An Ending and A Beginning

January 31 ended with another stunning sky display. The half and half mixture of sunset was eye catching, indeed! It was really very cold and breezy, I didn't have my camera, and after taking a few photos, jumped back in the car to warm up! 

 Before we left, a man went to the edge of the bluff in this last photo and took pictures. I wasn't that dare devil. The area was really icy!!!!

 Mum was sad looking out of the window at this bluff area. She and Ma Nick used to climb this with fish they'd caught ages past. It was a much fuller bluff back then.

When I looked at my Facebook this morning and discovered I'd quite possibly been hacked, Tim C gave today a new name. Laugh at the World Day. I so like that!!!! 

 The morning of the first, I did a few chores and found in the washing machine a marble. I hadn't realised I'd lost any!!! I also noticed this morning when I cut my bangs, it appears they shrunk in the shower. They seem a lot shorter than I had thought I'd trimmed them. (Piffle!) I called mum's newest ANC doctor and made an appointment for next Monday and Tuesday...but forgot to actually find out what time on Tuesday! I called them back and scheduled.  At lunch, I discovered I had a hole in my chin. I was so ready for ice cream!

I had to go out and do a few other things besides ice cream and stopped at the post. I had mail!!! I had birthday cards!!!! There were 9  of them! I was so excited!! Steve sent me 25$ for Amazon and a heavily decorated green paper with birthday greetings from a youngster in the local church. (He'd mentioned it was my birthday in the service. As he said, I'd have probably done it for him!!) His mom sent me a gift, as well. I am completely rich with love today from notes online, in texts, and via paper. 

 I celebrated my birthday while waiting for mum's nurse to arrive. I always try to read Deathlehhem on the first of Feb. I know they are Christmas horror stories, but they are fun to read any time of the year.

I got to talk to Jonathan and Steve and Tony. Even Aunt Darlene and Uncle Randy sent greetings. After I picked up pizza for dinner, cuz mum wanted pizza, Steve sent me these photos. They are of the only birthday cake I think I've actually had in more than quite a few years. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and did. 

 The decoration and presentation.
 
             
 The Fall.

 Salvage Operations.

 All in all, this last year was full of too many things I can't even process. I'm going to walk into this next one with my face looking forward and my head tall. I promised myself last night, I can take on anything this year throws at me with grace and style and a laugh. (and an occasional whine or two!) Here's looking at you 53!

Painted Skies

From the park near the Kenai Senior Center. (this first photo looks like I might have used a sunset setting, I didn't. Needless to say, Jonathan was NOT there to take pictures for me.)

About this time, my camera batteries died. So, I ran back to the car to change them out. Quite a bit of sunset happened while I was dithering around with batteries! 

About this time I noticed my hands were getting VERY cold and took a couple of photos with my cell phone. Crazy how frosting them in HS comes back to haunt years later. Took almost 10 min for my right thumb to actually warm up and stop burning with cold. 

Winter! From North to the Midwest.

 The birds relish a nice suet snack on cold January days!!!
 This is a downy woodpecker. I was able to get really close with the cell phone and wished I had grabbed my real camera. It is much louder, though- he may have objected earlier than he did!

I was impressed driving home on Monday of this week. I stopped on Lamplight to grab this 'luster of mid-day' the sun was creating. 

 That night we had an earthquake and snow. It sowed off and on almost all day on Tuesday!!!! Obi was not thrilled with either experience. Oddly, the birds appeared to be gone. Usually, when there is lots of snow, I can coax them to hand feed. I was still with seed in my hand for about 10 min and didn't hear or see anything flying. It was eerie. Almost as odd as running up the shaking stair during the quake!

 The wonderful amazing neighbor and son came over to plow and shovel after work. I experimented with the flash on the cell phone.

 Nice and pretty!!!!

 These last three photos are compliments of Uncle Randy in Duluth. The ships are called 'Lakers' and travel the Great Lakes. A quote from Uncle Randy, "This is the last Laker of the season being helped into its berth by two tug boats for the winter. Shipping starts again towards the end of March." Stunning photos Uncle Randy!!!!!

The rest of this week is dropping into cold temps here in AK. We finally hit the minus digits and now the wind is blowing all the lovely dusty sparkly snow off the trees. Hopefully we get more soon, I'd like some next Thursday!!!

Morning Skies

'Mine is the sunlight

Mine is the morning
Born of the one light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise ev'ry morning
God's recreation of the new day'

Cat Stevens

Grey mornings are beautiful. 

 Fiery mornings are absolutely stunning! This was late on Thursday morning. If I'd only left the house at 9 instead of 10!!!!!

 The next two are the same, but not exactly- Such an awesome sight!

Beach log from a sunset earlier this week--

A Last Sunset of 2017

These were taken on Dec 29, I'm just getting around to posting them. It was really cold out, the platforms out in the inlet seemed super close (I was told what makes this happen, but now I've forgotten....), and it was another one of those stunning Alaskan sunsets. I went to a beach I have only visited a couple of times. It's out north between the pool and the docks. There are a lot of photos-I thought my batteries died cuz of the cold. It was also cuz I took over 40 photographs! I'll let them speak for themselves.