First Wood Chuck spotted!! On March 29th, a week later than last year! It is "a sure sign of spring". Well, it's a good thing we have a sure sign; otherwise I'd not be sure that spring was coming!
Of course, my big question is, how much wood would he chuck if he could chuck wood?
Okay, here are some of my photos from SA's visit that I've gotten round to editing.
The first local attraction was the top of Ester Dome, pretty much my favorite vantage point from which to observe the seasons change, from spring to summer to fall to winter.
View from the top:
Denali peeked/peaked out from the clouds. It is said that the top of Denali is only visible for 1 out of every 3 days, but most of my out of town guests have seen it. I do that for them. As BT put it, I pull weather. I have brought Chinooks to kill -40 cold snaps, and I have changed the wind to push back smoke from summer fires. The only thing I cannot pull for my guests is aurora. I have yet to have an Outside visitor see even the humblest green wisp. Sorry about that!
Classic Alaskan view: stunning natural beauty, and detritus from redneck parties: broken beer bottles; burned out cars, garbage, and--on one memorable occasion--a lawnmower; shotgun shells; et cetera. SA had to photograph it.
The next day, I walked him across the street and set my neighbors and their dogs on him. My neighbors, who give mushing tours, informed him that they were closed for the season due to the warm, unsafely slick snow, but to come along anyway and have a grand old time! I had intended to chase them 'joring, but the young, strong team quickly left us old ladies in their dust, so we did our own regular loop:
The pine forest is coming to life!
Ye Olde Lightning Tree, my favorite local landmark, was, sure enough, right where I had left it last:
The next day, we did a day trip to Denali. Neither the Park nor Glitter Gulch was yet open for the season, so we pretty much just drove down to enjoy the scenery along the drive. We stopped in Nenana to photograph the tripod:
And met an absurdly friendly dog, who barked at my girls to play with him:
And SA photographed some birds:
Okay, that's enough for today. I raaaaaaazy.
No, wait; here is a vid clip I took of the Nenana. It's open and flowing. I saw it with my own eyes, I did.
Stills to come later when I feel like editing them! I raaaaaazy.
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