Photo dump

Let's go in reverse chronological order, shall we?

Just picked up my latest veggie share from Rosie Creek Farm:


Apparently sometimes a parasite will infect the tip of an alder stem, and it will stunt the growth of the stem, while the leaves still come, crowding around and making a rose in response. A flagger at a highway construction site gave this alder rose to me while I was stopped waiting for a pilot car. What a lovely thing!


We're ho-ome!!


Kluane Lake, a day's drive from home. How we had looked forward to camping there and watching the sun rise above it! But it was closed to tent camping due to bear activity. Signs warned us that bears were around, and that soapberries were their food of choice (soapberries? That would not be my first choice. Don't they have blueberries in the Yukon Territory?).




A rainbow at a place where we stopped to pee:


Definitely our most scenic pee in the Lower 48:


Wildflowers along a hike in Staunton State Park in Colorado. A Coloradan friend recommended that park as "not too crowded". Hahahahahahaha.


Ladybug!


It was still a lovely day:


And we were greeted at the park entrance with a Milk Bone, which means it was dog-friendly, despite leash laws still being strict!


Another recommendation from the same friend was the community of Evergreen, which has a lake and several hiking trails. Before heading out, I packed my usual daypack of food, emergency supplies, firestarters, first aid kit, Clif bars, etc, etc. Then called DL with a trip plan and told him that I'd call when I was back safe. I made sure my gas tank was full, my cell phone was fully charged. Imagine my surprise to find that the lake looked like this:


And the town, like this:


It took me a week or so to convince Autumn to sleep with me, but once I had, we were back to our usual battle for space:


"Um, scoot over!!"


But it's nice to sleep with a wolf. Nightmares? Monsters? Boogeymen? Not when you sleep with a devoted wolf!


Linden prefers to sleep on her own, as if she's a dog or something!


On one of the weekends, I went to take a tour of the Celestial Seasonings factory and meet the sleepytime bear:

They apparently make one million teabags a day, every one in that harmless little factory that does not fill the air with black soot! I went on a Saturday, though, when the cool-looking robots had their day off. :(

A ladybug on the NREL campus:

The campus was seeded liberally with native flora, but after that the grounds were left to nature with no irrigation nor trimming/wedding. The results: unkempt-looking wildflowers, lots of bunnies, deer, elk, the occasional bear, and I'm sure lots of insects. Hey! My "natural landscaping" in my yard in Fairbanks is at the cutting edge of sustainability! :)

Rest of Alcan photos here!