Posts tagged #Homer

In The Rearview Mirror pt.1

Flashback Friday

First Quarter of 2016

2016 went by so fast, but oh so slow. It is hard to find the balance between work, free time and also research time, at least for me. This year we decided that I should move from Alaska to Wisconsin, which meant I had a ton of things I needed to finish, ASAP. But I did and I moved. The first half of this year I spent in Alaska, the second half in Wisconsin, well, I guess technically 5 vs 7 months, but who counts?

January

I went back from christmas celebration in Bozeman already in December and celebrated the new year with Tycho in my little cabin in the woods. On new years day Tycho got sick, and I still don't know what happened but he's alright now! January had lots of Aurora of course, as always. I skied some and also tried out fatbiking for the very first time. Other than skiing, biking and hanging out in the cabin by the wood stove I of course worked on my own research to wrap things up.

February

More winterbiking, more aurora and more of hanging out at the cabin. Winters in Alaska can be rough but they are absolutely stunningly beautiful, and cold. I also went and saw the start of the Yukon Quest again, had more fika, and even a beer or two!

March

Finally March arrived and our Green Card Interview! W came to Alaska and we went down to Anchorage for the interview, with a pitstop in Talkeetna for a skirace and also to Homer for a short weekend adventure. These interviews are somewhat ridiculous but absolutely serious. Like when the guard to get into the building asks W if he has a hand-grenade or anything alike on him. Situations like that just makes me want to make a joke and say "ooh gee, I do have one in my back pocket", since you aren't allowed to bring any bags or almost anything into the meeting. On the way back we got a text saying that they started the production of the card!

Want to get regular updates? Click here to follow Ann Olsson on Bloglovin'

Rearview Mirror 2016:

Feb 3, 2017

In the Rearview Mirror pt.4

Feb 3, 2017

Jan 20, 2017

In The Rearview Mirror pt.3

Jan 20, 2017

Jan 13, 2017

In The Rearview Mirror pt.2

Jan 13, 2017

Jan 6, 2017

In The Rearview Mirror pt.1

Jan 6, 2017

Friday Theme, Water

The first thing that comes into my mind when I hear this theme is a Swedish song by a Swedish singer. His name is Robert Broberg and he has a song called "water - the city is full of water" or "Vatten - stan är full av vatten" as the name is in Swedish. This theme makes me miss Stockholm and my summerhouse up in the north so much. Living in the interior of Alaska far away from the water is hard, but I must admit that it feels better now compared to when I just moved here.

Stockholm by night is so beautiful, and this is where I spent so many times running.

Being surrounded by water is something that I haven't really thought about before moving from Stockholm. I was so used to being by the water that I didn't even react to the fact that I always have been close to the water. Even at our summer house.

Our summer house is called "the summerhouse no rest" kind of bluntly translated. Which means, there is not really any rest, since there is always something that needs to be done. A lot of people in Sweden have summerhouses, and our summerhouse is in the north of Sweden where my dad grew up. I miss the pine, and the forest mixed with the water.

I love the water because it can make such beautiful reflections in the water, like this one below.

Hey guys, guess what, that picture above is upside down :) thought I would make something fun for you.

Before we leave Sweden I want to share one last picture with you, which is an old bathing house in a town called Varberg at the westcoast, where my dads brother live with his family.

But Alaska and the US have really nice water bodies too. Here is W in yellowstone trying to warm up:

San Fran makes beautiful reflections in the water:

Yellowstone is really beautiful, but I have only been there in the wintertime, which might be just good, since there are less people there at that point. The hot springs create really cool things:

Moving back into the west and Alaska, we do have an ocean touching Alaska. Down towards Anchorage,Homer and Juneau you have the mountains touching the water.

In Anchorage there is a brewery called Sleeping lady, just like the mountain that you can see from the porch of their brewery:

Juneau and the ocean:

Sunset in Homer is always beautiful, it is amazing what a difference water can make in a picture.

Is it so surprisingly that my research is about water too? Guess not. I had to keep myself connected to the water.

Water is such an essential part of life, we need water to survive. This picture on the right is showing my old cat Moje, who lived to be twenty something.

It is also a great way to transport yourself. Two years ago me and W went on a canoe/kayak trip in September, and it was so great, The colours were so nice.

Also, water has the great capability of forming stone through time:

By the end of September everything starts to freeze, even the berries, and you know, ice is just another form of water.

As weather gets colder you water falls are starting to turn into icefalls and before you know it you can climb them. This picture above is a picture I took of a friend of mine, the one I always go climbing with. She is contemplating the climb we have in front of us. The Ice is really thin and you can actually see the water flowing. It is more of a mixed climbing.Ice can form these beautiful natural patterns:

But us humans can also alter the ice and turn it into jus about anything. Like we see at the Ice Alaska Championship every year.

To finish up I will show you what happens when boiling water meets -40 degree air. [wpvideo L9dVTDzD]

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Friday Theme, Photography, The great wide open, Alaska, Stockholm and tagged Alaska camping Colours Fall Friday Theme Happiness Homer Outdoors reflections water Winter 2013_2 Snow Nature Mountains.

The trip down south

I started to plan the trip down south quite a while before my patents actually did arrive, I think maybe as early as may. There was a lot of talk about what should be included and the costs. Alaska is really expensive if you don't live here, the hotels and the tours. I wanted to include Seward and a train ride from Anchorage or at least Talkeetna, but that got scratched from the list pretty early. We started our trip on a Saturday, not too early maybe even a bit late according to some... The first stop was Denali, me and Winslow were going to camp, and mom and dad got to stay at the Grizzly Bear in. On the way down we stopped at the 49th brewery outside Healy for a late lunch and then we continued the trip.

Once in Denali we decided to set up camp before driving the parents to their hotel, and on the way there we got our first wildlife viewings!

Next day we went up early in the morning and started the bus tour into Denali, unfortunately it rained the whole day, but that didn't stop us from seeing wildlife again. And the view itself wasn't too bad.

The next day we were all pretty tired and started the car ride to our next destination, Palmer and the state fair, and most important, Avett Brothers!

Palmer is a beautiful little town, or maybe I should say the setting is beautiful. It's surrounded by mountains and the pretty balmy (yeah Alaska balmy) evenings brought beautiful sunsets.

We also went to the musk ox farm, anchorage and Wasilla (that's where Sarah Palin is from) to visit a good friend of mine. We also went to Matanuska glacier, really lucked out about the weather, sunny and blue sky.

But, as I mentioned earlier the visit to the actual state fair and Avett Brothers was one of my highlights, especially when I saw the two brothers come walking at the fair right by me, and I finally got courage enough to walk up to them and ask if my mom could take a picture of me with them. That made my day!

The journey continued south and we had a rainy drive down to homer, and I was worried how the fishing would be for Winslow and my dad the next day. My parents got a nice welcome to their B&B