What a Blooming Non-Winter!

No snow.   What wee bit falls is quickly washed away by  rain.

Strong winds buffeted Anchorage yesterday, many of them hurricane for.   Electric was out for many customers on Thanksgiving Day.

Down here in the banana belt, south of Anchorage, temps are in the low 40s and the wind is blowing but not threatening to tear the roof off as in Anchorage.

Instead:

The Thanksgiving cactus opened one bud the night before Thanksgiving and promises many, many more.   I kept this little gem root bound for many years and then this spring gave it a repotting.   It is a very happy cactus now and showing it.

More than 40 years ago, mu mother gave me her shamrock plant.   I have no idea how long she had it, but here it is--blooming in November!

And last but not least by far, the amazing African violet has bloomed so much this year, I think it's running out of toner.   It's supposed to be purple.   Or violet.   Or sometimes violet-white.

Oh, well, a winter with flowers is fine with me.

Where is Winter?

Have you seen winter, Eagle?

 Haven't been watching for it, truthfully.



Is it up there, Merganser?

 

 Is what where?   I'm just swallowing.



Let us know if you find it, Eagle!

 Yep, yep, yep.   Find what?   Oh, should be off in this direction...



 How about you, Swan?   Oops.   Didn't mean to interrupt your nap.

 

(No response)

 

Ah, Grosbeak.   You found it!

And that wee bit of snow is all  gone now.

Rolling through November

I tried to cover my firewood-to-be pile with a 16x20 foot tarp today.   It's a bit small.

Looking toward the back of the stack.

The rest of the stck.

And from the front towards the back.

That is what has been occupying my days and using all my energy lately.   The electric company sent a contractor in to clear all trees and overhanging branches from its easements.   The cut down a number of trees along my property and in front of my neighbors, who kindly said I could have their felled trees.


In the mean time, bald eagles have gathered down the road at Tern Lake where silver salmon are spawning and dying. 

In all the years I have been around Tern Lake, I always looked to this branch that sticks out over from the trees at left, hoping to see an eagle perched on it.   I've seen many mew gulls, magpies, and ravens there, but never until Monday did I see the eagle!

And the moon rise a couple nights ago.

Late Night Thoughts after a Trying Day

On a day when we said goodbye to one of our own and confronted our own mortality, we looked around at the large gathering and silently gave thanks for those still with us.

The hugs were prolonged and sweeter than wine, the hands offered for greetings were held in two hands.

Perhaps by holding onto each other a little longer, we think we can hold off the inevitable and delay another such gathering.

And then we danced the polka, because that it what he would have wanted for us.

I copied this photo from a written article about Polka Dan.   No photo credit given.

*** 

People say nice things about you when you're dead.

Thus it was Sunday afternoon at a large gathering. Friend after friend spoke in glowing comments about the deceased—what a nice person he was, what integrity, what humor, never met a stranger, what a big heart.....

And then it was time for his dearest friend to speak, a friend who had played music with the departed, who had been partners with him in a construction business, skied with him, drank with him, laughed with him.

He took the microphone and walked to the center of the dance floor:

“I’m not sure we’re talking about the same person....”

And that’s why they were friends for six decades.

  

 

Some of Dan's closest friends, among the hundreds that were there.

***