Summer wheeling along...

Koda the malamute is back at Sirius for a visit while his parents are on a fishing trip, so I went to go squeeze him. Please enjoy my selfies.

SQUEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZ

It has been a poor fireweed season. We see them, but not in the big pink fields we normally do. Well, it has been a weird year.

But mild enough to take walkies with friends, including Seester Bedbug!

Pretty afternoon.

So attentive for treats! Young dogs sit for treats, old dogs can do whatever they want!

We are grateful to our CSA from Calypso Farm for our diarrhea-free lettuce!

LETTUSSSSS!

These teeny tiny things bloom in our front yard every year!

The raspberries were late to ripen, but they did ripen at last.

Amazing they just grow wild.

We find raspberry patches among the blueberry patches, too. They typically spread via rhizomes, so these isolated bushes must come from bird poop? That is my guess.

The fragrance of labrador tea is a sure sign you are berry picking!

The blues are not as dense this year, but they are still there.

There are still nice dense clusters here and there.

I wore my lucky blueberry bucket earrings!

It's alright, to be little bitty!

Summer is summering!

Lookie this Teeny Tiny Orb Weaver! I posted it to a Facebook group called "Spiders of Alaska" thinking it was a baby, but nope. Apparently it's a fully grown adult male.

These wild Arctic roses are the earlier blooming flowers each year. They smell sweet and faint, like you had put on a dab of rose perfume earle in the day and now it's evening.

And bluebells are the other early bloomer that shows up en masse.

Last Saturday we hiked to the top of Wickersham Dome. It was also the first truly warm day of the season and we were all quite hot! We finished all of our water, which is generally a bad sign (I think one should always carry excess water). But I think we were not in real danger because we were with a group and on a well-known trail. I photographed some pretty mountain flowers, like this anemone:

And these Dame's Rockets:

And one of my favorites, these teeny-tiny mountain azaleas:

And another of my favorites, woolly lousewort:

Phew! They were pooped afterwards! They even let me take a break from Second Walk!

We are also switching back to warm-weather foods, like sticky noodles:

And fully loaded huevos rancheros, with beans for extra fiber and protein:

And omelettes:

A champagne problem for DL: Every meal is a battle to free him from Cricket snuggles.

Two-paw days are harder than one-paw days:

Wishing all 17 of my readers a Happy Summer!

It's Official! Aaaaand... More Signs of Spring

Look! We officially got the Coldest Winter on Record!

Having lived through Fairbanks' Coldest Winter in Recorded History (records starting in 1904) has gotta be some real bragging rights! OK enough of that. Now we are transitioning to spring. This upcoming weekend may be our last weekend skiing until the creek opens up and we lose trail access. The snow has gotten hard packed into ice and I am walking the girls in Icebugs. Snow is dripping off rooftops and making icicles. For us it's our drainspouts!

DL has to cut a channel to drain this one, otherwise it makes a patch of ice behind the house.

It was "only" this amount of total snow accumulation though. It would have made for nicer skiing, had it not been so cold.

Last weekend I felt confident enough in the spring that I put away my heavy coats and boots and got out some lighter clothes and unlined Bean boots. I'm ready for mud season!

Last weekend, DL and I joined the 1200 in Fairbanks and 8.1 million nationwide to stand for democracy.

I like the UU church. :)

The girls' winter coats will start dumping soon. I thought I'd photograph peak fuzzy paws. Here is Cricket's peak fuzz:

And here is Raven's:

Here they are snuggling with Daaaaaaaaddy:

And here is my midterm exam prep!

When I was in my 20s, the "common wisdom" for women in male-dominated fields was to dress like a man and act like a man and for Heaven's sake quit bringing cookies to events. It undermines you and makes you look like you are a server not an engineer in your own right. Well screw that! I want to bring cookies because I'm nice, and my students deserve cookies!! And I have tenure now so!

A few weeks ago I attended the thesis defense of a very bright young lady I had known since she was a freshman. She wore a flowy, floral dress and I was sort of fascinated and delighted at how much times had changed. I'd *never* have worn a floral print dress when I was her age. It would have been considered unprofessional. But now it's 30 years later, and women can look feminine if they damn well want to! I took photos of her standing in front of per presentation and sent them to her and told her I was so proud.😍

Not quite climbing out of the Winter to Remember!

Some statistics!

With the sub-40-below temperatures recorded at our airport on March 10 and 11, 2026, we have passed the winter of 1905-1906: 29 different days that featured minus 40 temps or colder.

"From February 25 through March 11, the average temperature at Fairbanks International Airport plummeted to -20°F, officially marking the coldest such period recorded this late in the season. This frigid stretch didn't just edge out the past; it shattered the previous record of -17°F (1971)."