Friday Theme * 3 again.. - Water, Right Now, and Green is Delightful

Friday Theme - Water

This is the second time water is on the Friday Theme list, but no worries, I love water and have lots of pictures of water. When I was back in Sweden for a short while I took lots and lots of pictures of water, mainly cause Stockholm, my hometown, is surrounded by water. When we left Fairbanks we hade temperatures below 0F and snow on the ground still, We arrived in Sweden with around 40F and sunny sky.

One day we went out to the archipelago and I took some nice pictures of Waxholm and the surroundings. Stockholm really is beautiful. Waxholm below, a beautiful little town.

W and I walked a lot when we were in Stockholm, public transportation is expensive, and if you are not in a hurry why waste money when you can explore your surroundings, and enjoy being outside. Ok, not everyday was beautiful and sunny, but you get the picture.

Friday Theme - Right Now

Since we got back from Sweden me and W has tried to make the most of the last time W has here in Alaska, in a couple of weeks W is moving to Wisconsin. I will most likely end up there too, but that is a long ways into the future. We have been on a couple of adventures. Like biking in Denali,

It was so beautiful, such a warm day. We biked around 15 miles, and then we turned around. Lots of tracks, like this wolf track (above). Wolves are so BIG, but so are also bears!

It was awesome, until we almost biked into a grizzly, and had to take the bus pass that point. On the bus I took a good picture of the bear. And we decided that biking in Denali wasn't really that nice any longer.

Both me and W has had bear safety training and we know what to do if you do run into a bear, and we did have bearspray, one can each. The whole situation was really unfortunate though, with 2 tour buses blocking parts of the view, the left side of the road being a vertical hill (as in the bear or us could not take to the left), the road was up a hill around a bend and the view was awful. Either way it turned out well.

It was such a beautiful day, driving down to Denali the leaf-out hadn't happen yet, but on the way back it had already happened.

The weekend after that we went down to Talkeetna, for a little more mellow adventure. We got great views of Denali, again.

Imagine all tourist that come to Alaska and don't get to see Denali. Denali is big enough to create its own weather pattern. Other parts of Alaska can can be really cloudy too and if you don't know, you would never realize that there in fact are mountains around. One second the mountains are there, and the next they are gone. When my parents came to visit there was a lot of times when I had to say, "no really, the mountains are there, I promise".

Talkeetna is a really artsy town/community. During the summer it explodes with tourists that are stepping off the train to get a different view of Alaska, or mountaineers whose only wish is to concur that big big mountain, that is big enough to create its own weather pattern. Denali isn't the one of the hardest climbs per say, but it is very challenging weather wise. Every year in the summertime you read about mountaineers who die trying to conquer Denali. And you say: how many have died so far..this year including this guy. It always adds up to a too high number at the end of the summer.

After Talkeetna we went to Byers lake, which I had never heard about, but it was a beautiful place. Kind of hidden in the woods, and we stayed at the nearest cabin to the parking lot.

The loon made an appearance every now and then which further amplified the spooky feeling we got walking around the lake.

We also spotted an angry otter with a fish, he was hissing at us as we walked by.

We had a wonderful weekend

Friday Theme - Green is Delightful

As I mentioned above leaf out just happened a couple of weeks ago, around May25th to be more precise, and that is extremely late. The trees have looked dead since October, that is around 8 months without green plants... But now when summer is back, we can finally experience that wonderful green and lush colour again

Oh well, that turned in to a pretty long one. Hope you all will have a wonderful week!

Friday Theme: In My Neighborhood

So far I have lived here about 4 years, not in the same place but the neighborhood is still the same. Well, it depends on the perimeter you use, I use a pretty large one, which mean I can show you more. But it's walking distance to all the places. The University is about 2.1-2.4 miles from here depending on what way you choose, but I still count it as my neighborhood. During the summertime you usually see smoke, cause there is always a fire somewhere, and everything kind of centers around Fairbanks no matter what it seems like. That same view, the parking lot (above) is probably the most common view I have, leaving my office to go to places, and I always make sure I take a picture every once in a while. I also like the fields down the slope from campus.

The mountains of course, and the sunsets. I like our campus, it's really pretty, and in the summertime it is really calm, no students (almost) but lots of tourists, mostly around the museum though. We have the university trails around there, walking and running in the summertime, and Skiing in the wintertime.

The pretty lake. Closer to home we have the dogmushing trails. We have a nice field right outside our cabin, even in the bitter cold it's pretty. On the other side from our driveway, there is a restaurant and a golf course. In the wintertime the sun always sets between the restaurant and the end of the field, and calls for beautiful sunsets.

And of course we have our cabin, and the neighbors cabin to the left, but most of the time it is empty.

And that is about it, I think I showed you a lot of my neighborhood. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Friday Theme: When Evening comes

There is something special about evening in the summertime. Mostly cause you are able to be outside later in the (most of the time) balmy night. Darkness never really hit up here in Alaska, and it generates this specific kind of feeling about summertime. My summers at my summerhouse were similar, but different of course. Light evenings, even though it was 11pm. You can go so much further during your hikes, you don't really seem to get tired. I know I have showed you similar pictures to this one below before. But I do love the ability to be able to experience this here. And to be able to feel the calm of the nature.

Also having a campfire, being able to bbq or make smores, and just be relaxed and think about how lucky you are.

Seeing the mountains shine in the evening sun is amazing.

Or just stop and realize how beautiful the world is. How lucky I am to be able to see all this through all the different seasons.

Lakes, Mountains, Colors everything looks so beautiful in the evening light.

Even in the bitter cold winter, the evening light is really beautiful.

And of course, fall with all the majestic colors.

Hope your weekend was amazing with lots of beautiful evening feelings!