Sunshine and Snow!

Monday I found a lovely long letter in the mailbox from Carrie B!!! I waited to read it until I found the perfect place. A lovely wintery beach! I did stay in the car because it was breezy and chill. It was a splendid read and spanned several months! (thank you so much!) 

The tide was high (EAR WORM! lol) and full of ice chunks. There was a ship in, but I didn't get photos of her. I was at the Tesoro beach. Salmatof. 

 There was a trail of footprints to the edge of what appears to be the beach. I didn't go out that far, I was wearing the wrong boots. BUT, as I followed the tracks, I found rocks!

 I also fell into the rocks. It appears they had snow under them. I had thought the pit was for a fire, but it was just a hole on the beach. Crazy, but lovely to find rocks again.

 I dabbled around for quite a while and took home about 5. Wonderful things, rocks!

 A mom and her son were going to walk on the beach, but got to the edge and and stopped. When questioned, she said the water was at the bottom and there was no beach left! So, they didn't stay long.

 A man brought THREE tiny little itty dogs to the beach. Not sure what he was doing, but his dogs were scampering up and down. I kept looking for eagles, I didn't see any! The dogs were probably lucky.

 I drove to the Island Lake side of the Pipeline road. There is a lot of work being done and I wondered how far along it was on the other side. They have sections out, and a lot of trees are cut down. I guess working in snow is much easier than mud and weeds and mosquitoes!

 If I had something other than mom's rig, I'd have tried to take this road!

I went back to the beach to see more of the sunset. It was truly a lovely afternoon by the water. 

Then, Tuesday morning dawned with SNOW! I think we got more than an inch. By late afternoon, it had warmed up and was even prettier than it was on Monday. The snow was ready to be played in. So, I parked my Diet Pepsi and went to make a snowperson. 

 Other than her metal pipe nose, she's all organic! Her hair is bits of branches blown from the trees, her eye brows are a type of lichen on the trees, her arms are mossy limbs, her eyes are made of broken off stubs fallen from the evergreen near the shop, and her mouth is a flower mum tossed out ages ago. She's retaining ice water and I hope she lasts awhile!

 We posed together a couple of times. I've not named her yet, I am sure I'll think of something!

Summer Solstice, Sunset to Sunrise

The gold inside this experience wasn't from the sun, there was quite a bit of rain off and on while I watched and read. The gold was the experience. It's been a long time since I watched this. It wasn't as amazing as the night the Youth Group from the Baptist church went to Stormy Lake and then McGahn's, but it was beautiful. 

As I said, I read during the darker hours. 'Tatiana'. This book is not your typical story book. Rachel Cooper and Alan Dick wrote this journey of the life of the woman known as Tatiana. It is like a memoir or biography, following the young girl as she runs from a world she knows and loves into uncertainty and a future never imagined. Tatiana and Tazdlin are unlikely companions who grow into lifemates for an adventure beyond story books. Captivating and fascinating, you learn facts from a time period and peoples who lived and died on the far side of Cook Inlet. A perfect story to read while gazing at the mountains and the waters of my home and theirs. 

 I arrived at one of my favorite beaches just before midnight. The sky was lit up with color. 

I wasn't sure if the ship was going to leave the dock or not. It did! I was reading and realised a shape outside was different. I propped the camera up on the door mirror and hoped for the best. It isn't 'best', but it is interesting! This was after 2 AM. 

 I finished 'Tatiana' about 250 and went out to stretch my legs. It was a bit more chilly than I expected. I took lots of photos-they are almost as bad or worse than the one of the ship! The water was really high and I managed to find a skewed heart before my fingers froze off!

I knew I needed to get back to the house by 4 (night nursing) and stopped at Arness Dock to see the color start to return to the world...in almost the same place it didn't quite retreat from!

 I was hoping for a non lake photo, but at almost 5 Am, this was pretty awesome. I'm glad I had this opportunity to chase the solstice. I wasn't expecting all the raindrops in between, it all worked out!

Blessings on your summer season!