I awoke this morning to clear skies and a refreshingly cool 49.5° F air temp along with calm winds; how could I not pull on some clothes, step into my sandals, grab a couple of leads (just in case) and head out the door with ‘the kidz’ ranging ahead of me? We took a 40 minute walk reveling in the gorgeous morning; as usual for this area it was completely silent except for some local birds including a couple of Chickadees I feed who followed us for a ways complaining because the window feeder was almost empty. I, of course, remedied that upon our return. After 26 consecutive days of report-able precipitation seeing both the sun and drying conditions has been wonderful. As we walked I had my Canon PowerShot SX-260 camera with me and I recorded a bit of our fun:
The Kidz exploring some muskeg.
Don’t know what they are but that doesn’t diminish their beauty!
When this plant’s leaves turn to this fiery red Fall is not far away…
Yet another ‘shroom with upturned edges which has a small pool of water atop it in which a leaf is floating.
Early morning wanderers; Anana and Qanuk are embracing the chance to walk the back roads and take time to scent who knows what. The ‘smoke’ you see around Qanuk is actually his hot breath condensing in the cool morning air.
Alaskan at Last! 
Quite a refreshing change of posting style.
Hey Buddy – I receive quite an increase in the visits to my website when I intermix images with a blog posting. That’s why I did the ‘part 2’ of the “What’s That Up In The Sky..?” posting. I will be interspersing blogs with the images included format with my more typical just text blogs. maybe people would rather see and read about Alaska than my thoughts..?!?!
Am assuming you know by now your unknown plant is dwarf fireweed–I love the funny fungi found this time of year! I might put on my family blog (not this one) a whole series of Alaskan fungus. Our fireweed is all topped on the Kenai and every time I get to the inlet after the clouds lift, I hope to see termination dust. Hooray for winter! (and hopefully this year it won’t be a piddly one like the last few.)
Hello Kris – I didn’t know the ‘dwarf’ piece but a local did tell me it was fireweed. You are woman after my own heart!! I relocated here in August of 2013 because I love cold and snow. I thoroughly expected to see -40° F air temps a few times and at least 5 feet of snow pack. Alas, since moving I’ve seen three of Alaska’s warmest winters on record. I’ve never seen anything below -25.2° F; this is particularly annoying because I lived in a Chicago suburb in 1985 when they set their record low which was -27° F. Who would’ve thought the lowest temp I’d experienced after three years of living in semi-rural south central Alaska occurred in Addison, Illinois? Up until last November the most snow I’d seen on the ground was 35″; just prior to Thanksgiving I recorded 37.5″ here. But then just two days before Thanksgiving we received 1.19″ of rain and from that point forward it was warm with almost no additional snow. I am so ready to see a ‘real’ Alaskan winter!! Here’s hoping we see one this winter but if I had to bet I’d say it will be another warm winter although we should see more precipitation assuming the existing pattern continues. That large ‘pool’ of warm water in the northern Pacific is still in place so any air moving in from the SW to S gets warmed by this phenomena. In addition, it now appears La Nina will not form in the Pacific so we will probably not see as ‘changeable’ conditions as we would normally expect. Thanks for following my blog and especially for commenting!!
I may not live here full time anymore, but oh—this is where my heart and soul belong!
I really had no interest in Alaska across my first four decades of life; like most other ‘unenlightened’ folks when the state was mentioned I thought of ice, snow and Eskimos. But my first visit with a pair of college friends on a three week backpacking/car camping trip in September of 1996 dramatically changed all that in a huge way. I knew from the time I returned to my home in the Chicago area I wanted to live in Alaska and I started trying to find a job up here. In what ultimately was best for me I was unable to do so; however, this also meant I was able to help my parents through their final years and learn the joy of volunteering. Once I was finally ‘free’ I started planning and 16 months later I made the move. I cannot imagine ever living any way but semi-rural and I fully expect to live out my final years in this amazing state. Alaska is not for everyone but for those of us who answer her call and find we are overwhelmed by her fierce freedom and incredible beauty there’s no other place we’d love to call ‘home’.