Alaska to Washington - Day 2

Our second day on the road took us from Tok, Alaska across the Canadian border and all the way to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.

Sights along the way included flowers, a border crossing, bears, a lynx and 2 babies, more mountains, Kluane lake, and remnants of a forest fire from the 1950s.

Moving from Alaska to Washington. Day 1

We got a very late start since we were actually packing up, cleaning, and leaving our house in Alaska.

We left at 6:00pm and arrived in Tok, Alaska at midnight.

Sights along the way, Matanuska glacier, a moose crossing the road, trumpeter swans, crooked black spruce trees and lots of scenery.

Scenery Sunday

Yesterday my mom and I went to an open house celebration for a 100 year old homestead just outside of Palmer. I know to East Coasters 100 year old homes are common, but for Alaska they are pretty rare. Anchorage was just beginning to be settled 100 years ago as a "tent city" and Palmer wasn't settled until 1935. The farm property is beautiful with amazing views, but can you imagine living here, homesteading this land 100 years ago?!  More photos than I usually share at once, but I couldn't leave any of them out!

peony, iris, lupine & trolius

Himalayan Blue Poppy

part of the milking barn

peony. These are about 8-10" across!

Playing Catch Up

Sunset from Lazy Mtn, looking over Palmer, AK. Mt. Susitna in the distance.

I don't know where the time has gone. Summer flew by in a flash. We are full on into fall here, leaves changing, rain, snow on the mountain tops (and rapidly moving down the mountain), and we had our first frost here last night.

Nasturtiums and artichoke showing the frost.

 
I hope to get back into more regularly blogging and getting caught up on things I had wanted to share...pictures, recipes, and I know I made at least one bento this summer! And just think of all of the dog pictures I have to share! With winter coming I hope to make more bentos so we can get out during the daylight hours and not spend a ton on eating lunches out.

Easter

Easter breakfast - Potica, baked egg casserole, fried apples, smokies and fresh fruit.

My mom and my nephews kids.

A silly one.

View out my mom's kitchen window. Snowy but also warm & sunny. Got up to nearly 50° today!

My mom dyed eggs with a friend.

Apparently I made this in 1982. Vaguely remember it.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter!

Photo Friday

 

Two photos for this chilly Alaskan Friday. 

My dog Panda LOVES the cold weather! Any time it is below 20° she begs to go outside and hang out. She doesn't even mind when it is below zero. Crazy husky girl.

It was -3° at one point today. This morning the sky was bright but there was a big cloud bank moving in. The mountain you see here is nearly 6,400 feet tall.

Photo Friday

Last Friday, November 23, 2012, about 9:00 am on our way to Anchorage for a little non-combat Black Friday shopping, hanging out, and lunch. It was our annual "Saturday after Thanksgiving" shopping day, a day early due to conflicting work schedules. More photos from that day soon.

Two Bentos, a Dog, and a Mountain

Pretty February Sky

Backyard looks like a glacier

 The last few weeks we've had some interesting weather. One day -25°F. Four days later +40°F. We have a ton of snow on the ground. Some of the snow has been blown into drifts by the fierce winds we frequently have (gusts 50-80 mph are not uncommon). Last night we had freezing rain. Our front yard is buried in 3' of snow and the top is perfectly glassy smooth like ganache from the rain and then freezing again. One plus from this weather was a happy day for Panda earlier this week. She realized if she stood on top of the snow drift in the back yard she could see over the 6' privacy fence. A whole new world...

I found time to make a couple of bentos this week too!

Carrot, raisin & cream cheese roll-ups, fruit, string cheese & crackers for me. Dave's has chocolate animal crackers.

Another bento just for me. I love this box. Happy marching! Avocado & fruit in the bottom with a penguin pick to watch over the marching band, and the top filled with meat and cheese & crackers left over from the Super Bowl party.

Bento by the river

I finally got around to making us a bento lunch, mostly to get my hubby out of the house. He's been working hard on a project and I couldn't let him miss this lovely warm-ish weather we're having today. We haven't had too many super nice days this summer, and we can already feel a crispness in the air. Fall isn't far from us. Some of the trees are already starting to show little spots of yellow leaves.

I snapped this pic with my phone. Not too bad for a phone picture. The mountain in the distance is Pioneer Peak, and that little dark green nub below it is called the butte. The elevation of the butte is only about 850'.




Our bentos today were made quickly, and aren't terribly creative, but they were tasty and served their purpose.

Mine is at the top of the photo and had turkey and cheese stacks, caprese salad with fresh from the greenhouse cucumber, graham crackers, and apricots on top of brown sugar yogurt.  Dave's was quite similar, but he had an actual turkey and cheese sandwich, same apricots with yogurt, and popped bbq chips.

This is one of my late-blooming Martha Washington geraniums. Beautiful!

Scenery Sunday

Thought I would share a couple of pics from today's drive. We took the dogs and drove about 12 miles to Hatcher Pass. The dogs got out and ran like crazies in the snow and I enjoyed getting out in the daylight for a few minutes. It was about 20° and we had nice sunny clear skies pretty much all day.

Neptune, closely followed by Panda.

Panda coming to get me.

Sky as we were driving back down, headed home.

Photo Friday

Thought I'd share a couple of morning sky pictures. These were both taken around 8:30am a couple of different days last week.

 This one is taken looking south east. Pioneer Peak is the mountain on the right. Taken in my backyard.

This is another shot of Pioneer Peak taken on the drive into Anchorage.