muskrat'); Boiled Moose Nose ('This is a delicacy') and Instant Powdered Moose ('When you come in from the bush tired and hungry, throw 3 tablespoons instant moose into the frying pan, add water and in no time you will have a thick sludge.'). Jamie Oliver eat your (stuffed moose) heart out.