The Greening.

Yes spring has sprung.  The snow is gone, the trees are green, the mosquitos are out, and it no longer gets all the way dark at night.

May. 25, 2011

Sun Rise  3:54 AM AKDT

Sun Set  11:44 PM AKDT

Moon 2:46 AM AKDT 2:40 PM AKDT

Length Of Visible Light 24h 00m

Length of Day 19h 50m

Tomorrow will be 6m 43s longer.

In May of each year I watch the hills for signs of spring.  First we have breakup where the snow melts and mud prevails.  The days get longer and one must pay attention to the clock on the wall instead of the clock of your body or you will be eating dinner at 11:00 pm.  Such is the power of the sun after a long, dark winter.  Then one day I say to myself “Do the hills have a green tinge on them or is it just my imagination?”  Three days later, the Birch tree buds pop and this is what it looks like.  This is my 8th spring here and it still amazes me how quickly the greening happens.  The long hours of sun really do a sweet trick.

I took this out my front door.

 This picture was taken right before midnight. Rainbows in my living room.  This is as the sun hits one of my crystals.  I have several hanging so as to get rainbows at other times of the day as well.

I took a picture of this bunny from my kitchen window.  We often throw out crusts of bread and other goodies to attract them and birds into plain viewing site.  This one was almost finished changing from his winter white to his summer grey.

 

Flowery henna is in the air. 

 

We had our first forest fire to start off our fire season.  While it was technically near me, it wasn’t near enough to be dangerous.  From the spot my friend Lori and I found to take photos of it, is only about 10 minutes from my house.

It ended up burning about 900 acres.  Luckily no structures burned.  I have a lot of friends that live in this area.  These pictures are much clearer if you right-click and open in a new window.

 

The orange glow from the sun shining through the thick smoke was really a lovely color.

 

 

 Finding this private landing strip was a real boon.  We could actually see some distance without being blocked in by trees.  We were two of several who found this handy location. 

There were two fixed wing aircraft, one dumping water and one dumping retardant, and one helicopter.  This area still had snow 8 or 9 days previous to the start of the fire so that really helped.  But it was hot and windy and that of course, is not a good thing.  They were able to cut fire lines around 60% of it but had to have ground crews and smoke jumpers go in for the remaining 40%.  

  

 

 

Clucking Blossom is an annual festival of music and art that is totally free.  This year it was pretty small with only a few tables.  When I went it was really hot out so the crowds were small as well. 

 

 

 

I love our Farmer’s Market.  Here a boy is using a draw knife to peel willows to be used as decorations and in custom furniture.

The kids and I went for a little drive before returning home the other day.  We found a road up to a radio tower on top of one of the hills we view from home.  I didn’t even realize this was up there but when I mentioned it on Facebook another friend of mine reminded me that there used to be a ski resort up here.

This is an old tower, now laying on the ground.

 

I thought this turned out to be a pretty cool picture.  It was pretty hazy but you can still see The Alaska Range, of which Mt. McKinley is part. Fairbanks and the Tanana River Valley.

 Hidden a bit off the road was an old quanset.  Thanks to my friend Kara and her cool pictures of abandoned mines and buildings, I thought I would give it a try and go explore it a bit. 

 

It was collapsed, I assume by too heavy of a snow load.  It didn’t look to have been burned but I know fire can weaken metal too.  Here you can see the ribs bent over.

Across the road there was this pit, dug  by hand and at one time, covered with a roof.  Looks like an old root cellar.

While we were driving up this road, my 9 year old daughter was really enjoying it and commenting how beautiful and cool it was.  We were just returning home from town where it had been hot and sweaty and the road was so shaded and intimate.  She said “This is a dream road, like a dream home, but a road!”

I took these photos from the top of my drive way.  You can see where the main ski slope was even though it is now full of new growth trees as well as the tower we visited.

 

Well my little petunias, that is all for now.  We have a busy month planned for June.  If you remember my post last year “A Fowl Adventure” you can look forward to more of the same, only better.  Camping, Chickenstock, a visit to my friends in Eagle, a zombie walk, Bare Naked Lady concert, the Midnight Sun Run (my first 10K!) Solstice, etc will surely keep us busy.  Now, if I could only remember the combination to the storage so I could get our camping and back packing gear out…