Santa is kicking back: Summer in North Pole

The inside scoop on Santa: we paid him a visit in North Pole (check out my previous post for more info on Santa's town) to see what he is up to during the summer season.  We were practically his only visitors, so he paid us lots of attention.  We found out that he loves to travel; in fact Mrs. Santa is dreaming about a European tour and riding the Orient Express sometime soon.  Mosquitoes are not bothering him (well of course not, no naughty 'squito dares to mess with the Big Nick) and he loves forty below.  Now you know.

Santa was casual and funny.  Small Moose and Big Moose had tons of fun with him.  And no, he is not strangling Small Moose despite appearances....it's just a little move of his called Polar Headlock :)

Santa Claus House.  North Pole, Alaska

Rose hips were in full bloom in Santa's garden

A little smoke to go with those mosquitoes...

This was our valley yesterday:

View from UAF campus

 A sunny day turned gray:

The Sun over UAF Geophysical Institute

and today it's raining.  So far it seems my fantasy is being fulfilled :)

Northern Lights Revisited

Bathroom with a view -March 9, 2011

This is my second post on the Northern Lights.  I decided to revisit the topic because last night I saw perhaps the best show I've ever seen in the 10 winters I've spent here.  And yes, I still have the same point-and-shoot, just because Ashton Kutcher pretends he uses one at his yacht soirées on TV it's still cheap in every way-camera I did in my first Aurora post, so there is a limit to what I can do for you on this blog.  And yet the lights were so very amazing for a 30 minute period yesterday (a fact I discovered while brushing my teeth and peering through my bathroom window) that I threw on my coat and boots in a hurry and raced to the deck.

Off my deck, and over the neighbor's house

Now, I've always heard that the lights can make some sort of a celestial sound, but I believe this to be an unsubstantiated urban legend.  I listened very closely last night while the lights were wildly dancing overhead -filling the sky with green and red- but once more I heard nothing.  Actually, there was a moment when I got super excited upon hearing an electric, static-ish sound that was eerie yet in my imagination easily attributed to something outer-spacey like the Northern Lights....... However I soon realized it was the sound of approaching truck tires on a nearby road.  So no sounds for me, but the lights were very intense, and showed that seldom-seen red lace around the edges just to make me happy.  So here are a couple of pictures of one of the most beautiful phenomena in nature we are privileged to see on occasion in Alaska.  Take that Ashton Kutcher!

PS and off-topic: stay tuned for my Alaskana gift-giveaway to come in a few days :)

Long time, no see...well, hello blog!

And hello 2011!  I have been ignoring you or at least your sleepy and cold first month of January .  This year as every year, we went to see the annual Sparktacular fireworks show at UAF on New Year's Eve:

....then settled into the routine of -30 F school days and the renovation of our bathrooms, kitchen and bedrooms, in other words basically doing anything to keep us occupied and from noticing that January in Fairbanks isn't as much fun as some might think (and those who do might have inhaled just a bit too much wood smoke in their cabins).

Now that we've made it through January, I have mustered up the motivation to blog again.  January is the sort of month we just have to make it through here.  Many overcast, dark days during which this great valley we are situated in gets frequently blanketed by a thick layer of clouds, smoke and who knows what else.  Funny though: the sun usually is peaking through low on the horizon, off in a distance thumbing its nose at us as if saying:  "Hey suckers, I am over here!"  Much like on this day:

But when February arrives, so does the hope of spring, warmer temperatures, and more daylight.  February tends to be quite sunny.  I am all better now, thank you.

In other news, Small Moose lost his first tooth and here he is holding up the evidence (you just have to trust me on this one):

and Small Fish got her first pigtails:

J and I went to a Rusted Root concert last week and had a great time.  We had a brave friend / coworker babysit for us -thank you Leslie! - went on a proper date and danced into the night.  Rusted Root is an awesome band, especially so since they are among the very few who bother to come thousands of miles to play up here in Alaska.  Thank you, RR!  We are starved for music up here.  I have to post some pics and video on this when I get them off J's cell phone.  Back in a bit.... :-)

I closed my eyes

and let out a deep, satisfied sigh.  Somehow I came across this batch of pictures today, and was deeply moved.  These snapshots from 2009 chronicle one of our many, late evening boat trips down the Chena River, onto the Tanana and one of its thousands of sandbars in a constant state of flux, being shaped by the currents.----so I came out of hibernation to add this entry.

These pictures mean so much to me.  Seeing Big Moose's hair tousled by the wind racing Big Fish across the sandbar,  remembering our elongated shadows in the sand or the kids making forts out of driftwood, and attempting to start a bonfire "the old fashioned way" leaves me wishing for those long, warm summer days.  And the sun.  Especially the sun.  We are in a downward spiral into darkness as winter solstice approaches, so these pictures give me hope.  Things WILL get better :)

Ice-pocalyps 2010

Fairbanks is iced in. The roads are, quite literally, ice skating rinks. This is not an overstatement: yesterday the whole town came to a halt. Many drivers very optimistically thought their driving skills were solid enough to overcome the challenge, but soon realized there is no driving on this stuff when cars began to slide down backwards on hills, sideways into ditches, and 5 school buses ended up off road. A gravel truck did a 360. Fire trucks slid into fellow drivers. You get the picture.

Things started Monday morning around 7 am, when freezing rain started to drizzle. We were forewarned by the National Weather Service, so when I got up at 6, I obsessively began to look outside at our street. By 8 the street looked as if a Zamboni had licked it into a fine sheen. Overall at least an inch of ice had accumulated in town, more outside. I stopped J from going to work when he was already backing out of the garage, unaware of the quickly deteriorating conditions. When we checked local news and websites we realized that this is the worst ice this town has ever experienced.  These are unseasonably warm temperatures, too but not for long as the temps will drop by a cool 60 degrees by this weekend, and we'll be in -20F -or so say the weather watchers.

School and work are canceled for the rest of the week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Winter Colors

Sunrise

Winter Eyes

Summer Good Byes

From Green to Bare, From 60 to 30: Fall in Fairbanks

Oh, no, don't you blink, or you might miss it! "What?", you ask? Autumn in Fairbanks, of course! It lasts precisely 4 weeks sometime between the end of August and the end of September.

So the story goes like this: sometime during the last week of August you notice that birch leaves are starting to turn yellow. The next day you wake up and realize that many more have done just that, and a few even have given up and fallen to the ground. Two weeks later you realize the birch trees are half bare, and your yard is blanketed with what was shed. Two weeks after that, the birch tree in front of your house looks positively winter-ready. Also, you go from temperatures in the mid-sixties (18 C for you Europeans) one week to mid-thirties and below the next ( 2C).

Kids went from shorts to coats and hats / gloves virtually overnight. Winter is here. The slide show above chronicles this process via the annual death of our birch tree at the end of the driveway. The first photo was taken on August 28 (very few yellow leaves) and the last on September 25 (bare branches).

And now the harvest moon can no longer hide behind the veil of foliage. Brrr...

Those elusive, yet flamboyant Northern Lights

A couple of nights ago J and I had the privilege of watching a superb celestial dance show put on by the northern lights directly overhead. The display filled the sky clear across our town, and was so vivid.... we haven't seen them like this for a couple of years. Admittedly, I am no photographer, and my gear is appropriately amateurish.

I took this picture -not impressive by any means and easily outdone by a few Google image searches. However, this image is mine and so is the experience which makes it, for me, better than perfect. I saw the lights, I felt the crisp autumn breeze mixed with these northern colors caress my skin, and J and I held each other under the weaving sky. Life is good.

May Snow

If you've ever lived through rough, long, dark winters, then you know the elation and exuberance one feels when spring arrives. In Fairbanks this happens to us all, every year, and often some of us over-zealous and sun-deprived Fairbanksans start gardens and put out hanging plants the first few days of May.... Then it freezes and snows again.. I took this picture of my -actual- backyard on May 5th. Yep, it snowed and of course it did so on the very same day I allowed Small Moose to wear shorts to school for the first time this season. Up until this day, we saw warm temperatures and lots of sun during the week. It hadn't snowed in weeks.....for that matter we hardly had any snow all winter, it's been unusually dry.

Then, the next morning we woke up, and it was so warm that all the rooftops were evaporating the accumulated moisture. It was very pretty, and very warm that day.

Forecast: Mosquitos

Spring is here. And so are mosqitos. These Alaskan bloodsuckers have earned a reputation for their legendary size. I harvested this specimen off J's back, pre-sting status. It's not the biggest I've seen, but it'll do for demonstration purposes. Buzz, buzz....

Midnight Moonlight

I love this picture. I took it around midnight a few days ago from our living room window. Not a bad view. Soon it will be replaced by the midnight sun, but until then: "Hello Moon!"