The Search for Spring – Day 3
Friday, May 3.
It did not snow. This alone is cause for a certain measure of celebration. I thought about basking in the sultry (albeit cloudy) 45-degree day by lounging “lakeside” on the driveway. I was quickly disabused of this notion by the incredible gusts of wind that almost caused white caps on Loc Whatthehell… if you can even have whitecaps on a giant mud puddle. Even if you can’t, I was quite sure my little paper umbrella would blow right out of my rum punch.
Instead, the day called me down the hill where I found my tropical paradise in the produce section of Carrs grocery store. I amused myself by creating a visual representation of the Lime and the Coconut song. Then I noticed that one of the coconuts kind of looked like a shrunken head, and my configuration sort of resembled a hey-there, sexy-time zoftig Coconut Lady. So, I rearranged the limes and ended up with what looked like a far more disturbing Coconut Guy. Then I noticed my inadvertent food porn sculpture class was happening right under the bananas, and was tempted for a moment to just go for it and create a loud and proud full-Monte Coconut Man. Then I remembered that I was not the only person in the produce section and noticed I was already getting interested glances from the people over by the tomatoes, as I arranged my masterpiece. So, I settled on this strangely ambiguous configuration of tropical delights, and you can imagine whatever you will.
Next up on my list of planned diversions was to go take a tour of the SS Anchorage, which will be officially commissioned tomorrow. The directions said to meet at the parking lot of the Sullivan Arena.
Alas, there were more than 400 people on line waiting for the shuttle buses to the port, and the anticipated wait was more than 3 hours.
The newspaper announcement had some comments from the day before from annoyed people who waited five hours outside in the cold for their 45 minute tour. There were quite a few people miffed at the Mayor’s Office who arranged all the scheduling. I wonder why he didn’t just hire a party planner? Oh, wait…
Tomorrow the forecast call for snow.
http://tinyurl.com/cbj3dzj
The latest EPA assessment of Pebble Mine released recently is cause for concern for the project.
http://tinyurl.com/cxf5de4
Next official threat to grizzly bears is……..wait for it……..grape farmers. Yup. Climate change is gonna force bears to become farmers or else. On a side note,from Houston,Texas. Former half-guv of Alaska took a can of smokeless tobacco from her pants and threarened to take a dip to spite Mayor Bloomberg of NYC. WTF-she is a dip,ain’t she?
Wish she’s have taken some… then we could have watched her choke on it, as she probably thinks you chew it like gum !!
Even with the HUGE snow flakes falling in nuke mode, lake tundra swan over the runway is choc full.
It’s going to really stink once it dries up.
Two inches of snow in Kodiak this morning. Sigh ….
AKM-
Some bits and pieces :
Yes, you can have whitecaps on giant mudpuddles. I have observed whitecaps on Lake Ohforcrap’ssake near my front door on numerous occasions over the years.
And you have to have your tropical adult beverage in a handled glass so that you can tie your lil paper umbrella down against the gale.
I don’t know about standing in line in the cold- I only did it once years ago. I stood in line for over 4 hours in cold drizzle to get to see Van Gogh exhibit in San Francisco. THAT was worth it. Not so sure about the SS Anchorage being worth it.
I think the fruit art was a wonderfully healthy therapy exercise for a spring deprived soul. Good on moving on though, am guessing folks watching you were getting antsy for their turn.
Take best of care there.
We’ve made it into the mid 40s here now , snow has rained off in south part of the borough and there are hopes we’ll get over 50 by the end of next week. Now if the early greens at sea level would start marching up the mountains I would be sure it was really here..
Been my experience that early greens bring the misery skitters as often as not. Got four fox pups a quarter mile up the road and they is growing winter coats as we speak.
early green here is gentle green of first buds on shrubs and brush, reddish green of fireweed starting up, a chartreusey blush on patches folks who waste garden space call lawns, blue-green of new tips on spruce trees… when it moves up the mountains it becomes the rich green of false hellebore unfurling, purple tips of alder branches giving way to yellow green of summer leaf canopy and an explosion of wildflowers-to -be plants which run from light mint color to deep shiny black green.
it is not here yet but it is starting.
oh and false hellebore causes more than the skitters shoiuld one lose their mind and ingest it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veratrum_viride
beautiful to look at.
Hmmm . . . beautiful to look at, but deadly to get too close. We’ve been down that path before, haven’t we?
From the Wikipedia article in Pi’s link:
“The plant was used by some tribes to elect a new leader. All the candidates would eat the root, and the last to start vomiting would become the new leader.”
Could we go back to that system? Please??
Yeah, if it had been a Van Gogh exhibit, that would have been a different story. I’d have been one of those lunatics with a tent and a giant thermos the night before. 🙂
http://tinyurl.com/63p5h4
Lime in the coconut-Harry Nilsson-another great one gone too soon. Overcast and drizzly thirties here. OK to feel sad when weather sucks.
Alas, Day 4 of The Search for Spring is unleashing yet another spurt of snow. Yet another comment from Mother Nature on the insanity on Alaskan politics.
oh.
yuck.
hang in there!
Eleven a.m. on Saturday morning.
35 degrees and snowing hard in Eagle River.
About an inch of fresh snow so far.
Pi . . . what was it you were saying?
slip-
I said denial serves a purpose sometimes .
But if you cannot do denial, please take heart.
A week ago we set records for snow and rainfall for 3 days , daytime temps ran 10-15 degrees below normal most of April, and multiple re-freezings of the ground turned early plants into mush.
The only thing we missed out on was a Taku wind off the icefields ( which can and does happen in April here and freezes everything with its -20 or more wind chill).
Howsomever- in the last 3 days the wind is coming out of the SE, the rain is warmer and not full of ice, and I saw my first blooming dandelion ( up against a south wall).
We are over 550 miles south of you. We’re sending it on. I promise.
Look at your late next week forecast. Don’t get your heart set on it, but do look at it 🙂
It was in the high 90’s yesterday, and gratifyingly cooler today, although shorts and t-shirts are still the uniform de jour whilst mowing the grass ( twice a week now!) hopefully it rains on Monday, we had a pretty dry winter, and fire season has been declared 2 months early. .. SoCal is already aflame, and we’ve had a couple of small ones here locally.. .. and I’m trying to keep ahead of the dandelion incursion, may have to resort to spot useage of herbicide, a screwdriver and bent back just can’t keep up with the pesky things !
http://avengerorganics.com/?TabId=66
use avenger, works well and you can wear your superhero cape whilst battlin the bad guys.
pretty snappy, eh? 🙂
sure wish we could send some rain to you and the folks further south of you. yuck on forest fires.
No offense,but , I would suggest a more selective killer since Avenger will kill grass as well as broadleaves. Being plumb unparticular it might even kill,gasp.mikey.
No offense taken Mikey- because you are correct.
Avenger is a 1,2,0, G product and properly handled is very effective.
http://ebookbrowse.com/avenger-weed-killer-concentrate-msds-pdf-d299410949
Injecting broadleafs or spot spraying narrows down the lawn damage. I don’t do lawn anymore, is a waste of garden space, but in the days I did hand digging and spot spraying kept the lawn nice.
And reduced my blood pressure as regards neighbors who only remembered to mow after all their weeds went to seed and blew into my yard.
Thanks for the info,Pi. I had never heard of Avenger before today. The listed application rates seem awfully high,at least compared to what I was used to. They reccomend a pint of Avenger to a gallon of water(1:6 ratio) whereas with RU or Basagran(my favorite for spraying damdelions since it doesn’t harm grass,corn or soybeans) we could use 2 or 3 ounces of herbicide per gallon of water. For field spraying the standard was 1pt:20 gals of water,and you could add more herbicide if weeds were larger. I watched an older farmer pass out in a pick-up and slam into a creek bed on a golf course several years ago. He and a grandson both hit the windshield with their noggins. The old farmer had been putting Round Up on his leather gloves and hand wiping weeds in his soybeans and that eventually caused his blackout. Stuff is dangerous when used correctly,let alone carelessly. Glad I don’t have to mess with the stuff much. And like all chemical companies,the people that make Avenger stand behind their product until the lawsuits invariably show up.