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 * 3, Glass, Wood and Porcelain

I have been missing a couple of Friday Themes recently cause I have been busy again. But, that doesn't mean you wont be able to see my interpretation of these last three Friday Themes. Lets start with Glass. When I think about glass i think about the handblown glasses from Stockholms Glasbruk at Skansen. You are not allowed to take any pictures there while they are working, but it is amazing. They are celebrating 80 years this year and I have heard they are releasing a DVD with old pictures and scenes from the start of the glassworks. My mom has bought me lots of glasses and alike from there.

One thing that I had never seen before coming here was mason jars. First, mason jars are very common in Alaska because you make jam of course, or other canned goods. And it reminds me of Greg Browns song canned goods. Second, some places serve drinks or desserts from mason jars. Personally I think mason jars are beautiful. Mason jars with beets in them, from last summer. They are so tasty. Cloudberry jam that me and a friend made last summer. Dessert served in a mason jar in San Francisco.

I really like the growlers that you can buy here, that is something you can't find in Sweden. Mostly cause Sweden doesn't have that many microbreweries.

During the summertime Farmers Market is also open and they have lots of things in beautiful glass containers.

Last May we went down to Talkeetna for the weekend and visited one of many micro breweries in Alaska.

At the breweries you can order tasters so you can get a taste of all their options.

Last summer we also celebrated Midsummer and Marie bought "snaps" glasses in honor of Alaska

One of our friends here in Alaska has her roots in scandinavia and her dad of course has a Swedish flag in glass in his living room

The second Friday theme was Wood. When we were down in Talkeetna last summer I saw this wooden sculpture, it was quite funny to see something like this there, in Talkeetna, which is so far away from any other town. Quite suprising.

I am pretty sure that none of you have missed the fact that we live in a beautiful cabin in the woods, made out of logs from the Rosie Creek fire back in the days.

I love love love the forest I work in, it is so beautiful. Parts of it was burned in the 2004 Boundary fire. The Boundary fire actually burned 10% of Alaskas burnable forest....that is almost 27000 square kilometers. That is almost the size of Jämtland in Sweden. All burned.

But only parts of the forest is burned. There are other parts that ar completely unburned.

Wood and forest can have such beautiful colors. I especially like the fall, and the beautiful colors you get there. Can you spot the moose in this picture below?

Since we are on the subject of Moose, (even though the theme is wood) I thought I should share this next picture. It does include wood, as in trees. A pretty wet forest along the road system, just what moose like. There they were munching food all day probably. A pretty rare sight to see so many moose in one place.

At my dads summer house up north in Sweden we have a handmade wooden boat that turns 51 years this year.

I think that is pretty impressive. Unfortunately it is not in its best condition. But it is still beautiful.

Moving on to Porcelain. I don't have that much in porcelain. But when me and W visited my moms old job we drank coffe from some really beautiful porcelain cups.

And that will actually end this blog post. I will end with one of my favorite pictures from last summer. Some of you may already have seen this picture. Mom and dad visited Alaska and Alaska showed it's best side, with warm and colorful summer nights. Have a nice weekend, and lets hope for endless summer nights soon again.