Posts tagged #field

Loss of Inspiration and Midsummer

June 20, Midsummer Eve?It is not that nothing has happened since my last post, it's just that my head has been completely blank. What should I write about? what do I want to show? I have done so much since I last wrote, but as any other blogger I have been busy, and also had zero inspiration.

The last couple of days it has been raining, a lot! The staff gauges at our watershed are under water, last week when I reinstalled one of them, the water was maybe up to around my thighs, and the staff gauge top was up to my neck...approximately. Now that does not tell you anything, but I would think that is around a 40-50 cm rise...So yeah, it has been raining. A LOT! Unfortunately the forecast has rain rain and rain as the future prognosis. So the longest day will probably be darker than it should be.

Here is a summer picture for now, from a hike I did in Yellowstone,

Happy Friday

Posted on June 20, 2014 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Nature, Photography, Yellowstone and tagged Alaska field Happiness Midsummer Eve Outdoors Photography Rain Summer Yellowstone 2014 Nature.

Friday Theme - Six Month Checkup

Since me and W went to Chicago last Friday I completely forgot about the Friday theme. Some of the themes this year have been hard for me, and others I just haven't had time to sit down and write them. But one theme I do love is the six month checkup. Because you go through six months of your life, and present some pictures that you feel represent the different months and what you were doing then.

July:

July came and we finally had a real summer, with temperatures around 30 C frequently. It got that hot already in June too, which is pretty rare. Of course everyone were worried about the forest fires. But this year wasn't as bad as one would have thought. Although we did have a fire close to Fairbanks....but that one was caused by the military who had an artillery training during red flag...(no comments...)... so yeah that fire continued during the whole summer, along with a few others of course. The weather was hot, the mosquitos and black flies were really bad, and the smoke was pretty bad from time to time.

I always take pictures of the cats, this one on the left side is one of my favorites of Olive. The light was really special because of the smoke from the fire. And Tycho of course, above.

I also had a wonderful garden and made jam and pickles throughout the summer :)

I had long field days, early morning and late evenings

August:

In August it started to rain, and by the end of august a naked Fall had arrived. In early August i went down to Ninilchik to see Trampled by Turtles and Brandi Carlile. It was a typical Alaskan festival, with rain, Extra Tufs, and a little bit of sunshine.

As the leaves were turning colors temperature were starting to drop and the last leaves of the fireweed flowers were soon gone too. I shipped Olive to Madison and Tycho was wondering what happened to her. And then I got a full load of wood for the winter that was approaching.

September:

September came, and I went to Missoula and saw one of the most beautiful weddings ever! Such a beautiful location to have a wedding. I really want to move to Montana!!

In Fairbanks the temperatures had already dropped significantly [gallery type="slideshow" ids="1135,1390"]

October:

October arrived with Aurora of course

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1716,1717,1718,1719,1720"]

November:

November arrived with snow, finally!! And colorful sunsets, and sunrises.

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1536,1529,1528,1533"]

December:

December came with freezing temperatures, but beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and Aurora again.

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1649,1650,1645,1726,1727"]

And then I got to Madison and me and W adventured out to Chicago for some real spring weather, around 50 F!!

[gallery type="slideshow" ids="1723,1724,1725"]

Happy New year to you! Hope your year was as awesome as mine!

Posted on December 30, 2013 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Friday Theme, Nature, Photography, The great wide open, Tycho - The Kitty Cat, Wisconsin, Cabin Life and tagged Alaska Aurora Aurora Borealis Cat Cats Colours Evening Fall field fieldseason Friday Theme Garden Happiness Missoula Montana Northern Lights Outdoors Photography Photography with Iphone Salmonstock Trampled by Turtles Winter 2013 Cabin Life Sunrise Sunset Snow Nature Environment Frost Fieldwork.

I think we are in a Wolf den..

Fieldwork

This past summer me and my friend were out in te field scouting out new research sites. We drove far into the watershed on ATVs, until a road was non-existing. Ice was still covering parts of the watershed out there and we arrived at a huge beaver dam.

We continued walking around this weird place. It really felt like something was wrong about this place, it was just so quiet. The landscape here was different from other parts of the watershed. All of a sudden we hade this open plain in front of us, with spruce covered hills around us. The ground was mucky and we could clearly see evidence of a large spring flood. We could see tons of wolftracks on the ground, and it made me uneasy.

As we continued walking we kind of felt like maybe we weren't suppose to be here. But the whole area was really surreal, everything looked really spooky and it almost felt like a fairytale. Or maybe as Dorothy would have said:

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore””

The Beaver dam appeared to be active, but no signs of live beavers, and then there were all the wolf tracks, both young and adult. As we looked around I could see holes on the sides of mud pit we were standing in, along with old moose bones and wolf tracks, both very very large, and very small. And I said:

“I think this is a Wolf den...”

The whole field season treated us with this wonderful landscape though. Made me smile almost everyday we were out, even when the rain was pouring down...which actually didn't happen that often this year. Instead we had long field days with too many mosquitos and temperatures up to 92F (34 degrees C) that was tough.

Fieldwork in Alaska: