Window Thinking
A few weeks ago I walked into a coffee shop and asked for my usual order – Rosemary Lavender Iced Latte, please. Normally I’m a make-it-at-home, french press, drink-it-black kinda girl, but in my (infrequent) coffee shop stops, I order a latte with no added flavors, usually they are too sweet for my taste. However, …
This is National Dandelion Day?!?! It’s a bit off season for us – snow still covers our yard (a couple feet deep in the front) and more fell this morning. But in general, the spring melt is on and we know from experience that it’s just a matter of time before a rich blanket of …
Tomorrow is Ryan’s birthday which has become a marking point during our Alaska years – will we get our Anchorage winter snow pack started by his birthday? This year, it seems we have. (and right on schedule) Most afternoons lately I have been hanging out with our chickens – ever since a hawk swooped down …
A mellow sun hangs low this afternoon and autumn is fading out. (I took this photo on the 18th, but I got distracted while looking for 17 beats. Thus, the delay in posting.)
On our routine walk the dog the other night, David and I stepped beneath some of my favorite neighborhood lights, through the gate, and onto the field at the school down the street. As soon as we were through the gate though, we realized something big was moving to our right. As our eyes adjusted …
The setting sun cast an irresistible glow through our windows tonight and it pulled me straight out the front door and down the street to the edge of town. The mountains were out. Sleeping Lady, covered in a blanket of snow. And beyond her, the magnificent Alaska Range. A little to the north, I could …
The greenhouse is cleaned out and the yard is pretty much put to bed. Our garbage service recently sent a note to say they’ll stop picking up the yard debris can at the end of the month and won’t start up again till May. That is six months from now. The sun rises at 8:45 …
The sun showed up this afternoon and pushed some clouds apart. Patches of blue sky became backdrop for great flocks of geese flying south, loudly honking their goodbyes. Rays of sun have even managed to make it to my face still warm as I sit out in the backyard, drinking tea with an ever present …
Sunrise before 9am and coming three minutes earlier EVERY day! Even more – what a gift when day breaks open like this….
When we moved into this house the previous owner left us a note on the counter. Welcome home! she said. And also…..the magpies! The magpies indeed. For two and a half years now, magpies have been the main bird on the block. Periodically there’s a protest in the neighborhood online bulletin board: WHOEVER IS FEEDING …
We’ve come through another dark winter here in Anchorage and light is returning at a rate of nearly 6 additional minutes/day. This picture is from my walk at 8:30p, just after sunset last night. Deep winter dark is behind us now and the 24/7 light is coming at us fast. I’ve lived the dramatic dark/light/dark/light …
When is it time to plant vegetables in Oregon? This headline in the form of a question caught my attention and I paused to read the article in my news feed. “One of the biggest mistakes people make is to plant too early,” said Weston Miller, a horticulturist with Oregon State University’s Extension Service. “They …
Is that grass? asked a friend in response to my facebook post: It is! I said. It’s been five months under a snow blanket. We are super excited because when the grass appears, spring must be right behind! But spring in Alaska is ugly (and stinky). In many places now, depending on sun angles, the …
March sunrises higher, stays longer, feels warmer, and melts a mess.
A dog party!A big dog party!Big dogs, little dogs, red dogs, blue dogs,yellow dogs, green dogs,black dogs, and white dogsare all at a dog party! What a dog party! Go, Dog. Go! was one of Ethan’s very favorite books when he was little. Over and over and over we read that book, and of course …
I’ve created so many short video/photo compilations over the years, always making my best choice of transition for each scene change. Transitions can spin, slide, or puzzle. They can open a story or close it. I often use the crossfade transition where one image gently gives way to the next, and it seems that pretty …
Several weeks ago I wrote a really long post about being grumpy in August in Alaska. The fireweed had largely burned out and I was certain I’d be stuck under all those dark heavy rain clouds until they finally gave way to snow. But then the unexpected happened. September showed up with record breaking warmth and …
A trip to Zambia, house hunting in Alaska, and a new puppy. Facebook has been serving me some life-changing “on this day” memories. Six years ago David and I flew to Anchorage to find a house to rent. I was sooooo grumpy that weekend. David likes to remind me that just 10 months earlier I …
On the day when The weight deadens On your shoulders And you stumble, May the clay dance To balance you……. It was a grey Monday here. There have been an awful lot of grey days here this summer. But this Monday hung particularly heavy. I worked outside much of the day – digging, digging, digging. …
Summer Solstice in Anchorage means 4:21a sunrise today and 11:43p sunset. It never does get dark. Alas…..we make the turn here.
….And then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils. William Wordsworth
After a several low snow months here in Anchorage, February delivered! We were more than 2′ below normal in snowfall at the end of January, but then came the snowiest February in six years. A fun fact because that was also our family’s first February in Alaska – back when we thought we had moved …
This morning I was making coffee in the kitchen when I heard Ethan flipping light switches in the next room. A little bit later he came to the kitchen and grumbled, “These lights are weird. I can never figure out which switch turns on which light.” My thoughts EXACTLY. Recently I’ve noticed my irritation when …
Last night I walked down the hill to watch the 9:30p sunset. We have more than 15 hours between sunrise and sunset now and all the recent long days of “warm” sunshine have gone a long way toward melting out the lingering piles of snow. Yesterday was the first day that the Anchorage snow cover …